épieur

There's obviously a lot of reasons why he hasn't been doing it in the league.

Yep. Except for Luis Diaz and Mane, we only really looked at succession plans after it became an outstanding issue in the team.

I went and actually watched it and all I could think of was how much damage someone like Coutinho would be causing in the situations we're setting up for Wirtz. He's the wrong fit as it stands. Arguably for any team besides city in this league. He could reinvent himself I suppose, but that's a big ask, given that his technical ability is merely good. We paid 100m+ for a hyper specialized system player. f*** off Hughes.

[Molby] you need to sort your life out, take control of your own destiny and stop putting hours into a hopeless desk job and start investing in yourSELF. I suggest quitting ASAP, do a bunch of drugs to figure out your next step and then go do. It isn't hard.[/Molby]

I feel like he keeps waiting for the game to line up for him to do his thing, basically the same way Isak only moves around in anticipation of a goalscoring opportunity, and only attempts to turn it on when all the ducks are lined up in a row. He needs to stop playing Stratego and start playing UNO, make situations happen and force the opposition to react to what you are doing.

Didn't watch the video, but that lines up pretty well with what I've seen. In the only good run of form he's had, at the turn of the year, I felt he sat much closer to the striker than he has otherwise done. More of a Dalglish/Baggio/Bergkamp style 'playmaking' forward than a Zidane/Modric/Kaka style playmaking attacking midfielder, if that makes sense. His only genuinely good game this season was against Atletico where we were so vertical and direct at high pace in a lot of situations and his decision making in those situations really elevated some of the those situations. It also begs the question of what Ekitike coming back into the team would do for him. Not just in terms of their partnership (iirc they basically assisted each other to score for more or less all our goals for a handful of games), but also (and I know I am putting a lot of on him there) swagger. Unlike the other wimps we have in the final third (Gakpo and munoz excepted), Ekitike has an innate swagger to him. I am kinda hoping that if the others see him come back in and strutting his stuff, it might inspire their lily livered spirit to try a thing or two. Ultimately though, this is secondary support mechanisms. The main thing is that he has wilted under the accumulated difficulties, loses duels he shouldn't, makes bad decisions and executes a lot of those decisions really poorly. His only real saving grace is that he works hard in every game and some part me thinks that as long as that's true he'll have a good chance of making it. Didn't work for Nunez though. He's here for the season though, so we're all best served looking at the possibilities till then I suppose.

Was anyone saying anything to the contrary?

That would require the ref to admit it was a mistake in his report. I remember that happened when Hamann got a second yellow for Vieira faking contact and rescinded it after the game. Cavanagh would never though.

Kavanagh was absolutely man of the match.

When that video started, I'll admit I was expecting the beardy disco dude to be a Boney M style prop. Did not anticipate such a wicked first tenor stealing the show.

Coutinho looked good from the start before he hit an extended "where is he going with this?" period and then becoming a proper player. Heskey (...) was a bit subdued in his first season before turning it on in style during the treble season. That's all I got.

That's quite enough of that now, Samuel. I only want to see you believing his full recovery into existence from here on out.

Alright, let's stop the anecdotal "John Barnes was never the same bulls***." 82% of a surveyed 118 players between 2008 and 2018 made a full recovery. And 71% are back to playing at the same performance level the season after the injury first happened. So there. No more fake news.

He needs bench time. For the sake of the team and his own. He's really not benefiting from how this is playing out right now either.

Mentalitywise, they aren't intimidated by the prospect of being the guy the other players look to to get them out of trouble. They are comfortable being top dogs. So is gakpo. Isak and Wirtz, and seemingly Barcola too on limited evidence, shrink from the responsibility placed on their shoulders.

He can do a job there if asked, since he's fast and comfortable taking on defenders out wide. It'd be a waste though, given that we have twelvety left wingers and he can do all the things we're currently missing in the centre.

Szoboslai is, he's just grating in the way he goes about it.

That's Ekitike. Which is why I still say that this is Ekitike's team and isak will need to find a way to fit into that, or magically become much better than him, to have a future here once Hugo is back.

We definitely needed a top class winger.

Right. Returning to Barcola, my main worry is that we've paid 123m for a player I kinda suspect is good but still a smidgen worse than what Gakpo has been for us (disregarding last season). Alright like, but not what we needed for 123m.

He understands what it means to play at this level though. We need all the leaders we can get right now.

Im not sure what more involved with his teammates is supposed to mean(?). But I do think he's improved in terms of showing where and how he'd like the ball to be played with his runs and movement. Something I always thought Sturridge was really good at.

Trying to sell Gakpo also tells you something about how little Hughes understands team dynamics. The only proper forward who isn't shy and he was going to replace him with another introvert. Our whole season is realistically banking on Gakpo continuing to show leadership up front and Isak continuing to tap it in when he gets the ball in space inside the box. The rest - Ekitike recovering his level this season, Wirtz coming good, Barcola being good, Rio making a leap in development, Isak doing stuff on the ball - is all hopeful stuff. Might happen but there's no good reason to think it's likely to.

Oof. But yes, that's his level isn't it. Forever stuck between being ok, frustrating and doing something good we can hope turns into being a good player. He'd be fine as a replacement for Tsimikas. But his good level is basically to not stick out in a bad way. We need someone that makes you think he actually elevates the team level when he plays.

Isak looks expressive to you on the pitch? He literally does nothing except look for the ball to drop for a shot at goal. Admittedly, that's a significant improvement on last year, but all three look like they don't really want to be here, or at least that someone else will shoulder the responsibility of getting on the ball and making plays happen. Gakpo and Ekitike are the only ones who aren't intimidated by the prospect of getting the ball and doing something more with it than the player who passed it to them.