BKLFox

A very grey area indeed as I was taking this from amendment to Law 14 "Among several minor changes to the laws regarding penalties, potentially the most interesting is the amendment to yellow card a penalty taker who "illegally feints" once his run-up is complete. This means slowing to a stop immediately before shooting is not allowed, with a yellow card and an indirect free-kick to the opposition the result"

Is Arsenal manager having a little fun, would he seriously consider playing Welbeck as a LB v Man City? I would love to watch Welbeck v Mahrez

Swap Hamza with Silva and I'm with you

Yep I don't understand why the so called experts and sports writers are making such a deal about his run up surely they know that when a player starts his run to the ball he is not allowed to stop now, therefore he did what he did trying to make Kasper twitch into giving away the direction he was going to dive, footballs such a simple game no?

If any one slates that performance or Puel’s selection please go and support 1 of the top 4.

Agree he would fit the mould of what Puel is building, seems to have come from left field as Pep speaks highly of him but that's the trouble of stockpiling you can't play them all, which makes me wonder what Wolves are doing they seem to be scatter gunning positions & still not finished with a link to Sam Clucas as well. No doubt they will have the mandatory Man City sell on clauses on any deal.

Not sure I see Choudhury and Ndidi as a pair whilst it would be very industrious which of them is actually going to get his foot on the ball and look up to control the tempo, style & give that calmness in the middle, I already see the replays who else have we got that does that but again it's opinions and this is mine. I'm not knocking either as both buzz about affectingly and in time Choudhury will grow into that role maybe but at the minute it's 1 or the other for me. Then out of Silva and Iborra, Silva gets my vote and I think we will see more of what he can do this season. I thought he was cracking v Valencia he seemed to be everywhere and really comfortable on the ball, yes a few passes missed their targets a few down to him and a few down to the target not being on the same wavelength. I also think playing him with Maddison just in front will bring the best out of each other and can see some tidy play between them along with a few tricks and hopefully developing a telepathic understanding. Just to finish off Iborra has his uses he was probably better at defending and attacking corners than anyone last season, hopefully Maguire has that this season but last there were several games where he saved us or and the 1 that springs to mind is Stoke he was clearing every single corner they had the ball never got past him on the front post then he gets injured goes off they bring on the crane who then scores from the next corner and the game ends up a draw after we were dominating.

But is improvement not getting a better replacement & nurturing a younger replacement as backup & building for the future? Chances are Simpson has had a say in this anyway by asking if he's #1 got the answer & thought I'm pushing on I need to play therefore I need to go..

Puel, damned if he does damned if he doesn't.

Should be ahead of benny that's for sure, does anyone know what's happened to Hughes?

With the creativity now coming from the centre it will present more goal scoring opportunities as the ball can be played forward, left or right of centre. Before we relied on it coming from the right & the better teams snuffed that avenue out quite easily, it's harder to do that from the centre due to the amount of runners that can break through supporting. That said i wouldn't object to another right sided player to come in as a starter who can play as a natural winger or as part of a front 3 for a little better balance & to provide more options. The development lads have done well especially those last night & credit to Puel to play so many in a high profile friendly match but those are not starters yet & as mentioned by a few Diabate needs a little longer also going on the pre-season games.

& so what if we are it's 4 games for christ sake we don't get relegated after 4 games, we play 2 of the top 4 & 1 of the unknowns in the 1st 4 games i think some need to manage their expectations a little better. I hope to god that some on this forum don't have to manage a major crisis in their real lives.

I think you know that these past friendlies have been about minutes in legs, yesterday's was the first time both Simpson and Ricardo have been able to play so in order to get both out he's pushed Ricardo forward, I've no issue with that, Puel states himself that these final 2 games will be more 1st teamers playing. I'm not going to bog myself down with we must play this or that why formation wise but if, ok when we play 4 at the back it will turn into 3 at the back when we attack the 2 fullbacks will push up and DM drops so those that want 3 get their 3 and when we defend again DM should be covering the 2 CB making 5 at the back. A decent read on formations/tactics all be it from 2013 but shows it's players and their ability to be flexible and reading of the game that gives a team the edge over the opponent and I for one think Puel is getting these types of players in. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/24/formations-tactics-manchester-city

Secretpro and Foxfan92 Who will play out of position if we don't play 3 at the back?

Amen to that ithuriel

Is that criteria not the same for every manager in all leagues?

Don’t talk soft

Who ever we get to play RW is doomed just from the thread title alone, we are not going to get a like for like player within our price range otherwise Mahrez would still be here and that player would be wearing a Man City shirt. i would rather we got a hard working professional that has a trick or 2 in his locker if that's Roberts, AJ whoever then great I'll support them but I won't compare them to Mahrez, yes I will miss Mahrez but he's gone, thanks for the memory's and we move on. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts they say, whilst Mahrez could change a game in an instant he also wasn't a great team player with Simpson being his scape goat. He went missing in a lot of the dog fight games and whilst putting up a decent show against the likes of the Manchester, Liverpool types and then going missing against the teams that are around us didn't help our position only his. Let's support whoever plays in that position because he's playing there for LCFC not because he's the first Brazilian or first £60m player we've bought.

But barring Roberts & Gray is that not the nucleus of the team for the season? Who in current squad would you have in & who do you believe we should be looking at as other options? If Mahrez was there instead of Roberts would you still be terrified? i think your in for a long hard season my friend ?

Yet picked ahead of Cedric in a winner takes all game, is that telling also?

With naming the 4 I did & mentioning the numourous returning midfielders I was trying to highlight that we would just be stockpiling midfield players without upgrading on those 4. I agree James, King & DD are sadly part of our past as much as we all liked them at 1 point or other.

Head v Heart I guess, I would have to answer do we really need him, what does he bring that we don't already have? Whilst we seemed to be short on the ground in midfield the last few weeks of the season I don't think he comes with what we need now, yes he's hard working & can pick a long pass but if we say Wilf is main DM with Hamza as cover then Iborra & Silva covering the 2nd position along with any U21/23 players breaking through & the many midfielders that are returning from loans/injury then he's warming our bench at best & that's only if we don't sign that true CAM we really need. Head rules so no, fee/wages to be spent on specialised creativity in midfield.

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Would like to see him back as not seen enough of him to dismiss him as a flop. I'm a fan of James & think he's a better footballer than Drinkwater but alas the teams evolving & sadly not not sure he fits in now, same with King great servant but feel he needs to move on. certain games maybe a Ndidi Mendy combo with Silva playing further forward could work which leaves a handy Iborra on the bench, I say handy as he's the best player we have at defending & attacking set pieces especially corners 9/10 it's him that clears our lines or is getting his head on an attacking corner. we do still need that creative player but there aren't many Erickson style players around we also don't want to stockpile & stunt our own development players from coming through.