Sparks FC

On 28/06/2018 at 19:07, pete0 said:

They had Forsberg recovering from an injury suffered in December. Had he been fully fit I doubt they'd have even bothered loaning Lookman. Lookman only played the full 90 minutes twice, in which one was a Hoffenheim who spanked them 5-2 big six pointer when you look at the table and red bull missed out by 2 points. Lookman didn't get a minute against the big 2 Dortmund and Bayern. Only other big game was Leverkusen were he come on for the last 20 when the game was already lost. 

So he only played in one important match and they got spanked. Other than that he's played against the fodder, red bull had a busy cup schedule so most of his minutes would have been to allow players to rest/Forsberg recover. Personally think Derby would have been the bigger opportunity being involved in a play off battle and more likely getting more game time. 

Lookman had better numbers than Forsberg last season (5 goals/4 assists vs 2 goals/2 assist) playing half the matches with far less starts. His numbers are better than Bruma (his other direct left wing competition there) who played more than twice his matches.

You can't blame the lad for when he's bought on and how he's played, but at least he did something.

I'm not really sure why people think Unsworth had us looking up. His best managerial performance came after his replacement was announced, where days earlier Southampton put 4 past us. 2 days prior to that we conceded 5 at home. I wasn't watching us and thinking potential, it looked like we'd lose every game at that point just prior to West Ham.

Granted I'm not thinking potential now either, but I think it's a bit revisionist to think there was more hope at any point in the season than now. We've got 12 games coming up, 2 of those against top 4 sides at home. Right now is the best run we'll have all season, and being an eternal optimist I really hope behind the scenes the players, staff and Sam are trying to sort their shit and actually finish this season with some modicum of respect for the club, fans and themselves.

Signed for Millwall

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42720046

Quote

 

Great writeup, genuinely excited about this one as he has performed in some big stages prior.

Considering where we were and how we felt in November, finishing 7th and getting Europe for another year would feel good.

I really want us to qualify for Europe so we can go some way towards erasing what happened this season in Europe. Attracting continental players and not being able to offer any European competition at all would be made more difficult as well.

Been making a difference in the last few games (opener V Huddersfield, leading goal V Swansea), hopefully he keeps this up.  

Didn't Kenwright block Sammy Lee from joining when Koeman started?

Surely it's paper talk and just putting together the fact Lee and Allardyce have history.

2 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

1.  Pacos de Ferreira he got them into Europe for the first time ever, tiny club.  Hardly a best team.  

 

2.Plays attractive attacking football (unlike other 2 choices).  

 

3. Isn’t an English old boy

 

4. Better shot of getting talented Portuguese and Brazilians (see Wolverhampton)

 

5. Name is not Sam Allardyce or Martin o Neil 

Shakhtar have had Brazillian's (players) for many years, it isn't the current manager who introduced this.

Ferreira might be a good long term pick next June, but he would really need to pull a number to fix us this season. We can't afford for him to get acquainted with a competitive league and a one sided squad with no confidence.

Sadly Allardyce, for the short term, looks like the best bet of the current 3 touted. What a horror.

1 hour ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

Spend on who though?



 

Walsh is supposed to have some decent French network (resulting in the likes of Essien, Drogba, Kante, Mahrez etc. etc.) so here's hoping. Hopefully he does more than a trip to Milan though like last time.

Would take the players they were banging on about then like Zapata, Murillo and Lamina with both hands right now.

38 minutes ago, hafnia said:

Stones would do fuck all for us. Nice footballer... we need leaders we are totally messed up. 

The bizarre thing is on paper we have leaders. A former England and United captain. Former Ajax captain. Current Wales and Ireland captains. Lol even Cuco is captain for his NT. That's excluding any senior figures who aren't official captains.

Bizarelly all of them, bar Coleman, are in horrible form.

4 hours ago, Shukes said:

why is there a huge rush to get someone in? 

Why do we believe everything we are reading from the press for a change?

At the moment it's like a job interview that won't end for Unsworth, and we aren't exactly like Chelsea when Di Matteo or Hiddink took over temporarily. The club need's a change on field for the better, and that makes it all the more difficult with this will he won't he bullshit distracting everyone.

Just about sums it up

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/evertons-manager-search-totally-confusing-13901537

1 hour ago, nogs said:

Bring the pitchforks. I guarantee whoever we bring in will be getting booed by Xmas. Why? Because the playing squad is relegation material. Give Unsworth a transfer window, Barkley signing a new contract, Mori, Bolasie and Coleman back, he'd keep us up. But he won't, so we move on. 

This January transfer window is probably going to decide if we're playing in the Championship or staying up. Much as I want Unsworth to succeed, this would be his first window in his first season as manager in any league. It's a huge risk, maybe if some results early on went his way but that doesn't look like happening.

