I think he can now, I have been impressed with his energy this season, he is certainly fitter and more robust.
Oh, there's no doubt he works harder, no longer looks a liability going backwards and even if he's not on it makes a valuable contribution in terms of graft. But he's not a 3 full games in 8 days player and still get the best out of him for me. Maybe 2 60s and a 30. But it's a squad game.
At least you can have Slater or Tufan next to Morton, so you can rotate between those 2 in Seri and Traore absence.
Push comes to shove, yes. Think Tufan would be better suited to a deeper role than Twine. Not sure about Traore. Wouldn't be surprised if he goes on loan now Cavalhos coming in.
I agree about Traore, he is out of contract at the end of the season, he may well not be kept on. In fairness one of his better games was that one time he played that deeper role.
Such a weird time just loaning goalkeepers like him, mannone, amos etc. A defence looks so much more comfortable when they've played together a while so i was amazed it took us so long to just get a keeper back then. Although we're currently giving it a good go in the 'spin the wheel and win a goalkeeper' method, just with more expense
According to Baz's article this morning, they're trying to sign a permanent LB so fingers crossed that should be the defence settled for the time being and we should stop leaking goals
Last season, we observed on here that while his fitness had massively improved, he has an odd tendency to occasionally just switch off. I have seen it where he just doesn’t go for a tackle where he is favourite or is not on the same wavelength as a teammate or not getting a block in. It seems to happen once or twice a game. It’s not laziness, as he is otherwise working hard nor does it seem to be tiredness as it is it isn’t necessarily late in the game. It seems to be a really odd but obvious loss of concentration, While I think his fitness has moved on another notch, he can be disciplined, does track back when necessary, but I noticed recently those very obvious occasional lapses of concentration. I certainly wouldn’t want him in a Seri role, having Allsopp pinging balls at him with back to goal or on the half turn. Having said that, he is at a stage where he will be slowing down. Maybe it would be a good career move to give him that extra responsibility? He certainly has all the assets to totally control the game on a good day. For me, it would be what happens on those not so good days. Definitely worth a try.
Yeah, I think he’d definitely need a Kalman esque defensive midfielder/ clogger next to him to look after him, which we don’t have. I think it use to be termed the Makelele role, but should maybe renamed the Kalman role?
I’ve given up on us signing one. I don’t think we will in January or even in summer for that matter. I think when Morton returns to Liverpool in the summer, we’ll sign another player similar to him on loan from another PL club or maybe even ask Liverpool if we can keep him for another year. Don’t get me wrong, Morton’s quality but he’s a midfielder who likes to get forward from deep. Slater does that well too.
I wonder if we've had a conversation with Burnley about potentially returning Twine and taking Benson or Zaroury in his place? Considering the amount of loans we have and the positions we most need to improve, it's a conversation I'd be having, I think Twine's going to get far less game time in the second half of the season and it may well be in their best interest to let him go out somewhere else. I also wonder if we'll now see Ingram go out on loan as well.
He has but all his best performances have been on the left cutting in on his right, so it definitely makes sense to keep him there. I don’t think right wing is really what Carvalho is about and whilst I’m sure he does a job there, I don’t think he comes here if that’s our intention for him. I’m sure he’ll be down the middle. I’m just wondering what’s realistically left in the pot to play with. We thought we must be about spent up after the Philogene deal, now the Carvalho deal can’t be cheap and we’re apparently spending £1.5m on another goalkeeper. Even if the expendable cash is there we have to be reaching the FFP ceiling. Are we going **** or bust?
Yeah I’m pretty sure Ingram will become an Outgram. Probably not a sale though, can’t see anyone paying a fee. Probably just be told he can find a new club.
Depends what happens elsewhere - Ingram could do a job for a lower end Championship team or top end league 1 team for sure. Depends if any such clubs lose their keeper
Something has obviously happened since we said in the summer that we had no FFP room left. I know we have seen the attendances go up a lot this year but I reckon the McVities sponsorship was WAY over market value.
