Football: 'Let's talk about six, baby'

[Consigliere]

I doubt Lampard would go with a back three. 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 were his favoured formations at Derby. A 4-2-3-1 could work quite well for Chelsea. Kante can then drop into a deeper midfield role where he is best and they go with four attackers - CHO/Pulisic/Willian/Pedro for the wings and RLC/Barkley at #10. CF might be an issue as Giroud, Morata, Abrahams and Batshuayi don't look to have a lot of goals in them so the wide players and #10s will have to contribute a decent amount there. Kovacic can come in for Jorginho if they need more defensive cover. Drinkwater needs to be offloaded. 

[ljkeane]

They could play a 3-4-2-1 with Barkley and maybe a fit Loftus-Cheek in the more advanced roles. I don’t think they will though. Like Consigliere said Lampard played 4 at the back every time I saw Derby either with a 4-3-3 or a midfield diamond.

[Consigliere]

On the United front: it's been a real stinker of a window thus far. Wan Bissaka is a good signing but we are still stuck with the dead wood of Jones, Rojo and Smalling with no CB signing in sight. Fellaini and Herrera leaving means we are short of midfield options with no reinforcements in sight. Daniel James is an unknown quantity who is more of a left winger and there's been no indication of us signing anyone for the RW. Pogba and Lukaku want to leave as well. Solskjaer always faced an uphill battle but a poor transfer window will make it an impossible one. 

[Raja]

There's a german CB in london waiting for that call from Manchester.

[polishgenius]

50 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

 Fellaini and Herrera leaving means we are short of midfield options with no reinforcements in sight.

There's this persistent rumour about Bruno Fernandes but it always seems to be next week and has been for about a month now.

[Mark Antony]

Herrera was such a bastard. Think he will do well at PSG

[Raja]

Herrera is lovely. Also, a herrera/ Veratti midfield makes me swoon.

[Jordan La Cabra]

12 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

How do you think Chelsea will play?  

Style-wise, I think we will probably be a bit more energetic when it comes to moving the ball. It's quite clear from last season that we don't really have the squad for a possession based game. Most of last season, especially the middle third of the season, we were laboured and slow, which wasn't Sarri's intention, but it's what we ended up doing. I think Lampard will probably want something closer in style to what Liverpool had last season than to what Man City or Chelsea had. 

His preferred formation at Derby was 4-3-3, but I think it is entirely dependent on what he does with Kante whether he predominately uses 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. One of the issues many people had with Sarri last season was where he played Kante, but I actually think the role on the right of a midfield three suited him better than the middle holding role. Kante is actually at his best in a midfield two partnership, as we saw at Leicester (4-4-2), Chelsea under Conte (3-4-3) and France (4-2-3-1), so Frank moving us to a 4-2-3-1 could definitely work to bring the best out of Kante again, with either Jorginho or Kovacic alongside him. 

If he does go 4-2-3-1, Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi, Pedro and Willian will compete for a role on the wings with the numner ten spot being contested between Loftus-Cheek (when fit again), Barkley and perhaps Willian, as he has played there before under Mourinho. Mason Mount could be retained, as well, considering RLC's injury. I would definitely keep Mount for the first half of the season, at least, and if he hasn't played enough by January, loan him out again.

At the back, I was hoping we would sell Zappacosta and Alonso, so to give Reece James and Jay Da Silva a chance to compete as back up full backs with Azpilicueta and Emerson, but instead the club sold Jay Da Silva to Bristol City, where he spent last season on loan. Reece James is injured, but I do think he is an exceptional talent. He's actually the academy player I am most looking forward to seeing play in the first team. In terms of CB, if Zouma stays, we will have four quality CBs in Zouma, Luiz, Rudiger and Christensen, but two starting spots for four players could be an issue.

