Foxes96 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 Heart wants Neres Head says Matheus is probably the sensible signing. Experience in the PL and another season in the championship, and should be relatively settled in the Midlands. Relatively cheap considering WBA’s relegation or could even maybe go with a loan with option/ obligation to buy. And provides more balance to our attack as a bit more of a creative technician, as opposed to a more direct Barnes on the other side. With good stats in a pretty poor side last year and decent defensive numbers as well. Also gives us another lefty and set piece options. Seems the sensible option with very few downsides, hope we are interested/ can get it done. Oh and he’s Brazilian 1
foxfan92 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 45 minutes ago, LeePhilpottsBaldSpot said: My only concern would be having too many 'first team' players! We already have 25 players who will all want to play more than they miss... challenge will be keeping players happy. I've listed the players by my perception of quality for each position... insane how much depth we have now. 2 GKs: Schmeichel, Ward 5 FBs: Ricardo, Justin, Castagne, Bertrand, Thomas 4 CBs: Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu, Amartey 7 CMs: Ndidi, Tielemans, Soumare, Praet, KdH, Mendy, Hamza 4 AMs: Barnes, Maddison, Perez, Albrighton, 3 FWs: Vardy, Daka, Nacho The balance does suggest a new CB and AM could be needed, at the expense of some CMs we seem to be stockpiling. I think we need to move Praet and Choudhury on before bringing in any more Prem first team level players. I like both, but they'll hardly play! In our 25 man squad we'll list 3 keepers, Jakupovic will be part of this squad. So that leaves us 22 spaces for outfield players. There is 23 in the list above so if we do sign a right winger and centre back (and assuming each of those we sign is over 21) we'll need to cut at least 3 from that list. I'd guess Amartey would be one, since he was overlooked so much the end of last season during our defensive issues. You could use the same logic to argue that Praet's time might be limited too (although I would quite like him as backup). If those 2 make way (if we do sign 2 more) you'd assume the last place at risk if Perez (although he might be seen as back up for Maddison in a more central position if he stays). I'm wondering if (still assuming we sign 2 more players) either Perez or Praet's places will be dependant on the preseason form of KDH? We've also got to remember (while unlikely to feature) Ghezzal is also in contention for a place. Rumour is he's likely to feature in today's friendly. Likely this is us playing mind games with the Turkish teams, to speed up his transfer, but it could also be Rodgers giving him one final chance to showcase his ability, and who knows, if he impresses, stranger things have happened....
An Sionnach Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 5 minutes ago, foxfan92 said: In our 25 man squad we'll list 3 keepers, Jakupovic will be part of this squad. So that leaves us 22 spaces for outfield players. There is 23 in the list above so if we do sign a right winger and centre back (and assuming each of those we sign is over 21) we'll need to cut at least 3 from that list. I'd guess Amartey would be one, since he was overlooked so much the end of last season during our defensive issues. You could use the same logic to argue that Praet's time might be limited too (although I would quite like him as backup). If those 2 make way (if we do sign 2 more) you'd assume the last place at risk if Perez (although he might be seen as back up for Maddison in a more central position if he stays). I'm wondering if (still assuming we sign 2 more players) either Perez or Praet's places will be dependant on the preseason form of KDH? We've also got to remember (while unlikely to feature) Ghezzal is also in contention for a place. Rumour is he's likely to feature in today's friendly. Likely this is us playing mind games with the Turkish teams, to speed up his transfer, but it could also be Rodgers giving him one final chance to showcase his ability, and who knows, if he impresses, stranger things have happened.... We have sold one player so far, Knight, a massive struggle to offload Ghezzal and no definite interest for any of our other players. If we sign any more , a fair few players won't make the squad. We may loan out a few but that will almost certainly mean subsidising pay. So you just can't keep adding players. Our wage bill will skyrocket at this rate.
CyprusFox Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 I see we're now 2-1 favourites with skybet to sign him.
ROB-THE-BLUE Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 1 minute ago, CyprusFox said: I see we're now 2-1 favourites with skybet to sign him. Probably because of the amount of bets placed by FT folk after what mightyfin said! 1 3
Deeg67 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 2 minutes ago, CyprusFox said: I see we're now 2-1 favourites with skybet to sign him. That and 280¥ will get you a tall drip at Starbucks.
