BPL 15/16 - The New Season Part 1

[Osprey23]

if not wrong, dier also not developed by spurs.

Ya, you are right. He came through Sporting Lisbon academy.

[Spurman]

if not wrong, dier also not developed by spurs.

Dier was found in portugal of all places. Tink sporting libson. And started as a cb. Not dm.

 

Only harry kane is from spurs academy.

 

Even danny rose was a gooner youngster.

 

And was a left winger b4 convetting to a lb.

[Osprey23]

Leaked contract showed that Barcelona only paid £64.98m for Suarez

 

Still owe Pool last payment. Hopefully can just ask Barcelona to hold it and Pool top up to get a player from them.

[Osprey23]

Some interesting transfer news for Pool fans:

 

Ter Stegen has received three offers in recent weeks. Two from the Premier League, said to be from Liverpool and Man City. Barcelona are unwilling to sell ter Stegen for any less than the €80m release clause in his contract. He'd have to demand a move. [sport]

 

Piotr Zielinski on Liverpool links: “Some people may think it’s only rumours but I know something more about it. I work hard in Empoli so that in June I may have a chance for such a big transfer.” [futbolfejs]

Edited March 28, 2016 by Osprey23

[Ktglfc]

Leaked contract showed that Barcelona only paid £64.98m for Suarez

 

Still owe Pool last payment. Hopefully can just ask Barcelona to hold it and Pool top up to get a player from them.

 

Just ask them to release one player to us ... err... don't want old one

[Osprey23]

Liverpool confident of signing Mario Gotze

 

Andy Hunter from Guardian reporting it. Contrary to what Bild has reported, Liverpool hoping to seal the deal at £15-20m

[Shorty]

Paul joyce also reported the same thing.

[Osprey23]

Paul joyce also reported the same thing.

Yup, seems like being briefed by the same source

 

Two of the more reliable jornos, things are certainly looking good.

 

Both mentioned Benteke leaving as well. West Ham to the rescue.

[Scion]

Wha confirm you old school!! haha

 

These days even 4 in midfield gets overrun and that's why most teams have 5 at the expense of a 2nd striker. Game has changed a lot from the earlier days. There are some positives from the modern game but the old days had it share of good play as well

 

One on one was a delight to watch as we could see pure skill n pace skin a full back alive but these days of doubling up restricts this which you can also take it positively as being better organized than before.

 

 

nowadays 4-4-2 diamond (midfield) also seems not popular anymore

 

 

--------------- AM --------------------

LW ------------------------------ RW

--------------- DM -------------------

 

 

worked so well for Man Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid in the late 90s and 2000s

 

perhaps they couldn't find another strong DM such as Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Makelele anymore

[Spring]

nowadays 4-4-2 diamond (midfield) also seems not popular anymore

 

 

--------------- AM --------------------

LW ------------------------------ RW

--------------- DM -------------------

 

 

worked so well for Man Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid in the late 90s and 2000s

 

perhaps they couldn't find another strong DM such as Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Makelele anymore

Ironically, the league leaders Leicester plays a 4-4-2 system most of the time though it's not a diamond. Leicester has really turned everything upside down from relegation candidates a year ago to potential champions n on a shoe string budget n old fashioned system some more

[Scion]

well, i think he's still useful to England as an utility man... can come off the bench as an impact sub to play upfront, supporting striker or midfield

 

plus maybe he can raise the morale and lead the young England team

 

 

 

Roy Hodgson, face facts: Wayne Rooney no longer right fit for England

 

The ESPN FC team discuss whether or not Wayne Rooney will fit in England's new-look squad.

 

If Wayne Rooney is fit enough to walk, he will be in Roy Hodgson's England squad for the European Championships this summer. No amount of goal-scoring heroics from Harry Kane or Jamie Vardy will be enough to send the Manchester United striker into international exile. Rooney will be the first name on the England manager's team sheet when his team play Russia in Marseille, France, in June.

