pmcla26

There is always 3 keepers with every matchday squad in the Premier League. Usually for warm-ups and if one gets injured in the warm up then there is someone on the bench.

I'd argue the opposite. Harder to gauge your positioning, timing on crosses and balls into the box, coming out for 1v1s, all things that can lead to goals and be more costly than an outfielder being bailed out by team-mates around him. Hopefully that was why Stolarczyk played on Monday.

I can see Arsenal going in for Rashford. Martinelli's form has fell off a cliff and Sterling hasn't made any impact there.

Having a player that can carry the ball can be really effective when you're a side lower down bottom of the table, or one that spends a lot of time out of possession defending. Palace have always had a couple of players who were good at this during their time in the Premier League this time around and Wolves had it with Cunha in-form last season. Grealish at Villa was probably the best one in recent times. It was also something we lacked in 22/23 - we had finishers (Vardy and Barnes), and creators (Maddison and Tielemans) but only really KDH and Castagne who could carry us up the pitch, and as a centre-midfielder and right-back, that's harder than a forward or a wide player to be in the positions to do so frequently. It meant that even when we tried to play on the counter, it was ineffective.

You could see in the EUROs he looked like he had something about him. He got them up the pitch a lot against Portugal and looks like he was good defensively and tactically aware for a more offensive minded player. Not sure how he'd fit in for us or if he should be a priority. Might be one you have to sign in fear of missing out on.

Results so far have pretty much been exactly what I was expecting/hoping for going into the games. Was hoping to beat West Ham with new bounce Was hoping could beat Brighton as at home and on the high after West Ham win, but was happy with a draw (especially afterwards given circumstances). Wouldn't have been surprised/criticised if we lost, though. Newcastle thought there was no hope given the lack of availability in centre midfield.

Hasn't Sangare had injury issues himself, mainly?

I agree with this. Reguilon and Lindelof in our back line could really shore things up back there. Justin (hold hopes he'll come back to somewhat decent form next to a better defender) Lindelof Vestergaard Reguilon Survive and get though to the summer, sell Faes and replace him with some genuine quality in their early/mid 20s to take JV place in starting lineup, or hopefully Okoli goes second season Soyuncu mode when he's fully settled.

Possibly 1. his injury troubles previously, 2. he probably had aspirations of playing Premier League again and we weren't guaranteed promotion and 3. that's the year our parachute payments would have ended so we wouldn't have been stuck paying Premier League wages to him if we stayed down.

I'm convinced that there was some other financial motive with us and Spurs following Maddison deal that triggered this signing. It was weird at the time and it doesn't seem to be any different from what was expected.

Could see him playing right-back for us as opposed to centre-back. He shifts across and Kristiansen bombs on.

Merson provides 0 analysis or tactical insight. Just talks like a bloke down the pub.

They wouldn't loan him. If he leaves it is a sale for PSR to allow them to buy someone else.

I thought Textor was trying to get out of Palace and they aren't really working in the same way anymore?

I think they won't be as dominant, as you'll have Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all putting up challenges rather than just one side (first Liverpool under Klopp, lately Arsenal). Signing Zubimendi/Angelo Stiller to fill the Rodri void in january, then letting De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva go in the summer and replacing them with Wirtz, and Foden getting his prominent role at last would go some way to fixing things. Replacing Walker will be hard as their aren't many great right-backs out there that aren't at the top clubs already (I think Frimpong is better further forward - be more suited to Amorim's Man United than Guardiola), unless they relegate him to back up and Lewis is the starter full-time. Could do with another centre-back too that is of John Stones' quality that is available more often than he is.

I agree with what you are saying there in a broad perspective. The issue is where people don't realise that there are parts of Guardiola's tactics that aren't tiki-taka, especially in the most recent iterations of Man City or playing against the big sides. The lightning pace and directness of Sane and Sterling in transition previously, which he has tried to recreate with Doku and Savinho with not such great effect, aren't symptomatic of his teams pre mid-2010s. He said this was looking at how effective teams were in transition in the Premier League, and copied that. You also see since Haaland has been the focal point, a player running in behind as opposed to playing false 9 or as a deep-lying forward - this would have been much less effective in old Guardiola teams. With Haaland (particularly in his first season), they would put more crosses into the box than a Guardiola side ever has. Or in 22/23, when his back 4 would primarily be made of 4 natural central defenders (or 3 plus Walker), and it would be Stones as the extra man. This was also not symptomatic of a tiki-taka team. Basically, Pep adapts all the time, or his side very occasionally go into something resembling closer to what people have in their head as a counter-attacking team (against Bayern in one CL game in the last couple of years they sat in a mid-block 442 for large portions of the tie), but people are so fixated on this tiki-taka shape they have in their head that they don't notice the adaptations that Pep makes.

I think what Man City are lacking currently (looking at last night's lineup) is that Gundogan, De Bruyne, Walker and Bernardo Silva are no longer at their physical peaks. Grealish, Dias and Lewis aren't super athletic players either (in the context of the elite level they are more ball-players or Dias' strength lies in his reading of the game defensively rather than lightning pace or super-strength). Gvardiol, Haaland and Doku are the only three who you would say are athletic types at peak performance. They are all falling a yard off of it at the same time and collectively it's costing them. They need a squad refresh. It's a bit like when Man United all of a sudden fell off a cliff the season after Fergie left.

Pep Guardiola Near on total domination of the league for 7 years: meh 10 game run: THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO PLAY FOOTBALL

Faes about to put in a David Luiz vs Fulham away 2012/13 performance and rifle one in from 40 yards out playing CDM.

Do wonder if Ademola Lookman has any regret over declaring for Nigeria. He would surely be the starting left winger for England these days.

Extra time off after they play Rangers on the Thursday before.

How? Barnes scored 13 goals for us as we went down. It's just annoying we didn't end up with both. Not one or the other.

Let's be honest he is too good to play in the Championship. I've always liked the player but just thought it was going to be on of those transfers that never work but can't explain why, and also think he was used wrong by Rodgers. Was/has never been a number 6 in a single pivot. He needs a bit of license to go. Reminds me of Mousa Dembele. I don't think our previous midfield with Maddison and Tielemans was set up to make him look good either as all of their strengths are in possession rather than without it, or passing the ball rather than carrying it. He quite often played instead of Ndidi rather than next to him and I think that really highlighted his defensive short comings.

Bilal yes (albeit in a completely different mould), but in what world is Skipp anything like either of those two?

As we saw a couple of years ago. Our attack then was better than Wolves' this season, too. I genuinely don't see changing the manager doing much for them - I just don't think their squad is very good.