Euro 24

[Kojak]

Jun 21, 2024 7:17:13 GMT johnboy14 said:

Jun 21, 2024 6:39:08 GMT Kojak said:

Harsh considering he’s just knocked in forty goals/assists. Definitely in decline now at his age. But those figures aren’t bad for a big overrated donkey are they.

The lack of balance in the England side is killing them. You’ve only got to defend the right flank against them. It’ll improve if they can get Shaw back as at least that’s a direct attacking threat, but there’s no chance he’s going to be anywhere near his best when he comes in. It’s almost like, given he knew he wasn’t going to have a LB to threaten down that side for at least the group games, he maybe should’ve, I dunno, took an actual left winger. With pace.

Palmer thing is bizarre. Southgate sort of did this with Grealish in 2021. He was playing well and everyone clamoured for him, but he wouldn’t give him the nod over Mount. COVID got Grealish into the side. Then in the World Cup he had Rashford really ticking but would only use him off the bench. However, at least those two players got some minutes. Palmer’s getting nowt.

I'm convinced he doesn't know his best side and he's experimenting in a tournament. Palmer and especially Watkins deserve a crack now. The midfield he's playing has no balance due to this ridiculous TAA experiment. It's not rocket science, play people in there best positions and stop shoehorning players into the side because your feel they have to play. He's had two years to work out how the team will setup and play

He’s more or less admitted he doesn’t know his best side by talking about the midfield issues.

Read an article about how TAA was a midfielder until he was 17. He’d complained that he struggled to impact the game enough from that position. They moved him to right back because it would fast track him into the starting eleven and afford him more time and space when he gets on the ball. And you’d have to say that was a great decision at the time.

Fast forward to now and he’s having that same problem again. None of us like him for obvious reasons, but he’s a great passer of the ball. However in midfield he doesn’t have the time on the ball to pick those passes. He’s being asked to do it in probably half the time he would usually have. And he may learn how to do that in future. He’s obviously gifted with the ball. But he’s being asked to learn on the job in a major tournament and that’s not really fair. The performances he’s turning in, he looks like a fullback in midfield. When we slate him for not being able to defend, that’s fair. He’s a defender. But really, there’s no point even criticising him at the moment as he’s played less than ten professional games in midfield. He’s not being facilitated to play to his best.

That role is difficult too. It took Scholes years to gradually move back into that almost quarterback position. All that experience and wisdom was as important as his talent. Pirlo as well. We all remember him sitting in for Italy and pinging balls about, but that wasn’t always his role.

[johnboy14]

Jun 21, 2024 13:00:28 GMT Kojak said:

Jun 21, 2024 7:17:13 GMT johnboy14 said:

I'm convinced he doesn't know his best side and he's experimenting in a tournament. Palmer and especially Watkins deserve a crack now. The midfield he's playing has no balance due to this ridiculous TAA experiment. It's not rocket science, play people in there best positions and stop shoehorning players into the side because your feel they have to play. He's had two years to work out how the team will setup and play

He’s more or less admitted he doesn’t know his best side by talking about the midfield issues.

Read an article about how TAA was a midfielder until he was 17. He’d complained that he struggled to impact the game enough from that position. They moved him to right back because it would fast track him into the starting eleven and afford him more time and space when he gets on the ball. And you’d have to say that was a great decision at the time.

Fast forward to now and he’s having that same problem again. None of us like him for obvious reasons, but he’s a great passer of the ball. However in midfield he doesn’t have the time on the ball to pick those passes. He’s being asked to do it in probably half the time he would usually have. And he may learn how to do that in future. He’s obviously gifted with the ball. But he’s being asked to learn on the job in a major tournament and that’s not really fair. The performances he’s turning in, he looks like a fullback in midfield. When we slate him for not being able to defend, that’s fair. He’s a defender. But really, there’s no point even criticising him at the moment as he’s played less than ten professional games in midfield. He’s not being facilitated to play to his best.

That role is difficult too. It took Scholes years to gradually move back into that almost quarterback position. All that experience and wisdom was as important as his talent. Pirlo as well. We all remember him sitting in for Italy and pinging balls about, but that wasn’t always his role.

Scholes and Pirlo were natural central players though and adapting to a deeper role is more than doable under those circumstances but I agree totally with your point. Yes he's a liability defensively but if he was German, Spanish or Portuguese then he'd be playing wing back. Why do England take the best players from each generation and fuck it up all the time? It's like Brazil playing Roberto Carlos in central midfield. I don't think Klopp has helped because he's put this idea in people's head now and I don't see him as a central midfielder. Playing that position requires a totally different set of skills.

[king nothing]

Jun 21, 2024 12:46:54 GMT johnboy14 said:

Jun 21, 2024 9:52:33 GMT king nothing said:

Him and the young lad Yamal look a real prospect for Spain. Very impressed with both last night.