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 (edited) Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? Edited 24 July 2021 by Steve Earle 1
Paninistickers Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 1 hour ago, LeePhilpottsBaldSpot said: My only concern would be having too many 'first team' players! We already have 25 players who will all want to play more than they miss... challenge will be keeping players happy. I've listed the players by my perception of quality for each position... insane how much depth we have now. 2 GKs: Schmeichel, Ward 5 FBs: Ricardo, Justin, Castagne, Bertrand, Thomas 4 CBs: Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu, Amartey 7 CMs: Ndidi, Tielemans, Soumare, Praet, KdH, Mendy, Hamza 4 AMs: Barnes, Maddison, Perez, Albrighton, 3 FWs: Vardy, Daka, Nacho The balance does suggest a new CB and AM could be needed, at the expense of some CMs we seem to be stockpiling. I think we need to move Praet and Choudhury on before bringing in any more Prem first team level players. I like both, but they'll hardly play! We have to balance the squad with English players too, right? For EL quotas? Which kinda elevates Hamza's and KDH's places more than it ordinarily would. Looking at that list, I'd look to prioritise offload on loan or by sale, Mendy (who I'd imagine would be quite in demand in France), Perez (lower half PL team, saints type team) Amartey (we're gonna lose him.for African nations anyway so we me as well get rid. Hopefully JJ will be back by January to be emergency Centre Half cover for the main three..) ...most sellable asset is prob Praet though. We could prob recoup the outlay on him 1
Deeg67 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 5 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? You can call him whatever you want but Pereira has played the majority of his games as a winger, more on the right than left. He may not be a pure head for the corner flag and wing in crosses guy like Jesus Navas or anything, but he's a wide attacking player and that's what we need. 4
The_77 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 6 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? What about any of that makes you feel deflated? 2
The_77 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 2 minutes ago, Deeg67 said: You can call him whatever you want but Pereira has played the majority of his games as a winger, more on the right than left. He may not be a pure head for the corner flag and wing in crosses guy like Jesus Navas or anything, but he's a wide attacking player and that's what we need. Especially a left-footed player on the right side who can take a deadly set piece and make killer passes! 1
TommyK Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 12 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? Sounds like the same sort of positions as Perez 1
North Leeds Fox Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 7 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? If anything that makes him more of a perfect player for us, the amount of times barnes was free but the right winger didn't have the ability to drift inside and put the ball in behind the defence was frustrating as they were right footed. Having a maverick drifting all over the place will only help us more and defence splitting passes from the right will only help us. Having him, maddison and barnes drifting all over with bertrand/Thomas and ricardo/castagne going around the outside of the inverted wingers will make us a nightmare to defend against. Especially with the movement from nacho/vardy/daka. 4
Foxxed Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 (edited) 40 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? Oh then he’s perfect. Perez - “Finally someone who can play on the wing.” And then... Under - “Great! A winger!” until the Turks inform us he really isn’t. Pereira - “Great. A winger.” Except he isn’t. We only picked up Mahrez by accident and Marc came on a free. And we trained Barnes to be a number 10 at the start. Aside from the miracle of Mahrez we don’t seem to recruit well for this position and I’m not for this is unintentional. Are we going to buy another attacking midfielder who drifts in and play him out of position on the wing? Why do we fail to buy actual wingers when, I can only assume, we want to play wingers? Edited 24 July 2021 by Foxxed 1
Guest Kopfkino Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 (edited) 40 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? This is sort of the role Perez was brought in for and that worked for a brief period so get someone good in there and it looks exciting. Sit just inside the right with Ricardo/Castagne high and wide. Barnes on the other side holding his width to run from outside to in from deep and we saw how well he worked with both Justin and Thomas on the underlap at times last season last season. Sounds dreamy to me, we don’t need an out and out winger, that’s what our right backs do so well Edited 24 July 2021 by Kopfkino
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 31 minutes ago, Deeg67 said: You can call him whatever you want but Pereira has played the majority of his games as a winger, more on the right than left. He may not be a pure head for the corner flag and wing in crosses guy like Jesus Navas or anything, but he's a wide attacking player and that's what we need. Exactly. He's not a traditional pace merchant winger but since the days of playing right footers on the left and left footers on the right cutting in it has opened up a new style of player who has the creativity of a central midfielder and the attacking prowess of a forward. Pereira is a playmaker type who presses well and will drift all over. He could fit in here. I like the option of Sowah as his back up with raw pace and direct play. 1
st albans fox Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 43 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? You make it sound like we’ve signed him!
foxfan92 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 1 hour ago, An Sionnach said: We have sold one player so far, Knight, a massive struggle to offload Ghezzal and no definite interest for any of our other players. If we sign any more , a fair few players won't make the squad. We may loan out a few but that will almost certainly mean subsidising pay. So you just can't keep adding players. Our wage bill will skyrocket at this rate. Kind of my point. I want us to sign a new fantastic right winger as much as the next fan, but my point was we've a number of players to somehow offload and it may mean making some difficult choices.
