That's the first thing I thought, they didn't have a big transfer pot and it'll be £10M with the rest in installments until 2092.Barca don't pay though
That's the first thing I thought, they didn't have a big transfer pot and it'll be £10M with the rest in installments until 2092.Barca don't pay though
Now we need Wirtz and then Ekitike announced….

I’d rather they just lined up.Can't wait to see them live up alongside Robben![]()
Nowt to do with sizeIt did make a huge difference - pun intended - when Macallister was marking Burn![]()
Nowt to do with size
Should have got in his way and been cleverer
That was about not reading the situation correctly
Go and watch the goal again mate.Nowt to do with size
Should have got in his way and been cleverer
That was about not reading the situation correctly
Size clearly gives a huge advantage when it comes to aerial duels. Not the be all, but would vvd be as dominant in the air if he was 5’9 compared to 6’3
You have your opinionGo and watch the goal again mate.
The top scoring PL CB was only 6' 2"![]()
You have your opinion
I have mine
My point is the notion of players need to be tall is utter hogwash imho
I have watched the goal and I do believe had Macallister defended it differently he could have changed the outcome
I don’t think size has anything to do with how good you can be at football
you can be tall - you can be short there are advantages and disadvantages to both
short gives you a low COG and an advantage there.
we live in an age where the FA have decided that height is important
on the form from the FA for my daughters trial - one of the first questions was how tall are your parents
same for one of the lads in my team
Imho it’s a daft blanket assessment to say someone has an advantage cause they are tall. I don’t want to get into a debate over examples as there are many.
to answer your statement IBWT
I doubt he would win the aerial duals in the air if he was shorter however - he could easily defend just as well - still win the dual and be equally as effective - so no need to be tall as a base requirement.
I accept that is how it’s viewed by people in general but I feel it’s a very myopic take on the game.
I also feel that many children get missed or discarded in the grassroots system based size.
You have your opinion
I have mine
My point is the notion of players need to be tall is utter hogwash imho
I have watched the goal and I do believe had Macallister defended it differently he could have changed the outcome
I don’t think size has anything to do with how good you can be at football
you can be tall - you can be short there are advantages and disadvantages to both
short gives you a low COG and an advantage there.
we live in an age where the FA have decided that height is important
on the form from the FA for my daughters trial - one of the first questions was how tall are your parents
same for one of the lads in my team
Imho it’s a daft blanket assessment to say someone has an advantage cause they are tall. I don’t want to get into a debate over examples as there are many.
to answer your statement IBWT
I doubt he would win the aerial duals in the air if he was shorter however - he could easily defend just as well - still win the dual and be equally as effective - so no need to be tall as a base requirement.
I accept that is how it’s viewed by people in general but I feel it’s a very myopic take on the game.
I also feel that many children get missed or discarded in the grassroots system based size.
2 very different things. At kids stuff when haven’t fully developed height and physicality should def not be judged and should be technical.
However when buying players in the prem, when looking at Cb’s it 100% should be a consideration. Should you rule someone out completely? Prob not as cannavaro was one of the best and not tall, but as a CF coming up against 6ft plus strikers, being able to compete with them is a must and height gives you an advantage when dealing with high balls and crosses.
So although mito’s no midgets is a bit tongue in cheek when talks about 6ft midgets, he has a point that having height and physicality is an advantage.
Top headed goal scorers in prem - crouch / Kane / benteke / Wood / Lukaku / Carroll - all at least 6ft 2 so it is an obvious advantage there.

That goal was a tactical success for Newcastle
They saw a tactical weakness in the lfc set up. They worked on it and it paid off eventually. (And not really as intended)
Basically lfc located all the big men along the 6 yard zone to defend as the opponents big men come into that zone
Newcastle then held burns outside tjst zone and he refused to enter it as he has a significant hieght advantage over macallister at that back post zone.
Their actual intent was to head it back across to score off not score direct (imo)
I would agree thst macallister should have done better jumping i to burns or working to put him off however I still contend thst goals is on slot and his team of coaches as the goal was blindingly obviously coming.
They left macallister there rather than change the system.in the fly. Any taller player who was not the two cbs could have gone and picked up burns. Szoboszlai for example.
