Roberto??? Seriously. For RWB. He has looked AWFUL there along with the whole Barca defence. 

Haven't seen much of this player, but maybe he can be a replacement for Cesc ? The Fab is getting old, and if we buy Roberto now cheap, we may be lucky in a few years when he turns out to be a true wizard in the midfield.

The consensus seems to be he's a poor RB. Maybe we're going to play him at CM? 

The way I see it, we're short on both the CM and RWB positions, so perhaps buying one player that can fulfill both roles when required might be good for us. 

1 hour ago, TomCFC85 said:

The way I see it, we're short on both the CM and RWB positions, so perhaps buying one player that can fulfill both roles when required might be good for us. 

IF the person is right, then surely we should look at it. Buying Roberto for 40mil (basically replacing Matic) is a poor poor deal. I would defo want azpi/rudiger before him as a RWB. So basically 40mil for a 4th choice CM and 4th choice RWB and that too non-HG.

Would rather buy OX.

5 hours ago, Geert The Flyer said:

Haven't seen much of this player, but maybe he can be a replacement for Cesc ? The Fab is getting old, and if we buy Roberto now cheap, we may be lucky in a few years when he turns out to be a true wizard in the midfield.

I wouldn't say that Cesc is getting old.  With his style of play, he's got at least 3 more seasons at the top level.

Never sign defender from Barca, they don't train for tackling, according to Pep

False [emoji16]

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

I would defo want azpi/rudiger before him as a RWB.

Azpi would do well at RWB.  I know he was great as a CB last year, but it's not really his natural position.  With Rudiger coming in you would think he would start, and Luiz is arguably our best defender and Cahill is captain.  Thinking we might actually push Azpi out to RWB and have Moses as the back up.  As much as I loved what Alonso did last season, if we could land Sandro our back "5" could look quite impressive.

 

Rudiger - Luiz - Cahill

Azpilicueta - Kante - Bakayoko - Sandro

 

I'd be happy with that going into the first game of the season!

9 minutes ago, Michael said:

Azpi would do well at RWB.  I know he was great as a CB last year, but it's not really his natural position.  With Rudiger coming in you would think he would start, and Luiz is arguably our best defender and Cahill is captain.  Thinking we might actually push Azpi out to RWB and have Moses as the back up.  As much as I loved what Alonso did last season, if we could land Sandro our back "5" could look quite impressive.

 

Rudiger - Luiz - Cahill

Azpilicueta - Kante - Bakayoko - Sandro

 

I'd be happy with that going into the first game of the season!

Not with Cahill in there...

Chistensen - Luiz - Rudiger

Azpi - Kante - Bakayoko - Sandro

Just now, goldmase said:

Chistensen - Luiz - Rudiger

Azpi - Kante - Bakayoko - Sandro

I like this lineup better.

 

1 hour ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Never sign defender from Barca, they don't train for tackling, according to Pep

Busquets and Mascherano's main forte is tackling. Pep doesn't coach it but that doesn't mean he hates it. He is too enamored with playing football the right way to admit it.

Sergi is 24-25. He wasn't trained in Pep's football long enough to not train on tackling

 

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

I like this lineup better.

For the record, I'd love for Chistensen to start, but realistically Conte will pick Cahill over him, at least for the start of the season.

3 minutes ago, Michael said:

For the record, I'd love for Chistensen to start, but realistically Conte will pick Cahill over him, at least for the start of the season.

Christensen should be on the right imo. Rudiger on the left. Gary is good but there are games where he doesn't influence a game enough. 

Looks decent. Likes to run forward with the ball. Many of us wanted that kind of a player.

5 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Never sign defender from Barca, they don't train for tackling, according to Pep

Well firstly, how the hell are you supposed to train tackling? Alright lads, time for tackling training, Eden start dribbling your £100m legs off there that we need for the match on Saturday and the lads will one by one have a crack at ya.

And secondly, technically in most instances having to resort to making "a tackle" means an error has already been made. What Guardiola meant was that it's better to train those errors out.

I mean making a last ditch swerve at speed isn't part of a driving test either..

No way is dave a better wing back than moses. We have this debate a lot but I reckon dave is great on the right of the back 3. Perfect. Rudigier will just have to wait his chance.

Everyone with right video compilation looks decent. But in reality he is not. Not good enough.
We should look to improve both wing-backs, not getting worst player then we have.

