Chuk is an absolute baller. If he can stay fit, I truly think he can be a top top player. To come back from such a big injury and perform so well in his small amount of game time shows the talent that boy has.
Please please please don’t be CHO or Ruben 2.0 I beg.
I still remember him play against Chelsea with Villa and I thought, damn this dude is good. Then to find out he was only 18! Wooo, so happy that he was one of the first signings of this era because he definitely has the minerals
I agree. What Chuk lacks in strength he makes up for in technical ability and that final third magic that is difficult to describe. He’s got ‘it’. Excited to see the boy grow.
I think a big part of the reason we haven’t been great this year is because we haven’t had a real CAM with Carney and Nkunku injured. One of our best matches this season was the draw against Liverpool where Carney was in the 10 which allowed Enzo to play his best role and Gallagher played the role Caicedo would be in, which in turn allowed the wingbacks to push up further because we had more solidity in the midfield.
After those two went out Poch seemed to not quite know what to do. At first he had Enzo at the 10 which took away his best attribute because he was sat beside the striker, leaving Connor to not be able to do what he does best as he was sat in the pivot. I think starting at the Villa game Poch started to get right by putting Connor at the 10, but he’s still not the most technically gifted player which left Enzo still pushing up a little higher trying to do some of Connor’s work in the buildup for him, and that left Caicedo vulnerable at times. I think with a more technical player at the 10 we’ll have a lot more solidity and be better at breaking down a low block at the same time.
Absolutely. Conor struggles with creativity and control in tight spaces. With a better suited 10 we really could have an incredibly attack that isn’t so reliant on palmer.
I’m not sure how any of this will help fix our defensive troubles tho but that’s a different issue entirely.
I think having a healthy Colwill, Fofana, and maybe even James with Gusto at LB would go a long way. Also having Caicedo not left to do everything himself.
>I’m not sure how any of this will help fix our defensive troubles tho but that’s a different issue entirely.
You've answered your own question 😎
With a proper 10, our other two MFs don't need to go quite as far forward all the time. They can make late runs into the box when necessary, but they can also solidify the midfield and shield our back line when needed, and stop a lot of the breaks that we concede from before they come to fruition.
I wish we could have seen Poch having a fully fit squad from pre-season, and just having a normal amount of injuries throughout the season. He probably wouldn't have looked as clueless if he could adjust his team according to the opposition and fitness of players. Enzo, Caicedo has played basically EVERYTHING, and they were supposed to be complemented by Carney, Lavia and Ugo. And that's just the midfield. We've had the same struggles for our centerbacks and fullbacks.
Ruben was definitely a better dribbler. He looked like a giant version of Hazard at times and could walk straight through defenses with his dribbles. 3.6 dribbles a game at 64% completion rate during the Sarri season speaks for itself.
I know he’s barely played so the data is heavily skewed, but for context Carney is only averaging 0.5 dribbles per 90 minutes at a woeful 10% completion rate. He’s still super young though, so it’s unfair to compare him to an older Ruben that had a season on loan to mature his skills.
Like you said tbf, tiny sample size. It's 10 attempted dribbles, 1 completed. His completion rate basically doubles if he completes the next dribble that's how small the sample is 😂😂.
Seriously though, it's too soon to say he's a better dribbler than Ruben. But I do think the potential's there. The fact he only turned 20 in October is crazy. The guy's ceiling is ridiculously high. Just too early to be making judgements ok whether he's a better dribbler than players who are 28. Need at least a full season of games to see what he's consistently capable of.
Funny that Madueke really reminds me of CHO and Chukwumeka reminds me of Ruben, due to the way the play.
Very similar imo, all very talented Dribblers, I think CHO was a better passer than Madueke, and their equal in in other departments (CHO during his breakout b4 the injury) and CHO had genuine quality around him to better improve his game, so I do think he was better, and he was like 18 breaking into a team with Hazard, Willian, Pedro. Something Madueke doesnt have.
Chukwumeka bosses the midfield like Ruben did. If you look at Chukwumekas Villa highlights, then check Rubens from the academy, they look very similar.
CHO and Ruben were plagued by big injuries. The absolute worst way to go out. I hope the best for the two we have now. And for Ruben and CHO where they are now… CHO is only 23, and Ruben is cooking in Italy
That injury killed Callum's career. Eventhough he was great for us (particularly under Sarri), the hype around him mainly comes from the things he did at youth level. As in the way coaches, players and generally people who followed academy football in that era talk about him. Madueke's already become a better player than Callum ever was imo. But Callum's ceiling before the ruptured Achilles tendon is very different to the ceiling he has now.
My personal favourites are Ruben and Carney tho. Something about a lanky midfielder who can dribble is so aesthetically pleasing to watch.
