Last summers signings how do you rate them so far?

I've generally liked what I have seen so far of Hojbjerg, and given his age I think there is every chance that he could become something special. I'm very pleased that we signed him, and I still want to see regular midfields of him, Romeu and Clasie.

But I do despair when I read or hear people saying that he'll be better than Morgan, or, worse, is already better than Morgan. For me, that is simply yet another case of rose-tinted spectacles, in favour of someone who is currently with us (whether player or manager). Talk about jumping the gun. Morgan was absolutely class for us. Hojbjerg has a very long way to go yet until I can agree that he is, or will be, better than Morgan.

 

Perhaps they mean Pierre is better than Morgan now, rather than how he was with us.

 

On current form, I'm better than Morgan

 

We signing Moses?

 

Are we signing Victor Moses?

 

Ed. He'll get us over a hurdle.

 

Redmond - Are you lot blind? He takes players on, he is the forward most likely to run into the box, he shoots. Alright, he doesn't score much, yet, but he is an exciting talent. So is...
Boufal - When he gets the ball, you expect things to happen, or at least you think it might do. His close control and ability to shrug off the attentions of multiple defenders is a sign of just how special he can be.
Hojbjerg - Needs a bit of time to find his feet, way too early to judge. Already ahead of Clasie though. There have been flashes of quality.

 

Generally underwhelmed by all of them so far.

Although I would add that i think Puel's tactics aren't getting the best out of any of them.

 

Redmond 5/10 - Reminds me a fair bit of Mane in his first 6 months, has all the tools to be good, but doesn't put them together anywhere near often enough so is pretty ****. The key difference between the 2 is that Redmond has probably played in about 50 (?) PL games before joining us where as Mane was new to the league. Hopeful that Redmond can start putting everything together on a consistent basis, but I'm sure they were all saying that at Norwich aswell.

Hojbjerg 6/10 - lot of potential, been pretty good overall first few months, needs to play with an attack minded midfielder to look better. ATM wouldn't have him in my best eleven.

Boufal 5/10 - too early really as only played a handful of games. Agree that he has that wow factor when he gets the ball but right now he is equally likely to be another Gaston as he is to being a top player.

McCarthy 8/10 - bought to warm the bench and play the odd game, done that well.

Pied N/A - can't judge him after only playing in pre season

 

I think most of them could have fitted in well in our teams in the past, but are struggling in the average team we have now. We lack pzazz at the moment. None are poor....but none have that touch of brilliance we need. I can't see us beating Liverpool in 2 legs and the FA Cup is too long a haul to imagine success now....can't we just cross off this season and move on. Depressed and it's is only January 1st. Happy New Year, folks.

 

Hojbjerg:
Confounds me somewhat, I can't make my mind up about how much I think he can grow as I find him an interesting mix of polished and raw, mature and naive. Either way a good footballer and well worth his place in the squad. His drive is excellent and he's very good when he can attack the game the way he wants to, but he can get knocked out of his rhythm and struggle to adapt to the game rather than trying to drag it back to where he wants it. But that is less of an outright negative trait as a downside of his determination and belief which needs to be smoothed out.

He can drift out of the game a bit defensively and when we're in possession, defensively when he can press and attack the ball it suits him great, but when holding a shape or covering an area he lacks a bit for awareness and lets too many runs get by him unchecked. In possession when he can dictate or find himself room he is all over it, when he can't he operates as a totally separate entity to the team. Again, I think he's very passionate and almost idealistic in how he wants to play, perhaps it's his Bayern upbringing but I guess I think he needs to learn how to try and turn a **** performance into a decent one, rather than **** into perfect. But that's a lot of fairly speculative intuition on my part.

I think he needs to trust his technique more and try and work from smaller pockets of space, and has a lot to learn about using his frame more effectively as he's more than willing to get stuck in but he doesn't use either his centre of gravity or the dark arts of fouling players without giving away a foul.

So overall I think he just needs to get more comfortable in his own skin and channel his drive correctly so given how young he is I think there's a lot of promise for what could come with experience. And if he could learn a thing from Virgil and Morgan in the school of treading the right side of the line between effortless calm and complacency then he could really kick on as he just needs to trust his ability to influence the game however its going. As it is, he's already good enough for us and will only get better, just a matter of how much.

