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Transfers Summer Transfer Thread 2023! - Closed (Maybe)

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Teams across all leagues will be tinkering with what Guardiola did this past season with his full backs, and Stones moving into midfield. Woolwich were at it most of the year with Ben White and Zinchenko. Postecoglou (going on small sample size of probably 10-12 games watched since we appointed him) doesn't have just the one way of utilizing full backs. Sometimes both bomb forward high and wide, sometimes one will sit beside cb's for most of the game, sometimes one will repeatedly make underlapping runs (inside winger into box), often the left back will come insde and spend the whole game rotating possession from a defensive midfield position. We have a wide variety of skillsets at full back, with our right backs in particular its a shame we don't have European games to give them all a fair go of it. Emerson, Porro, Spence all good at different things. Left back I'm a bit worried about, I thought Davies was a decent lcb in a three, don't really think he's much good in a back four.. Udogie is a developing, unrefined player and Reguilon/Sessegnon can't be counted on, but wouldnt be totally surprised if Ange decided he liked one or the other.

My concerns are 2 fold... Firstly I'm simply not a fan of 4231 (our squad is probably least equipped for it).

Secondly somewhere in between managerial flexibility and experimenting there's a genuine danger of creating a load of square pegs in order to use a particular system/tactic.....

You can see it in a lot of it in people's posts already..... Kulu/LW.... People wedded to the notion of a trad. CAM yet prescribing them on one side of a 433 or calling it a 433 despite playing Maddison in front of 2 CMs (that's 4231!!!).... The sudden return to the notion of old fashioned wingers and repurposing players to play there even they don't have the pace or line-hugging, dribbling tendencies to do so.....

It's all very well being Pep... When you have 25 elite, technically proficient players and a general ethos that is already deeply ingrained into the squad over a number of years, then yes; the canvas and the palette is there.... Go paint (ditto the budget version De Zerbi inherited at Brighton)...... but very few teams do..... Even Arse were complaining about their FBs/CMs relationships by the end of the season and now they seem to be ripping their entire MF apart this trf window.


Said in another post; I actually rue the expected departure from 3CBs... 2 x quality CB purchases pending; I think it's what suits our squad best... And for me that was the appeal of Nagelsmann..... For the most part, we already had the raw bones to get him up and running.
 
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Such a ridiculously short sighted transfer.

Not particularly a good fit for an inverted full and really not a good enough dribbler to be a winger.

We can only hope Ange can train him to be useful in the system we play though and we utilise his great delivery.

Ditto Udogie...... I see mostly Danny Rose in him...... That ain't a dribbling winger or TAA/Beckhammy type.
 
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Echoing the other reply, think he loses the ball too much with short passing and on the dribble. He's an end product guy, so if you have him in the team it's to get him on the ball around the opposition box. Good ball winners in midfield behind him, a defensively secure LB, and try to get Porro high and wide. Don't think he has any future at RW which some have suggested, it's a completely different position and I don't think he could play it.

So he Ange needs fullbacks who double as holding CMs. Sheesh. We don’t have those.
 
Inverted full backs don't play b2b, they come in field and hold shape, they are essentially deep lying playmakers (think Zinchenko)

Udogie has never played that role in his life, he's an aggressive touch line wing back

Maybe Ange will deploy him as a winger, or change his formation so he has an overlapping full back but he's certainly not an inverted full back
That isn't how Postecoglu's inverted full backs play they play in the channels, sometimes more central, and they go out wide then the winger cuts in, they definitely don't hold their position like a DLP.

Also, Udogie definitely isn't a touch line wing back, he constantly dribbles inside as well as outside and spends a lot of the time in the channels and barley ever crosses the ball from out wide. He is much more suited to inverted full back than Emerson, who has done well their and Juranovic who played there for Celtic and was their best RB.
 
I meant he plays on the natural side to his favoured foot.

The right is more 'natural' to him as that's where has always played.

Not true though is it......

Played just as much as a CAM over the years.

Starting point out to be what attributes the player has; not simply whether they're left or right footed.

But from I see with Postecoglou, there is emphasis on the winger getting to the byline to create. Kulu needs to find the form he showed when he signed for us. He became too predictable last season cutting inside all the time. When fakes and goes down the line on his right he is unpredictable and that makes him lethal.

But if you stick him on the left you simply create a 1 trick pony; but without the pace nor the line-hugging tendencies of a trad. winger.

I think you just create a miserable player by chucking Kulu out on the LW.
 
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We were never likely to get the best of the best, and especially not someone on Lloris' level, the main thing is that Vicario has a wider skillset so we can accept that he may not be world class at any one thing. Also, he was just £19m, if he flops he won't be a weight around the club's ankles like Ndombele and co.

Let's face it we need a new #2 next season regardless when Forster leaves..........
 
That Ange interview about... well, reliving his trauma of feeling helpless as a FB having to both attack and defend across the full length of the pitch, really annoyed me.

Football is perhaps the most dynamic sport in the world, if your FBs just hang back, you lose so much of that dynamism needed to overcome the opposition defence.

I hope I'm wrong about him.

Not sure of others have answered this (if so ignore) but (as I understand it based on what I've heard/read) Postecoglou's FB's aren't one dimensional defenders only, he uses them as auxiliary midfielders, coming inside - bit like Guardiola does in some formats - or Arteta does with Zinchenko.

The problem with this could be that we've spent three years buying WB's who do the opposite.
 
We’ve accumulated so much mediocrity over the last few year it’s frightening. Signs seem to indicate that we’ve turned a corner with the structure Paratici put in place recovering, but from this mess will still take time.

Still don’t understand why we decided to humor Conte with a 40m RWB in January though

I'm convinced it was a last grasp stab at convincing Conte to stay TBH.....

They way Levy is portrayed by most on here; do you honestly think he would have otherwise looked at our squad and thought Emerson, Doherty & Spence wasn't enough to be getting on with (at least until the end of the season)????

.....Yet there he was splashing €45m + add ons on what could be loosely described as Spence 2.0????

Complete and utter narrative clash.
 
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Not sure of others have answered this (if so ignore) but (as I understand it based on what I've heard/read) Postecoglou's FB's aren't one dimensional defenders only, he uses them as auxiliary midfielders, coming inside - bit like Guardiola does in some formats - or Arteta does with Zinchenko.

The problem with this could be that we've spent three years buying WB's who do the opposite.

Pep's also using CBs for the role tho'.... Rather than inverting career FB/WBs.... Walker & Cancello notably both being phased out over the last 12 months.

Porro, Udogie, Spence are cut from a different cloth.
 
That isn't how Postecoglu's inverted full backs play they play in the channels, sometimes more central, and they go out wide then the winger cuts in, they definitely don't hold their position like a DLP.

Also, Udogie definitely isn't a touch line wing back, he constantly dribbles inside as well as outside and spends a lot of the time in the channels and barley ever crosses the ball from out wide. He is much more suited to inverted full back than Emerson, who has done well their and Juranovic who played there for Celtic and was their best RB.

Fine but once again he's never played that role and that doesn't come natural to him, if he's grown up playing as a wing back how do you expect him to play in that position and learn?

I think folk are setting themselves up for disappointment with some of these teams.
 
C'mon. Dier is worth more than 10m. 20m would be a great price for him. England international and a decent CB and leader.

Our defensive troubles this year were the result of a failed system, and club moral hitting an all time low.

Sure, he's not likely to be buy for anyone in the top 8, but any other EPL club would jump at the chance to sign him.
He's a fucking Fraud.
Seriously, he barley gets a game for an England team built around Harry fucking Maguire.
Southgate is also a fraud.
 
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