Jack Elderton

On the list to come back to. Mini-report in my notes from earlier this season reads: Seen LW. Powerful runner w/ good combination-play. Very variable performance, turns it over a lot.

Can you sack a centre-back? Asking for a friend

Free pass to #6, free turn and unpressured ball over the top. You just will not get away with defending that poorly from the front.

My £40m CB just lost an aerial to Mikkel Damsgaard. Help.

Cala so difficult to follow since the Odegaard sub. Soucek a natural channel-filling expert but unavailable. Limited choices to resolve from 0-1 down, when natural response to swap a forward off for a defender would feel like conceding the game.

Facing massive issues in the left half-space defensively. 5:4 overload on the backline becomes particularly awkward when trying to maintain a 1:1 battle between Diouf and Saka. This opens a big gap between Kilman and Diouf. Arsenal's flexibility over exploiters (Timber/Cala/Eze) is tough to track.

Many others that could/should make this list but these were the big winners from the first french footage trawl of the season.

Fave U23 Ligue 1 players by position, excluding PSG:

GK: Obed Nkambadio
RB: Kojo Peprah Oppong (No outstanding RB option)
RCB: Mamadou Sarr
LCB: Abdoulaye Faye
LB: Quentin Merlin
DM: Aladji Bamba
CM: Kevin Danois
CM: Dermane Karim
RW: Maghnes Akliouche
ST: Matthis Abline
LW: Matias Fernandez-Pardo

200 scout reports done for the 25/26 season. Just the start!

21yo Magassa on for the final 15, his second sub app in the PL, and producing the worst performance level I've ever seen from him while both FBs go high (before a CB eventually goes up top too) = a neat microcosm of our problems.

Is all of this a consequence of years of haphazard decision-making and poor squad building? Yes.

Do I think Potter is a good manager that would find a way out of this eventually? Yes.

Is the environment stable enough to allow the kind of steady development required? No, I don't think so.

Watched it back. Feels like an end of cycle game. Repeated shape changes that dramatically alter team-level OOP mentality, with resultant impacts on natural counterbalancing IP tempo, leading to a level of competitiveness almost good enough to match a subpar Palace performance. It just isn't enough.

This doesn't mean that the ideas chosen in moments are wrong. They're often good ideas. The issue is that they usually work for 15 minutes until the opposition figure things out.

Being flexible is a good thing but I think it might be inhibiting longer term development right now.

Tactically, I'm not sure that West Ham are building layers this season. Short term solutions are prioritised for momentary upside that is quickly wiped out by teams that have developed together towards a clear idea.

In short, Palace know what they are about. I don't think we do.

Team that know what they're doing vs West Ham again is it?

Will be tuning into Lyon/Angers this evening to check on 18yo Prosper Peter who starts up front for Angers. Really only there for when Dejeux stops messing about and gets the main man Abdelli on though. Anything for Pirate Bay Dembele.

Didn't really have enough space to cover Bamba properly. Still very early but incredibly dominant in midfield against Auxerre with an incredible amount of risk/progression balanced with outstanding accuracy. 11/16 duels. Silly level for a 19-y-o on first start.

Siwe/Bamba both got their first starts last GW. More...

Melvin Bard (LB, 24, Nice)
Still banging this drum.

Kevin Danois (CM, 21, Auxerre)
Second ball winner, line-breaker and chance creator. Next Mac Allister?

Felix Correia (LW, 24, Lille)
Good combinations, progression + pace. Um... R. Nelson?

Looked at 55 Ligue 1 players in depth. Standouts were:

Telli Siwe (CB, 20, Auxerre)
Quick sweeper. Lacroix prototype.

Junior Mwanga (DM, 22, Nantes)
Strong in duels. Moves it forwards. Good in the boxes. Shades of Amadou Onana.

Aladji Bamba (DM, 19, Monaco)
Wow. That's why they let Magassa go...

Radar app still lookin a tad wonky but we take these

Jayden Oosterwolde - Fenerbahce

Spent a couple days looking for that sort of player a while back. Not much out there. Had we added someone like V. Atangana in midf then we could be more flexi dropping Magassa back + going for younger players in rotation. Now probably just pressure on a couple of kids to play consistently.

I don't have much time to post on any social media platform any more but happy to chuck more random thoughts/comments here from time to time.

Couple of interesting data shouts. Think Marseille were interested in Mykhavko before going for Aguerd. Potentially high upside there w/ super impressive data in Ukraine. Saw some bits vs England U21s, looks good on the ball.

Think my other final-year-of-contract-WCB-lefties are just... not that great.

Charlie Cresswell would be neat prioritisation of improving box defending (necessary after opening GW outcomes) but would it address broader line height issues that compromise pressing success and force the team to defend deeper for longer in games?

Both profiles via great footballeconomist app...

Limited options for max minutes at LCB this late in the window. Diogo Leite linked with Girona/Bologna to replace Krejci/Lucumi who have gone/will be going to Wolves/Sunderland.

Worth exploring. In last year of contract and not included so far for Union Berlin with a sale expected.

Four months on from this post and can't get away from this stuff anywhere. Online/offline - it's everywhere. Not doing so hot as a result. Not even platforming myself to avoid ag and still experiencing maximum ag. It's great!

I could actually rant all day about how shit it all is right now. It's so shit. I wake up every day and read more horrible shite entirely designed to make the environment more hostile and to squash us into easily digestible boxes for the intolerant or remove us from view by whatever means necessary.