 

"I have to repeat: Wayne is our captain and has captained the team extremely well in the past two years," Hodgson said after a 3-2 victory over Germany in Berlin on Saturday. This suggests that the 30-year-old's value as a leader will be important for a young, inexperienced group of players in France. Yet Rooney has struggled for fitness and form this season. He would not make the squad on merit. To shoehorn him into the team requires a number of compromises.

 

Hodgson picked four strikers in his squad for the Brazil World Cup two years ago. If he followed a similar route, Kane, Vardy, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck would appear to be ahead of Rooney at this point. There are always concerns about Sturridge's fitness, and Welbeck is being nursed back from a serious knee injury, but both have the sort of pace that stretches defences and creates space for teammates. Taking Rooney as a fifth striker would narrow midfield options in France.

 

That did not worry Hodgson too much in Brazil. In the first two matches against Italy and Uruguay, he started with just two specialist midfielders, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. All semblance of balance in these sides was discarded because the manager was desperate to get Rooney and Gerrard, his elder statesmen, onto the team. Both games were lost 2-1 in shambolic circumstances, and England were out. The third match, against Costa Rica, was meaningless. When the pressure is most intense, Hodgson relies on the players he believes he can trust, even if all evidence suggests they are out of form or nearing the end of their career.

 

Rooney has been more impressive for England than for Manchester United over the past two years. Hodgson knows that the striker is at his best when he is bearing down on the opposition. When Rooney plays with his back to goal, his poor first touch and haphazard control are exposed. The England manager has a much clearer understanding of how to get the best out of the forward than United's Louis van Gaal, who misuses Rooney on a weekly basis.

 

Yet the deeper Rooney drops, the less effective he becomes. It is hard to make a case for him as a front-line striker given the competition. If Hodgson tries to fudge the issue in France as he did in Brazil -- against Italy, Rooney played on the left of midfield -- England's potency will diminish.

Even at the peak of his powers, Rooney was a player who needed the team to be built around him for maximum effectiveness. Now that he is in decline, it is not worth compromising the team to accommodate Rooney.

 

Yet Hodgson will. The England manager does not see himself as hidebound. "At some stage I was told I'm conservative in some way and that will stay with me for the rest of my life," he said, refuting the suggestion that he is predictable. There is an innate caution about his teams, though. Bottom line: Hodgson trusts players he has trusted before.

 

It is hard to see why. In Brazil, with youthful energy available to England across the pitch, the fading legs of Rooney and Gerrard took central roles. In almost any other country, the performances in the 2014 World Cup would have gotten Hodgson sacked.

 

Two years on, there is even more pace in the squad. There are more goals, too. No defence in Europe would be comfortable dealing with Sturridge, Kane or Vardy. Hodgson has been presented with a rare opportunity to be radical and kill off suggestions that he is a conservative. Instead, he will once again turn to Rooney.

 

For what? The captaincy? There might be a lack of leaders in Hodgson's squad, but that is matched with a refreshing lack of ego. While Rooney might know what tournament football is all about, the sum total of that experience is defeat and rancour, stretching from Portugal in 2004 to Brazil 10 years later.

Hodgson has one more chance to get things right with England. It is now or never. Forcing Rooney into the team would be repeating the mistakes of the past.

 

 

[Fooblack]

Yup, seems like being briefed by the same source

 

Two of the more reliable jornos, things are certainly looking good.

 

Both mentioned Benteke leaving as well. West Ham to the rescue.

 

Gotze seems more and more like a done deal. His allegiance and confidence with Klopp was the main deal. He is entering last year of contract so Bayern should look to cash out unless the new manager next season wants to try his hand to convince him to stay. I think hard to give him the playing time that he craves... 

 

15-20M fee range is definitely a steal in today's market..  

 

for benteke, let's start the lelong. no 25M no talk.  but seriously, I think the top clubs in the continental should look more attractive to him than West Ham. his nonchalent style is more suitable in EU football rather than the high energy EPL..  just a thought. He should be attractive to most of the top european clubs... 

