3 minutes ago, dermott said:

Or we could sign the dressing room table Valverde ... um ... tripped and fell against ... hence requiring stitches.

They was thinking of signing Enzo then they saw how good the table was defensively 😜

6 minutes ago, C3blue said:

They was thinking of signing Enzo then they saw how good the table was defensively 😜

And the table can move quicker.

5 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Florentino Perez has apparently made an re-election promise to appoint Jose as manager, as well as sign Enzo

Jose watching players walk past Enzo in the middle of the park pmsl

1 hour ago, dermott said:

Or we could sign the dressing room table Valverde ... um ... tripped and fell against ... hence requiring stitches.

"Good to have dr. Valverde back on the show." IYKYK.

5 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

More than happy for them to exchange whichever of Valverde or Tchouameni they don't want to keep.

Valverde would be incredible in the PL although he did lose the fight, so a bit embarassing.

PSG are rumoured to be after Valverde. I personally am very wary of Valverde, great player but seems to have a temper. Not only his fight with Tchouameni but also waited for a Villareal player in the carpark after a match and punched him in the face, Baena had allegedly made very nasty comments to him during the game and their previous encounter in the Cup. Whether he was right or not to do that, imagine if he was a Chelsea player the press would have a field day.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

PSG are rumoured to be after Valverde. I personally am very wary of Valverde, great player but seems to have a temper. Not only his fight with Tchouameni but also waited for a Villareal player in the carpark after a match and punched him in the face, Baena had allegedly made very nasty comments to him during the game and their previous encounter in the Cup. Whether he was right or not to do that, imagine if he was a Chelsea player the press would have a field day.

Valverde waiting in the Emirates carpark would make for absolute cinema

Hope PSG don't get him. Having someone world-class in front of Vitinha and Joao Neves would be a cheat code.

Rodri extending his City contract. Not sure how much impact that will have.

Not everybody's favourite but 2nd in POTY.

31 minutes ago, OTL said:

Not everybody's favourite but 2nd in POTY.

Could have knocked me over with a feather. My vote for Reece may have something to do with my unhappiness with the top 3.

1 hour ago, OTL said:

Not everybody's favourite but 2nd in POTY.

Funny thing is that people complain he's not a good tackler; and for me not only we have too many "good tacklers" in midfield already, but tackling alone is the least important trait (and cheapest one to buy) for a midfielder (excluding a dedicated DM evidently).

If he leaves, which I still think unlikely as I fully expect Alonso to hold on to him, we'd need to get a replacement and one who can score goals. Like Enzo or not, he's the one CM who's not allergic to the opposition goal.

Credit where it’s due he was good tonight.

Edited May 19May 19 by 2211

Have to hand it to him.

He loves playing Spurs.

Commentator said 15 goals for the season, and another assist. For all his criticism, he’s had the most consistent end product last two seasons. Will have to look up his stats since joining.

8 hours ago, acaeus said:

Funny thing is that people complain he's not a good tackler;

Tackling?

I don't think I have read people complaining about Enzo tackling. He is slow and defensively 😵‍💫😵‍💫

9 hours ago, acaeus said:

Funny thing is that people complain he's not a good tackler; and for me not only we have too many "good tacklers" in midfield already, but tackling alone is the least important trait (and cheapest one to buy) for a midfielder (excluding a dedicated DM evidently).

If he leaves, which I still think unlikely as I fully expect Alonso to hold on to him, we'd need to get a replacement and one who can score goals. Like Enzo or not, he's the one CM who's not allergic to the opposition goal.

I agree on the goalscoring but it's overstated. 10 + 4 in the league alone is a good return but it's on par with every other similar player in his position, which considering his wages and stature is not good enough. I can't blame him for underperforming his transfer fee, but I can blame him for wanting to be a middle-of-the-road AM instead of the top-class deep-lying CM that he had potential to be.

I think it would be a mistake to try and find a player to directly replace his goal output. I think we could, using the money raised from his sale, improve our team overall by getting a more rounded player who perhaps scores less goals, but is a better facilitator, ball carrier and athlete.

46 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I agree on the goalscoring but it's overstated. 10 + 4 in the league alone is a good return but it's on par with every other similar player in his position, which considering his wages and stature is not good enough. I can't blame him for underperforming his transfer fee, but I can blame him for wanting to be a middle-of-the-road AM instead of the top-class deep-lying CM that he had potential to be.

I think it would be a mistake to try and find a player to directly replace his goal output. I think we could, using the money raised from his sale, improve our team overall by getting a more rounded player who perhaps scores less goals, but is a better facilitator, ball carrier and athlete.

I don't think you want him to be deep lying dm, especially not in PL.

7 hours ago, 2211 said:

Credit where it’s due he was good tonight.

I thought he was good in the first half and absent, save for the assist, in the 2nd.

Hope Alonso gets them running for 90'... 2nd half was an awful watch again.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Tackling?

I don't think I have read people complaining about Enzo tackling. He is slow and defensively 😵‍💫😵‍💫

Fair. So I guess the complaint is about him being weak defensively. Still the same point though: our mids are all strong defensively, but weak in attack—all except Enzo. To be clear I think it's a problem that goes beyond individuals.

