El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
Where was the Badger whilst all this was happening? Oh, that's right, getting too distracted by the Turfies!!
the last line isnt only about wages, though that plays a big part. its wage and prestige......you can get away with stuff like this at might household clubs
if we are losing parker, thudd, carrol AND livermore then yes it makes sense...but not if we are keeping those guys
its funny but you mention FOUR cm's and yet even before you get to the main starters you have siggy and holtby...and then you have sandro, paulie and dembele..now add caps......thats alot of bodies in that area
have you seen this guy play? is he really on sandro's level? cause i put sandro in the world class category for defensive duties. if this caps guy is as good as sandro then all we need to do is play both him and sandro in holding roles and we will never lose a game
Capoue played once at CB last season against Lille. One time. In the french Ligue 1. In a 3 man defense. So these thinking about him as a CB should have a rethink.
This is what he had to say about it when asked by a journo.
How was your transition in central defense against Lille?
That went well. This is not my preferred position, but I'm happy aslong I play. We talked a lot with the coach before the game and everything went well. This is a squad project so from there, we must aall get involved in it. In a three-man defense, we defended very high. You have to be tough in the tackle and that's what we managed to deal with Lille. It became an easy game.
It wouldn't be making any headlines if those journo ****s stopped making things up.
Buy one player for £8 million. Recoup that amount and more by selling two or three others (Parker, Huddlestone, Livermore) - thereby also reducing the wage bill significantly.
Added bonus is that the new player, in addition to being superior at CM / DM, is also adept at centre back. Which means that he can cover that position while our usual centre backs recover from their short term injuries (or, in the case of Kaboul, ease himself back from long term injury) and while we tie up a deal for a further centre back.
Gives us a far leaner, better, more versatile and modern squad that fits with AVB's philosophy.
Couldn't be a more sensible move.
Unless you thought that we coped well with injuries to Sandro and Dembele last season?
where is Arc? did he finally crawl into a hole and die?
Good points.
I am only half way through this thread but nobody has yet suggested this guy could replace Dembele.
Probably knows he will get coated if he dares peddles his pro Real Madrid flimflam these days.
capoue can play centre half.
you may then say but he ISNT a centre half. But why buy a centre half who will eventually be what, 3rd or 4th choice? Capoue adds depth to other positions too, solid signing.
I swear, Cleopatra herself could reincarnate and then proceed to offer £10K and free blowjobs from mermaids to the whole forum and there would still be an argument about the quality of fish. :lol:
It's pretty simple to answer why we have bought a midfielder; it's because we plan on selling some.
As a club, we are hopefully trying to aim at challenging for the title, and the only way we can do that is to have a quality squad. It was only last season where Sandro picked up an injury that ruled him out for the whole campaign. Parker didn't do a good enough job in his place.
Likewise, Dembele could have done with being rested/rotated a lot more last season. He was run into the ground and his performances dipped as a result, imo. But we didn't really have the players to rely on, especially with Sandro already missing. We had no other 'presence' in midfield to call upon.
It seems to me that we are trying to build a squad whereby we can keep playing the same way no matter who gets injured/rested/dropped/suspended. Long may we continue to do that.
i guess, with regards to creativity, we're going down the blow our opponents away with quick direct play backed up with strength and power route - there was an article posted in the Soldado thread yesterday or the day before i believe that spoke about AVBs style at Porto and how they were relentless in getting the ball through to the forwards directly wave after wave ... ive been waiting for a Modric replacement since he left but perhaps there is more than one way to skin a cat after all.
but i do think that with the trio of Holtby/Carroll and Sigurdsson we possibly have enough in there for a fall back option, im still undecided as to whether one of them will be a regular alongside two of the more powerful options though. think we're gearing up for an interesting season and ALOT of tactical discussion (ie arguments) here on GG