The best teams (I.e most in the prem) will punish you which is what we have seen. We’re not going to put score teams 

Think Frank has to say enough is enough with our defenders. They are just not good enough. Reece is the only one worth giving time to. Christensen has shown himself too weak for the league, zouma is not good enough on the ball or positionally. Dave's game continues to decline. 

Maybe Ake is one answer, but we need two more. 

Reece is still raw and although ok he shouldn't be on every game,but he has potential. Not sure about Rudi yet as he hasn't played since injury,Dave is now only good as a cover for Reece,Tomori needs to be used gradually and Zouma and Christensen are not good enough.

2 hours ago, Dean said:

A Serbian player it might make more sense to pursue is Nikola Milenkovic of Florentina. He can play centre half and right back (remind anyone of anyone?). He’s been linked with United last year (fiorentina rejected a bid I think) and Barcelona recently. He’s young (22) and 6’5, can win aerial challenges, scores some goals too. Despite his size, he’s more the ball-playing, cultured type of centre half than the crunch-tackling type but he can tackle too. He’s no Christensen. I’m not sure if it’s at all realistic though and the asking price would almost certainly be high.

I think he would jump at the opportunity of joining us and as you mentioned he would be a fantastic purchase. 

Whats really not sitting well with me, is we have a fabulous passing midfield, loads of goals from the front, and a dire way of playing at the back, the times yesterday i was screaming at the back 2, side to side to side, then when they work space, instead of stepping into it, and stride forward into said space, oh no its the ball,  trap the ball, and pass sideways again, and again, when the other team sense we are crap on the ball, they just press and press, Frank knows we need a JT/ Riccy style of player partnership.

 

Alessio Romagnoli is the centre back from Serie A to buy. A leader and a great player, left footed as well which is something we really need.

He recently changed his agent, now Mino Raiola represents him and is looking to see if he can get a better contract from AC Milan, otherwise Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are interested, and you know if those want him that there is no real risk for him to be a flop.

It's basically like this, whoever signs Romagnoli wins the transfer market. Others are not as complete as him.

 

14 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Alessio Romagnoli is the centre back from Serie A to buy. A leader and a great player, left footed as well which is something we really need.

He recently changed his agent, now Mino Raiola represents him and is looking to see if he can get a better contract from AC Milan, otherwise Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are interested, and you know if those want him that there is no real risk for him to be a flop.

It's basically like this, whoever signs Romagnoli wins the transfer market. Others are not as complete as him.

 

Gianluca Mancini 😜

https://football-observatory.com/-profile-68602-79129

Edited December 8, 20196 yr by the special one

3 hours ago, Gentian said:

I think he would jump at the opportunity of joining us and as you mentioned he would be a fantastic purchase. 

Part of me wonders whether this might be the real target and the milinkovic-savic rumour is a case of crossed wires by some journalist. There’s just no rationale for MS.

7 minutes ago, the special one said:

Gianluca Mancini 😜

https://football-observatory.com/-profile-68602-79129

Touché...didn't take you that long either. Well I guess I will just further prove your point by posting this:

 

I think you have found the ideal player that we need. Mancini is among the top 5 center-backs in the last month in Serie A.
To be fair it also points out that Zouma is among the top center-backs in the Premier league, but this is counting a larger amount of games and it's only fair to say that Zouma has been playing good overall.

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Alessio Romagnoli is the centre back from Serie A to buy. A leader and a great player, left footed as well which is something we really need.

He recently changed his agent, now Mino Raiola represents him and is looking to see if he can get a better contract from AC Milan, otherwise Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are interested, and you know if those want him that there is no real risk for him to be a flop.

It's basically like this, whoever signs Romagnoli wins the transfer market. Others are not as complete as him.

 

I like Romagnoli but i think he is even less likely, if he is now being represented by raiola. 

After what happened with lukaku, i dont think the working relationship is good between ourselves and raiola. 

His fee was pretty much the difference between lukaku signing for us or united. 

These things shouldnt matter, but unfortunately they do. We havent worked with jorge mendes since jose left either. 

It could still happen obviously, if all 3 parties wanted it enough, and if we were willing to pay an excessive agent fee. 

 

5 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

Whats really not sitting well with me, is we have a fabulous passing midfield, loads of goals from the front, and a dire way of playing at the back, the times yesterday i was screaming at the back 2, side to side to side, then when they work space, instead of stepping into it, and stride forward into said space, oh no its the ball,  trap the ball, and pass sideways again, and again, when the other team sense we are crap on the ball, they just press and press, Frank knows we need a JT/ Riccy style of player partnership.

 

So glad i'm not alone with this analogy, so many laud this idea but sometimes ffs think basic football and adapt.

I wonder if our woeful defense is the reason for our recent lack of quality in front of goal?

Hear me out. The forwards feel under pressure to score and score most of the time they get forward because our defense is too leaky. Knowing any corner or cross is likely a goal against us. So they end up overplaying what should be simple as they are not dealing with that pressure and have lost confidence in their team mates. 

Which, to be fair, a lot of us have as well. Especially with Kepa, Zouma and Christensen.

 

Then their is the separate issue of us being terrible at attacking set pieces too...

14 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

Whats really not sitting well with me, is we have a fabulous passing midfield, loads of goals from the front, and a dire way of playing at the back, the times yesterday i was screaming at the back 2, side to side to side, then when they work space, instead of stepping into it, and stride forward into said space, oh no its the ball,  trap the ball, and pass sideways again, and again, when the other team sense we are crap on the ball, they just press and press, Frank knows we need a JT/ Riccy style of player partnership.