The lad Williams looks impressive but he was up against an oil tanker last night. Really want to see him up against a quality side to see how good he is. Has loads of pace and more importantly he has end product.

🤣🤣
Oil tanker! Love that!

[redcase]

Austria are fun to watch

[anti_social]

Jun 21, 2024 17:47:11 GMT redcase said:

Austria are fun to watch

Rangnick has done an excellent job

[DedRevil]

Jun 21, 2024 18:26:21 GMT anti_social said:

Jun 21, 2024 17:47:11 GMT redcase said:

Austria are fun to watch

Rangnick has done an excellent job

Mad what players will listen to when they ain't all billy big bollocks on hundreds of thousands of pounds per week, and actually want to learn and play football

[Kojak]

Fucking excellent process lads, well done.

[redcase]

What on earth is that defender doing

[johnboy14]

Jun 22, 2024 16:30:35 GMT redcase said:

What on earth is that defender doing

Awful way to throw the game away.

[Paul]

On the whole so far I've enjoyed watching the lower ranked teams more than the higher ones in this tournament so far. Both Georgian games have been entertaining, end to end stuff. Been a few others aswell that have stepped up.

[viking22]

Scotland knocked out. Can we proceed with trying to sell Scotty? He's homegrown so major FFP advantages.

[redcase]

Jun 24, 2024 7:01:09 GMT viking22 said:

Scotland knocked out. Can we proceed with trying to sell Scotty? He's homegrown so major FFP advantages.

Why do you want to sell players who actually want to play for this club? There are others who should be sold before Scott. He does his job well, doesn't make a fuss about anything. Should he start? No. But he should be a part of the squad.

[Kojak]

In an ideal world you would obviously have better players than McTominay but when we’ve got the likes of Casemiro needs shifting who will be on insane wages, performed infinitely worse than McTominay last season and didn’t fancy sitting on the bench for the cup final, we’ve probably got bigger fish to fry.

Only thing I’d say is Scott would be easier to sell. He’d be a player we have who would generate genuine interest. But would we replace him, in terms of the squad? Probably not, so in that sense it’s pointless at the moment.

[viking22]

Main reason is that he is one of the few players we could actually get a good price for (with the added sweetener that it would be pure profit under FFP rules) and while he's been a useful squad player coming off the bench and chipping in some goals we need a different profile of midfielder if we want to move forward as a club.

It is quite obvious our budget is pretty limited this season and we need a CB, LB, CDM and CF. Even if we hold firm when we negotiate and look for good value deals (e.g. Zirzkee with his release clause) we are still going to need to raise a good amount of money from player sales.

Big European clubs can't afford Casemiro's wages and Saudi clubs are going in a different direction. Dortmund only want Sancho on loan and I cannot imagine any other likely buyers. Big clubs won't touch Greenwood with the cloud over his head and smaller clubs won't match our asking price. We've knocked back £20m from Lazio. Juventus are trying to do it as a player exchange. Nobody wants Antony or Donny or any of our other big money rejects. Rashford likes to whine and complain but he won't leave us unless another big club shows interest and they won't until he can recover his form.

So where does that leave us? £10m for AWB? A loan fee for Sancho of maybe £5m? Flogging a few kids?

So if we can get £30-£40m for Scotty I'd take it.

[redcase]

Jun 24, 2024 11:33:35 GMT viking22 said:

Main reason is that he is one of the few players we could actually get a good price for (with the added sweetener that it would be pure profit under FFP rules) and while he's been a useful squad player coming off the bench and chipping in some goals we need a different profile of midfielder if we want to move forward as a club.

It is quite obvious our budget is pretty limited this season and we need a CB, LB, CDM and CF. Even if we hold firm when we negotiate and look for good value deals (e.g. Zirzkee with his release clause) we are still going to need to raise a good amount of money from player sales.

Big European clubs can't afford Casemiro's wages and Saudi clubs are going in a different direction. Dortmund only want Sancho on loan and I cannot imagine any other likely buyers. Big clubs won't touch Greenwood with the cloud over his head and smaller clubs won't match our asking price. We've knocked back £20m from Lazio. Juventus are trying to do it as a player exchange. Nobody wants Antony or Donny or any of our other big money rejects. Rashford likes to whine and complain but he won't leave us unless another big club shows interest and they won't until he can recover his form.

So where does that leave us? £10m for AWB? A loan fee for Sancho of maybe £5m? Flogging a few kids?

So if we can get £30-£40m for Scotty I'd take it.

You'd take it, we'd lose Scott, we'd be stuck with casemiro and Eriksen, and we'd probably not get a replacement in for Scott.

There's no use selling Scott, in such a scenario.