Average, lol. Then all RBs in the Prem are average at defending because there ain't many better defensively than him. Next summer KWP won't be first choice, he's still got a lot of maturing to do in the position and that'll take more than just this season to develop. No issue with him taking Aurier's spot as second choice but he won't be first choice for at least another couple of years.
Not sure I actually call Aurier second choice tbh. It’s more a job share than anything. I get most don’t see Trippier deficiencies as they are two busy wowing over his crosses but they are there. But like I keep saying one needs to go otherwise we’ll lose a potential ( very soon ) better player if he doesn’t get his chance.
We also need to increase our homegrown and club grown numbers. If Aurier doesn't improve over the course of the campaign, then it would seem natural to move him on and promote Walker-Peters. If he does improve and displaces Trippier, then he'll probably want to leave to cement his England place. Trippier improved dramatically in the defence department during the last campaign, but he's still not where Walker was. His delivery is far better and his new-found set-piece threat is a bonus, but he'll never match the pace or physicality of his predecessor. He doesn't seem to have that one glaring error that tended to be costly, though.
This is fair tbh Like I put I’ll never come round to Trippier being good defensively. He stands off players due to his lack of pace letting cross after cross in. In a back for his positioning is also in question due to his limitations ( it’s the reason i prefer him in a back 5 ). Atm i favour Trippier despite his limitations because of his forward contributions. KWP is the future and it’s getting time to embrace it.
One of the reasons that I think Trippier looks poor defensively at times is how exposed he is. We tend to rely on him heavily for deliveries at times, as in the Fulham first half, but we don't have anyone helping him out defensively. Eriksen's often the player in front of him and he runs about, but shies away from tackles and anything remotely resembling a header. Ben Davies seems to deal with it better, but he's rarely used in attack, despite frequently taking up good positions. I assume that the players see a lot of them in training and his final ball just doesn't fill them with confidence. Alli's also happier to get stuck in defensively, even though he lapses quite badly and forgets to do it.
You could take the crossing out of Trippier's game and he'd still be a very reliable RB. We'll only lose KWP if he decides to do a Caulker - and that worked out well for him. Poch clearly rates Kyle, but as with most young players they need to truly learn their role before being considered a legitimate first team player, especially for a side like us now. Kane was in KWP's position for about 3-4 years before he cemented himself as first choice. Mason waited yonks for his chance. Winks has been in the first team picture for what will be his third season and he's still a fair way from cementing his spot. Things take time, they don't need to be rushed, Kyle's time will come but right now, Trippier is league's above him and likely will be for at least another year or two.
Was only here for a season but easy to forget how many crucial goals he scored for us in that time frame. Very underrated player in the Prem.
Good discussion lads. How we could do we Dempsey as our kane back up now. Perfect to get those goals when we need to
In the past few days the club Twitter has mentioned we bought Son, Dembele, Eriksen and Lamela on this day x-many years ago. So much for the Levy Out mob's belief that we only sign crap players late in the window, eh?
Last day Levy buys are fun until they don't happen. No one has been proven right or wrong just because we have won 3 out of 3. I was championing signings this summer because if anything strengthening the squad would help our first team further...no way would it hinder. Long way to go yet...god forbid but if we lose a key starter such as Kane, Eriksen, Alli...then we will see how we fair as this was the worry. So no one wants Levy out....quite yet...but what our first team is doing on the pitch is not due to Levy's masterstroke in the summer transfer window.
Tis only long-term injuries to Kane and Eriksen that the squad cannot allegedly cope with. And regarding Kane, the outage last season with the 10 goals in 3 games etc suggests there may be compensating action by the squad. Any other imagined injury scenario is effectively going to be a plague. In which case I'd defy any of the PL top 6 to endure such without suffering a drop in form.
Yeah I'm not expecting us to have a Kane clone on the bench...but our good start is not due to any master strokes by Levy over the summer. He needs to give Poch a wage rise before he gives him self the next one...because Poch is the magic man.
With probably only City aside, the notion of struggling if your key players are out for a substantial time applies to every other side in the country. Kante, Hazard, Azpi from Chelsea - ****ed Salah, Mane, Van Dijk from Pool - ****ed. Utd are ****ed at the moment even with Lukaku, Pogba and Sanchez. Arsenal are ****ed because they don’t even have a good player.
It's true everyone would struggle by losing a key player. Suppose Moura can adapt and Poch will tinker. Levy could have still have helped him over the summer though. Missed a trick with Seri...Dembele has had a good few solid games...hope he can keep it up for the next 35 as that kind of dynamism is essential for our team to function. Maybe I shouldn't have said Kane as that prompts the obvious response...we could have done with some quality in CM...it's pivotal to how we play
Levy's still doing the football business because Mauricio Pochettino won't work with a Director of Football (he doesn't even want Danny Rose). Levy wants to divest himself of that. It's the right decision for the club but do we **** off our manager to do it? It's suggested that we went in for Fred but United got him.We cannot compete with them financially, no matter what we do - as we found out with Martial. Also, we tried for Ndombele but Lyon wouldn't sell. Chelsea got Kovacic on loan out of Madrid on the back of selling Courtois. If we'd offered up one of our top talents, I'm sure we could have got him but it would have been madness. So, where do you stand if, following those knock backs, Mauriucio Pochettino said "I want Martial and Grealish. Those 2 will fit perfectly and are attuned to the English game and I'm not interested in anybody else now."? With good reason, we thought that both players wanted to come and both clubs would sell. Supposedly, Villa had agreed a £25m deal and changed their mind. United decided to **** off Mourinho and not come in for Toby Alderweireld. Ed Woodward saw MP valuing a player who Mourinho is wasting. Much as with Lucas Moura, he'd be great for us and challenge Sonny and HK. We looked seriously at Zaha but he'd be challenging Lucas and Lamela to get game time on the right. Both of those players have looked really sharp and what Palace wanted wasn't worth it. So, it was probably the right decision as he'd have been mostly used to stand in for HK and his long term effectiveness in that role is an unknown, as yet. That's not worth a £70m+ gamble. We definitely could have done with 2 or 3 incoming, so it certainly wasn't a success. However, we haven't bought another Sissoko, GKN, Vinnie or similar, who we won't play and would find hard to shift when they prove impossible to sell. The one thing that I hope is that MP lets DL step back from the buying and selling and everything points that DL wants to do just that.
Villa said they would have accepted that easily. They probably would have accepted a packet of monster much and 1 of jannsens legs as they were in dire straits until their takeover. It was mainly cause Levy didn't pony up for him and was playing the long game.
I have commented on this before. If it's right (and it may well be) then it's why DL shouldn't be doing the buying and selling any more. I think that I put this up to illustrate..... However, Steve Bruce may be talking bollocks. There have been suggestions that there could be no player sales whilst the club sale was going through and the new owners were advised at 11.59 not to sell, having earlier agreed to do so. That makes sense but could also be total speculation. Either way, they have Grealish and Levy does genuinely want a DoF to rid himself of this stuff and get on with the NFL and commercial partnerships.
Supposedly, WBA are losing £8m on what they paid us 2 seasons ago. So, if we're earning out of it, Levy really is a ****ing genius.