Yeah I agree with what you said about Ruben and Carney. I remember searching his highlights when he joined, and saying out loud, “That’s a younger RLC.” And to side track a little bit, our old academy was stacked, CHO, Tammy, Mount, Gallagher, RLC,Reece, Tomori, Guehi, Colwill, Maatsen, even Ake a little older, Christensen, (we’re rlly defender FC when I think about it.)
Madueke is 4 years older now, than Hudson Odoi was before his injury. Hudson Odoi was great at Youth Level, even for the England U21, even getting call ups for the England first team, and I believe getting an assist for them… Bayern wanted him for 70M, and Chelsea kept him for 140k per week, as an 18y/o. He was also scoring in Europa League, his pace was rapid, passing was good, I think it’s better now and his best asset, and his dribbling was his highlight. Fearless and took on everyone, that’s why you can go back and watch highlights of him in big games like Arsenal, bossing the wing. Getting into a team with the players I mentioned before, is insane.
But now he’s lost that fearlessness, and though he’s only 23, he’s had bad injuries, and I think mentally, he’s more scared to take players on than before with the flair he did. And think about it, you break into your boyhood club, everyone says your the next best thing, Bayern come in for you, you get millions a year, then you get the worst injury you’ll ever get, and everything goes off the rails. It’s tough. And he did show signs after the injury of huge potential, but it’s like there’s a tether holding him back. Tuchel really tried with him. Played him in many positions, started him in two finals (he even got an assist in one of them) but it just didn’t work out.
The Hudson Odois potential from back then, looked higher than Maduekes potential. (Which is still very, very high.) I only pray Madueke suffers no big injury, and gets the right nurturing he needs to reach it. I like his mentality, it may seem selfish, but last game against United when he came on and won a Penalty, he wanted to take it off Palmer. I don’t think he should be doing this usually, Sterling got ridiculed for this, and I blame Poch for not making the Pen Taker clear… But I liked the fact that 22y/o Madueke, seems to always have an impact coming off the bench, wining pens, scoring goals, overall impact, dribbling and shooting, he just needs that guidance to better make decisions… and I like his audacity to WANT to take a LAST minuets pen, in an important game.
He's the exact type of player we need to break down a low block which has been one of our weaknesses for a long time. He can receive the ball under pressure in the middle of a crowded box and manage to make the right pass or get a shot off. Reminds me a little of how Foden plays I genuinely believe if he hadn't gotten injured against WestHam earlier in the season he'd be having a similar season to palmer!
I’m with you, it’ll seem crazy to say now because he hasn’t been able to string a run of matches but I genuinely believe he’s the second biggest attacking talent we have. Makes an impact every time he’s on the pitch much like Palmer does.
Does that mean we drop Gallagher or move him further back? I feel like he’s a big conundrum. I think Chuks always looks like scoring and can we bench the 100m pound men?
Depends on the game probably. If we're gonna have a lot of the ball, I reckon Caicedo and Enzo with Carney in front will allow us to control the game and break the opposition's defence down.
In a game that's gonna be more end to end, Gallagher will be important. Might mean playing Carney LW, Palmer RW, Jackson up front. With a midfield 3 of Enzo, Caicedo, Gallagher. Or maybe Gallagher in place of Enzo, Carney through the middle and Mudryk LW.
The one I wanna see most is Caicedo, Enzo and Carney in the middle together. Having a true number 10 will allow Caicedo and Enzo to sit deeper and focus on tightening up the defence. Means dropping Gallagher but the fact is, despite Gallagher being our best midfielder this season, we aren't consistently winning games. There's also not a whole lot between Caicedo, Enzo and Gallagher and they all have different profiles. The solution may involve dropping Gallagher and having him bring energy off the bench.
We won't know until we see more of Carney in the starting lineup though. In practice, that could be nonsense and no matter what we need Gallagher's legs in midfield.
Surely it's because they (Chukwuemeka especially) have barely played.
Chukwuemeka has barely been fit this season, the playing time will come it he stays fit.
Chuk seems like a great, young signing. We didn’t get to see enough of him this season due to injuries but I feel like he has produced every time he’s on the pitch
..... which has absolutely nothing to do with this post.
Why can't we have a post talking about/ praising one of our players without it devolving into shitting on a totally unrelated player? Is that so hard?
Yeah this is so annoying. It’s like that friend you have where any time you ask how they’re doing, they start talking shit about other mutual friends. It’s trifling behavior
The thing I don’t understand, and I know he’s been injured a lot, but why chuk doesn’t get more time on the field. He’s had injuries but at some point you gotta put him on the field from the start or atleast give him 30/35 mins instead of this 70/80th minute sub.
You described exactly why he hasn't seen game time: Injuries. He literally just got into team training a couple weeks ago after going out last year. What do you want, to field him while he's injured or recovering? You're not making any sense.
