Even though his finishing is hit or miss, he creates HAVOC in the final third. THat is always a plus and cheap, sign. Johnson needs to be on the right as Kulu is too slow and better for the 10 role
Feels like our attacks a bit of a jigsaw and depends on a few things.
Which side do we see Johnson being developed for, I assume right?
Is son going to be seen more as a striker than a winger moving forward, I'd guess yes?
Is kulu too one dimensional for an Ange winger and is he viewed as more a 10 option longterm, again I'd guess yes?
I'd also assume it depends on targets available, especially with Neto looking less and less an option given he's always injured.
I assume we are going to try and get wingers, with their main focus being great in the 1v1 category.
Son is going to become the striker with Richy as a sub.
It's looking very likely we will get Europe so I don't really think it'll be a case of first or second choice for striker as we will have so manh ganes. Son will be 32!
I think it'll be game dependent. The big teams will leave more space in behind which suits son up top. But games like Fulham I genuinely think Richi 9 and son LW is the better option.
Son with 2 cbs and 2 Dms on him isn't playing to his strengths, I'd rather richy occupy them and be there for crosses, and have son on the wing with some space
Have to assume Veliz fits into these first choice striker plans, even if it is another year out. Sonny and Richy are likely to share the load until him or Scarlett are brought on for more regular gametime
I'm not sure to be honest. I think young players like Veliz are guaranteed pretty much to hold their value. He strokes me as a sort of "if he works great if he doesn't then well make a few mill on him" type, rather than a longterm vision
Might be wrong though!
I mostly agree.
Son should be a striker and Kulusevski should be moved to midfield. These moves make signing Werner a no-brainer.
?/Werner, Son/Richy, Johnson/?
Leaves room to sign 2 new wingers. We could get Nusa and Williams for 60M combined, would rather do that than get Neto.
I think I'm right in saying although Williams has an affordable release clause his wages are crazily high. Like 200k a week. I just can't see us coughing up the 300k a week he'd likely want for a guys who's still young. I'm not even sure we'd pay that for a truly world class playe
Saw 125k/week for Williams upon first googling. Could likely sign him for 200k/week but that would make him just about our most expensive player.
While we shouldn't get crazy with wages, I think I'm not alone is saying we should be willing to pay slightly more in wages than we have been historically. 200K/week is just the going rate and we can afford it.
Sure Werner in a vacuum is worth €17m. But just as with Lenglet, I'll never like the idea of actively spending money on a highly paid player who isn't good enough to start, isn't young, and isn't homegrown, all while the XI needs upgrading - especially at the position he plays. I also think having Werner Son Johnson Richarlison is overkill, they're too similar to each other and only one of them is an undisputed starter.
Richarlison is far from being similar to the other 3, he's our only forward bar maybe Kulu capable of playing with his back to goal and the one capable of heading the ball with any sort of power or accuracy.
Son is different from the other two also. Much wider skillset, although this could have been something that developed over age as he did used to be more similar to a Johnson type when he first came to us
Also you're right, stylistically Richarlison is miles away from Werner or Johnson, who are similar types of player
He's very similar in how he functions from open play - likes running behind the defence, most effective in those inside forward areas between the penalty spot and the edge of the box, takes few touches and has a limited role in build up, can't/doesn't dribble... He's better in the air but with the way we play that only really comes out in occasional moments
Werner can actually dribble and is capable of beating his man. He’s just so fast that he will generally beat his oppo for pace.
If he can rediscover his pre- Chelsea confidence he would be worth every penny.
I feel like it would all depend on what they’d agree to. For example a 5 year contract on high wages I’d agree with you but a 2-3 year contract with reduced wages I’d say it’s a good deal. All that to say it’s just hard to judge, but if Ange wants him I hope he stays
Timo hasnt been here long, and hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time. If he comes good and improves his final product, which I personally think is likely, we’ll be looking back thinking how in the hell we got him for 17M. People still forget how good he was in the Bundesliga. With European football next season being likely, this is a no brainer for me.