Up front is where we are probably weakest. Giroud is our strongest option, due to his all round game, but for goals alone, he has never been the most prolific. Abraham has been excellent in his two seasons on loan in the Championship with Bristol City and Aston Villa; he struggled at Swansea in the PL, but they were pretty rubbish that season in general. I would keep Abraham in the squad this season and give him a chance to compete with Giroud. Batshuayi is a decent enough back up option, if Frank decides he wants to have three centre forwards. Morata quite clearly doesn't want to be anywhere near Chelsea and has already begun preseason at Atletico Madrid.

 

[Consigliere]

15 hours ago, polishgenius said:

There's this persistent rumour about Bruno Fernandes but it always seems to be next week and has been for about a month now.

You know what's really disappointing? We haven't even bothered attempting to bring in Tielemans. Leicester will land him for around 40 million and then in a year from now we will finally decide to try and sign him only for Leicester to quote us 100 million. Our transfer 'strategy' is shambolic. Like I said before, more money than sense. 

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

You know what's really disappointing? We haven't even bothered attempting to bring in Tielemans. Leicester will land him for around 40 million and then in a year from now we will finally decide to try and sign him only for Leicester to quote us 100 million. Our transfer 'strategy' is shambolic. Like I said before, more money than sense. 

It's weird that none of the bigger clubs are interested in Tielemans. I mean he'd not do much for City and Chelsea can't sign him of course but he'd improve everyone else. Spurs have got Ndombele at least which is a similar kind of signing but Tielemans would have cost less and has at least some proving, of being very good, in the Prem. I know Tielemans didn't have the best time at Monaco but come on he's clearly class.

But yeah, our transfer policy is baffling. I don't mind us signing youngsters to develop but we also clearly need players who are class now and we're missing some open goals.

The Fernandes rumours are now getting more specific (supposedly he's gonna arrive for a medical over the next couple of days so we'll see if that materialises) and he would be a good signing but also a risky one.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Curious that nobody is really in pursuit of Florentino Luis. I know a Benfica fan, who is not particularly happy with losing Joao Felix, but he said, if you really want to see Benfica fans cry, you have to take Florentino Luis away from them, and he was a bit edgy when City were linked to Luis a few months ago.

18 hours ago, Raja said:

There's a german CB in london waiting for that call from Manchester.

Try to offload the German playmaker first, maybe in a player exchange for Lingard. Doesn't matter if you actually want Lingard, this is just about moving that contract elsewhere.

[Raja]

23 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Try to offload the German playmaker first, maybe in a player exchange for Lingard. Doesn't matter if you actually want Lingard, this is just about moving that contract elsewhere.

Eh - I'd take getting rid of Mustafi over Ozil every day of the week if it means Mustafi isn't anywhere close to our starting 11.

It was also a joke.

[Iskaral Pust]

17 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

Herrera was such a bastard. Think he will do well at PSG

 

17 hours ago, Raja said:

Herrera is lovely. Also, a herrera/ Veratti midfield makes me swoon.

He’ll add some grit to that team, plus they need an external addition here and there to help them not be complacent from strolling to the title each year. 

But, that said, that is a huge contract for Herrera.  I saw it reported as 350k pounds per week for five years.  That is absolutely mental money* (and contract length) for a player about to turn 30, whose relative advantage is his narky attitude during games.  He’s a decent footballer but hardly Kante-esque as a ball winner, nor Alonso/Modric-esque as a playmaker.  And his past five years have been spent in undistinguished teams with very little CL exposure nor handling the pressure of title challenges.  His main success over this period was being consistently arsed about playing (when Pogba wasn’t) and being a better footballer than Fellaini.  He was the best of a very bad MF.  Talk about failing upward.

*I know the absence of a transfer fee is a big factor here.

[Consigliere]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Curious that nobody is really in pursuit of Florentino Luis.

It's probably because Benfica are in no mood to negotiate and his release clause would have had to be triggered. It was set at €60m but he signed a new contract a few days ago which increased it to €120m. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

Eh - I'd take getting rid of Mustafi over Ozil every day of the week if it means Mustafi isn't anywhere close to our starting 11.