In the end he scored a header that was from a long way out and kelleher wasn't brilliant on it.
That's imo on slot as much as it was good for howe. They had 3 or 4 warnings and didn't address the obvious weakness.
My point in the prem is different and related to central players who do need to be tall, especially centre halves, as tjry will come up against big men amd get dominated and targeted.
Young players can develop physically later and skill/pace can't be trained but thry have to be up to it in the end.
Our youth academy has some serious issues. We are failing 99.95% of the local youths as we are putting loads of imports in front of them that are no more physically ready. Imo we are back to the Gerrard/carragher era where we will be wondering who is the next scouse lad to play for lfc and will be wondering it for a lot of years.
I get what you are saying - also to stay on point I will try to answer each paragraph for ease
in your first paragraph you are imho sort of agreeing with me and I agree with you
However factually this is no longer the case - they don’t say it openly and directly but they are as close as dammit.
As I said they ask how tall Parents are so they can gauge likely height as they get older. The pyramid base is huge and so they can and will get away with it.
your second paragraph I agree with and is basically what I have said
It’s absolutely a consideration but not something to base your decision on - again imho
JB told me to go watch the goal again - is JB saying that if Mac had been taller he would have stopped the goal ? I do t think that has any bearing on that goal - I believe there are moments prior to the header that the defender could have used his smaller nature to stop that - and I would definitely be talking to Mac about it. You use Cannavaro as an example- as I said there are many examples and yes I agree he is one - so maybe you coach players who are shorter to be more like that defender and look at what made them so effective against height as it is more than possible.
I know MITO is tongue in cheek - but the advantage is no more or no less than if you are shorter as there other ways - and that’s all I am saying really.
on your goalscorers looking at that list yes they were good at heading but did all of the goals come against defenders who were smaller than them. If the defenders the were scoring against were in the main comparable in height that is actually telling you something different - surely ?
you also have Messi who is debatably the GOAT who outscores everyone basically - but that is another discussion.
That goal was a tactical success for Newcastle
They saw a tactical weakness in the lfc set up. They worked on it and it paid off eventually. (And not really as intended)
Basically lfc located all the big men along the 6 yard zone to defend as the opponents big men come into that zone
Newcastle then held burns outside tjst zone and he refused to enter it as he has a significant hieght advantage over macallister at that back post zone.
Their actual intent was to head it back across to score off not score direct (imo)
I would agree thst macallister should have done better jumping i to burns or working to put him off however I still contend thst goals is on slot and his team of coaches as the goal was blindingly obviously coming.
They left macallister there rather than change the system.in the fly. Any taller player who was not the two cbs could have gone and picked up burns. Szoboszlai for example.
In the end he scored a header that was from a long way out and kelleher wasn't brilliant on it.
That's imo on slot as much as it was good for howe. They had 3 or 4 warnings and didn't address the obvious weakness.
My point in the prem is different and related to central players who do need to be tall, especially centre halves, as tjry will come up against big men amd get dominated and targeted.
Young players can develop physically later and skill/pace can't be trained but thry have to be up to it in the end.
Our youth academy has some serious issues. We are failing 99.95% of the local youths as we are putting loads of imports in front of them that are no more physically ready. Imo we are back to the Gerrard/carragher era where we will be wondering who is the next scouse lad to play for lfc and will be wondering it for a lot of years.
You have your opinion
I have mine
My point is the notion of players need to be tall is utter hogwash imho
I have watched the goal and I do believe had Macallister defended it differently he could have changed the outcome
I don’t think size has anything to do with how good you can be at football
you can be tall - you can be short there are advantages and disadvantages to both
short gives you a low COG and an advantage there.
we live in an age where the FA have decided that height is important
on the form from the FA for my daughters trial - one of the first questions was how tall are your parents
same for one of the lads in my team
Imho it’s a daft blanket assessment to say someone has an advantage cause they are tall. I don’t want to get into a debate over examples as there are many.
to answer your statement IBWT
I doubt he would win the aerial duals in the air if he was shorter however - he could easily defend just as well - still win the dual and be equally as effective - so no need to be tall as a base requirement.
I accept that is how it’s viewed by people in general but I feel it’s a very myopic take on the game.
I also feel that many children get missed or discarded in the grassroots system based size.
