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Transfers The Winter Transfer Thread - 25/26

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GirthenHungswell said:
Donley has been overhyped from day dot. He’s got a lovely left foot but the mobility of my nan. He will only fit into a team even at Championship level if the manager is happy to let him be the playmaker and offer nothing else on or off the ball.
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So in having a lovely left foot, he’s instantly got more than most of our midfielders who are both not mobile or in any able to pass a ball.
 
BJK said:
For a pass to make sense, it's not sufficient for it to be available is it?

It must also be offering the potential recipient a clear option in the form of a shot, a pass, a cross or whatever. Otherwise it's pointless at best, detrimental at worst.

What I mean will become more clear soon hopefully.

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There's a pass here, but what's the point? Palhinha is looking straight at VDV, and doesn't seem like he has any intention other than passing it straight back in case he gets it.

Bentancur knows too: See his left arm pointing at Romero's direction.



I don't think the pass to Bentancur, illustrated with red dotted arrow, is on.

The pass to Palhinha is on obviously; but again, what's the point? He's already pointing at VDV as an indication of his intentions in case he gets the ball.



The pass is on to both players here, but they're both being watched closely. And they're hardly the type that will receive the ball in a tight area, pull a sharp half turn to shake off the defender(s) before creating himself the opening to burst forward with the ball or make a forward pass .That's where the inadequate player profile becomes a serious hindrance.

To make matters worse, since spacing is so bad, as soon as one gets the ball the two Brentford players could double team him without worrying about the other guy. Recipe for disaster knowing the said player profile.

Even the commentator felt compelled to mention how ridiculously close they were standing.



I deliberately widened the screenshot to the fullest to make a few points here:

-Look at all that space. Illustrates the essentiality of having a good ball carrier / passer that can get his team out of these high press situations on a regular basis. We don't need 10 signings to sort this mess out: Even a progressive passer or two would do a world of difference.

-The pass to Bentancur that was there momentarily is no longer on. Brentford's #27 has anticipated it. Besides, what I said above regarding the rubbish spacing indicates that Bentancur would've most likely gotten blindsided by Brentford's #6 even if it was on.

-The pass to Palhinha is on, but #6 is also in a good spot to harrass him in case the former gets the ball. Would you fancy Palhinha in such a battle against any midfielder in the league where he had to be the creator instead of the disruptor? I wouldn't.



Pass the ball in these situations to a player with Palhinha's skillset, and watch it go back to the keeper in no time in the outlined fashion. That's what Porro eventually decided to do himself.

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My takeaways:
  1. Watching these two play together for a good few months, I'm reasonably confident that they have little interest in actually getting the ball in those situations: They act more as decoys to drag the opposing midfielders further up the pitch, presumably to create opportunities for long balls to frontline players where they could be isolated with their individual defenders .​
  2. As hinted already, Frank is fully enabling this. That's part of his plan to bypass the midfield to presumably minimize the turnovers inside our own half. I jested that I wouldn't put it past Frank to turn Wharton of all people to a sideways-backwards specialist; but the more probable outcome would be for him to turn even the best deep playmaker to a passenger instead.​
  3. Like I said, this issue goes way deeper than these two midfielders .It's been there for quite some time. It also drove Ange to a point of desparation where he, to obtain that deep playmaking / ball carrying from somewhere, felt compelled to field kamikaze midfield trios featuring Maddison and Kulusevski as CMs in season two in particular.​
  4. If we don't bring in anybody that fits that description this January, the best bet would be to turn Simons into a CM somehow. No other player in the current squad even has an outside chance of being that guy; and this current situation where we're 12th despite setting unbreakable records in overachieving our xG is not sustainable.​
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We haven’t had a midfielder that defenders feel really comfortable giving the ball to in high pressure situations since Dembele. I wouldn’t could Ndombele because he hardly played as a deep lying midfielder for us. You can track our decline as a serious football team to the decline in the engine room.
 
BJK said:
For a pass to make sense, it's not sufficient for it to be available is it?

It must also be offering the potential recipient a clear option in the form of a shot, a pass, a cross or whatever. Otherwise it's pointless at best, detrimental at worst.

What I mean will become more clear soon hopefully.

