Levi Colwill

[urban.spaceman]

10 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yeah but unfortunately Rodgers is utterly abysmal at coaching an attacking 352. He's shown no evidence of understanding the patterns of play necessary to make that work in a creative sense.

That's the spirit

[An Sionnach]

19 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

That’s 21 yr old Lewis Brunt who couldn’t get a game for Gloucester compared to Levi Colwill whose England under 21 capped and had a season of second tier football. Throw in Brunt counts to the PL squad as erll

Colwill is not Fofana and whether at this moment in time is a better prospect than Brunt is open to debate. Give your own young players a chance first should be our policy if we want to improve our finances. We have five Cbs so unless we have another fitness disaster or in the very unlikely event somebody leaves we don't need another.

[Finnegan]

9 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I'm convinced they'll never fully go bust. There's always a safety net once you hit a certain size.

 

What is quite something though is that the signings they've made hardly look like a side planning for the future. It's just more short-termism.

 

Quite incredible what a joke of a club they are now mind. Mes que un club  

 

What's really fascinating looking at Barcelona is that they're an interesting reflection of the pitfalls of how democracy works these days in our wider society. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much pro-democracy and I can't think of a fairer way to run a country or institution, but we do have a problem in Western civilization where by none of our political parties want to take any risks or commit to "short term pain for long term gain" because they're all just obsessively focused on the next election and making sure they get in/stay in power.

 

FCB are going very much the same way, Laporta has been elected campaigning on this mission to rescue the club and bring back the glory days. Now what he should be doing is drastically reducing the wage bill and tapping in to the true old spirit of Mes Que Un Club, looking to build a team of young Catalan youths from La Masia, taught from a young age to play the Barcelona way. The real irony of course being that it's Laporta that oversaw this revolution the last time they got in a mess and had to go back to basics, bin off the stars, trust the youth and take a chance on a young Pep Guardiola.

 

But this time he's looking like every other populist political party in every Western democracy, floundering around looking for short term success to appease the voting base and assure himself a career. Going for bust, selling off parts of the club, spending themselves in to a further and further debt to buy players with literally fvck all resale value because they're all either peaking or declining and going hugely boom-or-bust. And for what? Even if they win La Liga this year, so what? 

 

Really looks like the most appallingly run club in the world at the moment but he just won't risk dropping them out of the title race for a few seasons in Spain in order to truly rebuild because he knows he'll be facing no confidence votes again in his career if he does.

[Ric Flair]

5 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Colwill is not Fofana and whether at this moment in time is a better prospect than Brunt is open to debate. Give your own young players a chance first should be our policy if we want to improve our finances. We have five Cbs so unless we have another fitness disaster or in the very unlikely event somebody leaves we don't need another.

I'm all for giving our academy players a chance and Ben Nelson would be ahead of Brunt if so and possibly comparable to Colwill in development but a year or two behind. Colwill is the real deal, are you not impressed by him? 

[Diffco]

30 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I don't disagree with any of that. 

 

I'm saying that a back up left winger is a low priority for us when you consider the rest of the squad and the fact that we aren't likely to see many new signings this year. 

 

Especially given that, when we first signed Lookman, most of us thought potential fee of about 15m sounded cheap. Where as now I think the context has changed slightly and, to be honest, I'd say that now sounds a little bit more than he's probably worth given fees have dropped in general this window, lots of players are moving around for free, we don't have a great deal to spend and we're really having to juggle the assets we already have under contract. 

 

I do agree with you too haha, sorry I didn't read all of your comment before I replied! 

 

I think if we can shift some deadwood - Perez, Vesty, Bertrand (somehow), Praet. Then he'd be a good option once we can reinforce RW and potentially CB. I thought Soumare was worth shipping out too but these last two games it appears as if something has clicked with him, maybe he's playing for a move but he looks a lot better than he has done previously. 

