13 hours ago, Mod said:

He f**ked that one up, I think you've got more chance marrying him now!

I’ve always quite fancied moving to Canada…

1 hour ago, Munkworth said:

I’ve always quite fancied moving to Canada…

I've never regretted it 🙂

18 hours ago, Argo said:

Maka was actually a DLP and a great one at that.

Chris Coleman mentioned once how he centered his tactical approach around Maka and had Steed Malbranque man marking him.

"In March 2006 Fulham faced Chelsea at home, and while Coleman’s charges were on a four-match losing streak, José Mourinho’s men were storming to the title. For relegation-battlers Fulham, it was an insurmountable peak that they had to climb. Yet a tactical decision, a quite simple one at that, devastated Chelsea’s game plan.

As Michael Cox explains in The Mixer, Coleman, realising Chelsea’s exertion of dominance was entirely dependent on the extraordinary influence of defensive midfielder Claude Makélélé, utilised Steed Malbranque atop a diamond in a bid to nullify Chelsea’s key man. “Every time we play against Chelsea and every time we’ve watched them play, everything goes through Makélélé and he starts the attacks … we told him [Malbranque] to go where he liked when he had the ball but, as soon as he didn’t have it, Makélélé was his man.”

The result was startling in its effectiveness; Mourinho made two substitutions after only 25 minutes, as well as changing formation twice over the course of the 90 minutes. Coleman had forced one of the greatest managers of our time into a frenzied panic. Mourinho’s counter-tactics proved ineffective and Fulham seized a 1-0 victory."

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/08/31/the-wild-odyssey-that-took-chris-coleman-to-the-wales-hot-seat/

Thanks for this correction I took the stereotype of Makelele thinking that he was just all over the pitch intercepting balls and winning every duel, which in itself was impressive but it's true, not only was he great at that, he was also indeed a great technical player.

I actually searched for some matches while he was in Real Madrid, all things considered he was pretty much a complete DLP, he could do it all from that position.

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I've never regretted it 🙂

You might when I rock up!

2 hours ago, Munkworth said:

You might when I rock up!

Maybe...maybe not. Could make myself a fortune showing the world the true cat you are  😉

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

Maybe...maybe not. Could make myself a fortune showing the world the true cat you are  😉

Absolute immense tonight against the best international side in the world. Get him signed up.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

Absolute immense tonight against the best international side in the world. Get him signed up.

I would love to know why he was released. Was it just a football judgement that we got wrong, everyone gets it wrong sometimes, or could it perhaps have been for disciplinary reasons?

3 hours ago, dkw said:

Absolute immense tonight against the best international side in the world. Get him signed up.

It won't get talked up much by the press, but every big club will have noticed that performance. Absolutely class. 

Would be immense for our team. Beyond the player quality, it’s his determination, character and leadership I admire most. 
 

I wonder if the old Chelsea link, his mates and staying in London is enough. I can see every club going for him - we should have paid what it took last summer or before. 

3 hours ago, dkw said:

Absolute immense tonight against the best international side in the world. Get him signed up.

Wait wait so declan rice, one of the most sought after dm in the world is actually pretty good. 

So he is not this awful player that we have been reading from this thread

 

If West Ham is open for a bid, we should go for him next season. He ticks every box, although there's always the chance things could go wrong with him, he's about as safe as a big money signing could get.

8 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Wait wait so declan rice, one of the most sought after dm in the world is actually pretty good. 

So he is not this awful player that we have been reading from this thread

 

Not enough pointing and sideways passes to impress the football hipsters unfortunately. 

He’s had a very strong World Cup. His stock will undoubtedly have risen on last nights performance were others quite rightly suggested he was immense. West Ham know they have a depreciating asset, they were never going to get the amount widely circulated in the media. He will no doubt have come to the attention of many top clubs, we do though have a trump card. He’s previously stated he doesn’t want to leave London, not sure wether abroad would be different? He ticks a lot of boxes and most importantly he is proved in this league. He has a lot of similarities to Keane when he first arrived from Eire, his game will develop alongside better players. Maybe now is the time to look at him now the fee is likely to be more reasonable.

9 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Wait wait so declan rice, one of the most sought after dm in the world is actually pretty good. 

So he is not this awful player that we have been reading from this thread

If he signs I expect another UCL conceding 4 goals or less.

I mean, if a pointing liability can manage it then it's minimum requirement for a supposed massive upgrade.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

If he signs I expect another UCL conceding 4 goals or less.

I mean, if a pointing liability can manage it then it's minimum requirement for a supposed massive upgrade.

What did he do? A couple of successful tackles and interception and a some passes to Walker and that's suddenly having an amazing World Cup?

Without those gifted penalties that English midfield doesn't create a single chance from open play, not a single one, meaning without the mistakes of the French it's a routine 2:0 win by France. A younger Tchouameni scored a screamer even. Goes without saying but I don't really care anymore, Jorginho had a far more impressive and impactful Euro in comparison to Rice this World Cup and nobody here changed their opinion about him anyway so why would I think that Rice is suddenly a better player after he played worse than Jorginho?

