Starting XI is history. It's now a XVI man first team and a squad. With 3 subs, managers had to leave one till very late in case of injury or similar. the other 2 would invariably be coming on at 60 minutes. Now , I can see a regular change at half time of 2 players and then the usual 3 subs sometime during the second half. So if you have 2 games a week, a player is still only playing 90 minutes, but at full pelt. Richarlison can come on at half time and we haven't weakened the team.
Matteo Moretto claims that he's travelled to London this weekend, while Sport (the Spanish one, not the bus-on-the-moon one) claim that there will be an announcement Tuesday
Hincapie Watch Rough translation: Leverkusen are waiting until January, banking on a post-WC value bump
Really ?? So you would start a PL game against the Poool or Citeh with Richarlson + one of Kane and Son, rather than Kane and Son ??
The most important thing is to have the ability to make tactical subs, which is something we really couldn't do at the back end of last season as the closest we had to a tactical sub on the bench was bringing on Emerson so we could have some ****ehousery at RWB This is also the reason Conte was happy to let Lo Celso and Ndombele go out on loan in January (okay, one of the reasons...) because, as he said in an interview, if he started either of them then he would have only been able to make two tactical subs instead of three due to neither of them having the fitness to play beyond 60 minutes
5 subs seems to change everything. Stops being almost 100% reactive and becomes an essential part of the entire match strategy.
Absolutely. Mastering the five sub options could be worth several extra points a season. It could also show up Fraudiola who sometimes (all the time?) doesn't use subs well, relying on incredibly expensive and gifted players. Or am I missing the Pep is the best manager in the world narrative? We shall see.
Conflicting reports on this with some saying we're still not happy with their offer and others saying we're now stalling in case a PL club coughs up more. I'd take €30m tbh, we recoup most of what we spent on a player who never really settled. Wasn't what we needed when we signed him and hasn't produced enough at a time when we actually needed him. There's talent in there, no doubt, but confidence is a massive issue and not one that is easily hidden at the levels Conte wants us playing at.
He has the talent but I've run out of confidence or even hope that he'd produce enough of it, on a regular basis, for us. If he'd not been exposed to Mourinho and suffered from so many injuries...who knows? Neeeext.......
Getting our money back on a player that didn’t do enough here is great business. Good player on his day but his day was too far and few between here. We’ve also upgraded on him now too so it’s the right time to sell. Hope he smashes it with Ajax and we see that iconic celebration loads.
Lenglet Watch Sport (the Spanish one, etc etc) claim his departure to Spurs is "imminent" Quick, somebody post a compilation of his passes directly into the path of his speeding LWB
Club’s shown a quick vid of players arriving to training for first day of pre-season, Bissouma being one of them. He wasn’t actually expected to be back today due to taking part in internationals after the end of the season but seems as though he’s opted to come in earlier than required, I like that, always good to see players wanting to make an impression. Forster’s also expected in today but wasn’t seen in the vid. Perisic actually arrived on Friday as he had a minor injury after his last game for Inter, he posted a pic on his Insta story that day too mentioning it was his first day. I believe Richarlison will arrive later this week or on the weekend along with the rest of the players that played in internationals as we fly out either Saturday or Sunday to Korea. Hopefully by tomorrow or Wednesday we’ll have Lenglet in too.
Sarr also back today, similar to Bissouma he wasn’t required back yet. Good to see the new boys wanting to hit the ground running.
I bet they are Sh$$ting it , Contes preseason - they are in for a month of pain. Good to see them back, looking forward to seeing what Pape Sarr is made of.
Been linked with Mephis Depay again this morning. It's said we asked about his availability whilst dealing with Barca for Lenglet. Think he would be a very good signing as a direct replacement for the soon to be departing Bergwijn. Yes he flopped last time in the Premier league but he was a kid then and his stats have been very solid for Barca since. What do you guys think ?
The interesting thing is Romero's also briefly glimpsed in the video at 0:17 - even though we still haven't got around to announcing if we've made his loan permanent
