goodrobotusses

The good news is it looks like Madrid are planning to do to Arsenal with Saliba what they've done to us with Trent.

Van Dijk is one of only two outfield players to have played every PL minute so far this season. That's great, and if he can do the same at the same level of consistency for two more years, then happy days, but there's no guarantee Konate has another season of relatively high levels of fitness and VvD stays healthy for every game. If we go out and sign a CB that is an obvious back-up (let's say, Tsimikas level), we're risking a lot on the chance that Van Dijk and Konate stay healthy, and we probably already have that in Quansah. We should be spreading minutes more evenly where we can, so I would rather sign an up and comer with world class potential than assume the two main guys from this season are in the position to do the same again next year. If Gomez could stay fit and were happy to continue as a Jack of all trades, maybe the need would be less acute. But Joe is Joe, so we have to plan ahead because Virgil is turning 34 and Konate has a year left on his deal and a patchy injury record.

Yeah, I get that, but I don't think Konate's general levels of fitness are such that he should be playing every possible game. He has been playing through knocks again this season. Even in the best case scenario, in which Ibou signs a new deal, I still think it's prudent to have three (potentially) top level centre-backs, with maybe a fourth who can cover at full-back. Even if all three are fit for 90% of games, competition and rotation mean there will be plenty of opportunities for each of them to play. There is also the reality that VvD is 34 in July and will be turning 36 at the end of the contract we assume he's signing. If Huijsen turns out to be a top-level CB, we could have potentially boxed off VvD's replacement, with the bonus that Huijsen gets to apprentice alongside him for two seasons before, y'know, fecking off to Madrid.

But also a chance Konate leaves in 12 months so we need to be planning for all scenarios, especially as Gomez can't stay fit, Ibou himself hasn't exactly been Salah-like in his availability and the jury is still out on Quansah. Nineteen-year-old Konate wasn't as good as 25-year-old Konate, nor was 19-year-old Virgil van Dijk for that matter. If the recruitment team likes Huijsen, and a bunch of big clubs including Real Madrid also rate him, maybe his ceiling is far higher than what we've seen so far.

Think I saw something earlier from the Athletic journo that covers Real Madrid suggesting they wouldn't spend 50m on a 19-year-old and he's expected to join a club in the PL. Edit: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6270147/2025/04/11/real-madrid-centre-back-transfers/ Not sure if the excerpt is verbatim, lifted it from an aggregator website.

Read an analysis of him the other day that suggested he is incredibly gifted, but a highlights player who basically does what he wants and doesn't do any work off the ball. Add that to him not being the quickest and suggestions he has a bit of an entourage around him, and you can see why maybe the biggest clubs might pass him over even at a cheap price.

Does Google have a new phone out?

Turns out they were DMing him rather than doing public tweets. How could we know?

If they’re still here and regulars, VC should go to one of Ali or Robbo. Both experienced and leaders. Otherwise I think it will probably be Salah. Maybe not an obvious “captain type”, but captains his country, an automatic starter and one of our most experienced players.

Don't want to single him out because plenty were crap yesterday, but there was a moment in the second half when there was a switch to the left open to him. First he had it on his left and didn't want to try it, then he shifted onto his right and still decided not to and played a simple ball to the lad nearest him. There was also a hospital ball to no one when he was being pressed on the touchline, which has happened a few times this season in similar positions on the pitch. Think he can get a bit tunnel-visioned when he's surrounded by opponents.

Newcastle bullying us in the final felt like what happened to Wenger's Arsenal towards the end. The squad still has plenty of big, powerful lads, but we need to offset some of the smaller ones, yeah. Grav is big but he's not a dominant protector of Mac Allister, for example (although Alexis can fair put himself about despite being small).

