TWar

Vestergaard has been really key to our attack, finding KWP with long diagonals, but I think our reliance on that might betray the fact we lack other attacking outlets. Aside from his long ball ability I think Salisu should be able to step up, is much younger, and being left footed is probably a more valuable asset long-term. I suspect we sell Vest for £20m or so and put it in the pot to buy a cracking lb, forward, and attacking mid, and then buy a young kid who can be both 4th choice cb and 2nd choice of one of the fullback roles.

If we win the FA cup it'll be a 10/10 for me, likely in the top three seasons I would see from our club in my lifetime. Silverware beats top 6 for me, pretty level with top 4 but just about pips it.

I think in the two prem games I've seen him play he looked like a child playing amongst adults. Presumably he has something about him as he just got a new contract and those two games were against United and City but I don't personally think he has much of a chance. I'd rather see Jankewitz who seems to have much more about him based on the internationals, plus JWP is perfectly fine at RB, absolutely pocketed Zaha and Grealish last season when playing there IIRC.

This but Jankewitz to get a chance at CM next to Diallo with Armstrong and Minimino infront of him. If it isn't working put Djenepo on for Jankewitz and drop Armstrong back into CM.

If we were 19th like they are then I think it would be easier to call us shit. As we are 13th we are fine, nothing special. If we lose to them on the weekend it would still be them who were shit as they would still be 19th, 12 pts behind us, and destined for the championship

To be honest, there isn't much variance between striker finishing ability in the league compared to number of chances. Che has an G-xG of -0.3 so basically finishing bang on expected. He gets in good positions though, which is why he actually has very good goal contribution per game numbers since joining. He is used sparingly I think due to tactical reasons.

I should point out, that is in the context of "best strikers", across all players he goes to to mid 24th and 29th for goals and assists respectively. So less impressive.

I think the 10 position evolved out of the second striker from a 442 formation, not sure tbh, I don't remember there being many 10s in the early 2000's but there were a tonne of the "little and large" striker duo. Ours is a modern take on that, Che being "large" because he is strong rather than being tall.

Well he is 11th for goals, 9th for assists in the league (EDIT: This is out of all strikers, out of all players he is 24th and 29th for goals and assists respectively), so a good few players are worse than him. But I wouldn't have a single striker from Sheffield United, West Brom, Fulham, Brighton, Burnley, or Palace over him (unless you call Zaha a striker). I think when people say championship quality they forget some teams in this league regularly line up with people like Benteke, Welbeck, Vydra as their starting forwards and don't get relegated, teams that do get relegated have strikers that manage under five goals a year or something like Sheffield united, West Brom and Fulham have.

Most teams who have a front two tend to have one striker who provides more, passes well, and drops off, and one who is a fox in the box style goal scorer. "Second striker" is normally the former, remember Bergkamp and Henry for Arsenal is the classic example. You don't see so many teams who play two up top recently so people have forgotten the role of second striker somewhat but it is very much not an "excuse". Che has almost double the expected assists per 90 that Danny does this season and over double last season. He is clearly this role for us.

Belongs in the championship is nuts. He is better than a number of prem strikers right now and when he was in the championship was clearly too good for it. Che at the moment is a midtable striker. Top half passing, hold up play, and positioning; bottom half finishing. His finishing is coming on though so I think he will improve. Would be gutted to lose Che personally.

Stoked that Ralph will hang around. Consistency is king for me, pick a manager who can impose an identity and give them support to make that identity work. Ralph will never get kicked after a 10-15 run of bad fixtures, and that is a good thing.

Yep, you are right about the age, I was looking at his age when he joined. He is still a quality player in my mind. Real Madrid might not be be world beaters but being poor against a team of that size shouldn't be a write off for players joining us. He has had a dreadful injury record, but him playing that few games isn't just due to injury, he has also been competing with Henderson, Wijnaldum, Thiago/Lallana, Milner, AOC, Jones, Fabinho for three spots, increasingly now actually for two spots given they are often playing a 4231 to facilitate Jota. His days out injured is still high but for a team our size we aren't going to be getting £55m players at 26 without any drawbacks, if we think we can carefully manage his injuries we could have a star, it is a very similar situation to Ings who played 38 games in three years for Liverpool.

