Christian Benteke

[milo]

not so sure about that.....if pool can find a half decent club to buy him then he will go....though they will take a massive hit financially....he will want to leave....and i am sure someone out there is foolish enough to think they will be the one to get Balo on the straight and narrow.

Ade seemingly poo-poo's every option presented to him regarding getting his bottom out of the club.....ok I dunno this for a fact....just going off burts piece last night.

At present it feels like getting rid of Ade is mission impossible!!!! he's already guffed on the villa rumours!

to me it looks like Ade is gonna out Levy.....Levy!

My guess is that Ballotelli is on more money, he cost Liverpool more to sign and he has longer left on his contract. We would lose less if we were to let Ade go for nothing or next to nothing, so I think that it is a more likely deal to get done.

 

[Baleforce]

Really... I don't see anyone buying any of their strikers

Even Sunderland have gone off Borini

They have a massive problem coming with the amount of crud they have to shift and it's genuine quantity over quality

We will be shifting players of a lower cost to us than them IMO and that makes it easier to to take the hit

They have to sell Ballotelli too

I meant that strikers ARE going out of fashion, and by that I mean the classic number 9

 

[Nigeyman]

My guess is that Ballotelli is on more money, he cost Liverpool more to sign and he has longer left on his contract. We would lose less if we were to let Ade go for nothing or next to nothing, so I think that it is a more likely deal to get done.

fair point, but lets just say for arguments sake Ade is point blank refusing to leave......what the heck can we do????? we need his massive wages off the wage bill and we will probably miss out on targets this summer because he's still around....

We are stuck with him for this season! Balo also has youth on his side..Ade you could say is past it!

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Liverpool play a system that typically has a striker and a few players behind. So they have room for maybe 4 max in their squad s

Baloltelli is one of those they want want and he will on six figures plus and a 4 year contract

IMO he is gonna be a very hard sell

They may shift a few others but there really shifting players with big depreciations in their value other than sterling

Not one player they brought last has held their value IMO

 

[Nigeyman]

Liverpool play a system that typically has a striker and a few players behind. So they have room for maybe 4 max in their squad s

Baloltelli is one of those they want want and he will on six figures plus and a 4 year contract

IMO he is gonna be a very hard sell

They may shift a few others but there really shifting players with big depreciations in their value other than sterling

Not one player they brought last has held their value IMO

I would probably say Emre Can has but yeah I can see the fabric of you fibre.....just remembered they have Origi too....they have lots to do selling wise and I would expect buying clubs to take advantage of the desperation too sell.

 

[milo]

fair point, but lets just say for arguments sake Ade is point blank refusing to leave......what the heck can we do????? we need his massive wages off the wage bill and we will probably miss out on targets this summer because he's still around....

We are stuck with him for this season! Balo also has youth on his side..Ade you could say is past it!

He agreed to join West Ham in January.

 

[Nigeyman]

He agreed to join West Ham in January.

ok you got me there! im off to bed...goodnight.

 

[scaramanga]

Yeah of course but I still think that most of our attacking moves would be within the width of the box.

As should our crosses:
http://statsbomb.com/2014/10/how-low-can-you-go-assorted-thoughts-about-crosses/

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I would probably say Emre Can has but yeah I can see the fabric of you fibre.....just remembered they have Origi too....they have lots to do selling wise and I would expect buying clubs to take advantage of the desperation too sell.

Can looks like he could be the real deal in midfield. Why he persisted in playing him in defence I'll never know... Especially after bringing in lovren, toure and Sakho

It's typical of Brenton though

origi got voted into the worse team in the league in France... Not sure if that's anything to do with his perceived value and expectation or bitterness from the voters. He was signed of the back of a few good games for Belgium thoug IMO which is very sexy

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Ke

As should our crosses:
http://statsbomb.com/2014/10/how-low-can-you-go-assorted-thoughts-about-crosses/

Great crosses come with variety so that their harder to defend and just need direction from the attacker

The basic low and hard across the box has long gone yet it's bloody effective as keepers rarely come and defenders can't turn!!! You do however need someone to get past the man first normally which is something we really struggle with

 

[Yiddo]

According to the paper Benteke has no interest in coming to us due to the way we went about our business the last time we wanted to sign him. Would prefer to go to Liverpool where he can be on ridiculous wages and sit on the bench.