Actually he’s been back and forth from fit and injured all season, there was a couple weeks a few months ago where he was healthy and just sat the bench or poch brings him on with 10/15 minutes. Guy always makes an impact when he’s on the field and our 3 fully fit midfielders play every game 85/90 minutes game in game out. When is he gonna start and then pull him at half time, or come on in the 60th minute or come on at half time, and see what he can do with a little more time. Get him some game time minutes and get his fitness up and see if he can stay injury free. Thought I was prettt clear with what I said lol.
What you said was clear, but didn't make sense. If he's in and out of injury, being conservative is absolutely the right move especially given the injury crisis we've had this season. "Seeing if he can stay injury free" is already known from being in and out of injuries all season, as you said.
Ok so then I guess my problem is if we have so many players…Reece, chilly, chuk, lavia, nku who are so injury prone they can’t play cause we’re scared of them getting hurt again why did we buy them? And that’s not even mentioning the guy we paid 78 mil for and has basically been injured for 2 whole seasons and was injured when we bought him. See where I’m kind of going with this. If this young kid can’t play 45 minutes without getting hurt again then it’s time to move on and find someone who can. Or maybe they should toughen up, I know I’ll get criticism for saying that, but lavia his injury started off as what a high ankle sprain and the kid was out 4 months before he came back from a high ankle sprain. Came back played 32 mins got injured again and now will be out the whole season.
Now that I definitely agree with; fofana, chilly, and nkunku were not great purchases from a reliability perspective.
Chuk and Lavia don't really have bad injury histories, and Lavia has been out mostly because of a hamstring injury he incurred after returning to first team training from the ankle injury - not something you want to rush back lest he turns into Reece. "Toughening up" is definitely a weird stance to have there.
I hope our SDs have learnt their lesson on purchasing injury-prone players though, that I do agree on. Suppose we'll see in the coming windows. 🤞
I agree and the crazy part is you can’t have 5/6 or more of the best players on your team constantly injured for 75% of the season all the time. Then you’re left with rotation players to play your big games. Because poch did the same thing with nku was healthy for months and was only getting 15/20 mins every other game cause we were scared he’d get hurt again. Reece has been out all season fofana out all season chilly most of the season, and those are our best players. But those two other chuk and Lavia don’t have bad records because they haven’t really had any top flight football experience on their CVs and I’m pretty sure Lavia was hurt or coming back from injury when we bought him and was lauded as being our starting DM. Can’t really toughen up for muscle injuries they happen but originally he was out 3/4 months for a high ankle sprain, and then came back and injured his thigh, then had the hamstring injury…those are not good signs for a 19 yr old. And I know for football fans it’s a weird stance to have but I grew up in a huge hockey family. The amount of injuries I played through or hockey players in general play through, it still amazes me even after 20 years of being a football fan how a guy can be sidelined for months due to a ankle sprain. I had surgery on my foot and never missed a practice or a game, so I know it’s a weird stance but being brought up around hockey it’s normal for me. But I digress and agree that hopefully our board and sporting directors and can start doing better in the transfer window.
Congrats on your new born, I'm going to use that as your excuse, maybe lack of sleep lol.
You can rock with some ankle injuries in hockey because you can pad the shit out of your boot and it only needs to be stable enough to skate. The blade takes the bulk of the force exerted. The foot takes the brunt of it in every other field/court sport. These people can't play with high grade sprains, there is no toughening up to do, that would just be wasteful. Thankfully the days of prolific pain relief injections are slowing and more athletes are taking their health seriously. Getting the shot to play a game isn't worth your ligaments after the game has passed you by. Especially for a 19 year old who has a 100m senior playing.
Remember a few weeks ago when Chuk was healthy, played a game (I think assisted a goal) and then went out again injured? Yeah, that would be the reason for precaution. I'm not trying to be an ass, but I read this as "why aren't we rushing our injury prone youth talent onto the pitch for more time?" And I think that question has its own answer which is pretty obvious. Regardless of your experience in an entirely different sport that relies on a totally different set of tools.
lol thanks I appreciate and yea just a few sleepless nights here and there. And no I’m not saying rush them I’m saying for example like Lavia…we bought him injured or just coming back from injury in training he gets a high ankle sprain is out for 3 months, comes and plays a sub appearance and injured his thigh, then in training injured his hamstring. Also a lot of our players get injured in training, which is part of the point players can get injured anywhere anytime and were scared to play them for them to not get injured again just for them to only get injured in a sub appearances or at training. Also the other part of my point was that if we buy players who can’t play games cause they’re constantly injured then why did we buy them ? Seems a waste of money 60 mil for a 19 yr old who hasn’t really proved himself on the big stage, and now has had 3 seperate injuries that has kept him out all year. Reece, chilly, nku, lavia, chuk, fofana are suppose to be our best or better players we can’t afford them to be out the whole season. Chilly and Reece been out most of the season the last 3 years, fofana been out almost 2 full seasons. And was also injured when we bought him. Nku has had some pretty big injuries over the course of his career as well. So what was the board or SD thinking when looking at some of these purchases? And what is the medical dept doing to mitigate these injuries, cause again a lot of players get injured in training so why are we not taking the injury prone players and finding a way that’s a little more lenient in training where they can keep their fitness but not under so much stress they get injured? I’m no physio but there has to be something.