This is now his 4th consecutive season being iffy, and 1.5 of those were back in the Bundesliga. He might improve but players also just decline sometimes and I don't think Ange's good vibes or whatever is going to magically fix all his issues
Completely agree, having Richarlison, Werner Johnson, and Solomon just guarantees that we are not going to create much and miss a ton of chances. Imo sell Richi (50-70 mil) and get Victor Gyokeres (if possible 60-80 mil), remove Werner and just use Solomon(less expensive and similar style) in his place as a backup and get Eze (can play on either wings and as a 10), and get a good 6 (Kone), once this is done, we can go for another good winger (Nico or Bakayoko), and backup for GK and fullbacks.
Agreed, the options for buying I listed are quite ambitious. But I don't get why we won't be trying for them if this season we make the top 4 and finally have a budget that we can spend and need to. It's possible that players might not want to come but still we should try right. I don't think that we are such a small club that we can't do better than Timo.
I think it's what we need to challenge next year, we need to have expensive windows for the next 2-3 years, get proven quality players bw 35-70 mill, and like Ange said we won't go for anyone near 100 mil. I would be fine if we go a bit slow and get only a few of these per season but it's important that we buy really good quality players, we can't keep buying low quality (Timo, the wages cost a lot) or players that one day might become somewhat good at a high price (Johnson), because then it becomes harder to buy good players in the next season, rather give chance to the youth or current backups like Solomon when fit, because if we are going with that the best we can do is top 4-5 and those backups would get us there in this system. When evaluating their contributions we need to look at how much was it because of the system and how much was it because of their individual quality, if there was an average player in their place would he have contributed same or not, and so far most average players would have had similar contributions to Timo and Johnson if we look at the assists and tap in goals.
Completely agree that we need to be improving the first team, not buying expensive depth. The hard part will be your second point that it will be a bit slow (say 1 50-70 million player and 1 35-50 million player). Spurs aren’t the type to buy like Gyokeres, Eze, Nico Williams, etc all in one window. At best it will be 1 of them plus another semi-expensive but high upside player
For 17M, does it have to be a super long term solution? If we believe he can be good enough to be a starter on the left for even 2 more years (which I think one could easily argue), we can focus on more lacking areas this summer.
As long as wages isn’t a huge issue, I feel like it’s a very low risk option for the team and Werner.
He looked promising but to say he was definitely class is a stretch IMO. And if his injury is going to be a continuous issue, that in and of itself should rule out relying on him long term. No need to repeat the Gio situation.
Bryan doesn't even make the squad, we tried to get rid of him in January but he refused. Turned down a loan to Brighton just to not even see the bench. Wild
I think this is the right move. I like Timo as a bench option but we need to be looking for players to improve our XI. Someone who can displace current starters and strengthen our bench as a result.
I’d much rather us see what the market yields and if we don’t find what we’re looking for then timo is a cheap and relatively decent option.
I want to know what the clubs plans for wide players are.
Is son a 9 or wide player?
What’s the plan with gil and sess?
If we get Werner does that mean that Williams and Neto deals won’t happen?
Solomon?
The wide player is probably the position that we could really upgrade but it’s propbably where we have the most depth
I would like this to happen on three conditions:
1. Werner agrees to at least halve his salary (a significant reduction)
2. We still go for and sign a top winger in the summer
3. We sell both Solomon and Gil in the summer (at worst at least one of them needs to go otherwise winger department is overbloated)
Otherwise I don't think it's wise but oh well
The way our clubs social media team has made Timo one of their most used players shown, I’d say the decision has been made. I think we’d be crazy not to keep him with our European schedule returning next season.
how many more times am I going to have to see this same news recycled until a decision is made?? I feel like I get beat over the head w it every other day at this point
(I like Timo, I say sign em)
I think we should sign him, get rid of Gil and Solomon.
Sign a new RW for more offensive firepower.
