TWar

Top 6 right now, he doesn't get anywhere near City or Chelsea (obviously, they are stacked due to all the money). Beyond them though, he strolls into United over any of Matic, Fred or McTominay. Would be their best midfielder (not including attacking mids like Bruno/Pogba). Arsenal he starts over Xhaka and Lokonga, not Partey though but would definitely start next to him. Liverpool I think he could start over Henderson, bit of a toss up. In that midfield 3 with Fabinho and Thiago I think he would make a fine third addition, albeit with some rotation. Spurs, he is obviously better than Hojbjerg, we all saw that first hand when they played together, was comfortably our best mid. I rate him over Skipp comfortably too and Winks is crap. Therefore would be Spurs best mid too (again, not including attacking mids). If he would start for 3 of the big 6 atleast and would be the best midfielder for two of them I'd say he is pretty comfortably top 6 quality. And before Ralph he was no where near this quality so a massive ringing endorsement imo.

Any more than about £15m and I'd sell. He has been OK this season but has hit his ceiling imo and still is probably our third choice AM at best behind Redmond and Tella (Stu too if he can get fit). Sell high, buy low, that's how we grow with no funds. Moi stocks I suspect are at their peak. Feels like Vest to me, crap for ages, good for a few months, we sold high, and now crap again.

Depends if you call it two seperate incidents really. If you do its one red card offence scrubbed off due to an advantage and one incident where a pen is conceded carelessly but not deliberately. If you see it as one then yeah, it's a red for me. I personally would have given him a red, for the record, just trying to understand the logic to not doing so.

Sometimes these errors can be coached out of a player but they have been there too consistently for too long with both of them. I just think they are good quality back ups for this level but they shouldn't be starting. Would love to see us sell one of them and bring in a class CB, fingers crossed the new owner has deep pockets!

I think he got away without the red as the original foul was outside the box and an advantage was played (therefore no red as you can't give a red when playing advantage), the second foul inside the box was accidental, he fell into Broja. Still definitely a foul and still a stonewall pen but that I suspect is why there was no red. First was an advantage hence no red, second was an accident hence no red. No idea why no yellow though, that baffles me.

Yeah and the second one, I don't know how he can just let a forward stand unmarked 8 yards out or whatever. He has to get out to him! It's a shame as while Lyanco has pleasantly surprised me my main criticism regarding him remains: Bednarek and Stephens aren't good enough and we needed someone to displace them and Lyanco isn't that.

Why does it matter if they'd get near the West Ham side? They have all played a good role in our team this season (and Stu last season), with McCarthy, Stephens, maybe Stu, and Armstrong or Adams being regular starters going forwards. If we had 80% of our squad out to face City then would that be fine because none of them make the City side? What an absurd and stupid argument. Our team was weakened by losing key players to it and we still won, I know that annoys you but it happened. The only good reason for you to think Pompey are a more attractive investment is if you suffered a recent head injury. The have no facilities, no academy, a shitty small stadium, and 0 quality in their playing or managerial staff. Your explanation seemed to be "oh they are in a lower league therefore they can go up and we can't", which is true of any lower league club, you think Blackpool are better investment than City were too? No ofcourse you don't. You said it because you knew putting Pompey above saints would rile people up, you didn't care how stupid it made you look. Same with the Ralph/San Marino thing. KWP plays well there, arguably just as well as at RB as said by others. Without Perraud we would have two fullbacks who can compete at PL level. He is great cover for LB and since KWP can play RB as can Valery we are pretty well covered at FB. An £11m player not starting every week isn't indicative of a bad signing, it's indicative of us finally having premier league quality depth, at least in one position. Tino is excellent and should start, KWP is excellent and seems not majorly depleted by moving to the left, Perraud is a good player and provides a high level of back up. Nothing to complain about, unless you actively root against the team... Then I imagine it sucks, but don't worry mate, think how much room to grow pompey have. I bet they hope they get relegated, then they'll have even more growth room!

What bullshit? You objectively did say that we were in a worse position than Pompey and Ralph was worse than the manager of San Marino... And you did come here to slag off the manager after a great win. Now you are doubling down and bringing up injuries, what about our injuries? We didn't have Tella, Lyanco, Stephens, McCarthy and Stu, Arma and Adams all weren't fully match fit. Also, what? I never said he was the next Roberto Carlos? Have you lost your mind? I said Perraud was a good signing, and he was. He just isn't as good as Tino (who you will remember I was also quite positive about), and KWP, one of our players of the season. I'm not sure you are in a position to call out "errors of judgement" considering you think Pompey have more potential than Saints and Ralph is worse than the guy in charge of San Marino.

I think we have a number of good players and only one or two championship level players, but I think that's mainly a testament to how much Ralph has improved them. JWP has gone from bottom 6 quality to top 6.

Similar to what he was worth then, £1-2m to a championship side. We signed him on a free, he is probably not worth the wages but those aren't high enough to make it a major loss as a punt. Probably offset by the fact Tino is worth about 6 times what we bought him for, with that profit we could afford to employ many Theos. Then consider the boost in value to KWP, Stu, Adams, JWP (probably the biggest, a boost of like £30-40m probably), and many, many others.

Maybe he will shine at a big side and we'll look back on this like Alderweireld as the loan that got away or maybe he is a decent player on a decent run of form and will dip back a little bit and become a perfectly serviceable premier league level forward. If he does get 8-12 goals then that is similar to what Che got last year and Ings and I don't think either of them were £40m exceptional, and that was with a worse team than we have this season. I personally think it's the latter but hope it's the former. He seems like a good guy and even if he doesn't stay with us I wish him the best.

