1. Paulinho was broken by time Pochettino arrived which is why he was shipped out in my opinion. 2. Lo Celso has been anonymous in most games I have seen him play. 3. May we have different ideas of heat real effort looks like.
Lo Celso can certainly play alongside Skipp in the same role Hojbjerg currently does, mainly because he proved he can play in the same role Hojbjerg currently does under Mason last season The issue with Ndombele is I don't think he could even play in Poch's team at its prime, not due to his lack of workrate (although that doesn't help his case) but because he'd likely try Hollywood passes and do to good buildup what Andros Townsend's howitzers towards the floodlights did, and get the various death glares that came from it as a result
Paulinho was worse than Ndombele when it came to workrate even under Villas-Boas, none of that because of injury Lo Celso clearly has the workrate, not least because he actually shows for the ball out from defence and hustles to win it back My definition of workrate is a player who doesn't switch off when the team doesn't have the ball or, in the case of Dalmat, when the team has the ball but they don't
I think it's definitely more that they've not helped themselves. We haven't been trying to play them in positions that are completely foreign to them. Lo Celso's been moved about more than Ndombele but he's been used in a variety of positions for Argentina too yet seemingly has no issues for them. Even if our list of managers haven't played a brand of football either would love, we should've still seen signs that they'd do well under another... we haven't. From a talent perspective alone I think Ndombele certainly "has it", Lo Celso not so much. Ndombele though is so appallingly lacking fitness that it makes it hard to accommodate him in any system under any manager, the fact it's been documented he had fitness issues at previous clubs too since joining us makes me wonder what an earth we (Poch especially!) were thinking when we chased this guy for over a year, did anyone not stop to think for a second that if he's struggled with fitness in lesser leagues and lesser clubs that the Prem would be any different? What were our scouts/ analysts doing for that year and what research did they do on the guy? We then seemingly bought Lo Celso off the back of one impressive season for Betis and we paid a fee that would suggest he'd been doing it for multiple years. We got our pants pulled down on both players... and there wasn't any lube.
Apparently Celtic have opened talks to make CCV’s loan permanent. £6m with add ons being quoted, quite decent if true.
Griezmann's suddenly being linked ...which is a decided improvement on the other Barca dross we've been linked with in the past few days
Depends how eager Barca are to lower their wage bill A loan is more likely, obviously - but, as I said, better Griezmann than the likes of Dembele or Coutinho, the former is injury ravaged and the latter has spent three years sitting on his backside being linked with random Premier League clubs
Dembele is one to avoid for sure. Coutinho has experience of the PL and we know he can handle the pace of the game etc so I’m not sure if I’d prefer Griezmann over him. At this stage either would be welcome to help with creativity issues though.
The lack of football Coutinho's played in the last couple of seasons is certainly another reason to be wary, as his match fitness is going to be a step behind the rest of the team. More than anything else, Conte's system doesn't use an AM while Coutinho plays either through the middle or, on occasion, on the left wing, so he simply wouldn't fit into our team as we'd either have to rejig the system to fit him in or switch Son to the right just to accommodate some Barca castoff This is why Kulusevski at least makes sense given he mainly plays on the right while also being able to play up top, basically in a similar role that Angel Di Maria's played for a few years, so that would give us both an extra option on the right as well as both creativity and an additional goal threat
I don’t think Griezmann is what we need at all. He’s a real systems player and Conte’s system isn’t the one for him. I don’t think anyone has ever even really worked out his best position.
Dan Kilpatrick claims a RWB is on the agenda In other words, Doherty's off this month, one way or another
I think he prefers being a second striker/ centre forward, that’s where he really excelled for a spell in his first Atleti stint. Not quite the main striker like Kane but someone who could play in a supporting role and I think that could actually be one of the positions in Conte’s system - playing just behind Kane where Son and Lucas are would probably suit him. I don’t see this one happening though for what it’s worth, it would require Atleti to cancel the loan and then for us to negotiate with Barca over a deal where we’d likely try and “do a Bale” by not paying all his wages, unless a permanent deal was available where Barca would waive the majority of the fee… all seems highly unlikely. There’s a rumour elsewhere we’ve offered to sign Coutinho for free from them as he’s supposedly costing them too much money. Another also reckons Madrid are apparently going to offer us Isco if he decides to leave this month. In theory all three players are the types we could do with, the latter two offer some much needed creativity and the former would be an upgrade on Lucas, though there are fair arguments to say that all three are also beyond their best or nearing that stage and so would only make sense if the money’s right.
The jury is still out on Coutinho for me, I think it’s too uncertain if he’ll ever replicate his Liverpool form consistently. It’s an expensive gamble. As for Isco, I worry that he’s a bit of a Lucas. Lovely technique and dribbling, fantastic player to watch. But concerns about his end product were raise when we’ve been linked in the past and I’m not sure they’ve ever been disproved. Both these guys are 29 and would cost a lot to employ. Maybe that money might be better spent on a younger player who can be moulded and developed. But those are hard to find.
If I were given the choice of either I'd go for Coutinho, purely on the basis that we know he's played in England and done very well here, though I'd agree that it's hard to say if we'd be getting the same Coutinho that Liverpool had. It'd be ideal to try and a find a younger player in their mould, only problem is there seems to be very few emerging nowadays. It's as if creative midfielders are becoming a dying breed - and that's really **** as they're some of the best players to watch. To think in one era we had the the likes of Modric, Pirlo, Xavi, Fabregas and Xabi Alonso as your deeper ones then advanced ones like Iniesta, Silva, de Bruyne, Eriksen and Coutihno yet nowadays there's barely any about in their prime... Crazy.
Romano's saying a contract for a further year is on the table for Hugo. I'd rather we give him a two or even three year deal but good to see it's looking like we're getting something done, he's back in very, very good form, almost as good as the years he carried the club so keeping him needs to be paramount.
Yeah that's dead for us now, a shame as I really like him as a player but no way we'd match that for a 30 year old. There were rumours Toronto were trying to do a similar deal for Belotti too.
My main issue with Isco is he's played about as much football Coutinho has in the last couple of years, so if we have two fixtures in a week he won't be playing in both so, while he could have been a solution coming on yesterday, it's not particularly great is a headline signing's appearances are scattered around