The board should go for Mendy - Walker. With this 2 wingbacks our team would be on another level.

Sandro - Walker would be crazy good too, but it`s too late now.

 

 

No way is dave a better wing back than moses. We have this debate a lot but I reckon dave is great on the right of the back 3. Perfect. Rudigier will just have to wait his chance.

I also noticed there is great understanding between Moses and Azpi on that right side, regarding the way Moses covers for him whenever he is out of position. I rarely see that between Alonso and Cahill.

....a tackle means a mistake was made? I think some people think a tackle means sliding across the ground and that's it, 50/50's, any pass in mid field where there is a tight space, a pass into a striker that is on the shoulder of a defender,  anywhere in build up play, and more importantly for a high press team tackling is a big part of ball recovery so it's even part of an attacking strategy, how on earth does that mean there is a mistake for a tacke to be made? 

 You train tackling every session, why do you think they play practice games passing in tight spaces, teaches moving the ball fast under pressure and on the other side it also teaches getting your foot in quick to stop it, just because there aren't 23 players in synchronised sliding routines across the grass doesn't mean they don't train tackling.

The difference in PL tackling and with Barca is they want to be on you quickly and nick the ball without tackling as physically as in the PL, who are happy to sit off you, it's still a tackle, you put in a foot to take the ball it's a tackle.

Peps comments were in defiance of a reporter asking why his side were tackling poorly he said he doesn't train tackling now if you want to take that seriously you also have to believe one of the top rated managers in the world doesn't know what tackling is because he also said in that statement "what's tackling?"

In other words of course they train in tackling but they train in quick ball recovery and  blocking off or stealing the ball in the passing channels, getting the foot in quickly as soon as a player receives the ball, they don't train in stoke city sit off your man then put in a crunching tackle...

Having said all this that doesn't suit or style of play for a fb or a cm, in our league and our style of football we need a more physical player in those positions, that sort of front foot tackling works for our attackers but we need more physicality in our defensive players. 

Cesc is an example he lets players walk past him because he would expect where the pass is going to be cut off so putting pressure on the passer is enough, but he is decent at ball recovery, that's Barca adadamy training and it's hard to untrain 

Edited July 26, 20178 yr by DonAntonio

On 25/07/2017 at 15:00, goldmase said:

Chistensen - Luiz - Rudiger

Azpi - Kante - Bakayoko - Sandro

Sorry but Dave ain't no RWB...

2 hours ago, doctorblue said:

Sorry but Dave ain't no RWB...

People keep saying this but there is very little evidence to base it on. He has only really played a hand full of games there, and when we signed him he was known as an attacking full back. He was played behind Hazard as security by Jose and was never expected to attack. H joins the attack well for Spain for example, he actually started out as a winger remember.

57 minutes ago, dkw said:

People keep saying this but there is very little evidence to base it on. He has only really played a hand full of games there, and when we signed him he was known as an attacking full back. He was played behind Hazard as security by Jose and was never expected to attack. H joins the attack well for Spain for example, he actually started out as a winger remember.

Thanks but Dave ain't no wing back...no pace or tricks to beat a defender...don't compromise him by forcing him to play a position that's not him...get Oxlaide Chamberlain or Toljan...

People keep saying this but there is very little evidence to base it on. He has only really played a hand full of games there, and when we signed him he was known as an attacking full back. He was played behind Hazard as security by Jose and was never expected to attack. H joins the attack well for Spain for example, he actually started out as a winger remember.

Maybe the evidence is that he has only played a handful of games there. When he has played there he just hasn't looked like he has "attacking flair". Not to my eyes anyway. To me Moses looks like a natural wing back, he wants to run with the ball, happy to cut infield and is a surprisingly effective one on one defender. Dave is more of a positional player, always more focused on defense than attack. Anyhow that's what I see right or wrong.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

People keep saying this but there is very little evidence to base it on. He has only really played a hand full of games there, and when we signed him he was known as an attacking full back. He was played behind Hazard as security by Jose and was never expected to attack. H joins the attack well for Spain for example, he actually started out as a winger remember.

I wish I could press the like on this several times, that's why we were concentrating on a lwb instead of right although VM is the lesser of the two because we have a perfect right back, this fallacy of he can't attack....he was on his wrong foot most of his Chelsea career covering hazard, makes no sense in the world to not play him as a Rwb when we now have options at CB.