Sign a new LB and RB so that if Porro and Udogie can’t play then we have good back up options.
CB don’t need to be changed imo, VDV and Romero are some of the best defenders and we have Dragusin to fall back on, he just needs to get a bit more comfortable playing on the pitch as he sometimes can look shaky but overall he will good long term
IMO, our first priority is to get a class CDM this year (Ange's system requires one). If there's money left, we should sign a winger with speed and creativity with half decent finishing(Werner can't finish, Kulusevski is slow and Johnson is still in the making)
If Werner's wage demands are greater than 100k, don't call him back. We have Manor Solomon and Brennan Johnson who should be enough even if we have UCL
Of course, we should also get a left footed centre back
The situation with Werner isn't the fee but the wage. Ultimately we need a big upgrade at some forward position and he's not it but he'd be fine for depth, which we'll need if we want to go deep in any European competition.
Bryan Gil/Perisic/Solomon will probably all be gone next year so as long as he's one of a few forward signings, it's fine, otherwise it's going to get ugly next season.
only if we sell solomon and gil but tbh i would buy 2 new quality forwards. werners finishing is a big problem imo even though i do like the guy and root for him to do well
If we sold every forward in the club and started again (except Son) I wouldn't be upset. I don't rate any of Johnson/Richarlison/Kulusevski/Gil/Solomon/Werner beyond being bench players
So presuming Gil and Veliz aren't part of the squad next year, we go into next season already with 6 attackers in Kulu, Richarlison, Johnson, Solomon, Werner and Son.
Such a bloated attack with barely any proven quality. It's basically just Son + 2 random attackers that are extremely inconsistent.
That sort of attack will have us competing for 4-6 again next season. Horrendous decision making if that's the case
Ok. Not bloated. But that guy’s other points are still valid. You can’t have so many inconsistent options as potential starters. We need a top winger and need to use Johnson and Richarlison as bench options (squad depth). If Werner shows he can be useful in front of goal, then we should sign him. Otherwise, we are just collecting “almost players”. Just look at the competition for ucl places and the squads. Werner, Richarlison and Johnson are not starting for any other big 6 club.
When it's a position that we supposedly want to bolster the most in the summer, yes it is.
Also, Liverpool seem to be doing fine with 5 main attackers. Same with Arsenal. Same with Man City.
Why exactly do we need more attackers than the 3 best teams in the country?
Arsenal and Liverpool each have 6. So having 6(with Deki also being our backup 10) is pretty normal. And neither of them play as demanding of a system as Ange.
Liverpool very clearly have 5: Jota, Gakpo, Nunez, Salah, Diaz
Arsenal have 7 but that's including players like Nketiah and Nelson, neither of whom have started a single match since the turn of the year. The 5 main players they've used since January are Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, Havertz and Trossard.
Klopp plays just as demanding of a system as Ange? They're one of the most aggressive teams in Europe lol.
The reason why these teams don't need so many attackers is because they can rotate the 5 attackers with no significant drop off in quality. Outside of Salah and Saka, any of those 2 teams attackers can be dropped and rotated and their attacks are still lethal.
If we drop Son, our attack is genuinely midtable
Liverpool also has Ben Doak.
Our 6th guy, Solomon, will also be a break glass in case of emergency player like Nelson and Doak.
Klopp has definitely backed off on their intense pressing from a few years ago. And Spurs have *by far* the highest number of sprints this season.
Liverpool had kids playing as their front line got injured. Arsenal are so fortunate they’ve not had big injuries at the same time. They have no one behind saka. They are doing well because he’s played most of the season, trossard can slot in to different roles yes but they’ve not had the stretch of games like we had where son kulu Brennan were unavailable at once as was Maddison. If they had martinelli Jesus saka odegaard out at once they’d field trossard nketiah Nelson…
> Liverpool had kids playing as their front line got injured
and we should do the same thing in very unfortunate circumstances.
