Just now, Scott Harris said:

So we just ignore some genuine talent on the bench that we can use as a weapon to increase our lead? 😐

Why is Felix being singled out when the likes of Sancho can't do anything against any side that can defend? Why can't Palmer move to the right now and again and Felix come on into the middle behind the striker when we need a tactical shift? The last two games were perfect opportunities to try something to unlock Everton and wrestle some control back from Fulham, but Maresca didn't even try. He just fell back on the same like for like sub of bringing on Nkunku for Jackson.

The only thing Maresca is doing is causing unrest.

Exactly what I'd do.  Neto left, Felix centre, Palmer right.

2 minutes ago, loz said:

Exactly what I'd do.  Neto left, Felix centre, Palmer right.

Yep, doesn't even have to be every game. Just keep doing what he was doing before December. Rotate effectively.

Edited December 26, 20241 yr by Scott Harris

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So we just ignore some genuine talent on the bench that we can use as a weapon to increase our lead? 😐

Why is Felix being singled out when the likes of Sancho can't do anything against any side that can defend? Why can't Palmer move to the right now and again and Felix come on into the middle behind the striker when we need a tactical shift? The last two games were perfect opportunities to try something to unlock Everton and wrestle some control back from Fulham, but Maresca didn't even try. He just fell back on the same like for like sub of bringing on Nkunku for Jackson.

The only thing Maresca is doing is causing unrest.

By “genuine talent”, do you mean Felix? Because I’d have thought you meant Hazard or Palmer. Felix has got some tricks that half of the time don’t come up against the likes of Shamrock, so I’m not sure why anyone would have thought that they’d work against Fulham.

Not the player to bring on when you need to defend a goal difference or to try to win the game. He’s not the hard grafter you’d need. You bring him on when comfortable in the game.

14 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So we just ignore some genuine talent on the bench that we can use as a weapon to increase our lead? 😐

Why is Felix being singled out when the likes of Sancho can't do anything against any side that can defend? Why can't Palmer move to the right now and again and Felix come on into the middle behind the striker when we need a tactical shift? The last two games were perfect opportunities to try something to unlock Everton and wrestle some control back from Fulham, but Maresca didn't even try. He just fell back on the same like for like sub of bringing on Nkunku for Jackson.

The only thing Maresca is doing is causing unrest.

You'd like to think someone that can manage 4 goals in the equivalent of 10 full appearances in a dysfunctional and goal shy system like Potter's might be quite useful in a more expansive and talented team with a bit of momentum behind it.

Apparently not though !

Our current wingers also seem to be getting a free pass for turning in far worse performances than Sterling was getting routinely battered for.

Popularity contest innit 🙂 

Just now, RMH said:

By “genuine talent”, do you mean Felix? Because I’d have thought you meant Hazard or Palmer. Felix has got some tricks that half of the time don’t come up against the likes of Shamrock, so I’m not sure why anyone would have thought that they’d work against Fulham.

Not the player to bring on when you need to defend a goal difference or to try to win the game. He’s not the hard grafter you’d need. You bring him on when comfortable in the game.

This is exactly what I am talking about when I say some of you don't hold others to the same standard and treat Felix differently. Where are these same comments about Sancho? Neto even? With the amount of minutes he has seen this season, don't you think his contributions in attack are a little on the low side? You even criticise Felix in a game that was dead when he came on. The whole game had gone flat by then.

And yes, I do think Felix has genuine talent. He tries things that sometimes come off and sometimes don't. There has been plenty of moments in the little time he has played where he has taken multiple players out of the game, won us a freekick and set up attacks with a piece of skill or pass. I'm not saying he is the perfect player, but none of our players are, they all have issues in areas of their game that needs refining, but he has the ability to make a difference. Anybody that says he can't must surely feel the same way about the majority of our squad.

Maresca said after the match he did not use Felix as he did not want him and Palmer in the team together and did not want to sub Cole.

He also said he left out Noni "for tactical reasons" aka discipline. So when you do that you best be able to use other options, otherwise Noni can rightly say to you "guess you messed up not picking me for the bench eh".

He's played Felix at LW before so not sure what he's talking about. 

11 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

did not want to sub Cole.

Which was a dumb move in itself as Cole was a complete turnover machine in the second half (something which has happened far too frequently with him under Enzo) and did nothing to help us against a Fulham that ran us ragged.

12 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

He's played Felix at LW before so not sure what he's talking about. 

He has indeed but that was his reason. Perhaps he and Felix have indeed fallen out and he does not trust Felix to work hard enough in a wide role?