[Finnegan]

10 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

That's the spirit

 

Eh, jokes aside though it's true isn't it. When he uses a 433, 4141 or 4231 he's got us playing some absolutely delightful passing combinations that are clearly practiced. The combinations between each 'wide' central midfielder and the 'winger' and wing back in his 433 is a particular delight. Whether it's Soumare, Tielemans, Maddison or KDH in that sort of 'mezzala' role shuffling up the half-flank spaces out wide, they have some absolutely fantastic link up play that's really gotten the best out of a number of our players.

 

As soon as we line up with some sort of three-at-the-back system, though, we absolutely don't have a clue. Don't get me wrong, he seems to know how to implement it as a low blocking, counter-attacking system and he's put it to good use in some key away wins. But we're never going to look like, say, peak Atalanta doing it.

[Dahnsouff]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

What's really fascinating looking at Barcelona is that they're an interesting reflection of the pitfalls of how democracy works these days in our wider society. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much pro-democracy and I can't think of a fairer way to run a country or institution, but we do have a problem in Western civilization where by none of our political parties want to take any risks or commit to "short term pain for long term gain" because they're all just obsessively focused on the next election and making sure they get in/stay in power.

 

FCB are going very much the same way, Laporta has been elected campaigning on this mission to rescue the club and bring back the glory days. Now what he should be doing is drastically reducing the wage bill and tapping in to the true old spirit of Mes Que Un Club, looking to build a team of young Catalan youths from La Masia, taught from a young age to play the Barcelona way. The real irony of course being that it's Laporta that oversaw this revolution the last time they got in a mess and had to go back to basics, bin off the stars, trust the youth and take a chance on a young Pep Guardiola.

 

But this time he's looking like every other populist political party in every Western democracy, floundering around looking for short term success to appease the voting base and assure himself a career. Going for bust, selling off parts of the club, spending themselves in to a further and further debt to buy players with literally fvck all resale value because they're all either peaking or declining and going hugely boom-or-bust. And for what? Even if they win La Liga this year, so what? 

 

Really looks like the most appallingly run club in the world at the moment but he just won't risk dropping them out of the title race for a few seasons in Spain in order to truly rebuild because he knows he'll be facing no confidence votes again in his career if he does.

 Spot on

[An Sionnach]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

I'm all for giving our academy players a chance and Ben Nelson would be ahead of Brunt if so and possibly comparable to Colwill in development but a year or two behind. Colwill is the real deal, are you not impressed by him? 

He is highly promising , but I could not see Rodgers playing a 19 yo and a 21 yo as CBs in a PL match. If he did come he would only be an understudy to Fofana. Rodgers is no risk taker as you know so the lad would be benched most of the season. If I were him I would wait my turn at Chelsea. They may loan him out again to keep him playing and at his age he has plenty of time.

[urban.spaceman]

11 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yeah but unfortunately Rodgers is utterly abysmal at coaching an attacking 352. He's shown no evidence of understanding the patterns of play necessary to make that work in a creative sense.

 

1 minute ago, Finnegan said:

 

Eh, jokes aside though it's true isn't it. When he uses a 433, 4141 or 4231 he's got us playing some absolutely delightful passing combinations that are clearly practiced. The combinations between each 'wide' central midfielder and the 'winger' and wing back in his 433 is a particular delight. Whether it's Soumare, Tielemans, Maddison or KDH in that sort of 'mezzala' role shuffling up the half-flank spaces out wide, they have some absolutely fantastic link up play that's really gotten the best out of a number of our players.

 

As soon as we line up with some sort of three-at-the-back system, though, we absolutely don't have a clue. Don't get me wrong, he seems to know how to implement it as a low blocking, counter-attacking system and he's put it to good use in some key away wins. But we're never going to look like, say, peak Atalanta doing it.

Looking at last season we played 3-5-2 7 times; won 3 vs Moscow, Man Utd and Millwall, drew twice vs Moscow and Chelsea, lost twice to Legia Warsaw and Spurs... transfermarkt claims we played 3-1-4-2 vs Spurs and Everton which we lost both and 3-4-1-2 vs Brentford (won) and Chelsea (lost). 

