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DMAA

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Posts posted by DMAA

  1. 45 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

    That's all well and good but if that lot keep winning the league and getting into the CL, the financial gap widens further.  

     

    Like most things, it's a balancing act.  A bloody difficult one.  

    It's hard to predict, but we have probably another couple of seasons of automatic Champions League qualification before we lose it. So this season and next are more important than most. Our qualification to the CL has only accelerated the eventual loss of the automatic space we have.

  2. 29 minutes ago, Frankie said:

    Matondo is 22 next week and, like Kent, has moved about too much in recent years to find any sort of consistency in his play. I'm confident he'll find that given some time. 

    I think Matondo will prove a very useful player over the course of the season, and hopefully for seasons to come. But the fact remains that after spending £12m or so and making the Champions League, our strongest 11 has a central attacking mid playing in the right forward position (Tillman or Lawrence), which is a bit disappointing given it seemed to most of us like the top priority position to strengthen. 

  3. 1 hour ago, craig said:

    I remain unconvinced about the whole "we have to catch them up".

    I think we absolutely do need to catch them up, they were a far better team last season. Whether we have already caught them up remains to be seen. I still have a concern regarding the disparity in goal scoring capability between our front 3s, although I do believe we have made strides in the right direction with Colak replacing Morelos, Lawrence replacing one of our midfield 3 and Tillman replacing Wright or whoever else. 

  4. 10 hours ago, Rousseau said:

    Club Brugge have just signed a striker for £13.6m!

     

    They've spent £30m after selling £50m worth of talent (60% reinvested). 

     

    We've spent £10.7m (excluding Tillman and academy signings) after selling £27.1m (39% reinvested).

     

    Seeing this, we could see another signing. I would like a #8 or a forward that can play wide and up front. 

    In seriousness, Club Brugge are in a different league to us in terms of their use of the transermarkt. They have a great track record for signing quality young players and flipping them for big money, an example for us to follow. 

     

    To be fair, we've taken steps in that direction too with the signings of Yilmaz and Matondo (and maybe eventually the signings of Sands and Tillman). Time will tell whether those players are good enough to bring in the fees Brugge have brought in, it's all about quality scouting. Bassey is our obvious big success to date. We have a long way to go though, clubs like Brugge have far more money than us to spend because they've been doing this for years whilst we have generally been very pragmatic.

  5. 52 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

    E.g. Matondo played most of last season as a right winger and was pretty decent. It overtook his use as a left winger, but he can play across the attack line, which is one reason we signed him

    Matondo is more comfortable as a right winger for me. He lacks something coming off the left, doesn’t quite have the technique to do it very well. On the right we can exploit his pace and get him to the byline. I expect he may need time to develop though. 

  6. 2 hours ago, Rousseau said:

    13 attempts, 5 on target is much better numbers, for 45 minutes.

     

    I'm not sure about the xG, though: they're not quality chances.

    2.97 vs 0.45

     

    Not bad but not a particularly impressive differential at home to Ross County tbh. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on the xG differential table as it seems to accurately predict the league winner pretty early every season. 

  7. 1 hour ago, the gunslinger said:

    It's madness. Matondo has been written off already.

    With new signings it's often about expectations. He's only had one season of regular senior football and patience will be required. Davies will have the £4m tag hanging over him a bit too for some fans.

     

    Lundstram was free, but there was a clamour for a big signing in centre mid who was very creative and a goalscorer, a different type to Davis, Jack and Kamara. For a while Lundstram looked similar to those in level and style. I voiced some concerns about his fitness at the time, I'm sure he later said he struggled for a while after having had COVID.

     

    The level of criticism was insane though, when the January transfer window closed loads of people were "very disappointed" that we hadn't moved him on!! I wasn't a big fan of the signing, but better to have him around the second half of the season than not! I don't think any of us saw that scale of a turnaround coming though.

  8. 7 minutes ago, Sutton_blows_goats said:

    That inter side we drew with at Ibrox that year was bloody good btw.

    Just looked it up, that was 2005. But yeh a good team. And yes, Bob Malcolm, Ian Murray and Namouchi started that game. Not exactly a team full of a stars.

  9. 2 minutes ago, Frankie said:

    Just to go against what a few others have said, I think Sands can and will play in midfield but, just as has been the case in his performances at centre-back, we just need to see more of him there to realise how useful a player he is.

     

     

    Agree, he can play centre mid. Centre back is just where he has got his chance. We haven’t seen him excel in centre mid yet though. 

  10. Have to say it’s great to see James Sands, who didn't start in Seville, getting 20

    votes for man of the match for this game of all games. What a turnaround for him, I’m chuffed for him. I have wanted him to do well since he joined, I’m not sure why, part of it is the fact that he’s come across the world to better himself and it’s always a shame when that doesn’t work out, but he also just comes across like a good guy and a good team player. He’s also been written off plenty by our fans. 
     

    Anyway, I’ve nothing to add to what others have said about his performance other than that even though I knew he had more aggression and strength than he got credit for, I was surprised last night at just how tough he was. As things stand, he certainly looks like a ball playing centre back rather than a centre mid, and our £4m signing has a job on his hands to displace him. 

  11. 2 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

    I think Liverpool and Napoli walk the group, with us challenging Ajax for 3rd. 

    I think that’s likely. PSV were being tipped for the title by some, maybe wrongly, but Ajax only just beat them to the title by 2 points last season, and it remains to be seen whether they have effectively replaced the players they sold. 

  12. 1 minute ago, ChelseaBoy said:

    Only by a whisker, they won't get past Madrid and i doubt Leipzig and Shakhtar seem to cause difficulties away. Think Gers have a chance with Napoli home and away and can beat Ajax at home, maybe squeak into 2nd place - depends what Ajax are like for me.

    I think they have a weaker third team, giving them an easier route to 3rd. 

  13. Honestly there was a feeling of inevitability about it after our goal went in. As the team

    defending the lead your are bricking it, but I was thinking if I was a PSV supporter I’d be raging because they were doing nothing at all. Long balls and no ideas. 
     

    On a separate note entirely, Champions League qualification is massive in progressing our reputation and prestige in Europe that one step further. Europa League is great entertainment but it is not respected the same way. We can now say to prospective signings that we are a team who make the Champions League sometimes, whereas up until now you could be excused for saying we weren’t at that level yet. 

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