Time to assess our new signings. As usual i never comment till after the 10 game mark. Raphinha already set to become our best ever Brazilian signing. He’s class and a snip at the 11m or whatever we paid for him. Lorente, no idea. Hopefully Izzy llorente will someday play. Rodrigo, I can’t wait to see him cement a first team place in the squad. Great to have someone who can strike a ball from 25 yards plus.but for me, our number one signing has been Meslier. Best keeper we’ve had since Paul Robinson.by a country mile. Cost 5m, probably worth 30 now and young enough and good enough to be our number 1 for a decade at least. Setup unrecognisable from 24 months ago
Meslier looks like a future star. Still a bit green but he is brave in his decision making. Koch is a strange one. At times he looks world class and other games seems to wander around aimlessly. Hopefully it's just the man to man system and he is just adjusting. Llorente hasn't kicked a ball yet. I watched him play for Spain and he pretty much handled Ronaldo without breaking sweat. Hopefully that transfers to us when he becomes available. Rodrigo looks genuinely one of our best players. Shame Covid took him out of the team. Hopefully he will be back in soon as he is too good to not play. Raphinha has shown that he has star potential. I've yet to see a weakness but his game time has been limited. Looks like our best winger and possibly player. Costa has found himself on the bench but has looked ok so far this season. Certainly hasn't let us down. Gelhardt may turn out to be our best summer business eventually from what I have seen in the U23's.
Up until today, I thought I'd seen a weakness in Raphina. If he's supposed to hug the line & tackle back like our other wingers, then either someone forgot to tell him, or he has poor discipline. I remember having the same complaint about Roberts when we first tried him on the wing. He used to drift infield, buggering up our shape. Raphina for me was the same. Until today. Today, I have no clue as to what tactics / formation we had at times. Raphina not only drifted into the middle, but we had players popping up unexpectedly all over the place. Regularly. At times we had 3 wingers that you could have lassoed together! I'm not disappointed - I loved it! Closest I've seen to total football for decades. And the bonus was that it was us doing it! Everton are no mugs, yet they were second best at everything today. Only complaint is that yet again we didn't use the corners at the end to kill the game. I can just about live with that, but I don't think my heart can cope with much more of it.
Don’t feel too bad about not being able to figure out our tactics Neil. One of the best coaches in works football, ancelotti, also hadn’t a clue what we were at
Raphinha looks to have something very special about him and he hasn’t reached his peak for us yet. Rodrigo looks like an ideal Bielsa signing and suits our style of play. Koch is young, lots of pressure on him and makes the odd mistake but I think he’ll become our number 1 CB maybe eventually alongside Llorente. Poveda if he is patient will become a vital signing, I’m sure by this time next season it will be Poveda and Raphinha over Costa and Harrison. Meslier another who is improving all the time, I’d still like someone better than Kiko as back up though.
I agree but imagine Meslier getting an injury that keeps him out for just 30 days, imagine Kiko in goal for the whole of December, it would be dreadful.
This is a great piece that sums up our first ten games https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...ve-score-latest-updates/#update-20201128-1933
Raphinha - flashes of genius followed by moments of sloppiness but definitely looks the part. Proper handful yesterday, so future looks bright. Rodrigo, clearly a player. I was expecting to see him for more than a cameo yesterday - I sense bielsa doesn’t completely trust him yet in terms of his job for the team. Tries a few clever flicks in areas of the pitch he maybe shouldn’t but definitely an exciting addition. Poveda - nippy, very quick feet, looks a threat but decision making and end product not consistently there - yet. Time on his side and we haven’t seen enough of him to fairly judge yet. Koch.. generally good on the ball. Not sold on him defensively, especially set pieces/marking. Hopefully a settling in/adjustment issue not a competence one. Jury out for me. meslier, doing very well for his age. makes some very good saves makes mistakes too. That’s keepers, especially young ones. He’ll learn. Handling is variable, Distribution bit hit and miss. Seems able to put mistakes behind him which is a good quality. Not the finished article, nor should we expect him to be, but I like him.
Good piece that in one word respect I like it Also apologies to Mr Radrizzani I have now become a convert