sacreblueits442 Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 44 minutes ago, Steve Earle said: Update from my Baggies supporting bestie. ‘He’s not a winger, not by any stretch. He can play wide right and wide left, and played wide right under Allardyce, but not as a winger, more drifting in, He’s best as a 10 or second striker, where he ripped up the Championship. Great set piece taker and as good as I’ve seen at defence splitting passes. He’s been brilliant for us and we wish him all the best.’ Dont know about the rest of you but I felt a tad deflated to hear that? ...that description does somewhat take away the vision of what could be, but he is so intelligent in his movements and will give us the opportunity to make the pitch bigger!!! I have no doubt that he can provide what we need to be more than effective in that position and in actuality, we are looking for a hybrid player in a sense, where he is the Right sided forward, as against the conventional Right Winger, which we have struggled to adequately source for some time. I would not be surprised if Rodger's becomes lucky again, and find he has unearthed a player which fits the puzzle. 1
MarriedaLeicesterGirl Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 1 hour ago, foxfan92 said: In our 25 man squad we'll list 3 keepers, Jakupovic will be part of this squad. So that leaves us 22 spaces for outfield players. There is 23 in the list above so if we do sign a right winger and centre back (and assuming each of those we sign is over 21) we'll need to cut at least 3 from that list. I'd guess Amartey would be one, since he was overlooked so much the end of last season during our defensive issues. You could use the same logic to argue that Praet's time might be limited too (although I would quite like him as backup). If those 2 make way (if we do sign 2 more) you'd assume the last place at risk if Perez (although he might be seen as back up for Maddison in a more central position if he stays). I'm wondering if (still assuming we sign 2 more players) either Perez or Praet's places will be dependant on the preseason form of KDH? We've also got to remember (while unlikely to feature) Ghezzal is also in contention for a place. Rumour is he's likely to feature in today's friendly. Likely this is us playing mind games with the Turkish teams, to speed up his transfer, but it could also be Rodgers giving him one final chance to showcase his ability, and who knows, if he impresses, stranger things have happened.... From what I have heard (and this is hearsay of hearsay), Ghezzal always impressed in training and just couldn't bring it to match day (of course, that was Puel training sessions.) As for team pruning: I can't see Ghezzal being on the books in two weeks, and Benko isn't ready (A year not playing in Belgium didn't improve him, no matter what some posters seem to think). He needs to go to a League 1 side where he is guaranteed playing time. I wonder about central midfield. My guess is Hamza will leave because he's worth the most money, but might stay due to EL considerations, which might see Mendy to France, but I wouldn't be surprised if both were moved on. I am not a Perez hater, but wouldn't mind seeing him moved on, but are there really any takers? I guess if we offered him to Everton at a loss, maybe? The did sign Gray, FFS. I see KDH and Sowah as new signings we would all be excited about if they had just been bought (given their performances last season), but are completely dismissive towards since they are our own loaned players.
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 (edited) Well, the usual kind of FT reaction! I suppose I’m glad so many engaged. Why a tad deflated? Because we’ve tried the not-quite-a-winger a couple of times and that hasn’t worked. And I’m still kind of hankering for a Harvey Barnes of the right. But if Pereira is as my pal describes, then there’s the mouthwatering prospect of him, Maddison & Barnes floating and interchanging behind the striker. With our other Periera overlapping on the right (or Castagne, plus our LBs), I think we’d have plenty of width in the team. For the avoidance of doubt, he’s still my first choice for the role. Edited 24 July 2021 by Steve Earle 2
Foxxed Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 If Pereira won’t provide width but will be another attacking midfielder how does he fit into the team? I’ve tried a couple of formations and I have no idea.
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 Just now, Foxxed said: If Pereira won’t provide width but will be another attacking midfielder how does he fit into the team? I’ve tried a couple of formations and I have no idea. He’s definitely a forward, not a midfielder. He’d start on the right of the 3 in a 4231. 3
KFS Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 2 minutes ago, Foxxed said: If Pereira won’t provide width but will be another attacking midfielder how does he fit into the team? I’ve tried a couple of formations and I have no idea. It’s then a 4-3-3 imo Barnes - Vardy/Daka - Pereira Tielemans Soumare Ndidi full backs provide the width.
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2021 Posted 24 July 2021 5 minutes ago, KFS said: It’s then a 4-3-3 imo Barnes - Vardy/Daka - Pereira Tielemans Soumare Ndidi full backs provide the width. That too!
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