Transfer Rumours Summer Transfer window

His passing lines were blocked Saturday and some delivery poor but Xhaka does ping balls through lines most games. Neil can but can’t always find the space.

 

Whilst I’d like that sort of player it does congest an area of the pitch where we probably already have too many players for the minutes available. All of the players we’ve brought in are super talented individually but I am concerned that we seem to have overloaded (or tried to) in certain areas while leaving other profiles neglected.

 

Aye a few posters need to be less catastrophic and a few responses (mine included at times) need to be less defensive. If people take 20% off either side we’ll be all right.

 

I agree in a way but we have to have more goal options to win matches. As the season rolls on with injuries and suspensions and AFCON (I wish I could say cups) we might be glad of a few extra.

 

last night showed that Neale needs to be moved on....the entire midfield were as weak as P*** not a worthy tackle amongst any of them. I know we have Xhaka , Diarra and Sadiki but if anything happens to any one of them when tackles need to be made, we are screwed. The two new lads at the back were the only redeeming feature last night

 

We don’t want to be relying on longer term injuries to get players sufficient minutes, though. We’re already looking at 6 players sharing circa 12-13k minutes this season. That’s just not enough to keep all 6 happy.

We definitely need goals though. I really would have liked to have seen us take a longer look at a 4-4-2 with Mayenda playing slightly deeper. However, with the squad comp we’ve created, that just isn’t going to be an option other than occasionally late in games.

 

I still have a lot of faith in ELF personally. Watching last night live, second half especially, he looks a long way ahead of Neil and Rigg imo. Got a load of quality and I think he will contribute a lot for us this season, but has to be centrally for me.

 

Looked very poor against burnley

 

I still think the midfield 3 of Xhaka, Diarra and Sadiki is too industrious and needs more creativity. It's a very defensively setup midfield and swapping Sadiki for Le Fee would change that massively.

I like Sadiki and think his work rate and effort is first class but he's the one who has to make way and Le Fee also has that tenacious side as well.

 

100% mate.

 

Lets enjoy the (hopefully) busy last few days and I reckon we'll be satisfied with what we end up with squad wise.

 

Anyone think we'll be really busy on Monday?
Loads of outs and can see a few surprise ins

 

Might aswell give up now then

 

Bloody well hope so. I’m bored and want new players.

 

Couldn’t agree more.

Sadiki is going to be a massive player for us but we need a man in there that can pick a pass and we have that in Enzo.

 

Neil will never be even half as good as what xhaka has been throughout his career

 

Buendia from Villa is available, think he would be a realistic option and decent enough price for an attacking midfielder option, probably a lot better options out there but this late on and knows the league and had a good pre season at Villa

 

It's a tough one there for me, I do think in an ideal world that works but for me it's a bit like this:

When we could play football how we wanted (vs west ham) and allow them more of the ball our shape out of possession was Sadiki and Xhaka as a 2 with Diarra advanced. Then in possession which was mainly fast breaks Sadiki was able to go box to box and support. After that people said Enzo would struggle to get back in - when we play as we want.

In the Burnley game we were forced into taking up more possession and so we end up in the 4-3-3 rather than 4-2-3-1 with xhaka as a lone pivot more often - this is generally going to be a liability for us when he doesn't have Sadiki supporting in a defensive shape as he can't move with any speed at all.

If Enzo can offer that defensive support that xhaka needs then jobs a goodun, although I feel he's at least slightly worse at it than Sadiki he does offer a lot on the ball and in the final third. Maybe you just play Enzo when we are against a team that wants to sit back and Sadiki when we are under the cosh? Definitely a hard one for Regis.

I reckon it's not as cut and dry as he needs to pick one and stick with it. Even Enzo for Diarra in some games I feel could be more balanced.