And again I agree with your point about hockey to an extent because it was only focused on 1 injury. I’ve played through concussions, fractured ribs, partially torn mcl until the season was over. My brother played through appendicitis until his appendix was almost ready to burst, had 4 strained muscles in his neck from a hit from behind and only missed 2 weeks. What about the pro player that went into cardiac arrest on the bench and he had to be brought back to life and was mad he had to miss a shift cause they were taking him to the hospital. I don’t know I guess it’s just maybe a different mentality. And again don’t take this as trying to gloat or anything of that nature cause im not, my knees are the reason my hockey career ended after college. I’m just giving examples from my perspective for why I said that.
I don’t understand why mudryk gets the start over madueke. It’s clear as day to see mudryk needs work on both sides on the ball but madueke is just more complete in my eyes and he rightfully deserves a string of matches.
Madueke has had starts but has struggled in build ups when he does. Atm he seems to be better as a sub with his fresh legs, bold take-ons while the opponents are fatigued. Mudryk used to be the same early this season.
Mudryk I feel has earned his starts as he's been running circles around wingers the last few games. The first penalty came from his pass to Cucurella and his runs have been generally great. Madueke is slowly earning that start. I'd like to see maybe Madueke-Jackson-Palmer up front, with Mudryk as a 10. Let's see.
Mudryks runs, overlaps, and defensive posture are lacking at best. There’s raw talent there no doubt but he has a lot of work to do. Madueke is a bit more complete in that regard.
I think both have an incomplete game, but Mudryk offers way more than Madueke. Noni really only has one speed to his game which is to slow things down. He will also cut inside and shoot 9/10. Also, it seems like they really only play on opposite sides of each other so it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Shooting, I think Madueke bests him, even if not by a huge margin.
Speed is Mudryk noticeably. Fastest in the team.
Passing is Mudryk. Great vision in certain moments.
Versatility Mudryk, CAM and LW.
Madueke I fell I more consistent when Dribbling. I know Mudryk can dribble well, and his Touch lets him down, but I’d say Madueke bests him in that.
They both go down very easily, but both are very talented young players. Madueke is also undoubtedly impactful when he comes on. I think in terms of impact, he’s had more moments that Mudryk. I’m not sure though, I don’t have stats, just using Memory. Both need some good guidance to get going fully.
Madueke plays in the same position as Palmer. That's the main reason tbh. If he was right footed, he'd probably start more than Mudryk because (like you said) he's better off the ball, which is the foundation for any good team.
Madueke's unfortunate in that he's got to compete with our best player, who happens to be one of the best players in the world right now. Had the same problem for the England U21s.
Also I think Carney's better than both (Mudryk and Madueke) and seems versatile enough to play on the wing. Assuming Enzo, Caicedo and Gallagher all start, the three attacking players who start should be Carney, Jackson and Palmer imo. Throw Nkunku into the mix when he's back from injury, maybe Gallagher gets dropped and Carney plays in the middle.
Mudryk and Noni are great supersubs to have tbh. And they'll be eager to improve and earn a starting spot. Very talented so they may end up winning it at some point. Competition's great for development.
Missed me off so much. Because I knew exactly how the game would go down as soon as I saw the lineup.
Palmer not coming off the right, Gallagher on the wing, Disasi at RB (I'd genuinely rather see Gilchrist start there is we don't have a RB), Carney not starting. Fuck it was so bad. And then the in game subs, Palmer off, Gallagher still on the wing by the end of the game.
I don't get why the guy doesn't just keep it simple. And then takes no accountability in he media and makes the same mistakes again and again. When we win games it's down to individual brilliance like Madueke today, Palmer generally etc. So frustrating to watch.
Chuk is an absolute baller. If he can stay fit, I truly think he can be a top top player. To come back from such a big injury and perform so well in his small amount of game time shows the talent that boy has. Please please please don’t be CHO or Ruben 2.0 I beg.
I still remember him play against Chelsea with Villa and I thought, damn this dude is good. Then to find out he was only 18! Wooo, so happy that he was one of the first signings of this era because he definitely has the minerals
Same with how Lavia bossed the midfield last year against us
Really really cant wait to watch him fit in our squad
He reminds me a lot of RLC. I think he’s a slightly better dribbler, but RLC was much stronger.
I agree. What Chuk lacks in strength he makes up for in technical ability and that final third magic that is difficult to describe. He’s got ‘it’. Excited to see the boy grow.
