***Official*** English Football Season 2020-21

[sledger]

Man I loved Park. I don't know if he was a supporting role guy exactly. He was one of Ferguson's massive squad of players who were all tactically useful in different ways, and only he knew which one to use in which situation. You'd forget he was even at the club for months then he'd appear in the starting lineup against Arsenal or Chelsea and put in a MOTM performance.

Firmino is in poor form at the moment, but he's a great supporting player too.

Yeah it is difficult to describe players like Park I think. That said, in my mind they are still a type of supporting player, but are "supporting" in a very different way to a player like Mount or Iniesta. Their workrate and running etc. can often give another player an extra second or two of space/time on the ball or what have you.

Like you kind of allude to, they are players you kind of just never notice and forget about, sometimes even when they are playing. But then when they are absent the output of other players/the team on the whole decreases substantially. Petit, Edu, Van Bronkhorst, Alex Song and Gilberto were to some extent like that for Arsenal.

 

[Furball]

Man I loved Park. I don't know if he was a supporting role guy exactly. He was one of Ferguson's massive squad of players who were all tactically useful in different ways, and only he knew which one to use in which situation. You'd forget he was even at the club for months then he'd appear in the starting lineup against Arsenal or Chelsea and put in a MOTM performance.

Firmino is in poor form at the moment, but he's a great supporting player too.

I'd say Firmino is definitely a player Liverpool should have been looking to upgrade in the last 12 months.

 

[Uppercut]

That's what I think Jota is.

 

[andruid]

I'm not sure he is all that malleable - I'm not sure he has a long term future in a front 3 and not defensive enough to be the deepest lying midfielder. I also wonder defensively quite how secure we are with Mount and Havertz in the same midfield 3. Shove Mount to the left or right of a front 3 and you are getting rid of Pulisic or Ziyech from the first XI anyway. I just question especially against decent sides (say the top 10) if the deepest of a midfield 3 is left with too much defensive responsibilities with Mount and Havertz in front of them. And whilst I agree that Havertz will be the star man whether here or somewhere else in the medium to long term - replace Mount with Havertz and Lampard would have been sacked even earlier than this. Havertz does need time to adapt to a new country and new league but most managers nowadays cannot afford to hang their hat on a player adapting and hoping they start fulfilling their talent before they've been sacked - it's a tough situation not every player will hit the ground running but as soon as they do not the manager is under pressure - build their team around an underperforming player and hope they start to perform before the manager is sacked or play with a side that might not be as good a year down the line but at the current time is the best side you can play with.

Perhaps turn Mount into a super-sub?

 

[Uppercut]

Constantly revising upwards my opinion of how good Saka could end up being.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Get ****ed big Sam

 

[sledger]

Constantly revising upwards my opinion of how good Saka could end up being.

He is great and I love him

 

[JOJOXI]

Perhaps turn Mount into a super-sub?

If the other midfielders can perform to a high level from minute 1 of Tuchel's tenure perhaps but I'm not really sure why you would drop the best performing player when others in midfield haven't been performing anywhere near as good as Mount in recent times. Perhaps they find their mojo under a new manager but until they show signs of a revival over multiple games it is almost asking for trouble in my view. I'm not sure our hopes are helped at all against Wolves or against Burnley by excluding Mount from the first XI - especially not for a player who hasn't really performed for us yet, had a short pre-season and Covid I think that only lessens the chances we will see the best of Havertz in the near future.

As an aside and I don't think this aspect should influence Tuchel as he is there for the short-term anyway but I don't like the fact that a young player comes in, not only does well but is the best player at the club so far this season when rumours suggest its not the best environment at the moment, a manager gets sacked and the first move is to substantially reduce their playing time.

 

[JOJOXI]

Yeah I definitely don't think he should have dropped Mount. The solution was probably Mount and Havertz as roaming 8s behind a front 3, and maybe one of them dropping out for Kovacic against tougher opposition depending on how it goes. Kante isn't literally doing the work of 2 players any more but he can still cover a lot of ground.

Against weaker opposition I think that could work but with the nature of the season so far I think tough opposition would include likes of Villa, Southampton and the likes, we have only beaten 1 of the top 11 which suggests we've been fine against the weaker sides on the whole but against the decent sides we've struggled. Drop Mount for the big games and you drop your best player on current form, I would prefer dropping Havertz in the short term. Intrigued if Tuchel goes 2 upfront v Burnley perhaps presuming Kante is back for that. Play Havertz on the right, Pulisic on the left, Giroud and Werner upfront, Mount and Kante in midfield. Still feel like that is a bit lightweight defensively but it would bring more out of Werner and Havertz does have experience playing a multitude of roles with Leverkusen

 

[sledger]

Lol reports emerging that Mount has been dropped from the Chelsea squad entirely

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Bring back Fat Frank.

 

[JOJOXI]

Mixed feelings, do feel sympathy for Tuchel as a few fans were pretty much against Tuchel as soon as he joined but I don't think he helped himself dropping Mount - probably a good thing in some way that fans are not allowed at the ground right now as with no Mount and Rudiger and Kovacic both starting after rumours flying around you could imagine the atmosphere would have been pretty poisonous.

 

[Niall]

Credit to Sheff Utd. Yes its a somewhat hollow win as they were playing a ten man team ( Martial doesn't count) but a win is a win. Probably a little to late though.

Utd if they are serious about a title challenge next year need a high end striker, Martial is a disgrace, Rashford to inconsistent while Greendwood needs time.

 

[Niall]

Imagine been one of the two goalkeepers on a pitch where the other is Ramsdale and you are the worst?

Abysmal.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Imagine being Henderson and being kept out by him.

 

[Uppercut]

Not much to say about that. We'd been on a run of being mediocre but getting the breaks, then tonight we didn't get the breaks.

 

[Furball]

8 wins to go

 

[Niall]

Imagine being Henderson and being kept out by him.

Pickford had an absolute clanger in his game

Hope England go with Pope this summer.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

I wish Burnley hadn't gone with Pope today.