venom2011

Firstly, If you can show us where Osimhen earns €144K gross, even on Capology, I'll send you an I <3 Enzo Maresca t-shirt. Even net, as 20% tax on his £340k/week wage gets him £272k. Secondly, his wage at Gala is irrelevant. The move would have been Napoli - Chelsea and you think a player is taking a 50% wage cut in a big transfer to Chelsea? Half of City's higher-wage signings since '23 have been dross as well. In a muppet's head every big signing that never happened would've been a success. Without cooking the books do you think they could easily cover those cracks with a Semenyo signing? But hey...presto...

Does it matter that Estevao is a €50m squad player? No. He is a fantastic purchase. You judge on current ability, potential, and fit - not your expectations being met. Im sure everyone is well aware of why the Brighton approach works at Brighton - again an irrelevant argument. This model, while having similarities, is tweaked. Brighton don't spend 100m on a Caicedo. Why don't we spend 500m of the transfer budget on an inflated wage structure? Here you go: We rank 5th in revenue (PL teams). With the PSR reality, we are already more restricted. Given the above, Osimhen not working for us is a lot worse than Osimhen not working at Man Utd where the PSR hit can be more easily absorbed. You pay Osimhen 275k a week, Palmer wants that, Caicedo wants that etc etc - and rightfully so. Suddenly 25% of your wage structure increase is absorbed internally at no additional benefit to the club. Teams who spend more on wages don't bat a higher average of player success. We saw this first-hand under Roman. So if you took at arbitrary success rate of 30%, you are really chaining yourself at high wage structures. What you are seeing now has never been done before. You are welcome to your opinion and of course not be in favour of the model, but you do not have presedence to call upon. Chelsea's competitive advantage in bridging revenue/PSR gaps has always been player trading. We had a high volume loan system and sold exceptionally well pre Blueco. This model doubles down on that. Lastly, functionally - a lot of what they're doing is the best way to do it given our situation. Being able to easily rid yourself of Garnacho and Delap next season is a strength. That's not to say there aren't problems or mistakes being made. We sure could use a smattering of quality in key areas to push us up another level. Wharton, Guehi, and hell - bringing in both Emegha and Panichelli next season would require no wage structure adjustments

Their current status is irrelevant. They are good buys based on their quality, potential and cost. Also, that supposed brief is not accurate and I'm saying that as someone without any loyalty to the ownership group. You cannot sign the very best young talents with the wage structure we have. You're also competing against the biggest clubs in the world as all squads swing towards younger demos. The model greatly intrigued me because of the potential to compete without having the revenue streams of Man Utd, Liverpool etc. But whether they could build a Brighton 2.0 that could challenge for top honours was the big question. I'd also argue this team is a fair bit closer to the title than the one they inherited. We have 4 players who are world class - I'd actually argue 5 if Lavia could stay fit - and a couple who could join them with the right development and some luck. The 2022 squad was dire.

Olise and Huijsen would have been here if not for competitor interest. Likely Raphinha, Barcola, Doue, Hakimi as well. I think the only real miss there is Ekitike. Estevao, Palmer, Caicedo, Lavia, Santos are all great buys imo (playing time/injuries aside). I think Penders, Essugo and Hato will turn out good as well. And I really don't mind Neto, Gusto, and Joao Pedro. Still some gaping holes though.

He'll have my support as long as I don't see Gusto and Cucurella behind the striker...

Mentioned on a YouTube clip by a moron and now stated as fact.

Fair points. However, I will say that any screams of players being sh*t are devoid of larger system-tactical context. I have to remind myself of this as well before my head explodes. Gusto hasn't looked great, but we are asking a flying fullback to drift into midfield. Hato is not a CB. James can do a great job anywhere but use him at CB or CM for a time and you'll notice the little inefficiencies. Enzo's been poor for some time, but put a proper midfield structure (any two of Caicedo,Lavia, Santos, Essugo) behind him and who knows. Similarly, because of the midfield structure, Palmer drops deeper and deeper to try to impact the game - someone who was the best right-sided attacker in the league in his debut season and who destroyed PSG from that very position. I don't think a new manager would magically fix everything but Enzo has needed to adapt for some time and simply hasn't.

Something must have changed. I don't think things just unravel over the course of a few weeks based past windows. My guess is that regardless of what he said in public, in Enzo's head the team performance always came with an asterisk because of squad profiling and injury issues. Suddenly someone (Egbhali) starts putting the majority of the blame on the coaches and that's that.

The problem there, is under this manager/system Palmer will be hugging the line and Gusto drifting into midfield...

Not that I disagree but the whole attack is a bit disjointed so I can't be too harsh on him. Plays as a 9 and he gets no service. Gittens, Garnacho, Enzo, Buonanotte have largely been poor in open play - Estevao and Neto have been decent. Plays as a 10 and he's had to feed Tyrique mostly. Plus carrying some niggles and maybe some fatigue. Look at Wirtz - he hasn't been great but he has had some good moments. Again, the problem is that attack is so disjointed right now.

