Finnegan

One look at Fury's size it was obvious he was gonna need to go at it early. He's not going to want this to go 12 rounds in that shape against someone with Usyk's fitness.

Now that actually was Fury's round

If it gets Saudi Arabia a trilogy fight it will

Fury just wants to grab him and lean all over him doesn't he. Already just outright trying to grab him

So the real reason John isn't ringside is cos Tyson ate him

I definitely, 100%, wouldn't buy him. Especially for near enough 10m. Would be Ayew / BDCR levels of rubbish. Would only be marginally positive about it if it was an extremely cheap loan for six months.

Our manager did his ACL the year before he moved to Man Utd. Didn't stop him. Shearer actually did his ACL before winning the league at Blackburn and going on to be the Premier League all time scorer. It's not a death sentence, it's just a pretty bad injury.

If we're backing Fatawu to recover, it probably isn't financially prudent to buy. Could do worse as a realistic loan than Miggy with a point to prove tbh. Works his arse off in fairness. I'd rather any money we have to spend go on defenders, a proper footballing 6 that can defend if that's what RVN wants and even an upgrade on Mavididi as a proper goal scoring wide forward for the left (or a quality attacking LB if we're persisting with that.)

When did @The Bear start making alt accounts

Yeah but this then ruins both Bilal and Facundo. Last season, Ndidi and KDH were the "top" of the box and if you're going to have the same again then in order to complete the bottom of it you need to have a defender step forward, as Ricky was doing. This hasn't historically been Ruud's preference and I personally doubt he changes. The other way to play the three together is Ndidi doing the Ricardo part alongside Winks as the holding sixes and the rest is what @moore_94 was suggesting with KDH, playing as ultimately one of our current 10s which squeezes one of BEK or FB out. Just doesn't really work. This forum is absolutely full of people continuously suggesting different tactics, formations and systems. Every pre match thread is "what if we tried this..." it makes me chuckle. Good managers these days aren't just chopping and changing shapes, Enzo barely shifted from one set up all year and I think RVN is largely going to be the same. The defensive shape might sometimes change but in possession it's likely always going to be 3-box-3 and suggesting any tactic otherwise is a bit of a waste of time outside fantasy. Money. Money is everything. Winning is money, so the most reliable and efficient way to win is the most reliable and efficient way to money. The money you lose from next winning is massive, look at our current troubles. The whole sport has largely become more structured and tactical because it's a team game and building it towards structure is the best way to ensure a win. I definitely think young players largely get "flair" coached out of them these days, yes. Look at Rodgers, hates a player going on a dribble, one or two touches that's it, pass it on. There's a lot of that in the sport. I'm not here to tell you it's better these days. It's just this is the reality we have now whether we like it or not. Pep and Mourinho almost ushered in an industrial revolution in football in the 00s. Everything became "better" and in doing some probably became worse.

Doesn't work. You're describing two separate phases of play. KDH pushing up to press with Vardy is essentially "442 mode", at which point BEK and FB are the two wide midfielders. In posession it's got to be 3-box-3, so KDH goes where? If you want BEK and FB to both be the "top" of the box then one of Vardy or KDH has to then, what, go out wide? It doesn't really work. The only way you can bring ANOTHER attacking midfielder in and accomodate both of the kids is if one of them, probably FB stays out wide. I know it's romantic to imagine this sort of perfectly fluid, total football notion of them alternating and taking it in turns to be the one that goes out wide and the one to tuck inside but that's not really how we're going to play. That'd be a chaotic mess, what RVN is doing - just as with Enzo - is going to be extremely structured where people have defined roles in both attack and defence that they can carry out almost robotically. There's just no real place for KDH in the side. At all.

But he's making the right people wealthy.

There'd be plenty of Champions League / high prestige European clubs that'd take him on a loan. Someone like Juve or a Milan club.

Skipp belongs at this level, he's just what everyone thought Winks would be, a bit of an anonymous box to box midfielder that doesn't excite. Hamza barely belongs in the Championship and it's a tragedy he's still under contract.

His career history is all like that.

Faes is still only 26 and a Belgian international. Barcelona were allegedly previously sniffing around him. Last year he had a pretty good season in a dominant, front-foot team. There's different needs for skillsets in CBs depending on what a team requires, right? Have used Manuel Akanji as an example of this before. He was often a train wreck at Dortmund, to say he has a mistake in him is an under statement. At Man City it's not overly important, he's regarded for his mobility and his talent on the ball and most of the mistakes he makes can be covered by the team or compensated for by what he gives in posession to a team that's going to see a lot of it. Wout probably has more value to a "big" club, a dominant club, who will value his ability on the ball more than his actual defending. It wouldn't totally shock me to see him still move upwards when he leaves Leicester, although I do think his reputation will have been hit in the last month or two.

You want us to actively sign players for a formation the manager doesn't want to play? Both Facundo and Bilal (in particular) would be good as the 8s in a box, RVN just doesn't appear to want to do it. If the "top" of your box are 8s then the "bottom" has to be made up of at least one of the back four stepping in to midfield, as Ricardo did last season, and that's not something Ruud did at PSV or had expressed any desire of doing here. Twin sixes being the foundation of his building seems to be a feature. We need to build for his first choice of formation before we start even considering branching out in to being adaptable.

Depends what you mean, exactly. Judging him as a footballer on the whole, particularly given he is still young enough to develop? Sure, he could still grow in to a solid Premier League midfielder. Judging him as a signing within the context of the season? It was fair to judge him in that sense before he'd even kicked a ball and nobody who did has been proven wrong. In that case it was never much about how good he could be, it was about what he offers right now vs. the outlay and what else we could have done with the money. The squad has holes everywhere yet we spent the most money on a player we didn't really need. A lot of it too.

He's up there alongside Slimani and Perez as our worst ever signings. I don't mean that as in worst ever players but the signing in context. What he cost us both literally in cash but also the opportunity to sign one or maybe even two decent forwards or a forward and a defender? When we didn't need or really want him. Neither manager has been interested in him. He's behind Soumare ffs.

Vitor Pereira will take Wolves down.

It's because their criteria seems to be anyone that's taken ten penalties so the sample sizes are warped. Kane got 89% so is just outside the threshold of their arbitrary and click baity top 12. But be took nearly 40 pens, so.

There's some very small sample sizes in there. Bit harsh calling Danny Ings "better" than Mark Noble who managed 85% from over 30 penalties, or Lampard's 82% from nearly 40 attempts (comparable rate of return to Jamie Vardy, btw.) And nobody on here wants to admit it but probably the best Premier League era penalty taker has got to be Harry Kane who managed 89% having scored 33 from 37 attempts which is frankly ridiculous. Of note for the likes of Messi, Neymar, Mahrez and co' - none of these guys did a silly little ****ing stutter step and paused run up, they just twat it in the corner.

Chelsea with the billion pound squad that are second in the league?

I mean they're a very well run club. Doesn't mean they won't sometimes lose games?

Eh?