Spiller86

Terrible shame really. That f**king friendly in the US was a disaster and arguably ended his career with us. For 2 months he looked to be on his way to being one of the best around. CHO and RLC, could have been elite but injuries ended that for them inside a month of each other. I agree with @goosethat I hope he can have a great career somewhere else in the top flight. For mine he will be a player who needs a system built around him. Needs to be the 10.

I think what separates Mount and CHO is attitude. Mount gives his all without the ball making him a great fit for our team regardless of his attacking outlet. CHO sadly doesn't really seem to work off the ball. That's fine if you have great attacking output but he doesn't. I suspect the knee injury ruined his x factor. My preference would be to keep him because I think he fills the HG criteria and will grow to be better. For me it remains a test. The standard now will go up. The test for CHO is whether he can drive himself to a higher standard to compete or whether he is happy to take his

He's 26? Had an ordinary season this season but has been great otherwise despite being shuffled around to fill holes in the Atleti lineup over the last 3 seasons.

It's a fair question SC. I think he is precisely the profile we are looking for in terms of that energy level but also with a much stronger passing game than he has ever been called upon to use for Atleti. 2020 I suspect was a very tough year on the Spanish footballers in particular and Saul seems to have been very involved around the COVID fight and recovery in Madrid. I think a change could be very good for him and if he comes at a reduced price as a result he could be a huge signing. A Kante, Saul midfield left and right footed combination, one pressing and one covering would be

Spot on. Key to any new midfield signing is the ability to cover ground quickly either to press or cover behind the press.

I also like Ampadu especially now we are playing with three at the back again. I still think that Gilmour's physical game remains the bit question mark.

I think largely this is how it works now. It flicks between a 3-5-2 and a 3-4-3 depending on the stage in game. I'd suspect this is why they are interested in Traore who could transform the formation into a 4-3-3 with Dave sliding out to RB. We've seen before with Conte that eventually teams work you out and you have to adjust and tweak your approach to keep winning or keep buying better players. I'm sure this is what Tuchel is doing over the summer is understanding where we need to go next and what the squad needs to look like to enable that.

I think largely this is how it works now. It flicks between a 3-5-2 and a 3-4-3 depending on the stage in game. I'd suspect this is why they are interested in Traore who could transform the formation into a 4-3-3 with Dave sliding out to RB. We've seen before with Conte that eventually teams work you out and you have to adjust and tweak your approach to keep winning or keep buying better players. I'm sure this is what Tuchel is doing over the summer is understanding where we need to go next and what the squad needs to look like to enable that.

Yes indeed. Oh for Bayern's recruiting approach. I think Rice will be a good addition but I'm not sure he is the answer to our midfield issues. I do think our midfield maybe needs a bit more of an all round spark than a dedicated holder and distributor like Rice. But we shall see what happens.

Very tough call for us. My feeling is that a new striker would be great, but we're better sticking with what we have rather than buying dross. Lots of hype on Haaland but I am always worried about strikers who score lots of their goals by running in behind and finishing without pressure. As we've seen with Werner that doesn't always translate as well in England. You look at Kane or Aguero and how many they score through clever positioning inside the box. That for me is key.

Both stories are sourced from the same Daily Mail story. I think in terms of sources they are probably the least accurate going round. I'd imagine we would want to keep Pulisic. He's an excellent player (although not a perfect fit for the Tuchel system). We would also be silly to remove him purely from the free media he provides in the US market. He'd have to push hard to leave and having just won a Champions League, why would he?

Great news. Conte would make them a force again. Hope he doesn't end up at Arsenal now.

Not done yet, but he is definitely a Bayern style player. The next in a line of very good players who have more to give than their club requires of them who move to Bayern and become world beaters. Haha, thanks for the ping. It's a funny one, Atleti were amazing and he did his usual role for them filling whatever hole was needed without being outstanding. I think he played 5 different positions across the season. Personally I think he has so much more to give than what has been required of him at Atleti. I wouldn't say that. Certainly has been used for Spain in a Jorginho role

Yeah the knock on Frank (which was untrue) was that he just scored tap-ins and penalties where Scholes and Gerrard were more complete. Mount's workrate without the ball is something else. He probably has a bit of work to do to score more and defend better in deeper spots to become truly elite but he's certainly on his way. Streets ahead in terms of consistency of other young midfielders too. Imagine if RLC had his consistency or workrate 😔

It's a fine sight indeed. Lucky we bottled those three FA Cup finals in the past five years otherwise we wouldn't have been able to fit them all on one page 😉