CB Options

[hejammy]

Who would be your first choice CBs now Wes is back? Would having Cags and Fofana, 2 "front footed" CBs be too much of a risk? Would you play one of them with Amartey who's a bit more conservative and will hold back incase the other CB is too far forward? Will BR revert to a back 3/5?

Edited 8 March 2022 by hejammy

[Sampson]

Can’t see Fofana really being up to speed enough to start consistently until at least next season. Expect him to be in and out like Ricardo.

 

But assuming Fofana is close to being up to speed, it’s got to be him and Soyuncu really.

 

Amartey has been better than Soyuncu this season, but Soyuncu’s best is far better than Amartey’s best and you’d hope a settled back 4 could get Soyuncu back on track.

[indierich06]

I really hope Rodgers is sensible about this and limits his game time until the end of the season, we should be doing this with all players returning from injury - we want to go into next season with a fully fit squad, and there's very little left to play for now. Hopefully he learned his lesson with the Justin setback. Ideal pairing would be Soyuncu and Fofana for me, but more than happy to see Amartey in there for the forseeable.

[turlo]

Fofana needs some game time first but it's not going to be easy as you want stability across the back 4. Also how often have Cags/Big Dan and Fofana played together in a back 2? Little Wes was mainly playing with Evans in a two last season and both Cags and Wes could suffer from not having an experienced CB/leader like Evans along side them - Cags and Fofana together could be a complete bomb scare. 

[Big Dave]

24 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Can’t see Fofana really being up to speed enough to start consistently until at least next season. Expect him to be in and out like Ricardo.

 

But assuming Fofana is close to being up to speed, it’s got to be him and Soyuncu really.

 

Amartey has been better than Soyuncu this season, but Soyuncu’s best is far better than Amartey’s best and you’d hope a settled back 4 could get Soyuncu back on track.

Agree - I think Soyuncu just needs the right partner.

[CloudFox]

1 minute ago, turlo said:

Fofana needs some game time first but it's not going to be easy as you want stability across the back 4. Also how often have Cags/Big Dan and Fofana played together in a back 2? Little Wes was mainly playing with Evans in a two last season and both Cags and Wes could suffer from not having an experienced CB/leader like Evans along side them - Cags and Fofana together could be a complete bomb scare. 

Agreed, I think you need one of them sitting and one of them on the front foot. Cags and Little Wes are both front-foot defenders, so either they need to have the discipline to take it in turns or we need Evans/Amartey paired with one of them.

 

If we could get Cags and Little Wes to work well together though? Phwoar.

[hejammy]

2 minutes ago, turlo said:

Fofana needs some game time first but it's not going to be easy as you want stability across the back 4. Also how often have Cags/Big Dan and Fofana played together in a back 2? Little Wes was mainly playing with Evans in a two last season and both Cags and Wes could suffer from not having an experienced CB/leader like Evans along side them - Cags and Fofana together could be a complete bomb scare. 

This was my after thought too, initially I thought it would be amazing to see them both, but like you said it could be a bomb scare - they both like to push forward, be aggressive in the tackle and sometimes be overly rash. Which then leaves space in behind, when both were playing with Evans, he was the calming influence and mopped up any "errors" Wes/Cags made from jumping in or stepping out too far. When you think about it, it's actually a tough decision and then you add the fact that Wes needs to be careful not to get injured again it becomes even tougher.

[coolhandfox]

More then anything it will be nice to have options, Soyuncu has already played 34 games this season, with at minimum another 15 games to go. 

 

He could do with a rest before we have another broken CB 

[Wolfox]

On form (assuming Wes hits his straps) it’s Amartey and Wes

 

On potential it’s Wes and Soyuncu

[turlo]

11 minutes ago, hejammy said:

This was my after thought too, initially I thought it would be amazing to see them both, but like you said it could be a bomb scare - they both like to push forward, be aggressive in the tackle and sometimes be overly rash. Which then leaves space in behind, when both were playing with Evans, he was the calming influence and mopped up any "errors" Wes/Cags made from jumping in or stepping out too far. When you think about it, it's actually a tough decision and then you add the fact that Wes needs to be careful not to get injured again it becomes even tougher.