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I agree on the goalscoring but it's overstated. 10 + 4 in the league alone is a good return but it's on par with every other similar player in his position, which considering his wages and stature is not good enough. I can't blame him for underperforming his transfer fee, but I can blame him for wanting to be a middle-of-the-road AM instead of the top-class deep-lying CM that he had potential to be.

I think it would be a mistake to try and find a player to directly replace his goal output. I think we could, using the money raised from his sale, improve our team overall by getting a more rounded player who perhaps scores less goals, but is a better facilitator, ball carrier and athlete.

Right but that goes into team build up and what not. 11 play, so it's all guesswork as to how he would do in a different team setup. It's ironic to me that people complain of how poor in attack the team is and at the same time point fingers to the one mid we've got who can score goals.
I see Enzo as a jack-of-all trades and more of a box-to-box than deep lying and not a CAM. He can cover a lot of ground, is always available, and can score important goals. So, no I don't see Enzo as a problem in this squad.
IMO we are now missing players in quality AND numbers. The number of players we've got who can face off against any given opposition is small. Compare it to Arsenal, City, or even United and Liverpool and it's night and day. That affects recovery, competition, availability everything. It's an incredibly unbalanced squad.

56 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Fair. So I guess the complaint is about him being weak defensively. Still the same point though: our mids are all strong defensively, but weak in attack—all except Enzo. To be clear I think it's a problem that goes beyond individuals.

Right but that goes into team build up and what not. 11 play, so it's all guesswork as to how he would do in a different team setup. It's ironic to me that people complain of how poor in attack the team is and at the same time point fingers to the one mid we've got who can score goals.
I see Enzo as a jack-of-all trades and more of a box-to-box than deep lying and not a CAM. He can cover a lot of ground, is always available, and can score important goals. So, no I don't see Enzo as a problem in this squad.
IMO we are now missing players in quality AND numbers. The number of players we've got who can face off against any given opposition is small. Compare it to Arsenal, City, or even United and Liverpool and it's night and day. That affects recovery, competition, availability everything. It's an incredibly unbalanced squad.

It is very simple, defensively as midfielder Enzo is very bad so it is better for him to play as attacker

Edited May 20May 20 by Bob stark

When it comes to goal contributions, I have no issue with Enzo, it's other parts of his game where we suffer. Yesterday was no different, even if it was a better performance from him. He still spent the 2nd half being largely useless.

It's not just him though, it's everybody. We can't get a single player to perform for an entire match.

Played better last night, took his goal well and was a lovely set up for the assist.

But as usual disappeared from the game once the Spurs pressure kicked in the 2nd half. So pretty much standard Enzo, positives outweighed the negatives last night but very rarely does that happen.

42 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

It is very simple, defensively as midfielder Enzo is very bad so it is better for him to play as attacker

Is Sloboslai any better defensively? is Odegaard? Was Fabregas? Jorginho or Kova? Midfielders all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It's up to the club to build a homogeneous squad... Have we?

22 minutes ago, dkw said:

Played better last night, took his goal well and was a lovely set up for the assist.

But as usual disappeared from the game once the Spurs pressure kicked in the 2nd half. So pretty much standard Enzo, positives outweighed the negatives last night but very rarely does that happen.

I currently have a very hard time compartmentalizing and assigning blame—the team is a mess. We played with a very defensive pair of DMs today, who aren't keen on helping with the build up (nice Santos nudged one in tho — he needed that). Should have been enough to better withstand the late game pressure. The team does keep the ball well enough though, or is able to kill the games when needed... deeper problems than one player not doing all tasks required IMO.

18 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Is Sloboslai any better defensively? is Odegaard? Was Fabregas? Jorginho or Kova? Midfielders all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It's up to the club to build a homogeneous squad... Have we?

Yes Szoboslai is much better defensively.

Odegaard is crap too, wouldn't want him anywhere near our XI.

Fabregas is probably the greatest passer/creator in PL history, what similar attribute does Enzo have that would excuse his shortcomings?

Jorginho was crap.

Kova was bang average.

23 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Is Sloboslai any better defensively? is Odegaard? Was Fabregas? Jorginho or Kova? Midfielders all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It's up to the club to build a homogeneous squad... Have we?

I currently have a very hard time compartmentalizing and assigning blame—the team is a mess. We played with a very defensive pair of DMs today, who aren't keen on helping with the build up (nice Santos nudged one in tho — he needed that). Should have been enough to better withstand the late game pressure. The team does keep the ball well enough though, or is able to kill the games when needed... deeper problems than one player not doing all tasks required IMO.

I know you have a very hard time allotting any blame to enzo at all, but he stopped tracking to his defensive position almost completely in the 2nd half, thats what created the easy passing and running lanes for Spurs, they got won "his side" with absolute ease.

27 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Is Sloboslai any better defensively? is Odegaard? Was Fabregas? Jorginho or Kova? Midfielders all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It's up to the club to build a homogeneous squad... Have we?

I currently have a very hard time compartmentalizing and assigning blame—the team is a mess. We played with a very defensive pair of DMs today, who aren't keen on helping with the build up (nice Santos nudged one in tho — he needed that). Should have been enough to better withstand the late game pressure. The team does keep the ball well enough though, or is able to kill the games when needed... deeper problems than one player not doing all tasks required IMO.

Yes. Enzo is worse.