Ross will have to pull some stops out to crack that Spurs starting XI.  Hard to believe Ali is 3 years younger than Ross.

Just read a stat, the combined age of Jags, Williams and Bainsey is 100. Most teams would probably have a back 4 with combined ages around that.

To me another CB is more pressing than a LB, 2 performing CB's alongside Baines is the lesser of 2 evils as opposed to a new LB slotted in with the current shambles of switching CB pairings.

5 minutes ago, Vranny said:

Just doing a direct comparison between Calvert-Lewin and Lukaku, DCL actually averages more chances in the box per 90 mins this season than Lukaku did last season (arguably you can throw the lack of service argument for this season out the window with that stat). If he was operating at Lukaku's shot conversion rate from last season he would already have 4 goals this season for instance (57% increase in our team's total goals). 

That's also ignoring the amount of time Sandro and Rooney have played up front and looked shite, so there's been even more lost opportunities to score when compared to what Lukaku would've likely brought to the team this season.

But, no, Lukaku would've made no difference to this team.

This time last season Lukaku had 7 goals / 3 assists in the league. His goal tally then is our team's tally now.

We have been pantsed totally by some teams where it wouldn't have made a difference, but he would have made a difference in our recent closer league games and in Europa I'm sure. Granted there are also many other reasons why we are horrible, but his quality is obvious.

3 hours ago, StevO said:

He didn’t become the player we thought he would, but apart from Wayne who has? 

We could all list loads of players who didn’t reach their potential. 

What Ross has become is a very very good player, and different from anything else we have. He is also good enough for Chelsea to throw that offer in during the summer. 

Chelsea went for Ox first though. Both attempts were strange for them as they have more than enough of that type of player.

Not too long til his expected return date now, so it will be interesting if Ross says anything publicly before then.

3 hours ago, hafnia said:

Look at how Harry Kane is dealing with it.  The press have been trying to sell him to Man United, Real madrid and he bats it away in style. 

It's a bit different, since Kane has been a regular for Spurs they have finished 5th, 3rd and 2nd. Kane has played in Europe in some form for all those years.

Rom was here with us through a 5th and 7th place, and 2 11th place finishes with 1 Europa season in his first year only. If Spurs went to finish 11th this season and next I doubt he would remain there, but you never know.

Koeman seems to have gone the way of everything Dutch in football at the moment, sticking to old ways for too long and failing to maintain pace in all aspects with the competition. I would really like someone like Tuchel in for the long term but Unsworth as caretaker can hopefully give the lads some much needed confidence.

Skillful and looks versatile, he offers something we are lacking hugely in the squad at the moment.

Vlasic in the middle actually looked alright. If it wasn't for Pickford 8 conceded would have been likely.

An absolute mare from the US. From an Australian perspective was hoping either the US made it through or not at all.

On 03/10/2017 at 01:39, markjazzbassist said:

those that want ancelotti obviously don't know much about him.  he is not a tactician, he is not into training.  he is a man manager, gets along well with everyone (ronaldo acted like he lost his father when they let him go) and puts out what he thinks is the best lineup and lets the players play.  

 

that's not what we need.  we need someone to drill the backline, come up with some proper tactics, and develop a style.  Tuchel could work, although he burns out after a few years at every place he goes and he's similar to the martinez/koeman style of all attack not much defense.  shouts for Rafa are farcical at best.  It's a bad time of year to look for a manager.  Unsworth sounds great on paper and is a blue and all that, but i worry the whole campaign could be a bit much for him, he could have the same fate as koeman.  also if he's manager for majority of the season you think he just goes back to the u23 nice and quietly if we hire someone else?  probably would leave to manage elsewhere since he would have the credentials then.

I don't think Ancelotti would come here, but I think your underrating him a bit with his tactical nous. He developed Milan's 4321 that saw them with the CL, he switched Pirlo's position to a deeper role with huge success, and he's done numerous formation and tactical switches over time that have paid off. Some recent comments from Bayern players say one thing, and he would have a different style to Guardiola no doubt, but I'd class him as a tactician over someone like Klopp who, while having developed a great tactic, can't seem to adjust and change it based on his players.

He's had access to many top class players throughout his career though to help, Keane and Williams aren't comparable to Maldini and Nesta.

Regarding Koeman I'm struggling to see how he's going to turn this around, but I don't think the sack will instantly fix the glaring issues with our squad.

Irrelevant as if that was where Barkley truely wanted to be he'd be there now. Fee and personal terms agreed.

Penny must have dropped he's being signed to fill the 25 man CL squad from the bench. Ox saw it coming as well.

From captain to stitching everyone up in the middle of a medical within 12 months is a fair effort.

anyone think we paid too much now? FFS Ox went for 40m.

Thor scored more last season than in the Ox's 6 with Arsenal.

Good player but we have enough good midfielders who lack goal scoring threat.