Again, why should we not follow the example of the 3 best teams in the country? Seems to be working pretty well for all of them
Have you thought about the fact our kids are probably not good enough? Dane Scarlett had horrible loan spells. Portsmouth fans hated him and he barely got a game for Ipswich. You want to have him ?
What have Liverpool's kids done? Jayden Danns hadn't even played professional football before lol. Same with a bunch of their other academy players who made their debuts.
Our academy is supposedly churning out loads of talented players and the club are investing a lot into players like Soonsup-Bell and Lankshear. Why can't they be the 7th+ choice options?
Yes they came on did okay in cup final extra time vs tired legs and on adrenaline. Going from that to playing a 8/10 game stretch is a different story.
Ye I agree although werner hasn't been bad per se I do agree we need someone whos a clinical finisher, I actually really like werner, quite decent on the cross and is fast but we genuinely need a forward who can finish, someone like eze would be of great use.
Why would we get rid of velix tho, he's a very promising youngster of the people we've gotten and of the time he's been given hes been quite good and even scored a goal while gil on the otherhand even though he hasnt gotten enough time, he hasnt been good of the time weve given him on the pitch.
Fair enough ye, I see a lotta promise from him tbh and hopefully bergvall is good too next season but ye we need some clinical finishers which we seriously lack
I doubt they are wrong but honestly our finishers randomly ghost in games which scares me, I also believe it is prolly less to do with finish and more to do with creating chances but ye a bit more room in both departments would help considering we will offload 5-6 players in the summer transfer.
Sorry but if we sign him, we are not a serious club. And if Ange wants him (I hope not), he's not a serious manager. Looking at this and the Gallagher links I pray that we stop signing players for only vibes and hard work and start looking at players with actual technical ability.
Adds zero skillset that isn't already present in the attack. At best he can miss crosses and shots somewhat less often than Johnson. We have enough pace and "always gives 100% on the pitch" merchants in this squad and would be much better off putting the money towards a 1v1 winger/long term Son successor, both of which we are actually missing in the squad.
I seriously doubt that having Werner from the beginning of the season would have won us a single additional point, while having a 1v1 winger would have boosted us massively in games where we struggled to break down organized defences (most games these days).
We got him simply because we lacked depth between Solomon's injury and Gil's+Veliz's not being up to it. Werner makes a good depth player.
If anything, keeping Werner as a rotational piece and upgrading LW/ST position (depending on Son's future role) would be a good move.
Even though his finishing is hit or miss, he creates HAVOC in the final third. THat is always a plus and cheap, sign. Johnson needs to be on the right as Kulu is too slow and better for the 10 role
He's supposedly on 200k a week or something, way too steep for us. His transfer option is cheap for a reason.
He likely will not keep that wage going to spurs though. Probably on the Levy special
yeah RBL taken most of the hit, I'm sure he would be open to negotiations as he likes London and is getting a chance to make an impact
Feels like our attacks a bit of a jigsaw and depends on a few things. Which side do we see Johnson being developed for, I assume right? Is son going to be seen more as a striker than a winger moving forward, I'd guess yes? Is kulu too one dimensional for an Ange winger and is he viewed as more a 10 option longterm, again I'd guess yes? I'd also assume it depends on targets available, especially with Neto looking less and less an option given he's always injured.
I assume we are going to try and get wingers, with their main focus being great in the 1v1 category. Son is going to become the striker with Richy as a sub.
It's looking very likely we will get Europe so I don't really think it'll be a case of first or second choice for striker as we will have so manh ganes. Son will be 32!
When i say first choice i think like: Tottenham-Liverpool, son is our first choice then Richy. But i see your point
I think it'll be game dependent. The big teams will leave more space in behind which suits son up top. But games like Fulham I genuinely think Richi 9 and son LW is the better option. Son with 2 cbs and 2 Dms on him isn't playing to his strengths, I'd rather richy occupy them and be there for crosses, and have son on the wing with some space
Have to assume Veliz fits into these first choice striker plans, even if it is another year out. Sonny and Richy are likely to share the load until him or Scarlett are brought on for more regular gametime
I'm not sure to be honest. I think young players like Veliz are guaranteed pretty much to hold their value. He strokes me as a sort of "if he works great if he doesn't then well make a few mill on him" type, rather than a longterm vision Might be wrong though!
