PhilM

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He was, but he's been generally good when he has played. I still think Jayden Danns will make it if he can stop getting injured.

Do you think he's just struggling with being a new father maybe?

Not forming in a straight line Defenders going through a tight wind The kids are losing their minds Nallo's off!

And looks alarmingly like Phillip Schofield as well.

Thing is, it all tracks from our experience of him too. Must have had his own name in the envelope. Can't remember the exact specifics, but there was something in Ian Graham's book where the club agreed a structure for transfers with Rogers and then he publicly went against it in a press conference.

You'd get a right old bounce on if your team had won though. You'd end up walking like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

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I think there's some logic behind the "not suited to the league" argument (not specifically for Wirtz, just generally) in that there are massive stylistic differences between leagues. A lot of players come to the Premier League and say it's much more physical, you get less time on the ball, you have to run more etc and some of those, you just can't adapt to. Take Thiago for example. Great brain, no problem with adapting to having less time on the ball, but his body couldn't cope with a walk to the paper shop, let alone having to run 50% more and getting clattered 50% harder. Most good players who are slight and have come to the league have taken time to adapt and needed to bulk up or learn how to use their strength better. There have been plenty of tiny lads who have been boss in the Premier League. I reckon Wirtz will come good in the Premier League eventually because he's too good at football not to. The biggest concern would be that he's in such a dysfunctional side with no obvious role in it, so he's not in the ideal situation to turn it around now, but stuff like learning to release the ball quicker, that'll come soon enough.

Yeah, this is the key part though. It's this kind of situation that lead to the likes of Bajcetic or Nat Phillips being put on a pedestal.

Wirtz is a luxury player at the moment anyway that doesn't seem to fit within our system and on the face of it doesn't make any sense as a signing other than "he's dead good". Given that we're absolutely haemorrhaging goals at the moment and are leaving our defence really open, putting a specialist DM in place makes a load of sense. I'm not saying that Endo is without his limitations, or that he's a long term solution, but we're in the realms of spitballing ideas to solve problems in the team and we can't go out and buy Baleba tomorrow. I would say that the potential strengthening at the back that Endo could offer probably outweighs the contribution that Wirtz is making in attack at the moment. On Gakpo, I'm not saying that he's crap. He's proven before that he isn't. At the moment though, he's another malfunctioning part in a dysfunctional team and he and Salah on the wings are noticeably contributing very little. Not singling him out in particular, just that someone brought him up. He's far from the biggest problem, but then arguably everyone apart from Ekitike and Szoboslai are big problems right now.

I'm calling for Endo to be given a go because our midfield is being walked through and he's the only out and out defensive minded midfielder that we've got in the squad. What else do you think Gakpo offers besides his highly predictable cutting in and shoot move? Is he linking well with his fullback? Is he dribbling past players? Is he using his size and strength as a weapon at set pieces? Is he putting in good crosses? Is he picking the ball up from deep and carrying us further up the pitch? Is he playing passes through opposition back lines to set up his team mates? Like what is he actually offering? You've not actually said anything there other than "you're wrong".

Yeah, I had that thought too. You'd never catch him shirking a challenge.

He's a YouTuber. Used to be on that True Geordie podcast. Talks absolute wham like most Youtubers.

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I don't think Endo is crap at all. He's not as good as the other players in our team, but he's good at winning the ball back and has plenty of fight, which none of the others are showing. I'm good with having him in the side to smash a few opposition players and put them back in their box. I'd be delighted for us to grind out some boring 1-0 wins at this point.

It's because they were s*** for the first half of last season, and we have been too.

Yeah, this is the crux of the matter. Isak and Ekitike are arguably the two best strikers who were available this summer. The others we signed were probably what, top 3 best players in their position who moved this summer. On paper, our transfer business was, to quote Knox's favourite phrase, the absolute business. It just turned out that we have what looks to be no plan other than "buy the best lads and hope for the best".

Point of pedantry here, but De Bruyne got 15 goals and 13 assists in his first season for City. If you take away cutting inside and blamming it at the far post, Gakpo has literally nothing.

Slot has shot himself in the foot by saying that Isak is match fit now. Obviously he's injured now, but you get what I mean.