That is a bold wish. Who do you have in mind that can play similar, and : 1. Spurs would not be outbid on (wage/transfer fees) 2. is at worst the same age as Eriksen
I would have liked to have seen us bid for James Maddison when we had the chance. The guy can hit a dead ball, pick out a pass and is home-grown. I think his game would improve greatly under Poch and with better quality players around him. I'm sure there are others coming through but that requires our scouting team to up their game.
Totally agree. And I am convinced that VDV was right when he said that he saw an Eriksen type getting eaten alive and spat out by the egos of the Real changing room. Same goes for pretty much all of the clubs who are bigger than us. He's a great player but not a winner. Superb when we're on top but not the type to dig us out of a rut when we need to be dragged over the line in the same way Bale did, Kane does and Sonny is rapidly learning how to do. I suspect that this is why no big teams have even been properly linked to him let alone actually bid for him despite 4 or 5 seasons at the absolute top. Teams like Real see players like Bale and Hazard single-handedly carrying their teams and think 'that's him'. Zidane knows more than most what it takes to conquer the world and I doubt he sees that spark in Eriksen. My concern is that - unlike Hazard - he isn't quite old enough for teams to feel pressurised into buying him this summer. They - and the player - might feel it's worth it to wait and pick him up on a free next year. He'll still only be 28. And we need one of £60m or a non-half-arsed Eriksen.
He’s nowhere near as good as Eriksen though. Huge step backwards. If we do sell Eriksen then it’s pointless signing players like Maddison as it defeats the object of improving. The best thing to do with the Eriksen money if we can’t get a like-for-like replacement is to invest it elsewhere and likely change formation.
I’ve literally been saying this for about a year, when Kane got injured against Bournemouth and we witnessed a spell where we managed to cope without him in the short term. Please do not think for one minute that my view point has anything to do with your recent opinions.
But that's where Poch earns his money, improving the player's work-rate, etc. as he has done with many of our other players. As has already been mentioned, we're not going to compete with big boys on wages, etc. And if Eriksen's heart isn't it in it anymore then he needs to be sold.
Maddison won't ever be as good as Eriksen though. He's a good player with a decent future and can probably play higher up than Leicester in time but he's nowhere near good enough to replace a player like Eriksen. Maddison is similar to Gylfi, dead ball specialist and will grab a good goal every now and then but we all saw the level in difference when Gylfi and Eriksen were in the same team.
Whether we like it or not, he will need replacing; we can't hold him prisoner and better to do it whilst we can get top-dollar for him. Can we replace him with a similar player? Do we have to get a different players and change our style? Did Liverpool replace Coutinho with a similar player?
Eriksen himself can't really be replaced as there isn't a player out there on a par with him that we could sign. So I'm of the opinion we should do similar to what Pool done and build on new strengths and sign the best players possible in other areas. They never replaced Coutinho with a B-Tech version of the player, they adapted to a much quicker style of attacking play by removing the number ten role and playing three up top with Mane, Salah and Firmino, I think that might be our best bet to try similar, with Son, Kane and then either Lucas or a new WF. Then strengthen the CM and WB areas. It's going to be a huge transitional summer for us what with both Toby and Eriksen likely off, I think it'd be silly if we just replaced those players with inferior quality and expected similar/ better results.
What will we miss from Eriksen? I will say assists and goals. His position requires that. What about his balls? His dead ball play? His leadership? I doubt we would look at an ACM who doesn't show potential in scoring or assisting but I feel as though if we are going to mix it with the big boys then we can't have weak passengers and we have to start looking for players with the right mentality too.
One of the best creative players in the Prem/ Europe. He's joint top with Hazard and Fraser for assists this season. Not forgetting the countless times he's made passes that have then led to assists/ goals. Guy's a magician and like Bale/ Modric, won't be able to be replaced by us with a like-for-like. He's definitely not a passenger though.
I think we need a creative CM plus two new FBs to make it work but aside from that we could definitely try it and likely be successful. Hugo/ Gazza New RB, Dave, Jan, New LB Alli, Sissoko, Creative CM Lucas/ New WF, Kane, Son That team (if the new players were good enough) could do serious damage.
Yeah I'm not say he's **** but I believe you can't understimate mentality and if these are the type of games we want to be involved in...there's gonna be big balls required on many an occasion.
I don't think his big game mentality should really be in question to be honest. He ****ed up on Wednesday night but he's bagged assists in semi finals vs Chelsea and Utd in the FA Cup, scored against Juve in the CL, grabbed assists in both games against City in the CL. He's a big game player, just made a terrible mistake vs City that luckily he weren't punished for in the end.
Put simply, the EFL is the most competitive league there is - anywhere. No matter how good a player is if when the going gets tough he gets going - only in the opposite direction, he’s not gonna help us make that last leap. Please see Paul Pogba as a prime example.