59 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So we just ignore some genuine talent on the bench that we can use as a weapon to increase our lead? 😐

Why is Felix being singled out when the likes of Sancho can't do anything against any side that can defend? Why can't Palmer move to the right now and again and Felix come on into the middle behind the striker when we need a tactical shift? The last two games were perfect opportunities to try something to unlock Everton and wrestle some control back from Fulham, but Maresca didn't even try. He just fell back on the same like for like sub of bringing on Nkunku for Jackson.

The only thing Maresca is doing is causing unrest.

I’m sorry Scott I just don’t see the same player you do. The talent is clear but means nothing when he doesn’t do anything meaningful with it. 

I think Felix is singled out cause the only real spot for him without him being a liability is the middle or striker. Also Sancho doesn’t really have much competition like Felix does. 

Felix was a pointless signing, that has become clear now. At least he is at a minimum while Maresca is in charge.

Did Maresca want Samu? I don't know, I don't think he was involved it was part of thar back scratching around FFP we were doing with Atletico and Gallagher going there, as clearly proven by them not signing conor until Felix was agreed to come here.

Maresca does not want Felix, as he does not want Nkunku but at least Cristo was signed long before Maresca came in.

This one was purely based of the game of FFP chess, and our owners/directors probably hoped Maresca and Felix hit it off, and if not hoped we could sell him to Saudi.

They brought him KDH, his own Leicester player he clearly did not want as he does not use him in league games. Veiga, Guiu, again not trusted in league games.

Only players they brought in he trusts is Sancho, who has been average, and Neto who has been good, for the most part. Tosin is trusted more than Disasi but less than Badiashile, so he does not count imo.

So expect more tired legs at the end of games and the manager not willing to trust his subs if he does not get James, Fofana, Lavia et AL back soon.

55 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

This is exactly what I am talking about when I say some of you don't hold others to the same standard and treat Felix differently. Where are these same comments about Sancho? Neto even? With the amount of minutes he has seen this season, don't you think his contributions in attack are a little on the low side? You even criticise Felix in a game that was dead when he came on. The whole game had gone flat by then.

And yes, I do think Felix has genuine talent. He tries things that sometimes come off and sometimes don't. There has been plenty of moments in the little time he has played where he has taken multiple players out of the game, won us a freekick and set up attacks with a piece of skill or pass. I'm not saying he is the perfect player, but none of our players are, they all have issues in areas of their game that needs refining, but he has the ability to make a difference. Anybody that says he can't must surely feel the same way about the majority of our squad.

Not one in here has called Sancho or Neto a “genuine talent”, which Felix isn’t. But, I’d trust them more than Felix, yes, based on Felix and the others’ performances so far. 

10 minutes ago, RMH said:

Not one in here has called Sancho or Neto a “genuine talent”, which Felix isn’t. But, I’d trust them more than Felix, yes, based on Felix and the others’ performances so far. 

Maybe not those exact words, but I have seen Sancho described similarly many times throughout the season so far, yet his performances against teams that defend well has been terrible. I don't see how anybody can say that is better than anything Felix could produce when we have seen Felix produce more against those types of teams.

Edited December 26, 20241 yr by Scott Harris

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Maybe not those exact words, but I have seen Sancho described similarly many times throughout the season so far, yet his performances against teams that defend well has been terrible. I don't see how anybody can say that is better than anything Felix could produce when we have seen Felix produce more against those types of teams.

I don’t think that we’ll agree here but, against Fulham Felix, when on loan, played well and then got a red and never showed half of what he’d done in that game. I don’t think that Felix has produced more than Neto or Sancho against the type of teams.

I think I have been fairly clear in what my opinion of Félix is, but there's another issue in what @loz and @Scott Harris have suggested above.

Moving Palmer to the right and having Félix as the "10" in the current system wouldn't really change Palmer's role in possession; he would still be the 'inside right' with a wide player overlapping (usually Madueke or Neto). The alternative is that he be the touchline-hugging wide man, which would be a horrible waste of our most talented attacker; you want him in the middle.

The consequence is that the wide threat would then need to come from the full-back (Gusto) - that isn't a problem in and of itself; it's what Gusto is good at. However, if we are to retain our current shape in possession (in which Gusto remains part of the back three) then we would either need to keep Cucurella in the defence (uh oh) or do something weird with one of the midfielders. We'd be losing a huge amount of legwork off the ball, doubly so as Félix is a defensive non-entity (and even more so if you want to replace Jackson with Nkunku). It would make us very vulnerable to transitions and wide threats, particularly against a team with a really dangerous full-back, like say... Fulham.

