For me: 1- Fabian Schar 2- Rondon making Mitro look insignificant 3- being the only team in 2019 to beat Champions, Man City in the PL 4- Rafa’s glasses
I'm going with being awarded a penalty vs city at home in a season where referees have been blamed for everything.
Wasn't many tbh maybe the 7/8 good players we have,add 4/5 and we have the makings of a decent team that won't be fighting relegation every year!
Rafa and Rondon probably but Perez? Can't see that,do teams look at his last 8 matches and ignore the other 32?
Perez is too good for us off to Milan and hes top scorer last two seasons btw. The entire side struggled for 10 games I can't understand why people single out our better players in those periods ! Theres other teams on the pitch and our style of play wasn't exactly set up for him to shine with 5 at the back.
It's not saying much really,12 this season and 8 last, he's a forward and has played the guts of 80 games so those figures would be the least one would expect.BTW not knocking him but can't see how he's all of a sudden a £30m player, just saying.
He's still only 25 and is playing in a side without the ball . Hes worth way more then £30 million he gets assists , tackles he does it all mate. Hes way better than almiron who cost us 22 million at 25 without being a proven premier league player. Imagine how many goals Perez gets at a good team because hes a good finisher even in the air .class player.
Highlights for me are the change in belief and quality that we brought into the second half of the season. Very few of those games (West Ham is one) actually drew a poor performance from us. We won a few games convincingly (e.g today), fought to the end (e.g Everton and Man City) and others were unlucky to get points (e.g Liverpool).
Really rate Perez too. He works well with Almiron and Rondon who are on his wavelength when it comes to quick touches. I think there's a strong case to put him in the £15 million - £20 million bracket and if he stays, could see him getting 15 goals next season of we add some quality to create chances.
Bringing in Almiron. Signalled a change from a defensive set up with isolated forwards to a team that looked better balanced and with much more attacking potential. That change in mentality even continued after he got injured. Looking forward to seeing a midfield with both him and Longstaff next season.
Get a top class holding midfielder in and release Longstaff. As you say, makings of a proper midfield and attack. It’s why it’s so frustrating. Spend 100m over 2 windows on striker, holding midfielder, right and left wing backs it’s a proper team. Dubravka Schar Lascelles Dummett Tete Maia/Ascaibar/Palacios Longstaff Bertrand Almiron Perez Martinez I’ve chucked a few random names in there of players I like but only to show 4 quality players can completely transform that squad. All of a sudden if your bench is Shelvey, Ritchie, Rondon, lejeune, Woodman, Yedlin, Muto you start to think you have some half decent options. Nothing daft but a squad I reckon under Rafas guidance would be not involved in a relegation battle, instead maybe being the Watford, Wolves etc of this season and competing around the tails of Leicester/Everton. Ship Joselu, Manquillo, Hayden, Atsu, Gayle, Murphy for say 30m. Promote some young players who’ve done well for 23’s or on loan. Basically have a ****ing plan.