[Maxus-MIFA9]

Gotze seems more and more like a done deal. His allegiance and confidence with Klopp was the main deal. He is entering last year of contract so Bayern should look to cash out unless the new manager next season wants to try his hand to convince him to stay. I think hard to give him the playing time that he craves... 

 

15-20M fee range is definitely a steal in today's market..  

 

for benteke, let's start the lelong. no 25M no talk.  but seriously, I think the top clubs in the continental should look more attractive to him than West Ham. his nonchalent style is more suitable in EU football rather than the high energy EPL..  just a thought. He should be attractive to most of the top european clubs... 

 

Benteke shouldn't have come to Liverpool at all .....

 

Thanks to BR ..

 

With $32.5 million pound, can buy two better and more energetic strikers .....   

[Fooblack]

Benteke shouldn't have come to Liverpool at all .....

 

Thanks to BR ..

 

With $32.5 million pound, can buy two better and more energetic strikers .....   

 

the best part was that he was the same manager who insisted Andy Carrot can't play in his style....   

[Galantspeedz]

Gotze seems more and more like a done deal. His allegiance and confidence with Klopp was the main deal. He is entering last year of contract so Bayern should look to cash out unless the new manager next season wants to try his hand to convince him to stay. I think hard to give him the playing time that he craves... 

 

15-20M fee range is definitely a steal in today's market..  

 

for benteke, let's start the lelong. no 25M no talk.  but seriously, I think the top clubs in the continental should look more attractive to him than West Ham. his nonchalent style is more suitable in EU football rather than the high energy EPL..  just a thought. He should be attractive to most of the top european clubs... 

 

his wages is a stumbling block for other conti clubs due to the strong UK pound and also english clubs tend to pay better

[Stratagem]

Ironically, the league leaders Leicester plays a 4-4-2 system most of the time though it's not a diamond. Leicester has really turned everything upside down from relegation candidates a year ago to potential champions n on a shoe string budget n old fashioned system some more

[Osprey23]

nowadays 4-4-2 diamond (midfield) also seems not popular anymore

 

 

--------------- AM --------------------

LW ------------------------------ RW

--------------- DM -------------------

 

 

worked so well for Man Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid in the late 90s and 2000s

 

perhaps they couldn't find another strong DM such as Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Makelele anymore

Beg to differ but I don't think the English clubs were playing diamond midfield during their prime. Wenger's invincible and SAF's dominant team are playing more of a 4-4-1-1 with support striker. See images attached.

 

Dimond is recent years I can think of AC Milan with Ancelotti and Liverpool with BR. It is not a very popular system as it requires 2 things. Attacking full backs to provide the width (which is now getting more and more common in other systems) and more importantly, a registra. AC Milan then utilised it to better effect as they had Pirlo as the registra. Pool's system though, not that balanced because Gerrard was a made-shift registra which BR thought that it is a position any talented midfielder can play. Hence for a diamond, the holding mid so far I have seen are usually a deep-lying player maker instead of a destroyer.

 

Also, another fundamental difference is that for a diamond, the central midfield can be consider to have 3 players (registra and 2 shuttlers) but all other 4-4-x formations only has 2 (destroyer and b2b).

 

The current most popular formation is still 4-2-3-1 and similarly, with a central 2, having a destroyer there is crucial in maintaining the midfield solidarity as well.

[Spring]

well, i think he's still useful to England as an utility man... can come off the bench as an impact sub to play upfront, supporting striker or midfield

 

plus maybe he can raise the morale and lead the young England team

 

Fully agreed, Rooney no more first X1 player for the national team but he should be in the squad for his experience, leadership and possible impact off the bench. Kane and/or Vardy should be leading the line based on current form!

 

Don't underestimate the importance of leaders in a squad as most of title winning teams have a few of these characters in their squad.