Looking at the fixture list there's no easy/low key games coming up where you could throw Wes into with either Cags or Big Dan. Maybe if we're comfortably winning a game with 20 mins to go he could come in but still risky given our poor record of seeing out games this season. I suspect Rodgers will only throw Wes in if  Cags & Big Dan have a shocker or one of them gets injured. 

[He aint bald]

First choice pairing, 

Fofana till 2027 or his agreed move to where ever.

Phase out Cags or get our confident Lord Farquhar back and signed up to 2027.

Rotation

Evans can be our new latter day Big Wes, if we can hide his bloody passport.

A.N Other to be bedded in.

Amartey to be the new defensive Albrighton. The 15 year old Acer laptop you fall back on every time the new high spec monstrosity crashes.

Justin, too many full backs to use, he can rotate

 

[Guest Basildon Fox]

Nobody has any idea of how quick Wes will get up to speed.  He is young so his body will heal quickly and his core fitness should not take too long.  I can see him being back regularly by the start of April.

[hejammy]

6 minutes ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Nobody has any idea of how quick Wes will get up to speed.  He is young so his body will heal quickly and his core fitness should not take too long.  I can see him being back regularly by the start of April.

You could say that about JJ also but he's picked up another injury. You just never know. Also the point is who would you pair him with if he was to become a regular?

[Unabomber]

If they are all fit then it’s Amartey and Fofana 

[Sampson]

nevermind.

Edited 8 March 2022 by Sampson

[Supergray22]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

Can’t see Fofana really being up to speed enough to start consistently until at least next season. Expect him to be in and out like Ricardo.

 

But assuming Fofana is close to being up to speed, it’s got to be him and Soyuncu really.

 

Amartey has been better than Soyuncu this season, but Soyuncu’s best is far better than Amartey’s best and you’d hope a settled back 4 could get Soyuncu back on track.

This is exactly what I would have said but damn you beat me to it. It was the villareal game that convinced me of this. I was sceptical before thinking we needed someone like evans alongside one of the other two. That night it clicked and I was about to lump some money on a title win when up stepped Fer Nino. Ba….d.
 

Fofana will have setbacks. Almost inevitable. If he doesn’t he really is the messiah. 

[Strokes]

20 minutes ago, Unabomber said:

If they are all fit then it’s Amartey and Fofana 

Absolutely, Soyunchu should be marginally above Vestergard in the pecking order.

[Stadt]

Fofana and Soyuncu are too similar in style, together they're too aggressive so they make a bad pairing. Fofana and Amartey would be my choice.

[Steve Earle]

Evans plus one, Fofana or Soyuncu 

[hejammy]

1 minute ago, Steve Earle said:

Evans plus one, Fofana or Soyuncu 

I don't think we're gonna see Evans anytime soon unfortunately. 

[Steve Earle]

1 minute ago, hejammy said:

I don't think we're gonna see Evans anytime soon unfortunately. 

Maybe not, but if all our CBs were available…

[sacreblueits442]

19 hours ago, Stadt said:

Fofana and Soyuncu are too similar in style, together they're too aggressive so they make a bad pairing. Fofana and Amartey would be my choice.

...you would think that Soyuncu could be the one who learns to sit while Fofana attempts to step in and win the ball!!!

  Conversely Fofana may come back as a more defensive player and look to take control of the backline. What we do have is two very good players capable of playing at the highest level, we can make it work. 

[HybridFox]

Vestergaard and Fofana would be...interesting 

[hackneyfox]

22 hours ago, indierich06 said:

, and there's very little left to play for now. 

Just a European trophy and the chance of qualifying for next season's Europa and a decent top half finish.

[surrifox]

15 minutes ago, hackneyfox said:

Just a European trophy and the chance of qualifying for next season's Europa and a decent top half finish.

Plus all the extra quids that each place in the table delivers