StriderHiryu

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Technically Liverpool who I don’t think have signed anyone yet. But they start from a position of having a slightly stronger squad.

Very much agree with you. Zaha himself could even play as the false 9, though I feel he'd be less effective there. But he player as a striker for Palace and as he has a tendancy to drift, there are attributes that would suit his game. 100% he's got the composure. For me he's the most exciting player we've been linked to because he's the only one I think would get to double figures over the season.

I did a live stream earlier today with Leicester Till I Die about pre-season: https://www.youtube.com/live/eEgl33W5wS4?si=EIUEN-BvBz8ahbBK Pretty similar material to the last video, but I had a few more clips to show. The really interesting video will be the Spurs post-match one, and hopefully it will be discussing a Cooper masterclass. A lot needs improving before Monday for that to happen though...

Whoever will play upfront will be expected to drop deep to join the play, just like the striker did last season. So they are essentially a false 9 so the 10's can run past them, they drag the strikers up field. This kind of move: This is why I could see Hlozek being the striker, because I think he has the skill set to do that. In fact, all of the forwards (Ionnidis, Zaha, Hlozek, Bergwijn) we've been linked with could do it, and it's also why Mavidid was put up top before Tom Cannon. Whether you agree with it or not, that's the way we are trying to play, and there have been examples of Daka operating this way already in Cooper's games. Here's a quick clip: https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxkR8tlpGa5U2niFDSoWmnW-T-wmv8GS1J

^How to pronounce his name. Sounds like "Hawzlek"?

In the first game (Shrewsbury), we did start him and had Fatawu on the left hand side. Luke Thomas was the LCB. So in this case when we went forwards, Ricardo was the extra man / winger, and Mavididi moved inside. After that game he dropped Ricardo, moved Fatawu back to right wing and brought in Kristiansen instead. He has brought on Ricardo as a RCB in the 60th minute in most games. However, he has yet to use him in the double pivot. And coincidentally we have been poor in every game thus far. I cannot for the life of me understand how someone could watch all of the games last season and come to the conclusion not to use Ricardo, especially as we was always considered one of our better players when we were in the top flight.

Yeah he's been a dud, as evidenced by Brighton wanting to get rid of him. He was one of the few that was signed for the manager rather than through scouting I believe.

Leicester City: "Sorry Carlos Corberan, we think you are a great coach, but 4M is too much to pay to get you out of West Brom" Also Leicester City: "10M to loan an ageing Wilfred Zaha for a season we most likely go down in because we over spent and broke FFP / PSR rules? DONE DEAL"

You can have all 4 in the matchday squad.

I think you're right, but would still be very apprehensive. At least some of those players needed to be brought in earlier. The guys looked clueless in the game against Lens and there was a real lack of creativity in the games prior to that. They are going to need hours on the training pitch drilling routines over and over again. It's been such a mess from what we've seen so far. I find it interesting that we haven't been linked with a left back, because Kristiansen has been poor in preseason. I am praying that we go back to the system from last year, though have a feeling we might see Fatawu at left back instead

Cooper not starting Ricardo is career suicide. One of our best players last season, and when we in our pomp in the Premier League, not just one of the best players for us, but best players in the league full stop. Hamza was caught out time and time again against Lens, whereas Ricardo would allow us to build-up, which we have been awful at in the last two games. Here's some of the highlights from Riccy P from last season:

Bang on the money. I don't rate Cooper at all, but not bringing in the big guns till now is going to cost us. Preseason has essentially be wasted because we can't play our prefferred team. This is really frustrating because if we'd have been on it, we could have picked up a fair few points from the opening 5 games.

I hope I don't come across as negative here, I think this is a good signing! Realistically based on who's available to us, I'd put this guy at near the top end of who we could get. It's just that unlike the Sparta fans, I am not expecting him to be our jesus!

Madders was pretty decent even under Puel. Perhaps at the time I would say he looked expensive for the 24M we paid for him if that makes sense? He didn't look terrible, we just thought he could do more. Then when Rodgers came in, he took him to another level though and in the end he was a bargain for the price we paid. We all became huge fans of him even if during his run here there were times when we quite rightly wanted him benched. The issue is that this season because the overall squad is weak, players putting in 6/10 performances get us relegated. We've left it too late to get the important signings in, and the coach has provably taken us backwards, so I think most on here are already resigned to relegation. Despite that, I still think this is a good signing. There's a chance he does perform this season and makes a difference, and if he doesn't but we keep him for next, I think he will come good. If the obligation is based on us staying up and he doesn't perform, that's less good, but in terms of talent level he's a Premier League quality player for sure. He's much better technically than Soucek or Coufal, who were really solid players for West Ham.

From a Sparta Prague fan: "This guy is a both technical and physical monster, it's mostly his mentality which is the problem. And that's not even in a sense of not working hard enough or acting like an idiot but he tends to hide a lot from the big occasions and doesn't show up enough for the ball. He tends to shy away from responsibility. It's always been the issue back at Sparta when we played in Europe or derbies against Slavia/Plzeň and it continues both with the national team and Leverkusen. I hope he can overcome this issue because there's an amazing talent there." Might sound some alarm bells for some, but this is the sort of thing that will fix itself over time. Just don't know if that will be this season.

Yep bang on I fully agree with you on this. Classic case of making too big of a move too soon. For the price we are paying, I think this is a good deal. I just don't expect to see that value come off right away. Look at James Maddison, he flattered to decieve for the first few seasons, before becoming the main man towards the end of his spell here.

You're not missing something, and I think those of us on the forum need to understand this. The excitement would be that this is a player with huge potential and a high ceiling. I believe he was considered the best ever palyer to come through the Sparta Prague academy and was expected to become a top talent at a big European club, hence the big move to Leverkusen. In one season he had 15 goals from 19 appearances. However, he did not live up to the billing and lacked confidence. Anyone expecting this guy to come in and hit the ground running is in for a shock. However, if you look at him as a young talent with high potential that we could develop, he absolutely fits that mould. That's why we are signing him, if he doesn't hit the heights this season, I think it's likely he does after a few seasons.

They were delighted by his reccomendation to sign Tete

That's a pretty reasonable price IMO. If we got relegated he'd destroy the Championship IMO. Biggest concern for me is that he's not a player who is brimming with confidence. We saw in the January 23 window that if you bring players who aren't confident into a struggling team, it doesn't work out. But given the age and talent that this player has, I think it's overall quite a good signing.

I reckon this is more likely, but will happily be proven wrong. Hlozek Mavididi - Buananotte - Fatawu Winks - Ndidi

Almost certainly. I guess it's instead of Ionnidis.

A bit part player for them last season. Seems like he's really low on confidence, which is a big concern of mine for this season. However, I will say that in terms of talent he's definitely got it. Fans at Sparta say he was their most talented player for a long time when he was there.