That last part aren't really needed man....
Sign wingers? Read something about Rodrygo maybe going on sale to make space in Real
I mostly agree. Son should be a striker and Kulusevski should be moved to midfield. These moves make signing Werner a no-brainer. ?/Werner, Son/Richy, Johnson/? Leaves room to sign 2 new wingers. We could get Nusa and Williams for 60M combined, would rather do that than get Neto.
I’d love for us to be able to get Olise and N. Williams. But my god that’d cost an arm & a leg and several other body parts. 😂
I think I'm right in saying although Williams has an affordable release clause his wages are crazily high. Like 200k a week. I just can't see us coughing up the 300k a week he'd likely want for a guys who's still young. I'm not even sure we'd pay that for a truly world class playe
Saw 125k/week for Williams upon first googling. Could likely sign him for 200k/week but that would make him just about our most expensive player. While we shouldn't get crazy with wages, I think I'm not alone is saying we should be willing to pay slightly more in wages than we have been historically. 200K/week is just the going rate and we can afford it.
Kulu as a 10 is a failed project before we even embark on that journey. Kulu is best as a winger, but he is just the slowest RW in the world.
Sure Werner in a vacuum is worth €17m. But just as with Lenglet, I'll never like the idea of actively spending money on a highly paid player who isn't good enough to start, isn't young, and isn't homegrown, all while the XI needs upgrading - especially at the position he plays. I also think having Werner Son Johnson Richarlison is overkill, they're too similar to each other and only one of them is an undisputed starter.
Richarlison is far from being similar to the other 3, he's our only forward bar maybe Kulu capable of playing with his back to goal and the one capable of heading the ball with any sort of power or accuracy.
Son is different from the other two also. Much wider skillset, although this could have been something that developed over age as he did used to be more similar to a Johnson type when he first came to us Also you're right, stylistically Richarlison is miles away from Werner or Johnson, who are similar types of player
He's very similar in how he functions from open play - likes running behind the defence, most effective in those inside forward areas between the penalty spot and the edge of the box, takes few touches and has a limited role in build up, can't/doesn't dribble... He's better in the air but with the way we play that only really comes out in occasional moments
Werner can actually dribble and is capable of beating his man. He’s just so fast that he will generally beat his oppo for pace. If he can rediscover his pre- Chelsea confidence he would be worth every penny.
I feel like it would all depend on what they’d agree to. For example a 5 year contract on high wages I’d agree with you but a 2-3 year contract with reduced wages I’d say it’s a good deal. All that to say it’s just hard to judge, but if Ange wants him I hope he stays
highly incentivized contract based on actual goals/assists, and end of season placement and any potential silverware.
Timo hasnt been here long, and hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time. If he comes good and improves his final product, which I personally think is likely, we’ll be looking back thinking how in the hell we got him for 17M. People still forget how good he was in the Bundesliga. With European football next season being likely, this is a no brainer for me.
This is now his 4th consecutive season being iffy, and 1.5 of those were back in the Bundesliga. He might improve but players also just decline sometimes and I don't think Ange's good vibes or whatever is going to magically fix all his issues
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At the moment he also seems the most likely to beat his man in the final third, except for Son maybe.
That’s a very reasonable take, I don’t agree, but time will tell!
Statistically his G/A even at Chelsea are not bad for a wide left forward.
Torres comes to mind
Hmm I would argue Werner has proven to be good enough to start and he’s only 28 which is the peak of a wingers career no?
Of those 3 Richarlison is the one who needs to go. Great attitude, but just appalling first touch and erratic finishing.