I mean we were completely on top for most of the first half, conceded a couple of goals due to individual errors (Bednarek still isn't very good, also the first looked offside to me and would have been if they were still accurately drawing lines) but tactically the way we set up disrupted their flow, meant they couldn't get up ahead of steam, and gave us a good platform to win, which we did. It's not a one off either, we did the same change of tactics in the first game against them and it worked then too. Also, this lad has said that we are in a worse position than pompey, Ralph is worse than the guy in charge of san marino, slags off every player and the manager whenever we lose and when we get a result goes silent until there is a chance to point out that it wasn't that good. He has already been banned once for being a blatant troll.

Ayy it's DMan! Here to complain that in our victory away to a european level team we conceded two goals in the process so don't be too happy! He gets a quick chance to slag off the manager but no opportunity to big up Pompey or Villa as one didn't play and the other lost but atleast you are here to remind everyone that even though we won, don't for a moment think our manager isn't a clueless idiot. Honestly, even if you are a skate this goes above and beyond, did Ralph personally slight you?

The difference between the value we signed them at (including offered wages) and the value they have right now is pretty much entirely down to the manager (and the scouting for good noticing of potential).

I think Vest was very poor for the first, let the ball drift over his head for KdB by completely mispositioning.

Doesn't strike me as particularly 2 footed, he is a good runner, pacy and powerful which I didn't give him credit for before and does finish well. I think he's a good player but he does go missing quite often in games. Decent player, worth starting for now, and probably would be a good deal at £20m which is more than I said for him before but £40m is a special player. Last summer £20m got you a Daka, Eduoard, or Andre Silva, he is not twice the player as them. I mean for £40m you could get a Tammy Abraham. £40m for a player on course for an 8-12 goal prem season would be very steep. If by "he'll be" you mean in the future, maybe, but certainly not this summer coming unless he absolutely explodes in the second half of the season.

I heard someone say Tella could play as he had a negative test and was online shielding due to contact but Jack/Lyanco were definitely out. Can't remember tbh. Regarding Djenepo, when we are fully fit he shouldn't make the squad imo. Attacking mids of Redmond and Elyounoussi, back ups on the bench of Tella and Stu and back up forwards of Adams and Long behind Broja and Armstrong. One of him or Walcott could make the bench and right now it is probably Walcott (although neither should be near a prem squad on current form)

Why not both? Unless you are wedded to Theo Walcott... In a 4141 Broja is the lone striker but in a 4222 I think Broja Armstrong will be first choice. Also Broja over Armstrong wasn't the key, the change in formation was. I think it's amazing how when individual errors happen you rush to blame the manager but when we completely nullify a team with a new formation then it's definitely one player (a player who also played in the ones we didn't win).

Yeah I really like the 4141. I wasn't initially sold on Broja (and still think he's a smidge overrated on here being talked about as a £40m player and CL level) but in a 4141 he's lethal, especially when our fullbacks and attacking mids are all pitching in to make chances.

Not really. If you aren't crossing then you can very easily have KWP drift inside and (for example) Djenepo go outside and then drive along the byline and cut it back. That is still using the width, it's just not crossing. Ideally, yes, a left footer on the left would be better as then a cross would be a weapon in our arsenal but as a team that don't cross much anyway and therefore didn't put "scores headers" in the black box when looking for forwards, a rightfooter hitting the by line, driving into the box and pulling it back is just as good and provides just as much width as a left footer doing the same.

Jota has a great leap and can head a ball well. Jota has more headed goals in the two seasons (7) than Adams (1), Armstrong (3), and Broja (1) have combined in their senior careers. Heading is not an easy skill everyone has, it's tricky. If Broja shows in training he's a modern day Peter Crouch then by all means we should try to cross more, but until he does so lets keep playing the way we currently do, as Broja is banging in a tonne with this system.

Low crosses and pullbacks aren't as important to be on the outside foot. KWP can easily beat his man, turn perpendicular to the goal and pull it back right footed, and he does this very often as well as driving along the line towards the goal in order to get a better angle. Crossing with your left foot from the left is generally better as an out-swinger gives you more room to work with, see my frankly gorgeous illustration (where black is attackers, red is defenders/keeper, blue is an in-swinger and green is an out-swinger): But if your intention is to cut it back from the by-line then it doesn't matter, that's the basis of how Djenepo plays.

Good point, forgot about him. He was a little anonymous after the goal and that lovely bit of skill he did to open up a shot that unfortunately was straight at their keeper. In hindsight though, you are right, same team as above but him over Tella, who I would bring on as an impact sub over Stu on current form.

Being good at headed duels isn't the same as being able to score goals from crosses. Hitting balls long and our forwards winning the ball in the air and then us winning the second ball is a very key part of how we play but that's not the same as putting in goals from whipped in crosses. According to this: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/armando-broja/alletore/spieler/571743, Broja has scored one headed goal in his senior club career. Not sure that's a good enough argument to favour a more cross heavy approach than what we do at the moment, which is already working very well for Broja.

Perraud can cross well but to who? We are not a team that scores a lot of headers and haven't been since Pelle left. We don't set up like a Burnley or an Everton. The ability for a fullback to whip in a mean cross is less important in our side than the ability to progress the ball, press, dribble, and to pick incisive through balls. All of which both Tino and KWP are better at over Perraud imo. KWP and Tino are 1st and 7th respectively for take ons per 90 for defenders in the league and are ahead of Perraud on pretty much every metric other than crossing. I think it's handy to have a crosser in the side so we can do something a bit different but, outside of deadball situations, we just don't really cross that much. We are more likely to pull it back to someone in the box in that situation.