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leicester-city/spielplan/verein/1003/plus/0?saison_id=2021

 

Last season is a bit of a harsh one to judge him by considering the injury crisis we had IMO.

 

20/21 is somewhat different with 3 at the back:

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leicester-city/spielplan/verein/1003/plus/0?saison_id=2020

 

 

[coolhandfox]

1 minute ago, Finnegan said:

 

Eh, jokes aside though it's true isn't it. When he uses a 433, 4141 or 4231 he's got us playing some absolutely delightful passing combinations that are clearly practiced. The combinations between each 'wide' central midfielder and the 'winger' and wing back in his 433 is a particular delight. Whether it's Soumare, Tielemans, Maddison or KDH in that sort of 'mezzala' role shuffling up the half-flank spaces out wide, they have some absolutely fantastic link up play that's really gotten the best out of a number of our players.

 

As soon as we line up with some sort of three-at-the-back system, though, we absolutely don't have a clue. Don't get me wrong, he seems to know how to implement it as a low blocking, counter-attacking system and he's put it to good use in some key away wins. But we're never going to look like, say, peak Atalanta doing it.

I find it interesting that none of our current fullbacks seem to excel as wingbacks, even Ricardo.

 

I think if you want a 3 back to work well you are better to convert wingers to play as wingbacks, as the attacking side of the roll is more important than the defending element.

 

Thinking back to O'Neill days, Guppy, Impey, or like when Conte converted Moses.

 

Watching ours it is like they are still playing in the mindset of traditional full-backs 

 

[JimJams]

Conte will be going likeminded having Perisic on the left and apparently entertaining the idea of Kulusevski at RWB to fit Richarlison into a front 3.

[Finnegan]

7 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

 

Looking at last season we played 3-5-2 7 times; won 3 vs Moscow, Man Utd and Millwall, drew twice vs Moscow and Chelsea, lost twice to Legia Warsaw and Spurs... transfermarkt claims we played 3-1-4-2 vs Spurs and Everton which we lost both and 3-4-1-2 vs Brentford (won) and Chelsea (lost). 

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leicester-city/spielplan/verein/1003/plus/0?saison_id=2021

 

Last season is a bit of a harsh one to judge him by considering the injury crisis we had IMO.

 

20/21 is somewhat different with 3 at the back:

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leicester-city/spielplan/verein/1003/plus/0?saison_id=2020

 

 

 

I'm not saying we've had no success with it, I've literally just said the opposite in fact, I'm saying he doesn't really seem to know how to coach a 3xCB shape to play his desired 'style' of football. We play much more negatively when he swaps us to a 352, look at those away wins against Leeds and Man City in the 20/21 season. They were both really good performances, to us as fans they resembled that rapid Leicester counter attacking that we like to see and those games were good to watch, sure, but we had about 20% possession and spent most of those games low blocking. That's fine if you're playing a side like Man City or Leeds that will throw the kitchen sink at you with a very high line but it's not really productive against most of the league and it isn't Rodgers' preferred approach. That's why there's been objectively more turgid, slow, frustrating performances with 3atb than the alternative and thus why @Mark has a stroke every time we line up that way.

 

 

6 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

I find it interesting that none of our current fullbacks seem to excel as wingbacks, even Ricardo.

 

I think if you want a 3 back to work well you are better to convert wingers to play as wingbacks, as the attacking side of the roll is more important than the defending element.

 

Thinking back to O'Neill days, Guppy, Impey, or like when Conte converted Moses.

 

Watching ours it is like they are still playing in the mindset of traditional full-backs 

 

 

For me a large part of this is tactical and a reflection of what I'm saying above - I really don't think Rodgers has a very good handle on how to coach it. Watch our wing backs when we do play 352, they're never given the same trust to truly commit to attacking that they need to be in order to really shine. You watch managers that thrive with a 352 system and you'll find that their wing backs are some of the stand outs on show, look at the plaudits that guys like Goosens pick up for their play, he's nearly always getting to the byline or getting in and around the box. Our wing backs are almost never allowed to progress that far up the pitch under Rodgers. The only one we've seen come close is JJ and it's hard to tell whether or not that's because he just simply goes regardless or whether Rodgers just trusts him more because of his pace.