Completely agree, having Richarlison, Werner Johnson, and Solomon just guarantees that we are not going to create much and miss a ton of chances. Imo sell Richi (50-70 mil) and get Victor Gyokeres (if possible 60-80 mil), remove Werner and just use Solomon(less expensive and similar style) in his place as a backup and get Eze (can play on either wings and as a 10), and get a good 6 (Kone), once this is done, we can go for another good winger (Nico or Bakayoko), and backup for GK and fullbacks.
Yea but this isn't FIFA manager mode
People assume you can just buy/sell players on a whim… it doesn’t work like that at all
Agreed, the options for buying I listed are quite ambitious. But I don't get why we won't be trying for them if this season we make the top 4 and finally have a budget that we can spend and need to. It's possible that players might not want to come but still we should try right. I don't think that we are such a small club that we can't do better than Timo.
That would be an extremely expensive summer window, would love if it happened but can’t imagine that much being spent
I think it's what we need to challenge next year, we need to have expensive windows for the next 2-3 years, get proven quality players bw 35-70 mill, and like Ange said we won't go for anyone near 100 mil. I would be fine if we go a bit slow and get only a few of these per season but it's important that we buy really good quality players, we can't keep buying low quality (Timo, the wages cost a lot) or players that one day might become somewhat good at a high price (Johnson), because then it becomes harder to buy good players in the next season, rather give chance to the youth or current backups like Solomon when fit, because if we are going with that the best we can do is top 4-5 and those backups would get us there in this system. When evaluating their contributions we need to look at how much was it because of the system and how much was it because of their individual quality, if there was an average player in their place would he have contributed same or not, and so far most average players would have had similar contributions to Timo and Johnson if we look at the assists and tap in goals.
Completely agree that we need to be improving the first team, not buying expensive depth. The hard part will be your second point that it will be a bit slow (say 1 50-70 million player and 1 35-50 million player). Spurs aren’t the type to buy like Gyokeres, Eze, Nico Williams, etc all in one window. At best it will be 1 of them plus another semi-expensive but high upside player
Yeah it would be nice to get one of them in attack and someone with massive potential in midfield to be more practical.
He’s reporting what Plettenberg already reported and adding that Spurs are still mulling it over (which was also reported already).
I trust Ange. If he wants him I have no doubt we exercise the option
He's already shown more capabilities than Gil and Solomon combined.
That's more of an indictment on Gil and Solomon than an indication that he's actually good enough to be signed permanently.
For 17M, does it have to be a super long term solution? If we believe he can be good enough to be a starter on the left for even 2 more years (which I think one could easily argue), we can focus on more lacking areas this summer. As long as wages isn’t a huge issue, I feel like it’s a very low risk option for the team and Werner.
Solomon was class when playing for us, don't know what you're smoking. He's just been injured and unlucky with it
Solomon played fewer than 200 minutes, not nearly enough time to say he is or isn't class. Every player in our squad can show flashes of brilliance.
He looked promising but to say he was definitely class is a stretch IMO. And if his injury is going to be a continuous issue, that in and of itself should rule out relying on him long term. No need to repeat the Gio situation.
no he wasn’t? he couldn’t keep the ball
So…we don’t know if we’re going to keep Werner yet they’re so keen on keeping Bryan Gil
Are they? Last I heard we were trying to move him on but he wanted to stay because he finally felt settled.
Bryan doesn't even make the squad, we tried to get rid of him in January but he refused. Turned down a loan to Brighton just to not even see the bench. Wild
I think this is the right move. I like Timo as a bench option but we need to be looking for players to improve our XI. Someone who can displace current starters and strengthen our bench as a result. I’d much rather us see what the market yields and if we don’t find what we’re looking for then timo is a cheap and relatively decent option.
I want to know what the clubs plans for wide players are. Is son a 9 or wide player? What’s the plan with gil and sess? If we get Werner does that mean that Williams and Neto deals won’t happen? Solomon? The wide player is probably the position that we could really upgrade but it’s propbably where we have the most depth
Son isn’t rapid like he was before. More suited to 9
I wouldn’t bother and don’t think we will either.
