verlaine1979

The first assist he clearly didn't intend and the second one was just shuffling the ball across to someone who belted it in from more than 20 yards. And Mara would've had 2 goals and an excellent (intentional) assist if Che could finish reliably from 5 yards.

Heh heh.

Great finish for his second, absolutely rifled into a postage stamp, top corner near post.

Seems like he's fit and ready based on that Swansea showing. On the basis, you're not getting a better loan deal to the Championship than this - fantastic addition.

(I was kidding, he's shit. The minutes per goal thing was the justification for some as to why he was a hidden gem at Monaco)

How many of those 127 games were starts though, eh? More important to count goals per minute. 19 goals in 127 minutes of football would paint a very different picture...

He's had a good journeyman pro career. I just thought he was a bit dull and predictable on the ball, often not quite as committed defensively as his work-rate boosters would have you believe, and wildly over-praised on here. Hope he enjoys his retirement.

Plus, it's hard to ignore that he's the same age as Lavia, cost basically the same amount, but just isn't close to being as good (yet).

Looks like he's got a similar build to Broja. Is he quick?

Lol he's one of the least mobile/anticipatory strikers we've had in decades. If the ball comes in from wide, you can guarantee 9 times out of 10 that Che will be on his heels wondering what happened.

Assuming he's fit, he can do a lot better than the Championship.

The way you can tell that our possession football is mostly tedious propaganda is that it doesn't often result in a similar imbalance in chances. We had 72% of the ball, but Coventry had 11 shots to our 12, and 4 on target to our 3. Occasionally we do convert dominance of possession into dominance of chances, but most of the time we have double the amount of the ball but only a handful more chances if we're lucky. All the movement has been coached out of the side in favor of ensuring that there are always open players to pass to (not that we had a lot of movement to begin with - watched Bournemouth's game against United last weekend, and it's years since I've seen a Saints side play with that kind of pace, fluidity and confidence even in a one off).

Che was the scuffer. Can only hit a clean strike when it's leathered straight down his laces. Any sort of side-foot or precision and he fumbles it. Was evident in his Brum video, and so it proved. Terrible, terrible finisher.

Che Adams is an utterly shit premier league striker. So is Adam Armstrong. Hence, we were relegated from the premier league. Now, by virtue of tenacity and a wider variety of finishing, it appears that AA is a more reliable championship striker. There's no mystery here.

Which poster was advocating for Openda a couple of summers ago when he moved to Lens for peanuts? I want to hear who else they recommend...

Err, I think he's literally just joking about being the fastest player at the club by a mile.

He's not playing shit on purpose. He's playing shit because that's his level.

I'd say it's more like every third game. There have been a few on Sky Sports Arena + extra games in the UK that never made it on to ESPN+.

We're just not good enough to play this style. It won't come with practice. It all falls apart if you misplace any of the short quick passes, and you can guarantee in almost every passage of possession we'll play at least one ball behind the intended recipient that makes them have to backtrack to retrieve it. It's so easy to get pressure on us because we simply do not have the technical quality to play through it. It's so fucking dumb.

Yup. Ten seconds of eye contact and a nod before each pass.

He thumped in a couple from less than 10 yards in our first few games. He was hardly pulling up trees. Reversion to the mean, that's all.

He hadn't even scored a professional goal with his head until midway through his time at saints.

Unfortunately this isn't a style that scales linearly. Your players can either pass the ball quickly and accurately, or they can't. And if they can't, even if it's in terms of putting the ball a ball a yard behind the intended receiver so they have to stop and track back, the benefits quickly evaporate. Up thread, someone talks about "what if your opponent sits back and doesn't take the bait when you're passing it around at the back". Good teams, like City and Barca then proceed to play the game entirely in your half. But we've already shown we don't have the skill or composure to play that way without losing it and getting killed on the break. Obviously you can still play keep ball in your own half to boost your possession numbers, but that's not the same... And as others have said, no matter how purist the principle, Guardiola's sides have always been absolutely ruthless on the break. It's an integral part of the tactic. If you win it back in a good position, you bomb forward, no second thoughts.

Fox was a fantastic crosser of the ball. Completely found out as a defender at PL level, but he was a cut above as an attacking FB in a dominant team in the Champ.

Stoke had very good positions on the edge of our box a number of times, particularly in the first half, but their final ball was catastrophically abysmal. Other teams recently have found themselves in similar positions and punished us.