16 May 2024 17:08:24
Question for Ed001, if you have the time to reply please Ed.
A couple of seasons ago you were of the opinion that if teams went at City then they could be unsettled, but that most teams would roll over for them and have their belly tickled, with managers setting up for 'damage limitation' instead of just going at them, which always resulted in City getting the points at the end of the day.
Do you think Pep has fixed this, and are they better tactically now?
Regardless of how they spent their way to get there, are they the perfect machine?
Thanks.
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{Ed001's Note - there is no such thing as perfect, every team has weaknesses and this season they have lost enough points to show they are far from it. Haaland can be taken out of a game easily. Rodri is key as he needs to be shut down and have someone on him at all times. He is petulant and loses his focus when that happens. Walker is terrible defensively and can be tied up in knots, people normally avoid him because of his pace but he has always been a weak link. Diaz had him on toast. In fact their whole defence is a weak link when not on the ball. They defend by keeping it and then using tactical fouls. But if teams just stayed calm when they have the ball and not panic, you can just run them about for a bit and they have no idea what to do.}
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16 May 2024 17:00:44
I don't understand why people are even considering selling TAA. He is an exceptional footballer with the bonus of being a local lad. Regardless of where he plays, he will only make the team better with his ability. We should be looking to get the most out of his abilities and not selling him for money that, let's be realistic, isn't needed by the club.
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16 May 2024 17:15:55
Because it doesn't look like he wants to be here any more.
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16 May 2024 16:58:45
Var works, people doing var don't work, so what's the answer?
I think it should be put in the bin not because var's not doing its job, but because the referees cannot do their job.
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16 May 2024 17:00:17
To get rid of VAR or not.
For me. just go look at the penalty decisions that Newcastle weren't given last night not the penalty that Brighton weren't given.
Yes the ref missed them. but why didn't VAR send the officials to the monitor
Another 2 scandalous decisions if you ask me. everyone and their dog says it's a penalty, except for VAR
Yes, the problem is those who are using it, but if they are going to get these calls wrong, then VAR must go. there is no point holding onto a system that can be brilliant, but is never used properly.
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16 May 2024 17:1
I think the nail was in the coffin after the Diaz incident, it’s not improving and if anything, it’s getting way worse.
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16 May 2024 16:26:16
What do people think of this vote to scrap VAR? For me it’s never going to happen and the vote is being used to facilitate change.
This has got me thinking, what are the big changes that need to happen next season to improve VAR.
In no particular order;
1- Automated offside - these need to come in
2- playing the review live into the stadium so fans have a clue what is going on.
3- no decisions made by stockley park officials, the ref should be making all subjective decisions (except offside) watch the review on the big screen and make their own opinion up
4- removal of clear and obvious, if an error has been made it should be corrected and that responsiblity lies with the ref.
5- stop using so much slow motion replays, slow motion should only be used to confirm where a foul occurred ( inside or outside the box scenario) or where contact was made ( high tackle or to confirm if there was a handball)
6- cut the time for decisions, if something takes 3 or 4 minutes to review then it’s never going to please everyone and it is clearly a subjective decision so go with what you think is the correct call after reviewing the footage
7- remove Howard Webb, this man wants publicity and craves attention, scrap this Mic’d up rubbish with Michael Owen and get on with it
8- stop expecting perfection, we will never get 100% of the calls correct so stop measuring refs to this standard.
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16 May 2024 16:58:26
VAR is just a qualified referee watching an incident multiple times on a tv screen, anything less than 100% success rate is unacceptable.
Ultimately fans can accept and move of from a referee on the pitch making a wrong decision but not from someone watching something multiple times and still making the wrong decision.
Get rid of it.
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16 May 2024 15:57:32
Genuinely I am not trying to annoy people but here goes.
For the last few years I've wanted klopp gone I've finally got my wish. I prey Salah is next to go with Diaz and Trent and a few of the lesser used players.
I think with these sales we can really do well with our incoming head coach.
I guess what I am saying is don't be too upset about klopp and players leaving. We all have good memories with the trophies we have won.
I am really excited for next season if my personal preferences regarding sales comes to fruition.
I am going to state right now we win nothing next season but the season after we will have silverware. If Slot gets 3 seasons minimum I think we win at least 2 premier leagues and hopefully a cup or two.
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16 May 2024 13:47:07
Thoughts.
I reckon we should have a clean out off 4 main players. Salah, Allison, TAA. And Timikias. Reason we could get a small fortune. I wouldn't take anything less than 80 million for Salah. 60 million for Allison and 50 to 60 million for TTA. Throw in departures of Matip, Thiago, and Nat Phillips. Matip already made replacement Sepp, and thiago's is calvellia. No costs. potention revenue 200 mill + of player sales.
Plus any tranfer kitty, we could have a tidy some to re invest. Make Nunez the main man, he scored more while salah didn't play. And let's be frank our team is set up for Salah. We still have 4 main scorers still Nunez, cody, diaz and Jota. We have a right back already in Bradley. We could buy 5 quality players and still have change. Keep our youth and go again next year. Everybody cried when coultino left and that turned into a blessing.
And Play our players in their best spots. I don't think it will be all doom and gloom. Get Thurman, kloopminers, a cb and right back and a goalie at least. Slot hopefully is no mug. And move away from and players that play in the African conference. We always loose players during the period and l reckon that causes our players to run out of puff in the back end of the season.
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16 May 2024 14:10:00
If we sell everyone then your name makes sense at least, unlike your post 🙈.