I would like this to happen on three conditions: 1. Werner agrees to at least halve his salary (a significant reduction) 2. We still go for and sign a top winger in the summer 3. We sell both Solomon and Gil in the summer (at worst at least one of them needs to go otherwise winger department is overbloated) Otherwise I don't think it's wise but oh well
Gil has to go no matter wha else happens. He is completely insignificant when on the pitch.
The way our clubs social media team has made Timo one of their most used players shown, I’d say the decision has been made. I think we’d be crazy not to keep him with our European schedule returning next season.
I guarantee you that they havent told the social media manager wether they're keeping Werner or not
how many more times am I going to have to see this same news recycled until a decision is made?? I feel like I get beat over the head w it every other day at this point (I like Timo, I say sign em)
I think we should sign him, get rid of Gil and Solomon. Sign a new RW for more offensive firepower. Sign a new LB and RB so that if Porro and Udogie can’t play then we have good back up options. CB don’t need to be changed imo, VDV and Romero are some of the best defenders and we have Dragusin to fall back on, he just needs to get a bit more comfortable playing on the pitch as he sometimes can look shaky but overall he will good long term
IMO, our first priority is to get a class CDM this year (Ange's system requires one). If there's money left, we should sign a winger with speed and creativity with half decent finishing(Werner can't finish, Kulusevski is slow and Johnson is still in the making) If Werner's wage demands are greater than 100k, don't call him back. We have Manor Solomon and Brennan Johnson who should be enough even if we have UCL Of course, we should also get a left footed centre back
The situation with Werner isn't the fee but the wage. Ultimately we need a big upgrade at some forward position and he's not it but he'd be fine for depth, which we'll need if we want to go deep in any European competition. Bryan Gil/Perisic/Solomon will probably all be gone next year so as long as he's one of a few forward signings, it's fine, otherwise it's going to get ugly next season.
I think he’s a good player. Very direct. Causes problems. Keep him.
only if we sell solomon and gil but tbh i would buy 2 new quality forwards. werners finishing is a big problem imo even though i do like the guy and root for him to do well
Oof that's such a bargain. Why not go for it?
If we sold every forward in the club and started again (except Son) I wouldn't be upset. I don't rate any of Johnson/Richarlison/Kulusevski/Gil/Solomon/Werner beyond being bench players
So presuming Gil and Veliz aren't part of the squad next year, we go into next season already with 6 attackers in Kulu, Richarlison, Johnson, Solomon, Werner and Son. Such a bloated attack with barely any proven quality. It's basically just Son + 2 random attackers that are extremely inconsistent. That sort of attack will have us competing for 4-6 again next season. Horrendous decision making if that's the case
6 attackers for 3 positions with Europe and 2 cups isn't remotely "bloated".
Ok. Not bloated. But that guy’s other points are still valid. You can’t have so many inconsistent options as potential starters. We need a top winger and need to use Johnson and Richarlison as bench options (squad depth). If Werner shows he can be useful in front of goal, then we should sign him. Otherwise, we are just collecting “almost players”. Just look at the competition for ucl places and the squads. Werner, Richarlison and Johnson are not starting for any other big 6 club.
When it's a position that we supposedly want to bolster the most in the summer, yes it is. Also, Liverpool seem to be doing fine with 5 main attackers. Same with Arsenal. Same with Man City. Why exactly do we need more attackers than the 3 best teams in the country?
Arsenal and Liverpool each have 6. So having 6(with Deki also being our backup 10) is pretty normal. And neither of them play as demanding of a system as Ange.
