What were peoples thoughts on his performance last night? Good work rate, put himself about a bit and his link up play was O.K. but thought the performance was just that. Ok, average, 6/10. Would have liked for him to stayed on and get the chance Gayle blazed over on the volley or for Ayoze to have been able to play a simple ball. Gayle again showed himself to be only an iota better than Joselu. Didn't see enough of him to make me want to chuck money at him and Leicester in the summer. Thoughts?
Not seen enough of him to decide. Seems better than what we have but at present not enough to merit a decision to buy him. Also. I like centre forwards/strikers who score goals. He hasn't yet.
Hopefully he gets a run of games until the end of the season. Needs to bed in a bit I guess and the team get used to playing to his strengths - looked ok so far, but not much above a 7/10 - want to see more. Plus. after a fair bit of time out, probably needs to get match fit/sharp as well
I thought it was a poor decision to drop Gayle to be honest. I understand Rafa's rationale but Gayle had a superb game against Arsenal. I thought Slimani did ok and its a different discussion if Ayoze had managed to slip a simple ball through to him.
The Slimani one is a funny one. We have here a striker who will be 30 this summer, 3 years left on his contract and a player whom Leicester paid £28m for. If he is surplus to requirements they aren't gonna let him go cheap regardless of his age. I reckon they'd be wanting at least £20m for him all things considered. On our books (but currently on loan at Fulham) we have a 23 year old striker who cost us £13m (i think) and who's market value is probably currently around the £20m mark. Slimani doesn't fit into our transfer policy, too old, too expensive with no sell on value. Mitrovic doesn't fit into our (rafa's) style of play. So take from that what you will. Personally I think Slimani will go back to Leicester, Mitrovic will either go to Fulham or back to Anderlect perhaps but he most likely won't be at the club come next season. So we'll be back to square one trying to find a proven premier league striker, who's cheap enough and young enough to both purchase but also have some future sell on prospects. If I were Ashley I'd be telling Rafa to **** off with his demands for funds for a new striker, grow a pair and give Mitro a run in the side. Knowing our club tho we'll end up paying £25m for Jorgensen (sp) who will turn out to be worse than Joselu and we jump on the magical merry-go-round again.
Would you? Personally I'd say " here, you saved us with a **** team do what the **** you want. If you don't think Mitro fits your system, sell him and find someone who does seeing as your the manager and I'm a clueless owner"
We won't have Slimani next year for certain. He was another stopgap, which is how a lot of this season's signings should be viewed (Joselu/Manquillo). Hopefully this summer Rafa gets his first targets as opposed to his fourth, then I think we'll have the exact striker we need. If it gets a month in and Rafa's taking about the need to speed things up, then we know we're back to square one.
I think that's a bit too far. For sure Rafa with his first choice selections this summer has wasted some money. Manquillo was a bizarre selection. Joselu although 3rd choice on his list was bizarre too. All managers make mistakes though. That still wouldn't make me force him to use Mitrovic if he doesn't want him. You have to do what Ashley has done and give him almost complete control. If he doesn't want Mitro then he should go. I still wouldn't allow him to spend 25m on Jorgensen mind as that is irresponsible.
Aye, probably a bit harsh. We need to make every effort to keep Kenedy in my opinion as he is only gonna get better with better players around him. Dubravka there is an option to buy which is a no brainer for me. We could do with Fulham not coming up, they'll most likely want to keep Mitro and we can then attempt some sort of swap deal for either Cairney or Sessegnon. **** it, we'll just do a straight swap for them both and they can have Mitro and Gayle. If we can somehow convince Leicester to part with Slim for £15m then that might be a goer but it all depends on who owns the club so everything is just speculation. Rafa will have a list though and he'll want some assurances that he is going to get some of his first choices off that list otherwise he'll be off.
Is he any better than Mitro. NO! Mitro just needed a good run of games and wasn't given that chance by Rafa
I deliberately left Mitro out of it but fully agreed. I do genuinely think Rafa may have t o swallow pride this summer and give him a run in the team next year if he demolishes the world cup. Better GPM in the EPL in 2016 and 2018, Championship 2018 than our current crop. Young hungry and fanatical whats not to love.
I don't think Mitro would move to a Championship club. He's only there now because he was left in limbo when Anderlecht pulled out of his loan deal at the last minute.
Looks like he’s played his last game for us, charged with violent conduct by the FA. That normally ends with a 3 game ban. So he’s played a grand total of about 170mins for us since joining, his main contribution being a cross field header in the build up to winning goal against Arsenal. Will be interesting to see what happens in the summer but given that he’s 30 in June I’d be very surprised if we made a serous enquiry about bringing him in permanently. A season long loan deal for next season might be an option but in all honesty we should be looking to bring a reputable goal scorer in permanently who’s the right side of 25 or so.
Studge will be available Origi might be available as well, might be a decent signing for you guys, either on loan or perm.
I thought Liverpool were twinned with Southampton. Can’t you go on their board trying to offload your cast offs?
I thought the thread title related to the commemorative timepiece now available in all good jewellers to mark my positive medical yesterday.