Squad Assessment - Spring 2022

[Bedfordspurs]

Sam johnstone is another one out of contract in the summer. Whether he'd come is a different question with lloris signing a new deal. But we have been linked.

I think he would come
He wants a step up

 

[Lilbaz]

I think he would come
He wants a step up

Higher wages would probably be nice too.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I’d argue kante was that player
He makes average players look very good

Disagree with the first bit... Kante runs around all over the place winning battles. Matic is very disciplined in his positioning and allows other players to express themselves. We don't (yet) have a midfield player who has Matic's positional sense IMO.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Disagree with the first bit... Kante runs around all over the place winning battles. Matic is very disciplined in his positioning and allows other players to express themselves. We don't (yet) have a midfield player who has Matic's positional sense IMO.

Possibly

 

[metalgear]

Liverpool's midfield was indeed functional, yet i'd still argue that they were as a three superior to Skipp, Wijnks and Hojberg. Put them in the Liverpool system and yes they might up their levels, but still they won't quite match what Liverpool's midfield produced due some missing attributes that they lack. Forgetting of course the fact that Liverpool have two genuinely creative wide attacking forwards in Salah and Mane, its not a like for like comparison, we don't play the same system or with the same type of attackers.

The point with mentioning Hazard is that you can afford a more functional midfield if you have a world class playmaker playing in your forward three who also drops into midfield at times. We don't have a world class attacking forward playmaker, its not quite the same scenario. We also deffo disagree on Matic, considering he started off as an AM you'll notice every now and then he would play a very cute pass, hes better than you are giving him credit for. Add all of these players together and you get a team that has higher quality in midfield as well as more creativity in the attacking three. If we get a Hazard like player than a purely functional midfield has more chance of success, but has been noted multiple times, Conte has never had a midfield that has been purely functional. He has always had a degree of quality and passing quality in there. I expect he will want the same here as that is what has been succesful for him in the past.

That Chelsea team has a lot of initiative. Alonso for instance occupies huge amounts of time in the penalty box. Other players pick up the slack automatically. It comes down to proper recruitment first. And It looks like Bentan and Kulu have that independent thinking and tactical awareness we sorely lacked. Enic/Levy needs to continue to back Conte and Paraticii at the next transfer window.

 

[braineclipse]

No I’m not
What I’m saying is in a conte team the midfield isn’t key
It’s the wing backs and the centre backs doing their jobs (attack wise)
Look at the numbers at Chelsea and inter for goals and assists from his wing backs and compare the attacking contribution from his midfield…
His midfield acts as screen to allow other players to do their job (under lapping centre backs for example).
You can’t compare like for like as it’s different players against different teams. What you can do is see where weaknesses were in teams and how they were addressed by the manager to get the best out of his players.

Partly agree.

If we pay play with a midfield three then one of those midfield roles will have to take quite a lot of attacking responsibility, or it will have to be shared between two of them.

The screening bit I agree with, but there's more too. There's a reason why Winks has come back in favour and it's not because he's all of a sudden become a great screening player.

The ability to move the ball quickly through lines of pressure, the ability to deal with pressure from opponents through passing, strength, dribbling. The ability to adjust to the demands of the system, play the passes Conte deems right.

Any increase in quality on that on the ball stuff makes us better as a team. Better service to the players more often higher up the pitch essentially.

What we may not need is top level quality in that regard, which other systems may require.

I'm happy with our current midfield options, for now at least. Is it good enough to really push on to where Conte wants us to be, where we want to be? Not sure.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Brozovic would complete our midfield so well I think. Seeing as we (theoretically) had limited transfer funds but decent room to grow the wage bill I wanted us to go get both Brozovic and Kessie as a reasonably ready made pair for a Conte midfield two. However now we've brought in Bentacur I think Brozovic would complete our midfield and allow us to really control games. We'd probably have to pay him more than he is worth in general but then again what he would be worth to us is a lot more than his general worth (if you get my meaning).

That then leaves any transfer funds we do have to be spent on another option for RWB, another striker option, a first choice centre back and a new backup keeper who might be good enough to fill Lloris's boots in a year to 18 months' time (and there are various free transfer options for at least 3 of those positions as well).