I'd snap up Keita in a heartbeat if he was offered. Injuries have hurt his career but before them he was considered one of the best midfielders in world football, thats why he cost them £55m a couple of years ago. He can't cut it against the likes of real madrid nowadays but there is a quality player under there and who better to get him back than his ex-manager who made him the first place. Could be just like the signing of Ings. Also still only 24. Won't happen though as the guy is still worth about £35m and his wages are through the roof, and if we have money like that we will need to spend elsewhere.

Cheap option, good inspiration for younger lads and probably an option off the bench. Likely what we thought Long would be before trying him a couple more times and realising he can barely play nowadays. I'm perfectly happy with him as 3rd or 4th choice attacking mid. As long as he and Djenepo are the back ups next season and we sign someone to be first choice I'm happy. I have the distinct feeling we may end up with first choice AMS Armstrong Walcott and Djenepo and first choice strikers Che, Redmond, and Tella and then sign two up and comers as 3rd/4th choice in both roles and that would be a huge mistake.

That's not really a contradiction. Ralph has said multiple times the team is lacking quality in depth. Clearly he would want us to sign quality and would be disappointed that the funds we have spent have been meagre. This can all be deduced without knowing the specific targets he would have wanted but has not gotten.

Don't think 6 is really a priority at all tbh. JWP, Romeu and Diallo are all good enough to start for me and I would prefer 4th choice go to one of Jankewitz or Smallbone than spend money there when we have big gaps at LB, AM, and potentially striker if Ings goes. Priority list for me: 1) Replacement for Ings (if he leaves) 2) Leftback 3) Quality attacking mid 4) RB/LB cover utility player 5) Goalkeeper (statistically Gunn, Forster, and Macca are all way under the standard we need and atleast one should be shifted, pref 2) 6) Young prospect to replace Vestergaard (If he leaves) 7) Cheap CM to play 4th choice behind JWP/Diallo/Romeu (could easily be Jankewitz if we rate him enough to give him a new deal/can convince him)

It is unlikely we need to sell Lemina and Hoedt to raise transfer money. More likely we need to shift them off the wage bill. Those two are earning £51k and £64k a week so if we shift them we open up £115k a week salary, even if we only get a couple of mil for each.

6 days before arguably our biggest game of the season, playing one of the worst teams in the league, and are now pretty much completely safe. Controversial but I would rest a bunch of lads Forster Stephens bednarek salisu bertrand Diallo jankewitz Djenepo minimino Adams Tella Give the fringe players a chance in this less important game and don't risk the likes of kwp, ings, vest who have recently come back from injury. Maybe redmond in for Tella to keep confidence rolling.

I don't think we are that bad defensively. Vestergaard is quality and KWP/Bertrand are two of the best defensive fullbacks in the league. Salisu coming through looks quality if a little raw, and Bednarek is a dependable player who is going through a bit of a bad spell. Our goals conceded is dreadful but that is mainly from games where many of the aforementioned weren't fit. Beginning of the season when we had a settled back 4 we were number one for clean sheets and number 4 or so for goals conceded. We need better depth imo, and a better keeper, but between Vestergaard, Salisu, Bednarek I think we are ok at cb and KWP is a great rb.

I think he is fine, but nothing special. Behind our second AM, LB, and potential Ings replacement he is probably our 3rd/4th priority for improvement.

We had a couple of defensive blunders but I don't think it's fair to say Ings really carried us. We had over three times the number of shots as them and a much higher xG, we would have been expected to win considering the chances created. He is a difference maker as said in the other thread but others did play well.

Add another 50k a week to the offer! Absolute difference maker today, a quality far beyond anyone else we have up top with a great goal, great assist, and constant headache for their defence.

He was dispossessed multiple times too, putting us under pressure.

Dunno if the result papered over the cracks, we had 24 shots to their 7; 2.5 xG to their 1.4; 55% possession. Three clear cut chances to their one. Honestly I think 3-2 flatters them, they only got anywhere near scoring due to a couple of flukey defensive errors.