We struggle to score again the top six so far, not scoring more than a goal.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I wonder if our woeful defense is the reason for our recent lack of quality in front of goal?

Hear me out. The forwards feel under pressure to score and score most of the time they get forward because our defense is too leaky. Knowing any corner or cross is likely a goal against us. So they end up overplaying what should be simple as they are not dealing with that pressure and have lost confidence in their team mates. 

Which, to be fair, a lot of us have as well. Especially with Kepa, Zouma and Christensen.

Then their is the separate issue of us being terrible at attacking set pieces too...

Not sure I follow, I think all forwards feel pressure to score, overplaying I'm not so sure about.

We have been overplaying at the back with ping ponging side to side passes though not so sure we are often overplaying at the front, think we used to.

Re attacking set pieces think we are lacking players that are good at heading the ball, we don't seemed to have replaced the heading ability of Cahill or Alonso from last season and are missing Rudiger. I note Frank is trying to improve this by Central Defenders shooting from the edge of the box, though only Tomori has scored like this on one occasion.

Looking at City's struggle, they never had a problem scoring when they had a good defence, now they seems to be playing catch up every second game and the usual lethal front line aren't looking confident. I reckon even the best team at times would struggle to score 2 goals against a determined team, give away 1 or 2 cheap goals and all the sudden the game is gone. Our front line has done ok, but with the backline gifting goals like amateurs at times, no wonder we struggle lately. 4 goals at home should have won 95% of the games, yet we got a spectacular draw against Ajax. A tough away game at Valencia, usually 2 goals are good enough to win, and we couldn't hold out. When you are playing against City away, you score 1 goal and you hold on for dear life, we played a good game and eventually got nothing to show for, because again, the defence. Right now, it's not just formation or tactics , we just got dud defenders, Tomori can't expect to be performing every game, and our best defender is still weeks away.

Think we need JT coaching this defence.

Think we need JT coaching this defence.

That would work nicely I think. Although defending is a team effort and a balancing act.

49 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Think we need JT coaching this defence.

Aston Villa aren't exactly the model of what a solid defense should look like.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Think we need JT coaching this defence.

I've been thinking this for while.

I saw him interviewed on Chelsea TV after the Villa game and he definitely wants to be a number one somewhere. He wouldn't work under Frank.

We need Rudiger back at least. We should think about triggering Koulibaly's release clause at £150m. Maybe they'll take less.

Do we have a specialist defensive coach? Serious questions need to be asked if we do.

3 minutes ago, Andy North said:

I've been thinking this for while.

I saw him interviewed on Chelsea TV after the Villa game and he definitely wants to be a number one somewhere. He wouldn't work under Frank.

We need Rudiger back at least. We should think about triggering Koulibaly's release clause at £150m. Maybe they'll take less.

Do we have a specialist defensive coach? Serious questions need to be asked if we do.

£150m for a 29 year old centre back is madness. 

Great player and all, but if it doesnt work the resale value will plummet, and even if it does work, we are looking for new centre back to replace him in a couple of seasons time. 

Im not against bringing in an older player, but it needs to be financially viable aswell. 

Maybe we could get him for cheaper, but de laurentiis is a pain to deal with. 

1 minute ago, big blue said:

£150m for a 29 year old centre back is madness. 

Great player and all, but if it doesnt work the resale value will plummet, and even if it does work, we are looking for new centre back to replace him in a couple of seasons time. 

Im not against bringing in an older player, but it needs to be financially viable aswell. 

Maybe we could get him for cheaper, but de laurentiis is a pain to deal with. 

He's 28. Yes £150m is ridiculous but apparently Jose and Man Utd are after him at about £95m. We should consider this. He wouldn't need replacing for maybe 3-4 years by which time Tomori may be up to the task. 

We have a problem at the back and we need some experience in the team so he would be a good fit. Any money we got from a sale of Christensen could also be thrown into the equation.

We need to do something if we are to push on. I don't think Ake is the answer for our back 4 although it is being reported the club have a buy back option. It's a hard decision, especially as Ake picked up an injury against Liverpool. 

I would go with Rudiger at this point. Rudiger - Tomori looks good for the remainder of the season. Zouma and Christensen can be backup.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Think we need JT coaching this defence.

We need John Terry IN our defence, period. 

I think if we can move on Christensen it might be time to buy a decent ball playing defender who is good in the air.

Rudi is badly missed yet this has been for some time now.

On 08/12/2019 at 18:59, Gol15 said:

Touché...didn't take you that long either. Well I guess I will just further prove your point by posting this:

 

I think you have found the ideal player that we need. Mancini is among the top 5 center-backs in the last month in Serie A.
To be fair it also points out that Zouma is among the top center-backs in the Premier league, but this is counting a larger amount of games and it's only fair to say that Zouma has been playing good overall.

So you're saying we should sign the guy who is currently ranked at #23 at centre back in Europe ?

Who is in the rankings for the Top 5 ?

 

Amusingly, Mancini is 5 places BEHIND Tomori if you expand the period to Last 3 months instead of 1 month  🙂

And Jonny Evans is at #6 for the season to date ... but I don't hear much clamouring for us to sign HIM LOL

Edited December 9, 20196 yr by Sexyfootball

I don't recall this on the post match interview yet BBC reporting Frank's comments:

That was the disappointing thing at Everton, it wasn't just that we were slightly off - I didn't like that there were individual contact moments across the game that we lost.

"Because that's a personality thing as much as anything else."

I find the personality comment interesting and makes me think he would want to bring in players with a stronger personality though he is not saying that. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50667339

Edited December 10, 20196 yr by strider6004