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16 May 2024 14:12:44
Allison has to stay for me
Tsimikas can leave gives a lot of effort but not irreplaceable
Salah we may have seen the best of salah and a move in the middle may have to be the way forward with him if he’s to stay as he’s lost the ability to beat a man and offers little out wide now .
Trent is a whole conundrum that needs sorting imo
Is he a right back . Will he move to midfield or will he be the man to invert in slots system who knows . But for sure he has some serious quality and can make things happen but need to seriously work on his defensive side of his game and reading of the game as far to many times he let's men run off him and is too slow to react and get back .
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16 May 2024 14:31:11
Top priorities must be LCB and DM (replacing Matip and Tiago in the squad) . Any other signings will just be replacing any other players who are sold. I expect Kelleher and possibly Tsimikas to go. Salah or Diaz could go but would not be surprised to see them both stay.
We just finished 3rd and were in the title race until late in the season. I don't expect a major overhaul - it would be madness!
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16 May 2024 14:39:00
1. Why would you want to sell Alisson? He's 31. Keepers routinely last into their late 30s, so he should have at least 5 years left at the top, and he the best keeper there is. We quite literally cannot get a replacement who is as good.
2. I remain skeptical about getting figures of £70m or £80m for Salah. There seems to be an assumption that Saudi club will waltz in and offer him £5m a week, or whatever, that he "can't refuse", and he'll happily go there and play in front 600 people ever week. Either they failed to communicate such an irrefusable offer to Salah last summer, given that Salah made no public attempt to agitate for the move, or they weren't serious about the move at all. Certainly bidding £150m on deadline day, when they knew full well we couldn't accept it, cos we didn't have time to reinvest the money to me suggests the latter. Maybe they'll be more serious this year if they can get him for half of what they could have last summer, but given numerous European players are unhappy there and they're supposed to be concentrating on getting younger players in, I think it's far from a done deal that a Saudi club will bid £70-80m for Salah.
The only other place I could see him going for big money is PSG.
3. I agree that Tsimikas could be sold.
4. I'm not sure what to with Trent Alexander-Arnold either. I don't understand why he's such a massive defensive liability that we can't have at right back now when he was a defensive liability that we could cover when we were winning literally everything 3 or 4 years ago with him playing right back every game. I personally don't see why we can't go back to that (although Slot apparently prefers inverted wing backs), and if it is a case that he's not bothering, then someone needs to slap him. There is a case that we could use him in central midfield, especially with Bradley breaking through at right back instead. Alternatively maybe Slot will perfect the inverted wing back system here. At this point I wouldn't look to sell because he's by far the best passer of a football at the club, and maybe in the league apart from KDB. And if Slot likes possession football, then surely that's a talent set he'll make good use of.
In my opinion, we need to make decisions about van Dijk and Konate first, as well as making sure we have proper backup for Endo. I don't think van Dijk can play every game anymore without a dip in form somewhere, but he'll also want to play every game, which could be a problem. Konate is on paper our second best central defender and should be playing most games as van Dijk's partner, but he having injury problems and has lost his place to Quansah, who is going to make mistakes because he's 20. That needs resolving.
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16 May 2024 15:34:38
Spot on Something Red. DM is the most important for me given how our midfield seems to have become so easy to bypass in the last few weeks. And I know Baj is back but let's be honest, he's not ready yet to play that role for a full season. One position where I'd advocate buying a seasoned top class Pro rather than potential.
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16 May 2024 15:42:41
I agree with the op, bar Alison. Trent and Salah need to go for me.
Can get 3 or 4 quality squad players to improve our team.
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16 May 2024 15:46:53
Trent doesn’t look fit enough half the time, jogging around, not tracking back, bypassed far too easily, blowing after 60 mins etc etc. I can’t take another season of that. I don’t care how good his passing is.
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16 May 2024 16:02:31
One has to speculate has he fully recovered from the injury he got mid-season or if he has an underlying issue then WarMachine, cos he doesn't look like he's been on the pies.
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16 May 2024 16:20:45
You don't sell your best players unless you improve on them. I don't see how we would.
TAA has his faults but he's also a match winner. Let him do his stuff rather than expect him to do things he's not good at. Make the team more solid and he'll be less exposed. He's not a typical right back.
Selling Alisson would be madness and Salah is still our top scorer.
It wouldn't be hard to improve on Tsimikas so selling him is easier.
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16 May 2024 16:29:00
Getting rid of Allison would be a silly idea. One of the top ten keepers in world football and probably the best in the premier league by a mile. Go ahead and name me someone capable of replacing him?
I would sell Salah as his legs have gone, when you can’t beat Oliver Skipp in a race then forget it.
I’d also I’d move TAA on as well, last year of his contract, Bradley had shown he’s more than just potential and not only looks a better and more effective right back, but is backed up by stats, the reason TAA wasn’t as exposed when we were winning the league and champions league was because he had a functional midfield with a top class defensive midfielder to cover his shortcomings. Those shortcomings are horribly exposed by not only the midfield not being effective but also the tactic of him coming infield and inverting, consequently putting undue pressure on the right centre back. I don’t see TAA as a midfielder either, he simply doesn’t do enough and he’s definitely not a defensive midfielder as we’d get battered every week if we experimented like that, he doesn’t like tackling and doesn’t track runners or read the play. Given he’s got a year left, move him on.
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16 May 2024 17:01:44
Stopped reading once I read that Ali should be sold.
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