Clyne - unspectacular signing, yes, but fills a problem position and replaces a player who was poison in the team. Importantly, he is someone who can come into the first team and actually contribute unlike the other frauds from Soton i.e. Lallana and Lovren.
Always a risk but unlike those two, he's actually a good player and better than what we already have/had.
Clyne certainly is a round peg for the round hole. But we should have done a united and bought a striker to shore of a shambles of a defence How long before they admit Phil Jones is utter ****e btw?
Wasn't really convinced on Clyne.. I'll get behind him 100% now though. Cheaper than Moreno and can't be any worse I suppose... and he has to be an improvement on Johnson so in that aspect, although maybe not a top 4 level player, he's an instant improvement. He's only 24 though so plenty of room for improvement and he is athletic so can get up and down. Still not 100% sure on his defending, liken him to a young Johnson or Walker... but we'll see. Anyway, he'll be decent cover until Flanno is back
This could be a really good signing. From what I saw of him he looked pretty good and they seem to rate him. Fairly low risk at £12.5 mill anyway - as crazy as that sounds!
I think this a role reversal but I actually do rate him lol! He's certainly got ability both going forward and defensively. He will certainly be tested defensively and I just hope Rodgers doesn't ruin him. Massive upgrade on Johnson, and we will have some very exciting full backs with him and Moreno (who will improve). And was he cheaper than Moreno?
That is true, Lallana is certainly good enough to play for you as well. No idea what has gone wrong with Lovren, I knew Fonte guided him (maybe you have no leaders) but he just looks like he has lost all confidence.
Well Moreno was rumoured at 11m? And Clyne is 10m with further 2.5 add ons so I guess similar amounts really.
Bit contradictory there Jimmy? Aren't you always telling us it's no good to just be better than what we have if what we have is ****!?
I know yeah, that was my point You gotta admit, that guy has failed to live up to expectation, I am glad you nicked him off us, him in our defence would left us with 2 Lovrens to play along side Toure or Skrtel #relegationbattledefence
I actually think Jones could have become (and maybe still could) become a decent CB. Problem is, he's never been given a role to play, constantly shifting between CB, RB, CM... he's never had the chance to play 20 games at CB in a row for example. As a young player he needed that consistency but with United having Rio & Vidic he was never going to be first choice. Had he maybe stayed at Blackburn 1 more year, or gone to a club not fighting to title and gone to someone like us, Spurs, Everton, then he could have got a run of games in his proper position. Moving from RB & CB is fine as learn different positional sense which is useful but the occasional game at CM then being dropped hasn't helped him
Very well put, a long run at centre back and he will still prove to be very good. The same could be said of Smalling, up to November of last season I would have told anybody he was never going to make it at OT, since then something just seems to have clicked and I now have high hopes he will become a top class CB.
He gets a rep as an attack-first FB because he's quick, play's high and can dribble (can't cross to save his life, mind), but his strength has always been as a defender, he's played in a team with a lot of protection and that is always greater than the sum of it's parts, but the guy just doesn't get beat in 1on1s, simple as that. He's so quick on his feet and pivoting, tracks the ball well and his tackling is superb, and on the rare occasion someone steals a step on him he almost always can catch them. The only real weaknesses defensively he's shown with us is that he does sometimes get caught high which is natural when you play attacking FBs, and occasionally he may let someone run off him, but 9 times out of 10 he will catch them and other than that the only thing is he won't be able to defend the far post agianst players a decent amount bigger than him so needs a CB's protection there. Other than that he has been spotless... I'm sure you'll find a way to ruin him though...
There's a difference between being marginally better than what we have i.e. Ings over Borini, and signing a player who is better than what we have and is a top 4 player. The gulf in Johnson/Flanno and Clyne is huge.
