Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

He's struggling a little to adapt to playing alongside Jorginho, as they sort of overlap in some areas.
Kante's playing further forward than he'd like and he's not doing as well there as he normally would. Still good, of course.

 

He could be doing better but finishing heading playing throughball had never been his strength. His energy is still useful to help us dominate the midfield and help us with the press. This doesnt help tremendously though when a team does a big sam though.

It doesnt help him stand out either with the fact we are controlling the ball so he doesnt have to make interceptions and with the press teams just hoof it so its up to the defence and jorginho to deal with that

 

That's what I meant, because at present our midfield is composed of players who can do one thing but not two or three, for example
Dier can break up play but his passing is...dreadful
Sissoko can bring the ball forwards but has no final ball
Winks can pass the ball but can't bring the ball forwards
Wanyama can break up play but is far too slow to release the ball
Dembele could bring the ball forward but was always too conservative when releasing it, but now he's a shadow of his former self

What we need is a player who can combine those strengths, because if we had a player who could nick the ball off an opponent and immediately set off a counter it would greatly speed up our play and make us more of a threat going forward, rather than the all too familiar scenario we've gotten used to of being ponderous in midfield because our midfielders are all in positions that play to their weaknesses which either leads to a lot of sideways passes and no forward momentum or everyone switching off and trying to get the ball to Trippier that opponents can easily pick up on

That's why I was probably the only person not scoffing at the idea of signing Stanislav Lobotka during the summer as from what I've seen of him he can best be described as a combination of Dembele and Scott Parker, which would greatly speed up the transition between defence and attack

 

I still disagree about kante. Hes not brilliant at seeing these forward passes. In our midfield the best all rounder is kovacic. Hes pretty amazing and can do it all except maybe scoring.

Barkley would be the other one at speeding play or jorginho

 

Cue skippy ?

 

Us older fans remember it well the younger ones probably think we're nuts .surely that tune would make up a perfect song for our youngster all we need are the words .

 

"Skippy, Skiiiippyyyyyy,
Skippy, he's like me and you,

Skippy, Skiiiippyyyyyy,
Skippy, he bleeds white & blue."

Job done........another hit.........Kerrrrr-chinnnnggggggg!

 

@audrey.s.thackeray - show em how it's done

 

Well there's another one we can cross off the list...

 

A couple of these are a little harsh imo
Dier can break up play but his passing is...dreadful. I don't agree with this. His issue is that he seems to switch off and play daft passes. He's played some fabulous long passes though on his day so he has it in his locker if he can sort out his concentration.

Winks can pass the ball but can't bring the ball forwards. Again not sure about this. His first inclination is to always pass (and the ball moves faster than any human) but I've seen him go past players. Anyway with short passing triangles with Eriksen and Dier he may not need to glide past players a la Dembele (of old)

 

Do you not follow the Prediction League each week then?!
Maybe you post on it blindfolded?!
As you say, bring it on!!!!!

 

The main problem with Dier's passing is this season has exposed his range of passing is far more suited to a centre back than a central midfielder, because in past season his main passes were either a chipped ball up to Alli or Son (similar to Toby, albeit Toby can weight his chipped balls much better) or a two-yard layoff to Dembele, Toby or a full back to do more with. This season, however, he's been trying to play like Busquets but he simply doesn't have the range of passing to do that, which has frequently led to attacks petering out or him giving the ball away - which is more noticeable after the England vs Spain game, where he played like he did for us a couple of seasons ago as he simply won the ball then quickly laid it off to one of the attacking players

When it comes to Winks the issue is that he's capable of Modric-style passes (albeit not as regularly or accurately as Modric can) but whenever an opponent is within five yards of him he never seems to try and take it past them and go for the pass when he's got far more space to work with, instead he'll go for the sideways pass and slow down our momentum. This might tie into his ankle injuries in the past couple of seasons, as there were games last season where he'd sooner get rid of the ball than risk getting tackled, but isn't that what sports psychologists are for?

 

Interesting I'll watch them more closely

 

Sorry, he's abnormally confrontational on Friday's. I'll get him his dinner.

 

One thing to remember is the various games where we had a Dier/Wanyama pivot, all of which were characterised by the complete lack of anything resembling attacking play through central midfield

Back when Dembele was at the height of his powers there was no issue with Dier playing simple layoffs, as Dembele would then take the ball into attacking areas - and once he was there it wasn't an issue that Dembele's passing was so conservative, because he'd make a conservative pass to whichever one of Kane, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Lamela or whichever full back was bombing down the wing was available. The problem now is that most of the options to lay it off to aren't anywhere near as effective, be it Sissoko's lack of instincts for a final ball, Dembele being a shadow of the player he was, or Wanyama being in much the same boat as Dier.

Compared to this WInks is an improvement as he is capable of making a defence-splitting pass, but the combination of him not quite being at the point where he can hit those passes instinctively like Pirlo, Xavi or Modric coupled with his reluctance to take on his marker means he's the best option for an out ball that Dier/Wayama have rather than a damn good out ball for any team that prime Dembele was

 

Watching Boca vs River. Boca scored and then straight from kick off River equalised.

Barrios is playing and just made a phenomenal tackle, running back about 20 yards to then slide in and pick up the ball.

 

2-1 Boca and the place is jumping. Love it.

 

Superb game and unreal atmosphere.