 

Castagne in particular it's evident with, we know he's capable, he came from probably the best attacking 352/343 merchants in Europe under Gasperini, he's well used to getting far in to the attacking third and he actually does when he's playing as an overlapping full back. As soon as he plays for us as a wingback in a 352 he seems almost anchored at the halfway line and it's bizarre. 

[Foxes96]

44 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

What's really fascinating looking at Barcelona is that they're an interesting reflection of the pitfalls of how democracy works these days in our wider society. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much pro-democracy and I can't think of a fairer way to run a country or institution, but we do have a problem in Western civilization where by none of our political parties want to take any risks or commit to "short term pain for long term gain" because they're all just obsessively focused on the next election and making sure they get in/stay in power.

 

FCB are going very much the same way, Laporta has been elected campaigning on this mission to rescue the club and bring back the glory days. Now what he should be doing is drastically reducing the wage bill and tapping in to the true old spirit of Mes Que Un Club, looking to build a team of young Catalan youths from La Masia, taught from a young age to play the Barcelona way. The real irony of course being that it's Laporta that oversaw this revolution the last time they got in a mess and had to go back to basics, bin off the stars, trust the youth and take a chance on a young Pep Guardiola.

 

But this time he's looking like every other populist political party in every Western democracy, floundering around looking for short term success to appease the voting base and assure himself a career. Going for bust, selling off parts of the club, spending themselves in to a further and further debt to buy players with literally fvck all resale value because they're all either peaking or declining and going hugely boom-or-bust. And for what? Even if they win La Liga this year, so what? 

 

Really looks like the most appallingly run club in the world at the moment but he just won't risk dropping them out of the title race for a few seasons in Spain in order to truly rebuild because he knows he'll be facing no confidence votes again in his career if he does.

Spot on.
 

The most bizarre aspect for me is it’s not like they don’t have talent coming through their academy. They have Gavi, Pedri and Fati who look like some of the most talented players of their generation.
 

Add to that other talented young players they had in their side prior to this summer Ie. Arujo, de jong, Dembele, Garcia and Ferran Torres there really is no need to keep splurging on other players. They should have focused on building around their talented youth. 

[MPH]

 

I’m just pleased Chelsea didn’t come in for Fofana to help fill their gaps at the back.

[ronnup]

4 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

I’m just pleased Chelsea didn’t come in for Fofana to help fill their gaps at the back.

Yet....

[Finnegan]

6 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

I’m just pleased Chelsea didn’t come in for Fofana to help fill their gaps at the back.

 

He just signed a five year contract, I'm not sure a club on the planet has the spare cash to worry us right now on Fofana. Who gives a shit if they "come in for him", the answer would be no.

[MPH]

5 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

He just signed a five year contract, I'm not sure a club on the planet has the spare cash to worry us right now on Fofana. Who gives a shit if they "come in for him", the answer would be no.

 

I always get concerned that players of his caliber would only sign an extension on the basis of a champions league release clause. I know we got burnt with that with Kante  and vowed not to go down that route, but it still concerns me!

[Finnegan]

4 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

I always get concerned that players of his caliber would only sign an extension on the basis of a champions league release clause. I know we got burnt with that with Kante  and vowed not to go down that route, but it still concerns me!

 

I'd imagine if that was a major feature of his contract we've know about it by now.

[JimJams]

40 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Who gives a shit if they "come in for him", the answer would be no.

I've a feeling it might be more "have you got £100mill? If not, piss off" but no is an option.