This is good news if true, Ade mk II.

 

[glasgowspur]

On paper benteke, mario, sterling and sturridge is one, if not the best forward line setups in the PL.
in reality it's a crock, a mad man, a jumped up fool and a potential beast.
I know at least one maybe two of them will go IF benteke signs but wouldn't it be funny if they were left with the four of them! Mayhem

 

[scaramanga]

Great crosses come with variety so that their harder to defend and just need direction from the attacker

Great crosses are very rare in their nature. As you'll see from the link posted they're pretty specific as to their location. Varied they are not.

The basic low and hard across the box has long gone yet it's bloody effective as keepers rarely come and defenders can't turn!!! You do however need someone to get past the man first normally which is something we really struggle with

The basic low and hard cross is pretty much the only effective one. Fortunately football has moved past "in to the mixer" crossing unless you're West Ham or Captain Bellend.

 

[parklane1]

Great crosses are very rare in their nature. As you'll see from the link posted they're pretty specific as to their location. Varied they are not.


The basic low and hard cross is pretty much the only effective one. Fortunately football has moved past "in to the mixer" crossing unless you're West Ham or Captain Bellend.

Could not agree more, however there are times during a game when the best ball to play is a cross into the box ( rather then fafing about like we did under AVB). With Benteke in there we would have a player who ( more often then not) would get his head on it.

 

[scaramanga]

Could not agree more, however there are times during a game when the best ball to play is a cross into the box ( rather then fafing about like we did under AVB). With Benteke in there we would have a player who ( more often then not) would get his head on it.

I think that the times where that opportunity presents itself are few and far between - evidenced by the very, very low rate of return for crosses from outside the box.

 

[parklane1]

I think that the times where that opportunity presents itself are few and far between - evidenced by the very, very low rate of return for crosses from outside the box.

Well that could be for a number of reasons, poor delivery, poor targetmen, no runners into the space from deep. There are lots of reasons why the stats you have mentioned before are showing that. Not getting into ( yet) another debate on stats as I have said they do not always tell the whole story.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Great crosses are very rare in their nature. As you'll see from the link posted they're pretty specific as to their location. Varied they are not.

The basic low and hard cross is pretty much the only effective one. Fortunately football has moved past "in to the mixer" crossing unless you're West Ham or Captain Bellend.

Thank GHod Bentaleb didn't take this point of view towards the end of the home game against Arsenal last season....

 

[scaramanga]

Thank GHod Bentaleb didn't take this point of view towards the end of the home game against Arsenal last season....

I'm sure you can pick out any number of goals scored that way. What that fails to take into account is the huge number of attempts required for each of those goals (roughly 57 at last measure).

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Maybe it's because the majority of crosses come via full backs who are now wing backs who were originally failed wingers... Failed because of their wide game not being good enough so to expect them to be able to cross may be an issue

Defenders are actually worse now than they have ever been so there is not practical reason why it wouldn't be effective IMO, more that the person making that cross is actually delivering it poorly

 

[scaramanga]

Maybe it's because the majority of crosses come via full backs who are now wing backs who were originally failed wingers... Failed because of their wide game not being good enough so to expect them to be able to cross may be an issue

Defenders are actually worse now than they have ever been so there is not practical reason why it wouldn't be effective IMO, more that the person making that cross is actually delivering it poorly

Crossing has always been a low return way of scoring - it's just that we're only now realising it. It's a fault of the way our minds work to remember the one goal after the 60 failed crosses - we also (wrongly) get excited when we see them happen because of the way goals stick in the memory more than failed crosses. We wrongly conflate a cross that nearly reaches the striker or one that he connects with but misses with a likely chance of creating a goal - in fact it's not.

If we were to put in 60 crosses in a match (and not attempt to score in any other manner) and lose 2-1 we'd probably leave the ground thinking that we were all over them and were hard done by to lose - after all, we were putting in a cross every 90 seconds. That's how our minds work. In fact, one goal from that output is bang in line with the expected return and we probably wouldn't even consider that we'd surrendered possession 59 times in the final third trying to score it.