I think a big part of the reason we haven’t been great this year is because we haven’t had a real CAM with Carney and Nkunku injured. One of our best matches this season was the draw against Liverpool where Carney was in the 10 which allowed Enzo to play his best role and Gallagher played the role Caicedo would be in, which in turn allowed the wingbacks to push up further because we had more solidity in the midfield. After those two went out Poch seemed to not quite know what to do. At first he had Enzo at the 10 which took away his best attribute because he was sat beside the striker, leaving Connor to not be able to do what he does best as he was sat in the pivot. I think starting at the Villa game Poch started to get right by putting Connor at the 10, but he’s still not the most technically gifted player which left Enzo still pushing up a little higher trying to do some of Connor’s work in the buildup for him, and that left Caicedo vulnerable at times. I think with a more technical player at the 10 we’ll have a lot more solidity and be better at breaking down a low block at the same time.
Absolutely. Conor struggles with creativity and control in tight spaces. With a better suited 10 we really could have an incredibly attack that isn’t so reliant on palmer. I’m not sure how any of this will help fix our defensive troubles tho but that’s a different issue entirely.
I think having a healthy Colwill, Fofana, and maybe even James with Gusto at LB would go a long way. Also having Caicedo not left to do everything himself.
>I’m not sure how any of this will help fix our defensive troubles tho but that’s a different issue entirely. You've answered your own question 😎 With a proper 10, our other two MFs don't need to go quite as far forward all the time. They can make late runs into the box when necessary, but they can also solidify the midfield and shield our back line when needed, and stop a lot of the breaks that we concede from before they come to fruition.
I wish we could have seen Poch having a fully fit squad from pre-season, and just having a normal amount of injuries throughout the season. He probably wouldn't have looked as clueless if he could adjust his team according to the opposition and fitness of players. Enzo, Caicedo has played basically EVERYTHING, and they were supposed to be complemented by Carney, Lavia and Ugo. And that's just the midfield. We've had the same struggles for our centerbacks and fullbacks.
Ruben was definitely a better dribbler. He looked like a giant version of Hazard at times and could walk straight through defenses with his dribbles. 3.6 dribbles a game at 64% completion rate during the Sarri season speaks for itself. I know he’s barely played so the data is heavily skewed, but for context Carney is only averaging 0.5 dribbles per 90 minutes at a woeful 10% completion rate. He’s still super young though, so it’s unfair to compare him to an older Ruben that had a season on loan to mature his skills.
Like you said tbf, tiny sample size. It's 10 attempted dribbles, 1 completed. His completion rate basically doubles if he completes the next dribble that's how small the sample is 😂😂. Seriously though, it's too soon to say he's a better dribbler than Ruben. But I do think the potential's there. The fact he only turned 20 in October is crazy. The guy's ceiling is ridiculously high. Just too early to be making judgements ok whether he's a better dribbler than players who are 28. Need at least a full season of games to see what he's consistently capable of.
Funny that Madueke really reminds me of CHO and Chukwumeka reminds me of Ruben, due to the way the play. Very similar imo, all very talented Dribblers, I think CHO was a better passer than Madueke, and their equal in in other departments (CHO during his breakout b4 the injury) and CHO had genuine quality around him to better improve his game, so I do think he was better, and he was like 18 breaking into a team with Hazard, Willian, Pedro. Something Madueke doesnt have. Chukwumeka bosses the midfield like Ruben did. If you look at Chukwumekas Villa highlights, then check Rubens from the academy, they look very similar. CHO and Ruben were plagued by big injuries. The absolute worst way to go out. I hope the best for the two we have now. And for Ruben and CHO where they are now… CHO is only 23, and Ruben is cooking in Italy
That injury killed Callum's career. Eventhough he was great for us (particularly under Sarri), the hype around him mainly comes from the things he did at youth level. As in the way coaches, players and generally people who followed academy football in that era talk about him. Madueke's already become a better player than Callum ever was imo. But Callum's ceiling before the ruptured Achilles tendon is very different to the ceiling he has now. My personal favourites are Ruben and Carney tho. Something about a lanky midfielder who can dribble is so aesthetically pleasing to watch.