Definitely rough around the edges but similarly I've wanted him to see more minutes because his off the ball movement is quite good, and he always puts in a shift. Someone like that will always be a handful. Unfortunately for him Delap is a slightly more refined (as of now) version so his pathway is a bit murky but who knows...

I once buttered two slices of bread at the same time using a long angled spatula.

The 'reality'...is that you can both enjoy a win and be critical of performances. No one needs to appreciate football with blinkers on.

Completely agree. He's been a considerable weak link to our general play, and that's how you'll end up 3-0 down at half time against a good team while the G/A fawners are confused as to wtf happened. Either hiding or wasteful in progression or a complete liability in transition. Of course his work near the box has some value as the new signings are still settling, but Maresca needs to consider a more balanced profile like Santos.

If you need sofascore to tell you how well someone played then you've already lost half the battle... A player can make a great contribution without hitting the key attributes that influence their algorithm.

It's fine to disagree. But my point isn't made without some consideration. And no its not new to him, he played in midfield and few times at academy level, a lot at Wigan, and here. Palmer, Gusto, Cucurella, Caicedo, Sanchez, Colwill, were great. Pedro and Enzo made so many brilliant off-the-ball runs and were pivotal to all the good stuff going forward. That doesn't leave many players to be considered as the weakest contributor. We defended with a low mid block for large periods - the midfield had good protection. Hence, even with 33% possession, James only made one tackle and one interception. He turned down most opportunities to progress play significantly, pass through the lines and there were a few long ball opportunities not taken as well. Good performance but, in my opinion, not on par with the some of the others - and certainly not better than what Lavia would've offered (and I that mean purely from a tactical perspective). Yes, Cucurella did overlap on occasion, but he never played as an overlapping fullback.

Why? Everyone had a good game (at the very least). Someone still has to be the weakest contributor regardless.

I wouldn't say it was exceptional. In fact, probably the weakest contributor on the pitch (relatively speaking). Swap him and Lavia then we're even better, although that gap is reduced when we're playing a better team. I had a quick look after the game but IIRC he played little to no progressive passes. Cucurella never played as an overlapping fullback but Gusto is the profile you want when you are playing Palmer on the right. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a bit worried for him long-term if he can't overlap as a fullback. You get the best out of Palmer and Gusto if they play in those roles vs PSG. Enzo may see James as a bit of a project though, and persist.

So it seems Maresca did something to accomodate Reece that I never thought was even an option - Palmer on the left...

It's not whether he can play at RB, it's whether he can play like he did before. Up and down, supporting the RW on the outside and putting in those beautiful crosses. That's up for debate, and judging how he's being used now, it seems the staff are not too confident.

Agreed. But that again affects the team balance negatively. The RW will need to be a touchline winger. You'll have to drop Lavia. Overall, an inferior setup. It was fine last season because Lavia was injured and Santos wasn't at the club. I guess we may see this in rotation if Lavia only plays 1 game a week.

A bit worried about his role going forward. We've seen some experimentation during the CWC but ultimately - our best midfield has Caicedo and Lavia. Enzo and Palmer are must-picks because of their goals and chance creation. That means Palmer back on the right, who needs a marauding fullback, which is also how you get the best out of Gusto. An inverted James breaks a number of these positions and is not ideal for his skillset. So it may come down to whether his body can handle a more traditional role once again.

All true. And yet he does have some tools that make him an interesting prospect. I just don't think it's worth the gamble to invest the resources in developing him. Guiu would be a better option. We're short on loan slots as well so sell him if we can get good value.

Seeing this consistently for 6 months and the degradation in our build-up is giving me the most cause for concern. And I'm always one to advocate giving a manager at least 2 seasons, but my patience is wearing thin. If we see this in the new season with the midfield options available then he'll be gone by Jan. I dont want to see Cucurella and James in the 10 positions. I dont want to see 1 midfielder during defensive transitions. It's only his 2nd season as a head coach so let's see if he improves.

He's technically still inverting into midfield...but I get the sentiment. The issue is the inflexibility of Marescas chosen system - which is ironic given the demands for player flexibility. Two touchline wingers, our striker (Jackson), 10 (Palmer) have horrendous box movement. So you either fix it with a system change, a personnel change, or you need Enzo and Cucurella crashing the box as often as possible. Delap solves some of this, a new LW would ideally solve another piece. Against Flamengo he tried Palmer on the right, which is at least some acknowledgement that the system needs work. But this was undone by playing James in midfield - which is unfortunately the only way James plays consistently in this team if Palmer goes right flank. Gusto being poor in possession as well just locked the right flank completely. There's so much work to do...