------​



There's a pass here, but what's the point? Palhinha is looking straight at VDV, and doesn't seem like he has any intention other than passing it straight back in case he gets it.

Bentancur knows too: See his left arm pointing at Romero's direction.



I don't think the pass to Bentancur, illustrated with red dotted arrow, is on.

The pass to Palhinha is on obviously; but again, what's the point? He's already pointing at VDV as an indication of his intentions in case he gets the ball.



The pass is on to both players here, but they're both being watched closely. And they're hardly the type that will receive the ball in a tight area, pull a sharp half turn to shake off the defender(s) before creating himself the opening to burst forward with the ball or make a forward pass .That's where the inadequate player profile becomes a serious hindrance.

To make matters worse, since spacing is so bad, as soon as one gets the ball the two Brentford players could double team him without worrying about the other guy. Recipe for disaster knowing the said player profile.

Even the commentator felt compelled to mention how ridiculously close they were standing.



I deliberately widened the screenshot to the fullest to make a few points here:

-Look at all that space. Illustrates the essentiality of having a good ball carrier / passer that can get his team out of these high press situations on a regular basis. We don't need 10 signings to sort this mess out: Even a progressive passer or two would do a world of difference.

-The pass to Bentancur that was there momentarily is no longer on. Brentford's #27 has anticipated it. Besides, what I said above regarding the rubbish spacing indicates that Bentancur would've most likely gotten blindsided by Brentford's #6 even if it was on.

-The pass to Palhinha is on, but #6 is also in a good spot to harrass him in case the former gets the ball. Would you fancy Palhinha in such a battle against any midfielder in the league where he had to be the creator instead of the disruptor? I wouldn't.



Pass the ball in these situations to a player with Palhinha's skillset, and watch it go back to the keeper in no time in the outlined fashion. That's what Porro eventually decided to do himself.

----------​
My takeaways:
  1. Watching these two play together for a good few months, I'm reasonably confident that they have little interest in actually getting the ball in those situations: They act more as decoys to drag the opposing midfielders further up the pitch, presumably to create opportunities for long balls to frontline players where they could be isolated with their individual defenders .​
  2. As hinted already, Frank is fully enabling this. That's part of his plan to bypass the midfield to presumably minimize the turnovers inside our own half. I jested that I wouldn't put it past Frank to turn Wharton of all people to a sideways-backwards specialist; but the more probable outcome would be for him to turn even the best deep playmaker to a passenger instead.​
  3. Like I said, this issue goes way deeper than these two midfielders .It's been there for quite some time. It also drove Ange to a point of desparation where he, to obtain that deep playmaking / ball carrying from somewhere, felt compelled to field kamikaze midfield trios featuring Maddison and Kulusevski as CMs in season two in particular.​
  4. If we don't bring in anybody that fits that description this January, the best bet would be to turn Simons into a CM somehow. No other player in the current squad even has an outside chance of being that guy; and this current situation where we're 12th despite setting unbreakable records in overachieving our xG is not sustainable.​
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Pretty much spot on, my friend. That's some good understanding of the game.

Frustration is, it's bread & butter stuff, we ain't talking about anything complicated and they can't even execute that. They're PL players getting paid 100s of £k's a week for fuck sake.

The passing lanes would've been there if we'd moved the ball with some friggin zip and if Bentancur & Palhinha understood the importance of running, creating space, making themselves available. But they're lazy, scared, their reading of the game is abysmal...and they literally do not work in tandem, they just do their own thing. Just that sequence, Bentancur had 3 or 4 opportunities to run into space and offer the ball-carrier (esp Porro) a way out, which would've been even easier if Palhinha understood the concept of decoy runs.

A big part of the blame is on the manager and his shameful, cowardly approach. That said, players at that level who can't even do the basics, even when facing Brentford who weren't that aggressive in the press, well thru can seriously fuck off.
 
Please sign a classy deep lying playmaker who's an elite passer and comfortable with the ball even when being pressed, preferably over the age of 22.

And I promise I won't call you a rapist sheltering gooner cunt until the summer.
 
This could be a sh!t show of a window.

A club with no strategy and an appeal that is waning because of various factors.

As misdirected and ambling off the pitch as we are on it.
 
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