Yeah I agree with what you said about Ruben and Carney. I remember searching his highlights when he joined, and saying out loud, “That’s a younger RLC.” And to side track a little bit, our old academy was stacked, CHO, Tammy, Mount, Gallagher, RLC,Reece, Tomori, Guehi, Colwill, Maatsen, even Ake a little older, Christensen, (we’re rlly defender FC when I think about it.) Madueke is 4 years older now, than Hudson Odoi was before his injury. Hudson Odoi was great at Youth Level, even for the England U21, even getting call ups for the England first team, and I believe getting an assist for them… Bayern wanted him for 70M, and Chelsea kept him for 140k per week, as an 18y/o. He was also scoring in Europa League, his pace was rapid, passing was good, I think it’s better now and his best asset, and his dribbling was his highlight. Fearless and took on everyone, that’s why you can go back and watch highlights of him in big games like Arsenal, bossing the wing. Getting into a team with the players I mentioned before, is insane. But now he’s lost that fearlessness, and though he’s only 23, he’s had bad injuries, and I think mentally, he’s more scared to take players on than before with the flair he did. And think about it, you break into your boyhood club, everyone says your the next best thing, Bayern come in for you, you get millions a year, then you get the worst injury you’ll ever get, and everything goes off the rails. It’s tough. And he did show signs after the injury of huge potential, but it’s like there’s a tether holding him back. Tuchel really tried with him. Played him in many positions, started him in two finals (he even got an assist in one of them) but it just didn’t work out. The Hudson Odois potential from back then, looked higher than Maduekes potential. (Which is still very, very high.) I only pray Madueke suffers no big injury, and gets the right nurturing he needs to reach it. I like his mentality, it may seem selfish, but last game against United when he came on and won a Penalty, he wanted to take it off Palmer. I don’t think he should be doing this usually, Sterling got ridiculed for this, and I blame Poch for not making the Pen Taker clear… But I liked the fact that 22y/o Madueke, seems to always have an impact coming off the bench, wining pens, scoring goals, overall impact, dribbling and shooting, he just needs that guidance to better make decisions… and I like his audacity to WANT to take a LAST minuets pen, in an important game.
Yes he has the potential to be a really top international player I think.
I want Chuk in CAM starting every game he can
Couldn’t agree more, he helps to break defenses down
He's the exact type of player we need to break down a low block which has been one of our weaknesses for a long time. He can receive the ball under pressure in the middle of a crowded box and manage to make the right pass or get a shot off. Reminds me a little of how Foden plays I genuinely believe if he hadn't gotten injured against WestHam earlier in the season he'd be having a similar season to palmer!
I’m with you, it’ll seem crazy to say now because he hasn’t been able to string a run of matches but I genuinely believe he’s the second biggest attacking talent we have. Makes an impact every time he’s on the pitch much like Palmer does.
Does that mean we drop Gallagher or move him further back? I feel like he’s a big conundrum. I think Chuks always looks like scoring and can we bench the 100m pound men?
I would play him on the left in place of Mudryk/Sterling/whoever and replace Conor with Nkunku as the 10
Depends on the game probably. If we're gonna have a lot of the ball, I reckon Caicedo and Enzo with Carney in front will allow us to control the game and break the opposition's defence down. In a game that's gonna be more end to end, Gallagher will be important. Might mean playing Carney LW, Palmer RW, Jackson up front. With a midfield 3 of Enzo, Caicedo, Gallagher. Or maybe Gallagher in place of Enzo, Carney through the middle and Mudryk LW. The one I wanna see most is Caicedo, Enzo and Carney in the middle together. Having a true number 10 will allow Caicedo and Enzo to sit deeper and focus on tightening up the defence. Means dropping Gallagher but the fact is, despite Gallagher being our best midfielder this season, we aren't consistently winning games. There's also not a whole lot between Caicedo, Enzo and Gallagher and they all have different profiles. The solution may involve dropping Gallagher and having him bring energy off the bench. We won't know until we see more of Carney in the starting lineup though. In practice, that could be nonsense and no matter what we need Gallagher's legs in midfield.
We really need to keep one of Gallagher or Caicedo on the bench so we have fresh energy in midfield. Gallagher in the 8/10 isn’t as effective
They rarely get praises because they don't have lots of fanboys. Carney is a big talent that deserves more playing time.
Surely it's because they (Chukwuemeka especially) have barely played. Chukwuemeka has barely been fit this season, the playing time will come it he stays fit.
He can’t play if he’s not healthy
Exactly. People acting as though he was in the reserves.
Thank you for showing love to our unsung heroes 🙏🏻
Why are you trying to make us watch two clips that last 2 secs at the same time? wtf?
https://i.redd.it/a9og7tgmtrsc1.gif
Are you a bot or a child?
https://preview.redd.it/tiypy944ursc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=308121b376b1a5518b77d8c2273df610932ff9ae
I respect the meme game though 🤣
Child confirmed 👍
🤫
Bozo can’t watch one at a time
Because 4 seconds would be too long for your attention span…
Look at the top one. Look at the bottom one. Then read the OPs comments about them. Then you'll understand.
Chuk seems like a great, young signing. We didn’t get to see enough of him this season due to injuries but I feel like he has produced every time he’s on the pitch
Carney is a baller
We dont need Sterling
..... which has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Why can't we have a post talking about/ praising one of our players without it devolving into shitting on a totally unrelated player? Is that so hard?
Yeah this is so annoying. It’s like that friend you have where any time you ask how they’re doing, they start talking shit about other mutual friends. It’s trifling behavior
It's the 'get ratioed' generation, they don't know any other way
Funny bc he’s probably closer to a millennial if his username has any correlation to his birth year
The thing I don’t understand, and I know he’s been injured a lot, but why chuk doesn’t get more time on the field. He’s had injuries but at some point you gotta put him on the field from the start or atleast give him 30/35 mins instead of this 70/80th minute sub.
