Verumex

So you're saying he couldn't lose? Then what's the issue? He was right

Probably Maresca needing a placeholder 8 until our targets came in, and Ndidi wanting to prove to other clubs that he can be more than a CDM. Not convinced he succeeded in that but the chance to play in a new system for a couple of months while jobhunting was probably a good challenge for him.

Well from the sounds of it, the deal was agreed this morning, not yesterday afternoon. #AlwaysWrong

Yeah, turns out it was only Dwight McNeil...

#LivingInTheFuture

That's a bit harsh to @NFFCJohn

Derby -> Us -> Man City/Newcastle?

There zero evidence on who any of those players are.

Can't be often that players go on loan from a PL club to the lower leagues and end up training with better facilities than they're used to...

I would hope so too, but that might not be for a while.

Yeah, but he also wasn't good enough for Chelsea.

I'd imagine Hamza would be played in the Winks role when he needs to rotate out. He might not be as tidy with his passes but he can still fulfill a role there.

I fully believe that when he does leave us, he will go to Liverpool. I also fully believe that it will not happen this year.

It's becoming painfully clear who checked out for the summer and are seeing Maresca's setup for the first time today. I'm not blaming them of course after how last year ended, but it's very obvious.

Since you've ignored all of my arguments I'll ignore all of yours. Oh, wait, you've not even given any, just baseless negativity. Let me guess, he doesn't pass the "sight test"?

Klopp does love him, he's singled him out a couple of times after playing us, usually goes over and has a word after full time. But as said, right now he isn't ready, but I also expect that Liverpool are scouting him. I doubt he's going this window but there's likely truth in the story.

That was against Spartak Moscow, they're not pushovers. If anything, that's more evidence to my point, when he came here he was a fantastic player. I really believe that he's been managed wrong, and that's the cause of his decline, just like a lot of our players.

What's their excuse for the rest of them?

So you're ignoring the other stuff? And why is his early good form not relevant? My argument is that he's been stifled by Rodgers' system, stats from him playing in another system is absolutely worth discussing.

I'd argue he did hit the ground running. He joined in the summer of 2021, and had a few small token appearances at the end of games, scoring once against Man Utd in a 13 minute appearance, before getting his first start. He played for 78 minutes and got an assist, before playing the full 90 the following game against Newcastle where he scored and assisted. He then sat out the two games across Christmas against Man City and Liverpool, before scoring again in the following two. He went 4 games without getting on the score sheet after that, only one being a full 90 minutes, before being benched and seeing his playing time dropped dramatically. The next time he had a couple of games where he was allowed to play for more 20 minutes he scored in the following game. And at that point Rodgers had started the regression of his system, focusing more on possession without purpose, and isolating the forward players with a deep midfield. Looking at the figures, he started pretty well, and I've not mentioned his Europa League goals.

To add to this, in the last season he played only two full games of football in the Premier League. One of them he was out of position as Left Winger, in the other one, he got one goal and one assist.

And he was up there, mostly alone, lacking fitness, against Liverpool. I really don't see how that's a fair sample of evidence.

He played at a time when Tielemans plummeted in form, Barnes had been told to focus more on dropping back and Maddison had been specifically instructed to be more selfish. The system as a whole got more and more defensive over the last two years, and the gap between midfield and our forwards got bigger and bigger. Vardy couldn't get a goal in this system, Iheanacho couldn't get a goal in this system, so why oh why is Daka the only problem?? When he came he was scoring for fun. in his last club he was scoring for fun. Is it possible, maybe, that Rodgers and his increasingly backwards focused formation was the problem?

We need a creative CM and a RW, assuming that the LW has already signed. The spine of the team is there, we only need two players. My hunch is that we plan to get two specific players on loan, and we're waiting for their clubs to finish their preseason before deciding whether to let them go or not. We may not be ready for Coventry, and that is slightly disappointing, but it's not the end of the season, and certainly not the end of the world. If we haven't got these two players in by the end of the window, then we can panic.

He's already been called the new Gray on here and he's not even been announced...