It was also a joke.

Yes, but if you part with Özil that would free funds to get a better cb. :')

Right now, you only have the money for 0.5 Maguires.

36 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

It's probably because Benfica are in no mood to negotiate and his release clause would have had to be triggered. It was set at €60m but he signed a new contract a few days ago which increased it to €120m. 

Ah, ok. Missed the extension. However if Felix is worth 120m, then the 60m for him look almost reasonable.

[Raja]

24 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Yes, but if you part with Özil that would free funds to get a better cb. :')

Right now, you only have the money for 0.5 Maguires.

Eh - rather sell Mustafi & use that money than selling Ozil, the latter can still contribute as opposed to the former.

Also - maguire is such an overhyped CB, can't believe united want to pay 70 million for him.

[Mark Antony]

Atleti statement:

Quote

Following the statements made today by the president of FC Barcelona, Josep María Bartomeu, about our player Antoine Griezmann, Atlético de Madrid wants to publicly expose the following:

On May 14, Antoine Griezmann informed Miguel Ángel Gil, Diego Pablo Simeone and Andrea Berta of their decision to leave the club at the end of the season. In the days following that meeting, Atlético de Madrid learned that Fútbol Club Barcelona and the player had reached an agreement last March, specifically in the days after the second leg of our Champions League tie against Juventus, as well as they had been negotiating the terms of the agreement since mid-February.

In reference to President Bartomeu's statement made today, we want to state that it is true that yesterday there was a meeting between Miguel Ángel Gil and the Football Club Barcelona CEO, Oscar Grau, at the request of Barcelona and that at that meeting, Mr. Grau expressed his intention, once the clause of rescission of the contract of Antoine Griezmann and have passed from 200 to 120 million euros, request a postponement of the payment of the aforementioned amount of the current clause as of July 1.

Obviously the response from Atlético de Madrid was negative, understanding that both FC Barcelona and the player have disrespected Atlético de Madrid and all its fans.

As a result of all this, today, Atletico Madrid has requested the player, his sister as agent of the footballer and his lawyer, that Antoine Griezmann, in compliance with their contractual obligations with our club, appear next Sunday in the facilities of the entity in order to start the preseason with the rest of his teammates.

Through this press release, Atlético de Madrid wants to express its strongest repulsion for the behavior of both, especially the Fútbol Club Barcelona, for having induced the player to break his contractual relationship with Atlético de Madrid at one point during the season. where the club was playing, not only the Champions League tie against Juventus, but the League title against Fútbol Club Barcelona itself, something that we consider violates protected periods of negotiation with players and alters the basic rules that govern the integrity of all sports competition, besides being a huge loss to our club and its millions of fans

[Consigliere]

4 hours ago, polishgenius said:

The Fernandes rumours are now getting more specific (supposedly he's gonna arrive for a medical over the next couple of days so we'll see if that materialises) and he would be a good signing but also a risky one.

Even if we manage to pull that off, we would still need at least two more signings in the midfield. Pogba is on his way out - Raiola has just come out and said that Pogba is determined to leave and the relevant parties at United have been informed of his decision. Fernandes would replace Pogba as the AM but we'd still need replacements for Fellaini and Herrera. Woodward has done very poorly in this window - given the issues with the squad, he really needed to have completed deals for a CB and at least one midfielder by now. 

[polishgenius]

If we sell Pogba and get a steady 7.5 without adding other creative players into the mix as well he'll run into the exact same problem as Pogba did in which he could have a perfectly good game but if he doesn't outright make all the final passes we'll look shit and he'll seem like he's playing a 5 when he's actually doing perfectly fine.

[Raja]

I don't think having two bang average managers has helped at all.  I'm a big fan of Pogba, but that's just me. It is way harder to find players that can give you that 10/10 performance that he can, as opposed to a bunch of average 7.5s, imo. I'm sure he's been culpable for some of the united performances, but I think it would be crazy not to try and build a midfield or a team that gets the best out of him.