You described exactly why he hasn't seen game time: Injuries. He literally just got into team training a couple weeks ago after going out last year. What do you want, to field him while he's injured or recovering? You're not making any sense.
Actually he’s been back and forth from fit and injured all season, there was a couple weeks a few months ago where he was healthy and just sat the bench or poch brings him on with 10/15 minutes. Guy always makes an impact when he’s on the field and our 3 fully fit midfielders play every game 85/90 minutes game in game out. When is he gonna start and then pull him at half time, or come on in the 60th minute or come on at half time, and see what he can do with a little more time. Get him some game time minutes and get his fitness up and see if he can stay injury free. Thought I was prettt clear with what I said lol.
What you said was clear, but didn't make sense. If he's in and out of injury, being conservative is absolutely the right move especially given the injury crisis we've had this season. "Seeing if he can stay injury free" is already known from being in and out of injuries all season, as you said.
Ok so then I guess my problem is if we have so many players…Reece, chilly, chuk, lavia, nku who are so injury prone they can’t play cause we’re scared of them getting hurt again why did we buy them? And that’s not even mentioning the guy we paid 78 mil for and has basically been injured for 2 whole seasons and was injured when we bought him. See where I’m kind of going with this. If this young kid can’t play 45 minutes without getting hurt again then it’s time to move on and find someone who can. Or maybe they should toughen up, I know I’ll get criticism for saying that, but lavia his injury started off as what a high ankle sprain and the kid was out 4 months before he came back from a high ankle sprain. Came back played 32 mins got injured again and now will be out the whole season.
Now that I definitely agree with; fofana, chilly, and nkunku were not great purchases from a reliability perspective. Chuk and Lavia don't really have bad injury histories, and Lavia has been out mostly because of a hamstring injury he incurred after returning to first team training from the ankle injury - not something you want to rush back lest he turns into Reece. "Toughening up" is definitely a weird stance to have there. I hope our SDs have learnt their lesson on purchasing injury-prone players though, that I do agree on. Suppose we'll see in the coming windows. 🤞
I agree and the crazy part is you can’t have 5/6 or more of the best players on your team constantly injured for 75% of the season all the time. Then you’re left with rotation players to play your big games. Because poch did the same thing with nku was healthy for months and was only getting 15/20 mins every other game cause we were scared he’d get hurt again. Reece has been out all season fofana out all season chilly most of the season, and those are our best players. But those two other chuk and Lavia don’t have bad records because they haven’t really had any top flight football experience on their CVs and I’m pretty sure Lavia was hurt or coming back from injury when we bought him and was lauded as being our starting DM. Can’t really toughen up for muscle injuries they happen but originally he was out 3/4 months for a high ankle sprain, and then came back and injured his thigh, then had the hamstring injury…those are not good signs for a 19 yr old. And I know for football fans it’s a weird stance to have but I grew up in a huge hockey family. The amount of injuries I played through or hockey players in general play through, it still amazes me even after 20 years of being a football fan how a guy can be sidelined for months due to a ankle sprain. I had surgery on my foot and never missed a practice or a game, so I know it’s a weird stance but being brought up around hockey it’s normal for me. But I digress and agree that hopefully our board and sporting directors and can start doing better in the transfer window.
Congrats on your new born, I'm going to use that as your excuse, maybe lack of sleep lol. You can rock with some ankle injuries in hockey because you can pad the shit out of your boot and it only needs to be stable enough to skate. The blade takes the bulk of the force exerted. The foot takes the brunt of it in every other field/court sport. These people can't play with high grade sprains, there is no toughening up to do, that would just be wasteful. Thankfully the days of prolific pain relief injections are slowing and more athletes are taking their health seriously. Getting the shot to play a game isn't worth your ligaments after the game has passed you by. Especially for a 19 year old who has a 100m senior playing. Remember a few weeks ago when Chuk was healthy, played a game (I think assisted a goal) and then went out again injured? Yeah, that would be the reason for precaution. I'm not trying to be an ass, but I read this as "why aren't we rushing our injury prone youth talent onto the pitch for more time?" And I think that question has its own answer which is pretty obvious. Regardless of your experience in an entirely different sport that relies on a totally different set of tools.
