Josh L

If other clubs don't realise we need a creative midfielder without Frank saying so then they should fire everyone involved.

This is just a fun added cost of having no depth in key profiles. Everything is an urgent reactive move.

Are we a serious club or not?

Perennial transfer window question that i can't seem to accept the obvious answer to.

This midfield without Maddison is one of the worst in the league (horribly unbalanced).

The defense once VdV gets injured will be one of the worst in the league (again).

Is it bad to go into a 3rd season in a row with glaringly obvious faults with the roster construction? Asking for a friend.

Buy one get one on loan?

Nobody knew how good those players would become when they were 2 years on from where Bergvall is.

When we bought Son he was a decent but inconsistent winger from Germany.

Build the statue.

A true actual legend of the club.

I read an interview with the creators during season 3 where they stated that they didn't have a plan for the end. I didn't watch another episode.

Band of brothers was also fantastic

Maybe this place *is* doomed. I usually only read football chat but reading the replies to this has cost me braincells.

Most of the criticism seems to boil down to: 'but these young men are just wrong, they should agree with me already, so i object to the existence of this article'.

(this is tongue in cheek btw, reads back a bit aggressive)

I said plays, not spunked money on, barely played, and regretted.

This is good.

I also have never heard A/B as an 'American' thing. But I'll check out the pod.

'Closers' yes. As a phrase it sounds American to me. But 'super sub' is commonly used which is the other side of the same coin.

They're satire in a fantasy world.

They're not a grand narrative like a GoT.

I think you can dip in and out.

But as satire and commentary they are basically peerless.

Or actually if you have peers tell me so i can read them too.

Shit. I'm on holiday and left my ebook reader at home. Was going to reread some pratchett.

Starting with Nightwatch.

The reason would be that this player can't do most of the things that that philosophy demands of midfielders.

Which implies we aren't going to do it.

Which i think is a mistake.

I think this signing contradicts that. Palhinha can't do anything on the ball that top sides require from the 6 role.

You cannot play possession football and carry someone in that role. See Maddison having to drop deep constantly to support Bentancur (who can pass but not turn).

He can't pass/receive the ball under minimal pressure. And that was/should have been known. Nathan highlighted it as a big risk in an otherwise positive video before he joined.

He looks great *especially* against much better sides because it leans into his strengths.

I'm not going to reply to these because they speak for themselves.

Which teams.

I don't see it as adapting to a failure of system.

More adapting as the exhausted broken squad simply couldn't do what he wanted to do (and realistically we lacked the players to do that in the first place).

And we're not adapting to palhinha, we've chosen him.

And how did we look offensively.

Yeah that's reasonable but we aren't allowed to play 12. Essentially requires us to pair him with someone that can progress from deep (who we don't have), is one dimensional, and takes a squad space.

I.e. exacerbates existing squad issues.

Two ways to solve that, get better at holding the ball, or stop trying to.

Which one does this signing point to.

As a bonus which teams have a pure destroyer and are teams we'd like to emulate.

Disagree.

Because we lacked squad depth. Lacked key positions (1vs1 specialist) and lacked creativity, especially in progressing the ball from defense. And because we (correctly) prioritised the europa league.

We were open in midfield because we couldn't keep the ball but were trying to.

Obviously I'm undermining some positivity around the new season.

I didn't want Brentford style and do not see that as in longer with the direction that we had been taking. Plenty of people ARE happy with that and positive about it scaling to top 5 level, which is reasonable.

I don't think that it necessarily means Conte terror ball but it doesn't point to us controlling games and holding possession. At best I think that it is a stepping stone

No of course it doesn't.

But this signing does not fit with the previous direction. I see it as marking another lurch.

One of the major issues last year was the lack of creativity in midfield. This guy is significantly worse in that respect than anyone else we have.

Based on choice of manager and signings we are making.

Happy to defer judgement on Frank, he's a good manager but the question of whether he could/would deliver attacking football was the key one for me. This signing strongly suggests an intent to build towards Brentford.