kingfox

First off, it’s going to take me about a year to get used to your new display pic As I’ve mentioned before, I still think Osario is gettable for £10-15 million, but of course it would have been nice to get him for the fee that Midtjylland paid. And as you’re about Ric, as you’ve been looking at the J1 League, I came across this lad last night after looking through dribbling statistics, he was recently voted best young player for the month of May...

Had a good look at this player as a potentially cheap LW option a few months back. Helio Varela - Portimonense Rapid pace, excellent dribbler in 1 vs 1 situations and physically strong. He is like Lloyd Dyer on steroids. A good thread on him here...

He did impress against us in that friendly against Leuven if I recall. But after watching him regularly for Montpellier, he is the type of player I’d take as a rotation option, but I wouldn’t be too bothered if he didn’t join. Ideally we need two wingers, Sosa is more a left sided player, while I’ve seen Al-Tamari play on both sides, but as Strider said, he is predominantly a right sided player 👍🏻

In the early part of the Ligue 1 season he was magnificent, to the point where I was quite baffled how we let this one slip by considering he was playing for Leuven. His form soon dropped off though. Throughout the rest of the Ligue 1 season, he had a few other good performances scattered amongst a lot of average ones. He’d give us some added pace to whack teams on the counter attack though.

If the idea of wanting wingers who excel in 1 vs 1 situations still remains, then I can see why we’re interested in this guy. So far this season he is averaging 8 dribbles per90, compare that to Mavididi and Fatawu last season, Mavididi averaged 7, while Fatawu averaged 9.

Realistically... Maybe Sessegnon if one of our left-backs leave. Would give us the option to switch to wing-backs. I’d take Berenguer or Ounas as competition for Fatawu. I’d also take Yazici, a unique kind of player, had numerous good performances for Lille last season when I watched them, will probably get better suitors though.

Reflex!

Looks to be off to Roma unfortunately, shame as he’d be an ideal KDH replacement.

I wouldn’t put him in the irreplaceable category, we’ve lost far more talented players over the years, it’s just the manner of the departure that stinks. Forcing to sell your most valuable asset because of board incompetence, as shit as PSR is, if we were run in a competent manner, then KDH would still be ours.

Time to spam this thread with some defensive midfielders. If we can’t get Florentino and after mentioning Mandela Keita, Mathias Delorge, Ben Sheaf and Rocco Reitz, here’s some other possibilities... Honourable mention to Ismail Yuksek of Fenerbahce, but his FBREF stats are flawed so won’t post...

Ronaldo is the type of guy who cries when he watches Titanic.

Benjamin Andre did all the defensive work in his holding midfield partnership at Lille. Bouba in a partnership with Winks, not for me mate.

Andres Fassi has just broken @Tommy Fresh heart. Twat.

Vibe.

Great post mate, thanks for the insight 👍🏻 When analysing him a few months ago, I instantly thought he’d be absolutely perfect for a Maresca based system. Now Cooper’s in charge though, it will be interesting to see what kind of striker he wants, just going off his time at Forest, he very much deployed a physical striker throughout his time there, that’s why despite Maresca leaving, Ioannidis is still very much top of my wanted list for a striker. As you say, it’s that ability of giving you both sides of the game that excites me. Whether possession based or more of a direct counter attacking style, I feel he has the attributes to do both. As you pointed out with his pace and ball carrying ability, when he goes on those ball carrying busting runs, he can be an absolute beast. The point you make regarding Mavididi and Fatawu working off him, is something I instantly thought about when going through his dialogue clips. That ability to drop deep, with wingers and potentially a number 8/10 running in behind him, is a very exciting prospect. While finally regarding his finishing I very much agree, he produced the 2nd most shots in Greece last season, at a success percentage of 46%. It’s not a glaring weakness by any means, but at times I just feel like he could be smarter with his shot choices.

Mentioned him the other day. He also takes set pieces which would be handy with Andrew Hughes supposedly coming in. But as Strider just referenced, with Union SG and Brighton’s connections, after the KDH debacle, they might tell us to piss off

HONG HYUN-SEOK 😉

My final more obscure shout to replace KDH, should fit the £10-15 million bracket. With our Belgian connections. Hong Hyun-seok - Gent. A couple of his statistics don’t jump out; however after going through his creative passing from last season, I’ve fallen in love. This guys intelligence is top notch. Can play as a 10, but also likes to play deeper in the right and left sided central midfield slots. Would give us the option of playing with a 10 or two 8’s like we saw last season.

Certain statistics will be inflated because he plays in a possession heavy team, but in terms of defensive statistics he is quite simply one of the best in Europe. As Ric said, a signing like this depends on what we see as our main priorities. Ideally we need a starting LCB, DM, CM/AM and ST. The chances of spending £20-30 million on all four of those positions is probably 0%.

Think a lot will depend on how well Xhaka plays, he’s been controlling games with ease in this tournament. If we can stifle that control and make him have an off game, we’ll win.

Around 10 successful defensive actions per90 is usually the norm when it comes to defensive midfielders, but after going through the leagues you do get the odd standouts, Palhinha in the Premier League being a good example. Florentino Luis comes in that bracket, crazy defensive statistics across the board.

Just adding some more statistics onto Finners post... Of midfielders in the Primeira Liga, he ranks... Accurate Forward Passes - 84.56%(Joint first) Accurate Passes To Final Third - 86.04%(4th) Accurate Progressive Passes - 80.57%(12th) Successful Defensive Actions per90 - 14.04 😳 (1st) Defensive Duels per90 - 9.82(3rd) Defensive Duels Won - 67.33%(3rd) He was linked with a potential loan move to the Premier League last season; however nothing materialised. After seeing links over the past week speaking of £25-30 million, I thought he’d be an unrealistic signing. But whatever happens, it’s good to see us getting linked to ball winning midfielders.

He did that in tweet form instead

Sam Matterface impregnating Natalie Sawyer is one of life’s greatest mysteries.

FFS I was hoping Southgate and The Tories would both be out this week. But at least one is better than none.