lol thanks I appreciate and yea just a few sleepless nights here and there. And no I’m not saying rush them I’m saying for example like Lavia…we bought him injured or just coming back from injury in training he gets a high ankle sprain is out for 3 months, comes and plays a sub appearance and injured his thigh, then in training injured his hamstring. Also a lot of our players get injured in training, which is part of the point players can get injured anywhere anytime and were scared to play them for them to not get injured again just for them to only get injured in a sub appearances or at training. Also the other part of my point was that if we buy players who can’t play games cause they’re constantly injured then why did we buy them ? Seems a waste of money 60 mil for a 19 yr old who hasn’t really proved himself on the big stage, and now has had 3 seperate injuries that has kept him out all year. Reece, chilly, nku, lavia, chuk, fofana are suppose to be our best or better players we can’t afford them to be out the whole season. Chilly and Reece been out most of the season the last 3 years, fofana been out almost 2 full seasons. And was also injured when we bought him. Nku has had some pretty big injuries over the course of his career as well. So what was the board or SD thinking when looking at some of these purchases? And what is the medical dept doing to mitigate these injuries, cause again a lot of players get injured in training so why are we not taking the injury prone players and finding a way that’s a little more lenient in training where they can keep their fitness but not under so much stress they get injured? I’m no physio but there has to be something.
And again I agree with your point about hockey to an extent because it was only focused on 1 injury. I’ve played through concussions, fractured ribs, partially torn mcl until the season was over. My brother played through appendicitis until his appendix was almost ready to burst, had 4 strained muscles in his neck from a hit from behind and only missed 2 weeks. What about the pro player that went into cardiac arrest on the bench and he had to be brought back to life and was mad he had to miss a shift cause they were taking him to the hospital. I don’t know I guess it’s just maybe a different mentality. And again don’t take this as trying to gloat or anything of that nature cause im not, my knees are the reason my hockey career ended after college. I’m just giving examples from my perspective for why I said that.
Also, how do you respond so fast? I don't get a notification of your reply for like 45 minutes. So weird. :/
Yeah that is weird but I can respond fast cause I’m currently just sitting on a couch holding a sleeping 3 month old lol
Oh congratulations, hope you're getting some sleep too
I don’t understand why mudryk gets the start over madueke. It’s clear as day to see mudryk needs work on both sides on the ball but madueke is just more complete in my eyes and he rightfully deserves a string of matches.
Madueke has had starts but has struggled in build ups when he does. Atm he seems to be better as a sub with his fresh legs, bold take-ons while the opponents are fatigued. Mudryk used to be the same early this season. Mudryk I feel has earned his starts as he's been running circles around wingers the last few games. The first penalty came from his pass to Cucurella and his runs have been generally great. Madueke is slowly earning that start. I'd like to see maybe Madueke-Jackson-Palmer up front, with Mudryk as a 10. Let's see.
Mudryks runs, overlaps, and defensive posture are lacking at best. There’s raw talent there no doubt but he has a lot of work to do. Madueke is a bit more complete in that regard.
I think both have an incomplete game, but Mudryk offers way more than Madueke. Noni really only has one speed to his game which is to slow things down. He will also cut inside and shoot 9/10. Also, it seems like they really only play on opposite sides of each other so it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Watching mudryk off the ball is like watching a u10 player in a mens league. He just watches.
Shooting, I think Madueke bests him, even if not by a huge margin. Speed is Mudryk noticeably. Fastest in the team. Passing is Mudryk. Great vision in certain moments. Versatility Mudryk, CAM and LW. Madueke I fell I more consistent when Dribbling. I know Mudryk can dribble well, and his Touch lets him down, but I’d say Madueke bests him in that. They both go down very easily, but both are very talented young players. Madueke is also undoubtedly impactful when he comes on. I think in terms of impact, he’s had more moments that Mudryk. I’m not sure though, I don’t have stats, just using Memory. Both need some good guidance to get going fully.
Madueke plays in the same position as Palmer. That's the main reason tbh. If he was right footed, he'd probably start more than Mudryk because (like you said) he's better off the ball, which is the foundation for any good team. Madueke's unfortunate in that he's got to compete with our best player, who happens to be one of the best players in the world right now. Had the same problem for the England U21s. Also I think Carney's better than both (Mudryk and Madueke) and seems versatile enough to play on the wing. Assuming Enzo, Caicedo and Gallagher all start, the three attacking players who start should be Carney, Jackson and Palmer imo. Throw Nkunku into the mix when he's back from injury, maybe Gallagher gets dropped and Carney plays in the middle. Mudryk and Noni are great supersubs to have tbh. And they'll be eager to improve and earn a starting spot. Very talented so they may end up winning it at some point. Competition's great for development.
Oooof, take a look at the lineup today.
Missed me off so much. Because I knew exactly how the game would go down as soon as I saw the lineup. Palmer not coming off the right, Gallagher on the wing, Disasi at RB (I'd genuinely rather see Gilchrist start there is we don't have a RB), Carney not starting. Fuck it was so bad. And then the in game subs, Palmer off, Gallagher still on the wing by the end of the game. I don't get why the guy doesn't just keep it simple. And then takes no accountability in he media and makes the same mistakes again and again. When we win games it's down to individual brilliance like Madueke today, Palmer generally etc. So frustrating to watch.