What annoyed me when he came in was " He is too slight, too lightweight, can't handle the cut and thrust.." Bullshit, he is quality, and quality always shines through.
What annoyed me when he came in was " He is too slight, too lightweight, can't handle the cut and thrust.." Bullshit, he is quality, and quality always shines through.
What annoyed me when he came in was " He is too slight, too lightweight, can't handle the cut and thrust.." Bullshit, he is quality, and quality always shines through.
Personally I think Suso is a poor man's Coutinho - similar type of players but Coutinho is miles ahead in every department. Do we need both? Will Suso get annoyed at playing second fiddle to Coutinho, and decide to move on? Time will tell, I just think Suso will end up being used as a back up for Coutinho and decide to move on to ply regular football elsewhere.
Coutinho was great in the middle today. Great movement, cool on the ball, great vision and passing, energetic, tracks back, tackles, intercepts, runs, links great with team mates. He should stay, this season and beyond. His link up with Sturridge and Henderson was great to. Suarez can slot in nicely on the right for Downing.
Coutinho was great in the middle today. Great movement, cool on the ball, great vision and passing, energetic, tracks back, tackles, intercepts, runs, links great with team mates. He should stay, this season and beyond. His link up with Sturridge and Henderson was great to. Suarez can slot in nicely on the right for Downing.
I don' think Sterling will be as a good as people are hoping. I think he will be another Walcott, Lennon, SWP type players: bags of pace that pops up with a few goals/assists but flatters to deceive. Obviously, I hope I am wrong and he becomes much more than that but if that is to be the case, he needs managing much better than he has been this season! I like Henderson. Just like with Lucas, I have stuck up for him because he has the determination, heart, desire, skill and engine for the top flight. There is just something about him that makes me doubt he will ever be good enough for a title challenging side, same goes for Lucas TBH. However, they are both excellent players and there is no way I want to see either dropped at the minute, never mind moving on! The 'lightweight' tag was applied on MOTD tonight too. Ironically, they said it straight after he out muscled a Newcastle player (HBA?) to set us up for the third I agree. I keep saying it and I'm not about to change my mind anytime soon, IMO Suso is one of the players that BR was referring to when he said some of the players mentality wasn't right. Suso has the ability to be a top player, I think he has the belief too, but the fight and desire to succeed is questionable for me. He is very young though so who knows...
I said at the time that Hazard, Mata, Silva are all apparently just as lightweight but seem to have done just fine. The Premiership is moving away from big physical players to a more technical side of things. Just look at Swansea, Southampton, 2 teams recently come up playing football with technical players and out performing teams like Stoke & Reading who are much more direct and in Stoke's case more physical. This move in playing sytles helps players who previously would be classed as too lightweight. Also, he seemed to cope ok when brushing Ben Arfa off the ball for Sturridge's 3rd goal as well.
True. I remember reading piece about the United team of about 100 years ago with Beckham, Butt, Scholes and Giggs who all came through United's youth system. Giggs, who has pace in the ball, runs at defenders, dribbles etc broke through at 17. The other three are more about passing and movement and they broke through later. Suso has plenty of time. I think both can fit in one team. I like the way Coutinho plays in front the left, being right footed. Suso is left footed and could do the same from the right. With the right Am and striker in between them it could be a really effective way to play against some teams. Rotation is also important in a season at all top teams. As result no player in necessarily second choice.
Kind of shows that no matter how good we think our Academy is (and most in England) we still can't produce players that good at a young age as most other countries. Coutinho has played for a top team in Brazil & Italy and has caps for Brazil, yet our most promising player from the academy is a year younger and has a handful of first team appearences for us. Not saying Suso/Sterling won't be good players but the vast gap in experience shows that in England we still can't produce real top quality youngester. How many of our under 21's would get into a top team in Spain/Italy/Germany? Compare that to Brazilian/Spanish/German udner 21's and most of them would probably go straight into a top team (if they aren't already playing for one).
I like that idea but the system has to change slightly to suit IMO. If we are going to have two very attacking AM on either flank (both of which like to float about the final third) with two attacking fullbacks then the central three need to be much stronger. The AM of the trio needs to be a workhorse (Henderson ina 433 or possibly Suarez in a 4231), the other two need to be DM's IMO. Obviously, that means no place for Gerrard but since we are talking about Suso being a starter, we are talking about a couple of years time so he may have declined or even retired.
I think Fusbol (with a smaller pitch, ball and goal) and street football are what prepare the South American players so young. Plus the thought that they must move to Europe when still young to be successful makes them grow up sooner.
I think that is more to do with the quality of the leagues in the countries in which they develop. I often argue that it is hard for players to develop in this country if they are a top flight club because it is a instant results business. Players don't get the game time they need. Clubs in countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, etc have teams that quite simply are not that good, the youngsters can play for these sides whilst they develop. IMO, it is also the reason that South Americans always take time to settle here or make arrive via another European league first.
Manchester City often play like this with Nasri and Silva. More so last season though. The fullbacks attack a little less though. Last season they would some times have De Jong and Barry deeper with Toure in front and Aguero up front. So as you said above, they had plenty of muscle in the middle to make up for it defensively. It is an ambitious way to play but it worked for City. This season City have been a lot less ambitious and have been a shadow of last seasons successful team.
It is actually what Rafa was trying to do towards the end of his reign. He originally wanted wingers but a certain My Parry ****ed that up for us over money. Rafa decided to go for the (cheaper) alternative and get attacking fullbacks: sold Arbeloa and bought Johnson. We never had wingers under Rafa, we played the likes of Kuyt, Benayoun, Babel and Reira in the wide positions, each and everyone one of them liked to cut inside. He always played two holding midfielders too.
Mark Gonzalez, Jermaine Pennant, Reira were all classic wingers. Stayed out wide on their respective sides, got chalk on the boots and put crosses in. Unfortunately none of them were any good.