Furthermore, England won just the matches where they were the favorites to win, as soon as a strong team came along they got eliminated, meaning that the very minimum for Southgate was to reach the quarter-finals when you see what an easy group he had and that he had Senegal as the first opponent in the knockouts, this is nothing impressive but he'll keep his job cause Kane missed a second penalty.

Edited December 11, 20223 yr by Gol15

17 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

What did he do? A couple of successful tackles and interception and a some passes to Walker and that's suddenly having an amazing World Cup?

Without those gifted penalties that English midfield doesn't create a single chance from open play, not a single one, meaning without the mistakes of the French it's a routine 2:0 win by France. A younger Tchouameni scored a screamer even. Goes without saying but I don't really care anymore, Jorginho had a far more impressive and impactful Euro in comparison to Rice this World Cup and nobody here changed their opinion about him anyway so why would I think that Rice is suddenly a better player after he played worse than Jorginho?

Furthermore, England won just the matches where they were the favorites to win, as soon as a strong team came along they got eliminated, meaning that the very minimum for Southgate was to reach the quarter-finals when you see what an easy group he had and that he had Senegal as the first opponent in the knockouts, this is nothing impressive but he'll keep his job cause Kane missed a second penalty.

Saka did very narrowly miss in the second half. So that's not exactly true they created no chances. 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

What did he do? A couple of successful tackles and interception and a some passes to Walker and that's suddenly having an amazing World Cup?

Without those gifted penalties that English midfield doesn't create a single chance from open play, not a single one, meaning without the mistakes of the French it's a routine 2:0 win by France. A younger Tchouameni scored a screamer even. Goes without saying but I don't really care anymore, Jorginho had a far more impressive and impactful Euro in comparison to Rice this World Cup and nobody here changed their opinion about him anyway so why would I think that Rice is suddenly a better player after he played worse than Jorginho?

Furthermore, England won just the matches where they were the favorites to win, as soon as a strong team came along they got eliminated, meaning that the very minimum for Southgate was to reach the quarter-finals when you see what an easy group he had and that he had Senegal as the first opponent in the knockouts, this is nothing impressive but he'll keep his job cause Kane missed a second penalty.

Already getting the "I told you so's" everytime he has even an acceptable game and he hasn't even arrived yet.

I will certainly be holding him to the highest standards, we've been constantly told he is a major upgrade on Jorginho so I expect the results to match.

Edited December 11, 20223 yr by Argo

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Already getting the "I told you so's" everytime he has even an acceptable game and he hasn't even arrived yet.

I will certainly be holding him to the highest standards, we've been constantly told he is a major upgrade on Jorginho so I expect the results to match.

We will likely get the usual "They worked hard" or "He's Proper Chels" when the likes of City and Real run circles around our midfield. Being proper Chels doesn't gift you with ball retention skills. 

Rice as an aggressor is completely fine by me, but as a lone DM with the responsibility retaining and transitioning the ball, no thanks. 

Sorry for being too hipster. 

 

15 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

I wonder if the old Chelsea link, his mates and staying in London is enough. I can see every club going for him - we should have paid what it took last summer or before. 

The next long term captain should be a one horse race (James).

22 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We will likely get the usual "They worked hard" or "He's Proper Chels" when the likes of City and Real run circles around our midfield. Being proper Chels doesn't gift you with ball retention skills. 

Rice as an aggressor is completely fine by me, but as a lone DM with the responsibility retaining and transitioning the ball, no thanks. 

Sorry for being too hipster. 

 

It's going to be like Lukaku all over again in the sense of constantly being told how great he is yet when you hold him to those standards you'll get jumped on.

No one is arguing for Rice as a lone midfielder, we still need to get another creative player. But the absurdity is to think that having a weak Jorginho-like player in the DM position is good enough for the PL.

19 hours ago, RMH said:

No one is arguing for Rice as a lone midfielder, we still need to get another creative player. But the absurdity is to think that having a weak Jorginho-like player in the DM position is good enough for the PL.

Look back literally a page and there are suggestions for Rice to be the DM with two #8s. People are so desperate for Jorginho to go they are pretending Rice is a better player than he actually is.

He's a more physical and defensive player which is great, but we don't utilize Jorginho for that, we utilize his ability to lead transition effectively. It's always been Jorginho + one of Kante or Kovacic. So to "replace" Jorginho, we need someone that can do what he does and more. Declan Rice, for me, isn't it. If you want to see examples this WC of players leading transitions and are brilliant off the ball, look at Enzo Fernandez and Sofyan Amrabat. The former is a player I'd like to see partner Rice in a midfield base. 

 

Edited December 12, 20223 yr by Sconnie Blue

18 hours ago, RMH said:

No one is arguing for Rice as a lone midfielder, we still need to get another creative player. But the absurdity is to think that having a weak Jorginho-like player in the DM position is good enough for the PL.

The ironic thing is we'd have probably replaced Jorginho by now if the last regime weren't so obsessed with Rice, Bruno Guimares was attainable at a reasonable price and would have likely been an easy pick up in summer 21 or January 22.

I actually think your comments on Jorginho are by in large fair and balanced and i probably wouldn't bother defending him if most comments were like yours but I've never seen someone that's achieved what he has here be so derided.

 

Edited December 12, 20223 yr by Argo

Our next captain if many get their way.