surf

great band name

i'll start to think about forgiving him after he's won 2 more leagues

I think that every player we have is performing worse than last season, apart from Dom who is playing better.

We needed to buy: - a backup goalkeeper, to our injury prone goalkeeper --> done - a young, decent left --> done - a starter for centre back --> guehi, ballsed up - a young centre back --> done - a starter at right back --> frimpong? weird signing - a starter at forward --> done, isak - a starter at left winger - a squad forward --> done, ekitike Whatever the plan is regarding Wirtz and the new formation it isn't working yet. If we han't signed Wirtz but Gordon (for example) we could have lined up as last season and there would be more balance to the team. Even then, we'd still be poor with the form our top players are in.

My only point here is that 440m is a misleading number. It doesn't take into account that we lost 220m worth of players (& Jota & Trent). The starting point should be the squad without those missing players, ie: I think we spent money on good players. I dont think the money spent fully fixes our squad depth, i also dont think we could have done both given that players also left. However the major reason this season is so poor is not down to squad depth. It's mainly due to player performances, a bit of bad luck with fitness/injuries, and bad management. If we had last season's Salah, Van Dijk, Konate and Macca i reckon we'd be 2nd, at worst.

I'll have Wharton & Rogers for 53 & 58 million please.

It depends on your starting position. You should be able to do 1 of the 2 at least. Do you think £440m is enough to buy quality AND quantity for team challenging for the title when your squad is: GK: 1 (no backup) LBs: 1, ageing CB's: 2, one ageing RB's: 1, still young little experience Midfield: 4 quality players, 1 backup Forwards: 2: 1 great player, ageing. 1 good starter, 1 squad player

yeah, that needed an edit, sorry

I'm arguing with you about the first paragraph, not the second one. We could have bought more players of poorer quality. We could have had more players. But we couldn't buy the players we had AND have have a bigger squad depth. Thats down to net spend and players leaving. Unless you magically want to buy more players of equal quality for the same money. And yes that's a choice. I think it was a good choice (we could have bought 2 defenders in stead of VVD, 2 goalies instead of Alisson, etc). And i think the reason we're suffering is mainly poor performances rather than squad depth.

Seriously. Squad size_2025 = Squad_size_2024 + Players_in - players_out NOT Squad size_2025 = Squad_size_2024 + Players_in

I get this point, it's fair: 'we went for quality over quantity'. I don't get why you won't accept that net spend, or players leaving is one side of the equation. I only see you mentioning how much we've spent, the players that have left are just as relevant. (sorry about being a prick, i felt like i was talking to a wall)

Do you also think profit and turnover are the same thing? Do you think we'd be in a better position if we'd kept Nunez, Diaz, Trent, Quansah, Elliott AND bought all the players we did?

Of course it's about net spend. If our net spend was 440M (no outs) we'd be a lot stronger than we are. If we sold or entire team and only brought in the players we have we'd have negative net spend. How can it not be about net spend? Also, squad depth is built up over multiple years. We spent nothing last season. Other big teams have spent a lot more than we have the past 5 years and that shows in their squad depth.

It's also worth saying that 440m is a bit of a bogus number, we had about half that in outs, so we're left with about 220 spend.

My issue isn't squad size. It's the players on the pitch not performing, notably: Salah, Macca, Konate, Van Dijk (and others) and the manager not getting performances out of his players. If last season's players had turned up this season then we'b be flying, even without the new players fully fit or gelled into the system.

Well i'm glad he's unfit, rather than slow & shyte

Would you rather we spent 440m on more players and then complained how shyte they all are? We could have gotten four 70m players in instead of Wirtz and Isak, would that have been better? Maybe, but there's risk attached to that as well. I think a lot of people, me included, were really happy with the business we did in the summer. Without injuries to our full backs and notable players not performing well this season i dont think the transfer window would be a complaint.

I had no idea, i guessed about a month, naively expecting him to be firing on all cylinders by the end of September. I'd never have guessed we'd still be talking about match sharpness in December.

He did mess up some moves in the first half, but you can’t argue with a goal and an assist. his tracking back was ace as well

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4-4-2 is not a mad shout. Gakpo was everywhere though.

how long have you had that saved up for?

Should have had another assist (Wirtz chance) and did a job defensively as well.

I knew there was a way give Gomez the credits.

Wirtz misses a Gakpo assist to even things up.