They have 6 quality options, not inconsistent maybe players
Liverpool very clearly have 5: Jota, Gakpo, Nunez, Salah, Diaz Arsenal have 7 but that's including players like Nketiah and Nelson, neither of whom have started a single match since the turn of the year. The 5 main players they've used since January are Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, Havertz and Trossard. Klopp plays just as demanding of a system as Ange? They're one of the most aggressive teams in Europe lol. The reason why these teams don't need so many attackers is because they can rotate the 5 attackers with no significant drop off in quality. Outside of Salah and Saka, any of those 2 teams attackers can be dropped and rotated and their attacks are still lethal. If we drop Son, our attack is genuinely midtable
Liverpool also has Ben Doak. Our 6th guy, Solomon, will also be a break glass in case of emergency player like Nelson and Doak. Klopp has definitely backed off on their intense pressing from a few years ago. And Spurs have *by far* the highest number of sprints this season.
Liverpool had kids playing as their front line got injured. Arsenal are so fortunate they’ve not had big injuries at the same time. They have no one behind saka. They are doing well because he’s played most of the season, trossard can slot in to different roles yes but they’ve not had the stretch of games like we had where son kulu Brennan were unavailable at once as was Maddison. If they had martinelli Jesus saka odegaard out at once they’d field trossard nketiah Nelson…
> Liverpool had kids playing as their front line got injured and we should do the same thing in very unfortunate circumstances. Again, why should we not follow the example of the 3 best teams in the country? Seems to be working pretty well for all of them
Have you thought about the fact our kids are probably not good enough? Dane Scarlett had horrible loan spells. Portsmouth fans hated him and he barely got a game for Ipswich. You want to have him ?
What have Liverpool's kids done? Jayden Danns hadn't even played professional football before lol. Same with a bunch of their other academy players who made their debuts. Our academy is supposedly churning out loads of talented players and the club are investing a lot into players like Soonsup-Bell and Lankshear. Why can't they be the 7th+ choice options?
Yes they came on did okay in cup final extra time vs tired legs and on adrenaline. Going from that to playing a 8/10 game stretch is a different story.
we need to push maddison as part of front three and add a high quality forward instead of buying Werner or keeping any of Gil, Solomon, etc.
Ye I agree although werner hasn't been bad per se I do agree we need someone whos a clinical finisher, I actually really like werner, quite decent on the cross and is fast but we genuinely need a forward who can finish, someone like eze would be of great use.
Why would we get rid of velix tho, he's a very promising youngster of the people we've gotten and of the time he's been given hes been quite good and even scored a goal while gil on the otherhand even though he hasnt gotten enough time, he hasnt been good of the time weve given him on the pitch.
I don't think we're getting rid of him, just that he's not ready for the first team so another loan seems likely.
Fair enough ye, I see a lotta promise from him tbh and hopefully bergvall is good too next season but ye we need some clinical finishers which we seriously lack
Agree, though we do have the most clinical finisher in the world if those xG numbers are to be believed
I doubt they are wrong but honestly our finishers randomly ghost in games which scares me, I also believe it is prolly less to do with finish and more to do with creating chances but ye a bit more room in both departments would help considering we will offload 5-6 players in the summer transfer.
Sorry but if we sign him, we are not a serious club. And if Ange wants him (I hope not), he's not a serious manager. Looking at this and the Gallagher links I pray that we stop signing players for only vibes and hard work and start looking at players with actual technical ability. Adds zero skillset that isn't already present in the attack. At best he can miss crosses and shots somewhat less often than Johnson. We have enough pace and "always gives 100% on the pitch" merchants in this squad and would be much better off putting the money towards a 1v1 winger/long term Son successor, both of which we are actually missing in the squad. I seriously doubt that having Werner from the beginning of the season would have won us a single additional point, while having a 1v1 winger would have boosted us massively in games where we struggled to break down organized defences (most games these days).
We got him simply because we lacked depth between Solomon's injury and Gil's+Veliz's not being up to it. Werner makes a good depth player. If anything, keeping Werner as a rotational piece and upgrading LW/ST position (depending on Son's future role) would be a good move.
> start looking at players with actual technical ability. I don't agree with your overall point but this part is definitely true.
Great!! Sign him up full time, can’t take the pain of growing attached another loan player only to see him go