You want a wijnaldum type there. Someone with a care for thr ball who will be able to 9ne and two touches if necessary but be hard together the ball.off. another macca in other words. Gravenberch and move it, pass one touch and all Dutch players can do the job deeper like that. Jones imo is a massive risk, not because he can't pass it fast or turn or move but because he doesn't show the same care of the ball or realisation that losing it deep means a goal chance. Bajcetic is tough ask. He need time now and get him sharper. So he would be a useful 60min sub to get us through the 2 games a week coming up rapidly. However this is all about thinking about midfield as a 2 with an advanced player pressing in a 4 with the forwards. In that context you.only need 2 or max 3 who could play that 10 role so jones.covers both and Elliott and szobo are the others. Imo this is putting all the youths from our 7 year strategy of aligning formations and such out the door. We don't need 3 cms any more. We need 2 and a 10. Clark is not a 10. He is a slower lw moved to lcm by klopp. A nice tidy, slight player who needs work and patience so out he goes. 10mil for a 1.5mil investment. Carvalho is a 10 but according to him not loved. 20mil rising to 27mil? Probably his attitude to work isn't as good as Elliott so he's.not getting the 10 role. Then we've morton, McConnell, morrisson and a couple others who probably need to adapt or fail. Morton is turning 22 so won't be registered so is going to be pushed out. We should be imo looming for 4 names for 2 slots. Right now gravenberch, macca, Jones and endo are it. I think we all know that simply.wont cut it. I sincerely dou t anyone takes szoboszlai at 6 seriously and I doubt anyone wants trent to be faced the wrong way knocking it short to bradley to then make the pass. Trent suits this formation as the rb..he can tuck in to flood midfield.as slot wants (but as rb not the left midfielder) he can go wide. But most of all he will face the opponents goal and have all the passes he could want on. Salah, szobo, Jota, diaz, etc all to play to. It'd be tragic if we turned trent around to pass back to the cb or out to bradley to.fill a gap. What a waste that would be.
it is normally referred to as a release clause it is only different in LA Liga as it is due to their employment laws but it makes no difference anyway as it was the player who said no not the club
As I said yesterday, they are apparently two different things, as the player has to buy out of his contract rather than the buying club triggering the release clause. Whether it actually makes any difference or not I don't know, and I'm not bothered anyway now. As you say, he has said no, so that's all there is to it. If he doesn't want us we don't want him.
I wonder whom we will make a fool of over ourselves this August? Remember the Caicedo fiasco last year that followed the Bellingham rejection (though we pulled out of that in the previous May when the bidding got over £85m, so we had plenty of time to adjust)? £150m bid for Xhaka incoming?
What's going on though? Why haven't we identified targets for the one position that we definitely need to recruit in.?
I don't watch any other leagues so I have no idea but from what I read, there's a paucity of talent available in the 6 role. I think the data nerds at the club will have a shortlist (and a longlist) of players in every position and will have been approaching or, their favourite, 'monitoring' the ones that they have identified as being best suited. The one thing we don't want is making public who our targets are which happened last year and again this year, even with different people in the roles. I'm fairly relaxed about signings, mostly because I can't influence the situation in any way but I do think we need a specialist 6 if nothing else. Rightly or wrongly, Slot will be judged on his ability to attract and sign good players for the club.
think a few of the probable targets are already committed or seem unlikely . Just need to look for a deep playmaker somewhere on planet earth who fancies a nice fat PL wage -can't be that tricky surely ?
Just need a just who can look after the ball and play one touch, a thiago who can stay fit. A jorginho who can run or maybe even a gravenberch who can defend. With the ball: Quansah alisson vvd Trent gravenberch macca Robertson Salah szoboszlai diaz Jota Alisson has to have lots of options as he will be stood there with the ball at his feet inviting pressure. You can't have one cm jog 20 yards up the park just cos (jones) or one hide behind an opposing player (endo) You want someone who will be an option for quansah here as well. When we move further up the park then the cbs come.in closer and we are looking to pin in the opponent and pass pass pass until a gap appears to go at usually wider. Without the ball we need someone who has the brains not to have got miles ahead of the ball so they can get back in in transition but we will still be pressing hard with 3 and 4 players swarming to try win it so the midfield 2 are critical to stay in line with the ball at all times and really be able to stop thst quick break of the cbs. In short we need to clone macca but give him a yard more pace.
Interesting if nothing else. Why would the Spanish want to unsettle diaz or get fans thinking he wants to go?
There was talk of Barca wanting him earlier in the window but everyone in world football knows they couldn't afford him. I am surprised they managed to get the Olmo deal done.
Apparently they may not be able to register him without selling a couple of players, but I am sure they will get around it despite having no money
Yeah was confirmed last week some time. 60 million euros not a bad price but there was something going round about there initial offer. Basically they offered 40 odd something million but none of it would be paid this year and the rest would be paid over the next 4 or 5 years. There add ons were for Barca winning the champions league twice and other ridiculous nonesense.