Yep. Because history shows us that FSG/Edwards (and by extension Hughes) won't lump on what they perceive to be higher risk targets and would rather leave the squad short than buy the wrong player or an overvalued one. Can argue till the cows come home whether that's right or wrong, but that's what I'm expecting again this season. We'll sign very good players but enter September thinking we're short in a couple of areas. The difference this summer is I think we actually need to sign and move on (either by choice or otherwise) more players than we have done in a long time.

Think the fee and wages for Wirtz will get out of our stratosphere very quickly with City and Bayern sniffing. And at 21, he'd be getting a pay bump by the time he's 24-25 to boot. Great player, though.

I actually don’t think he’s hit his ceiling, he’s young and will definitely keep improving under Slot. Have to stress I want him in the squad, no question, it’s more about the type of player he is. He’s a Red Bull product, can run all day and has characteristics built for a transitional game. That serves us great a lot of the time and given his age, I expect him to get better and add more end product. I just feel we need someone to challenge him, someone with characteristics more suited to breaking down deep defences. And if that mystery player replaces him in the team, I would still expect Szobo to get a lot of game time, given what he gives us off the ball. It just might be in different positions to what we’ve seen so far, or still as the No10 when we need horses for courses against high quality teams we want to counter-press.

Respect your view but just don't really agree. Nunez ballooning that chance Szobo laid on on the counter aside, haven't seen a lot of evidence that Szobo is creating lots of chances that are being wasted by our forwards, and that he would become a more subtle, creative player with better forwards ahead of him, although of course it would be nice to have better forwards either way. Also not sure how how we lined up under Klopp is relevant now. Different coach, different shape, different squad to our peak Klopp team. Under Slot we have a player just behind/alongside the No9, usually Szobo. We rarely lined up like that under Klopp. The midfield's job was to compensate for an unreal forward line and very attacking full-backs. Szobo can do a great Gini/Milner-esque job off the ball, sure, but on the ball I think we're gonna need more from him or some other player, based on how we line up now and the fact our most creative player is leaving.

Gonna say this again. No question marks over his place in the squad nor in a big percentage of games the team. But we need an option in attacking midfield better at unlocking packed defences, especially with TAA leaving. Kind of surprised this view is so controversial. We have bigger priorities elsewhere in the squad so might not happen, but it's a concern moving into next season if Slot doesn't see Elliott as that player.

Once every ten games or so Diaz pulls off some mad dribble that makes you all the more frustrated at him being a crab so much of the time. I can't tell if I was just spoilt by Mane, Firmino and Salah (and Coutinho before), but our attack just doesn't feel as deadly and fun as it was back then, despite Salah's great individual season.

That's Carra's spot. We all know how he felt when GH signed Finnan.

Exactly. And he's a great asset, especially – as mentioned earlier in the thread – against better teams, when a counter-press is often our best route to goal and his work rate adds an extra layer of protection, covering for less active pressers such as Salah. My only argument is that, after TAA leaves, we're going to need more guile from that part of the pitch, especially in games against deep defences, because I don't think you can replace what Trent offers from right-back.

He has been playing as a 10. We occasionally switch to a classic midfield three with Szobo on the right, but if you look at the team structure most of the time, he's often practically up alongside the No9 when we're off the ball.

Could see him laugh/smile at Tarkowski after Ibou reacted to Tarkowski purposefully pressing his knee down into Ibou’s calf/achilles in the first few minutes.

Agree. Think he’s a great option to have and is the engine of the team without the ball, but don’t think he has the creativity we need at No10. Doubly so if TAA is going. Not convinced about playing him deeper either as he can be quite sloppy with his passing sometimes. Can see him as an option wide (although wouldn’t be my first choice there either) or in his current role against teams who have more of the ball, but would prefer to have someone there who offers more against deep defences. Maybe we can just go mad and convert him into a right-back.

BALLON D'OR

It would fit with FSG's agenda of purposefully running the club into the ground and buying lots of yachts.

What little I've seen of him is quite Cunha-like. Deceptively skilful, as he's quite gangly, but only started scoring at a decent rate this season. Three years younger than Cunha though.