The entire front three here are useless off the ball. Fine for Palmer because he's our magic man, but not a worthwhile trade-off with the other three based on what we've seen so far.

--------------Fofana-----Colwill------Cucurella

-------------------Caicedo------Fernández

--Gusto--------Palmer-------------Félix----------Neto

--------------------------Nkunku

 

Compared to what we had today, which is structurally far far better (assuming you don't refuse to sub off your players when they're dead on their feet):

-----------Gusto-------Adarabioyo-----Colwill

------------------Fernández-------Caicedo

-Neto---------Palmer--------Cucurella---------Sancho

------------------------Jackson

 

As horrible a performance as it was, I don't think we need to overreact to this, and especially not by committing tactical suicide. The lesson for Maresca really needs to be to use our depth better, even if the players he's bringing on are worse than the starters (which to be fair should almost always be the case). A good player won't be very good any more when he's exhausted. Even less so when a proportion of the dressing room is pissed off because they're never getting any games (no more Conference League until March I think), and exacerbated further when we start a run of sh*t results.

And that's before we find out what on earth is going on with Madueke (and Mudryk)...

8 hours ago, Remodez said:

Not too sure why people are clamouring for him to get more game time to be honest. I agree Enzo needs to use his subs but not particularly bothered if Felix in particular comes on. 

Felix is more than good enough playing backup 10.

More importantly, when your player are very tired, it really doesn't matter who you bring.

I don’t rate Guiu but fresh guiu is better than tired neto/Sancho/Jackson. 

Heck play cascadei as st, it really does not matter

 

Edited December 27, 20241 yr by Bob stark

Why do people think Felix should be getting minutes in the 10? If anyone should be getting those minutes, its Nkunku. 

Felix is the least creative attacker we currently own. Gallagher was a more creative force than him. 

I dont agree with a lot of our fans,I want Felix to play and it's p*ssing me off he isn't getting game time.

To clear up any confusion - when people describe Felix as "talented" they mean in the same way as those bell ends on social media who do trickshots and showboat skills in 5-a-side. Dude needs to get a transfer to a 3rd rate league so he can jog around doing flicks for 90 minutes and still get decent numbers.

17 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

To clear up any confusion - when people describe Felix as "talented" they mean in the same way as those bell ends on social media who do trickshots and showboat skills in 5-a-side. Dude needs to get a transfer to a 3rd rate league so he can jog around doing flicks for 90 minutes and still get decent numbers.

People think he's better than he is based on a transfer fee from half a decade ago. Since joining a serious league he's never scored more than 10 goals in a single season and its abundantly clear creativity isn't his strong point. 

Definition of a youtube player. 

55 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

People think he's better than he is based on a transfer fee from half a decade ago. Since joining a serious league he's never scored more than 10 goals in a single season and its abundantly clear creativity isn't his strong point. 

Definition of a youtube player. 

All the FIFA loons on social media love him and demand he plays, some even want him to play ahead of Palmer 😂

He rarely has any actual impact on games, just floats through them doing unnecessary tricks and flicks, daft little spins trying impossible passes.

I'm not too critical of him right now because a) I do like the way he took to the club and wanted to remain despite being here in our worst period and b) he's ok as a squad player but there's some serious short memories going on if you want him to start reguarly again.

Even if you use the argument of Palmer needs a rest now and again or we need another number 10 player to play with him, Nkunku should be the first in line.

Felix should only be at LW to compete with Sancho/Neto. 

2 hours ago, Argo said:

I'm not too critical of him right now because a) I do like the way he took to the club and wanted to remain despite being here in our worst period and b) he's ok as a squad player but there's some serious short memories going on if you want him to start reguarly again.

Even if you use the argument of Palmer needs a rest now and again or we need another number 10 player to play with him, Nkunku should be the first in line.

Agreed. He wanted to play for Chelsea and he took a pay cut to make it happen.

Short memories? As you say it was a very different team back then. We have yet to see him play a few games in THIS team. Until we see him play a few games in this current side it is hard to judge him.  I would love to see him do well.  Will he? again we cannot say at this moment in time. I do wonder why Maresca doesn't use both him and Nkunku more.  Maresca and many other managers are yet to really utilise the 5 subs in a game as a major tactic and strategy.  There is real potential there.

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Felix should only be at LW to compete with Sancho/Neto. 

You got your wish so tonight is his night, has to perform well.