Redmond:
I've vented enough about what I think of his treatment from some (or, a lot) of our supporters, so I won't harp on that any more but it's fair to say so far his biggest problem is his emotions and confidence and the lovely cycle created between the two. Again given his age there's plenty of reason to expect improvement in his ability to overcome his critics, primarily his biggest one - himself. And in kind of the opposite way to Pierre who can suffer a bit from tunnel vision, Redmond needs to be able to lock himself into the game for 90 minutes. Every break in play, every mistake he makes, his head is out of the game and it does him no good whatsoever... Again especially not when what's out of the game is hundreds or thousands of people heckling and abusing him! (Sorry...)

In actual footballing areas I think he needs to work in much more variation into his technique as he can be far too predictable which he sometimes gets away with by being good at what he wants to be able to do, but when he can't he hesitates or runs into brick walls. He needs to sometimes take the quick option even if it isn't ideal, like just drilling in crosses or driving with the ball onto his weaker foot as even if they aren't that effective he needs to keep defenders more honest. Unfortunately again this all ties into confidence though which is the ficklest and bitchiest of fickle bitches.

I think his movement is good in general but I would like to see him make more parallel-start runs in behind and more runs in behind in general, but it's hard to know where team instructions come into that and also I could just be missing him trying to make them.

He can also get complacent when we drop back into our shape with not tracking his man as tightly as he could, partly because of the false sense of security given by us holding a solid shape and the fact he thinks his pace can bail him out. But that isn't exactly a rare trait in wingers.

Boufal:
More than a touch of class about him but as is the case very, very often with players like him needs to learn when to try and skin their whole team and when to keep it simple, but that's a typical part of growing into a team. Like Redmond needs to keep defenders honest in his case I think by working in more quick passes and varying his movement off the ball. It's crystal clear he always wants the ball to his feet, and that we want to get the ball to his feet and that the other team don't, so as well as doing his usual of finding a pocket of space or dropping back showing for the ball I think he needs to work in a few more attempts to dummy showing for the ball and trying to roll his man and get behind him - even if he doesn't get the ball I think the variation is key.

He reeeeaally needs chemistry with our strikers but that's a whole can of worms.

Surprisingly good defensively when it's a matter of trying to win the ball back, but again like Redmond and a lot of attacking players the longer the other team has the ball the more their concentration is sapped.

Would also like to see him trying to whip the odd cross in looking to just create danger rather than being precise even if all we're hoping for is forcing a corner or a bit of good old fashioned penalty box pinball.

And at this point he might as well just shoot more 'cos screw it let's just rely on him getting worldies.

McCarthy:
A good back-up keeper buy I think, just the right kind of balance of decent experience but with some untapped potential. Unfortunate to pick-up the injury, especially since at this point I'd be giving him a decent chance ahead of poor old Fraser for both his and our sakes.

Pied:
Pretty similar story in that I think he was a very shrewd pick-up for the squad hampered by injury. I like him as a player technically and for his versatility, and seems to have a good character from how he's gone about rehab. Unlucky one really.

Puel:
I have a lot of questions about how we've gone about things under his management, but a lot of it hinders on the communication between him and Les and the goals set out. So not having that kind of information I'm mostly just left pondering. I don't think we've been as bad as some think/it seems, but the more troublesome thing for me is that I struggle to really identify areas we've improved or changed with any particularly distinctive philosophy. We haven't necessarily done particularly worse than under Koeman or Poch, but I can't detect any kind of real Puel stamp on the team (beyond the whole boring/defensive debate) whereas the former two had their fingerprints all over the team. So I wonder if he is just fairly quietly and subtly guiding the team efficiently, if not excitingly, or if it's the strength of our core and our system that is keeping us chugging onward despite disappointments. Involvement of youth is at least a strong and clear positive.

The Ghost of the Striker That Wasn't:
His presence has been felt, though this spectre I sense is not that of the legendary 20-goal-a-season striker, or of the variety of different ghouls who were linked with us in the summer, whose absence was lamented by so many fans, who have gone on to be either outright **** or barely breaking even in value against their prices, wages and footballing limitations. The ghost is merely of a supplementary option who had some kind of impact potential.

Sorry, got a bit mental at the end there. Thankfully no-one will read this far!

 

I read it all Mikey, and it was a great analysis of the players. I think you've summed up exactly my thoughts on them all