So essentially it's impossible to tell if anyone is more creative than what we've got because if they don't play for us, we'll never know? Not sure I buy that. Liverpool paid £75m for a CB from Southampton, a weaker quality club who played a different system to Pool, yet the move worked out perfectly because they desperately needed a top CB and they got one. The quality of a team or their league doesn't always reflect the standard of player. We desperately need a top quality CM and in my eyes, Tielemans (or Ndombele) fits that bill, regardless of the team he plays for or the system they play. As for Janssen and Soldado, not all signings work out and they're especially riskier when signing from abroad with no Prem experience but you still have to try, for every Janssen and Soldado we've got a Son and Lucas. Fraser is a left wing forward, Eriksen is a number ten, wouldn't make sense to replace Eriksen with Fraser.
Just checking. I've not seen a ton of Ndombele, but he struck me as quite a different prospect. We could always sign them both, of course.
Neither have I but reports and the word of a few on here suggest he's probably the best CM we can get our hands on. YouTube gives me the impression he's bit like Dembele but with more of an end product. Tielemans seems like a sort of young Fabregas from what I've seen, good eye for a pass and knows where the goal is. Signing both would be a huge statement. I've often said we could do with two new CMs hence why I thought one of Tielemans/ Ndombele and my boy Super Jack would've made sense but if the money's there for both, would be massive for us. Think we'd be looking at over £100m for the pair.
No, I'm saying it's not a 1:1 situation. Sissoko got 7 assists and 1 goal in the season Newcastle went down, same as Ndombele this season coincidentally. His best season for us(and imo his career) saw him get 3 assists, no goals. You can judge it how you want, I'm just saying I don't see the value in that metric. Yeah, every transfer is a risk, we can agree there. I agree with "The quality of a team or their league doesn't always reflect the standard of player" too. Southampton centre backs make a good example for it really. Lovren and Fonte(who United nearly signed) ended up showing that they were limited defenders and the former needed a lot of work to get up to speed, whilst VVD and Toby both excelled immediately and showed they could do much more than they had to do at Southampton. Point I was making about Janssen and Soldado was purely about their goal returns prior to joining, in relation to how stats can be misleading for the reasons I've mentioned several times. That's just nitpicking. Fraser has far more in common with Eriksen than Son or Lucas who actually do play wide left for us. Anyway, again the point was about his similar numbers.
No way. Fraser is a little dribbling speed merchant who puts in crosses. In that respect more son and moura as a dribbling winger. He likes to put in crosses, not play balls over the top/in behind. The only thing he has in common he has with eriksen is he takes set pieces
Stats are only really misleading if a player joins a new club and can't repeat their stats at their new club. Eriksen maintained/ improved his stats from Ajax to Spurs, as did Son from Bayer. It's a game of 50-50s but ultimately it's how many players are judged along with scouting. We likely wouldn't have signed either player if they weren't boasting impressive numbers at Ajax or Bayer respectively. Real wouldn't be chasing Hazard if his stats were basic as he'd be like many other skillful players with little to no end product. That's why we did sign Janssen and Soldado, on paper they were perfect signings, unfortunately they couldn't adapt to English football but that's the nature of the beast - you win some you lose some, as cliched as that sounds. With regards to Tielemans and Ndombele, Tielemans more so, he's proven what he can do in the Premier League, so his impressive stats add to his impressive performances. His style of play is exactly what we need, a creative player who can play deeper than a ten yet still contribute to the team's attacks with goals, assists and getting moves going, we just don't have that type of player right now. Similarly with Ndombele, albeit I haven't personally seen a lot of him, everyone who has tends to rave about him while his stats are very impressive from a creative standpoint. We wouldn't be linked with these types of players if the club already had similar to them. As for Fraser and Eriksen, it's just an odd comparison in my opinion. It's like saying Kane and Salah are similar because they score lots of goals, yet everyone here knows that the two players are chalk and cheese in terms of style let alone their position. You wouldn't want to replace either player with the other. Just like you wouldn't want to replace Eriksen with Fraser.
The stadium in Baku is half empty and of those in attendance, most have never been to a football match before.....UEFA making sure both clubs feel right at home,
This is like the playoff final on Monday. Not much quality, can't see either of them staying up in the Prem next season.