[Dan]

3 hours ago, Finnegan said:

What's really fascinating looking at Barcelona is that they're an interesting reflection of the pitfalls of how democracy works these days in our wider society. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much pro-democracy and I can't think of a fairer way to run a country or institution, but we do have a problem in Western civilization where by none of our political parties want to take any risks or commit to "short term pain for long term gain" because they're all just obsessively focused on the next election and making sure they get in/stay in power.

 

FCB are going very much the same way, Laporta has been elected campaigning on this mission to rescue the club and bring back the glory days. Now what he should be doing is drastically reducing the wage bill and tapping in to the true old spirit of Mes Que Un Club, looking to build a team of young Catalan youths from La Masia, taught from a young age to play the Barcelona way. The real irony of course being that it's Laporta that oversaw this revolution the last time they got in a mess and had to go back to basics, bin off the stars, trust the youth and take a chance on a young Pep Guardiola.

 

But this time he's looking like every other populist political party in every Western democracy, floundering around looking for short term success to appease the voting base and assure himself a career. Going for bust, selling off parts of the club, spending themselves in to a further and further debt to buy players with literally fvck all resale value because they're all either peaking or declining and going hugely boom-or-bust. And for what? Even if they win La Liga this year, so what? 

 

Really looks like the most appallingly run club in the world at the moment but he just won't risk dropping them out of the title race for a few seasons in Spain in order to truly rebuild because he knows he'll be facing no confidence votes again in his career if he does.

Yep totally agree with all of this. Remember reading something similar a few years ago about the Turkish league and how the big clubs over there are all the same, all get presidents who constantly cower to the short-term demands of the baying fans and it's made me for years think how there's surely a gap in that league for a smarter, less established club to clean up.

 

I remember reading something as well about Marseille & Lyon, how Lyon used being a smaller, lesser football city to their advantage. Basically Marseille caved in similarly in the way they do in Turkey (and are doing at Barcelona who are essentially Fenerbahce on steroids at this point) whilst Lyon were able to grow the club more organically under far less scrutiny and pressure, able to make longer term decisions without the backlash and it lead to a period of dominance.

 

it's quite incredible that Laporta is overseeing this. I thought Laporta coming in was going to change their direction but they've gone even further the other way if anything. I hope they fail miserably but I've no doubt if they do they'll get away with it as per.

[smudger63]

2 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

I'd imagine if that was a major feature of his contract we've know about it by now.

More to the point, depending on any price we've put on any possible champions league clause, if there is one, I think he would have already been snapped up by now. The fact he hasn't been, to me at least, says that even he hasn't got such a clause, or if has, the price has been set so high as to put off some big hitters already.

[KingsX]

9 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

There is also talk of them pulling their third lever which involves selling a percentage of future merchandising. This is madness, and for a club run by socio's (Those are fans who buy tokens to own part of the club, not a bunch of nutters) it seems unbelievable that they would so readily sell their future to continue this disgusting push for big name transfers.

 

Because of this structure, Barca are run by politicians, not business people.  And this is their whole problem.

 

There are candidates in every election for club president who propose a sane, sustainable way forward.  Which necessarily involves short term pain for long term success.  And they get destroyed every time because the socios, like the mass of voters in any election, vote for having their cake and eating it too.

 

The presidents voted in, like any politicians, spend like drunken sailors on shiny toys. and when their term runs out (or the mess gets so huge they are run out), they leave the mess for the next guy.

 

Who is always the guy who promises he can clean up the finances AND win La Liga the next season.

 

IMO Barca's only chance to avoid bankruptcy is a revived ESL (or a Champions League changed to be very much like it).

[TommyK]

9 hours ago, An Sionnach said:

Colwill is not Fofana and whether at this moment in time is a better prospect than Brunt is open to debate. Give your own young players a chance first should be our policy if we want to improve our finances. We have five Cbs so unless we have another fitness disaster or in the very unlikely event somebody leaves we don't need another.

Brunt isn't even a center back. What are you talking about?

[Ric Flair]

8 hours ago, TommyK said:

Brunt isn't even a center back. What are you talking about?

Yes he is

[JimJams]

He's thinking of Chris Brunt!