I read an interview with Joffy in the last week or so. He thinks he plays best as an attacking MF, & I think Farke agrees with him. Whether it's with Leeds is a moot point.
No I didn't. I'm just talking about Struijk at the moment. I think you'll find I've been banging the drum on replacing the keeper and our entire defence fir this season.
Dunno. He looked pretty good for Millwall 2nd half of last season. Got to give him a chance. Joffy was awful at Sunderland. Bang average. We bought him as a striker. Sunderland said he was a second striker and now he's a midfielder. May as well stick him in the nets.
Don't know about Cresswell either. What I currently see is a physical centre half more suited to a League which is not at the highest level and as that's where we're currently at then maybe we have a future together. All the talk about building our future around him is bollocks though.
Have to agree with WJ on this one. Struijk will be perfectly fine for us this season and his versatility could prove to be a massive plus.
Cresswell is still very young for a centre half. He started off pretty nervy at Millwall but grew in to it and ended up being their best defender until his injury. Even the Millwall lads on here came on and said we had a really talented player. There is a certain pressure playing in front of the crowd at ER. Plenty fold under the weight of expectation. It's not too easy at the Den either especially as a Leeds player on loan but they loved him down there. He might not make it but he's passed every test given so far and he's clearly a very vocal lad who doesn't give a **** who he shouts at. I like that and he might be a bit rash and make mistakes this season like he did last but its how he grows from that experience. Struijk and Joffy had good potential but they've stood still and even gone backwards after a loss of confidence. It's pretty easy to look good in pre season. It's a different game in front of 36000 at ER when every mistake is groaned at. I have a feeling that Cresswell won't only survive that experience but I think he could thrive. There's only one way to find out.
So, is it just me or does anyone else think all's not well with Gnonto, not started one preseason game and when he has come on, really hasn't done much of note, if Bamford have had missed that header Poveda set him up with today, he'd have had pelters all night but hardly any mention of it anywhere. His early form dipped when Gracia took over, hardly got a look in under him either.
Taken alone, you may have a point, but his colleagues didn't do much better, did they? Or are you saying we got relegated because of him? Ridiculous, if true. The lad is one year older, has a year more of experience, and is playing in a lower league than last year. Unusually for our CBs, he wants to stay. That alone gives him brownie points, surely. I also suspect that Farke would have got rid if he was that bad. He didn't. He must have something to offer.
Agree that Struijk is terrible. Not sure about Cresswell but doesn’t seem like he wants to be here. Get the cash for Gnoto if we can get 20-25m we’ve done well, don’t think he’s going to be the world beater we think. We have Sini and Harrison to play his position as think Harrison is injured and no talk of Sini going.
Look at him playing centre half for us at Cardiff last season. 1st goal. Gets caught too far forward, re-adjusts but overshoots and ends up too deep allowing players to run in behind. He's not holding the line like the others. Then on top of that he gets wrong side of his man. The ball is played through and Struijk stops thinking Meslier will get it but he's read it all wrong. When he realises there is an attacker behind him (HE DIDN'T KNOW A STRIKER WAS THERE! Let that sink in) he tries to get back but he has no pace and ultimately we go 1-0 down.....to Cardiff...who were bottom 5 of the Championship at the time. There's Pascal Struijk playing championship football Jock! And he'll do it again and again and again if we persist with this experiment and we'll have to because Cooper is only a handful of games away until his first injury of the season. We've conceded 157 league goals in 76 games last two seasons. The keeper and defence have been dreadful and it needs sorting. You build from the back. We are sleep walking in to the season with a possible back line of.... Meslier Ayling Struijk Cooper Firpo That scares the **** out of me but yeah, you keep giving these players another chance mate. Me? I've had enough of watching them make dumb mistakes and costing us cheap goals. I'd rather try and improve things. Stupidity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We need better.
Gessa nailed it regarding Gnonto. He has done nothing for months and from Garcia onwards. Maybe he’s injured/unfit but he played for the senior Italy team and then the Italy U21s? I don’t think he’s interested and maybe he’s gutted that he doesn’t have a relegation release clause but has had his money halved anyway. Get rid for some cash
Dunno what it is with Gnonto, both him and Jimmy seemed to play better under marsch… maybe the chaos and quick breaks in transition suited their games. Or maybe PL Defences wised up to them and gave them more attention. Possibly a bit of both.
Re our defenders… they won’t get shown up or punished as much in the champ and we’ll likely have a lot of possession so they won’t get tested as much. We’ll also win games so confidence in the whole team will improve. Farke’s teams don’t tend to be great defensively anyway so they will get exposed at times. My take is a guy like Struijk won’t look as bad at this level, and often may look good because he’s a decent footballer.. but we’ll still be holding our heads in hands regularly because he seems to struggle with concentration and nerves under pressure.
I think the problem with our defence is that they are all so slow. We need to get a bit of pace back there, and dare I say it but Struijk seems to be the slowest.
