Steve_E

Yassine El Ghanassy is a talented player, but an idiot. He's really very skillful and quite quick and strong. Not that good of a crosser though. He's never performed well for his previous club Ghent for an entire season and already he thought he was too big for them and wanted out.
 
Anthony Vanden Borre actually is out of a club. Genk didn't even want to sign him. I wouldn't be too surprised if he was to turn up in Hungary or something like that. Another one who doesn't get he needs to work to be a professional footballer. Incredible talent he was back in the day though, like about as talented as Kompany. They just turned out to have completely different attitudes.
 
Christian Benteke is actually changing my opionion of him. I have long resented him for simply not being able to put the ball in goal for my favourite Belgian team who then offloaded him to Genk. And he's actually turned out to be a good footballer He's got good pace for someone of his lenght, but he's shit at heading the ball. He's got very good technique though. He can play with his back to goal and play one touch passes, laying it off, flicking it on, etc. And he suddenly doens't need five chances one on one with the goalkeeper anymore to score either. He's first choice for the Belgian national team probably and he scored against Heitinga and Matthijsen last weekend. Made them look pretty crappy really.
 
Defour has struggled to claim a regular starting place for Porto. Started 18 games for them in all competitions, played as a sub for another 17. Good holding midfielder for teams like Porto, but I think that'll prove to be his ceiling.
 
Axel Witsel has been sensational for Benfica. He's constantly being linked to Real Madrid in the Portuguese and Spanish press (and to AC Milan and AS Roma in the Italian press), but he's confirmed that he doesn't want to leave after just one season.
 
Check post 223 for the probable reason the went so cheap:
http://www.toffeetalk.com/index.php?/topic/17757-steven-defour-and-axel-witsel/page__st__200#entry248744

I would prefer Gibson and Osman playing in front of the defense, but I won't be calling for Moyes's head if he puts Neville in there with Gibson from time to time. Especially against the top teams, where Nev tends to play at his best imo. I think we'll see plenty of both partnerships.

I think he's saying he supports Belgium and the clubs the Belgians play for e.g Mingolet, Kompany, Dembele, etc...

That's what she said.

Milner isn't a real winger. He's better suited to play in the middle.

Felli should play up front with the players available, especially if Carrick plays as centre back. I hope he'll be bossing him around.

I hope we'll see:

Howard



Hibbert Heitinga Jagielka Baines



Gibson Fellaini



Naismith Osman Pienaar



Jelavic


 
Perhaps we could switch Fellaini and Osman.

My gf agrees.

http://theexecutione...deconstruction/
 
 
Not his fault his team mates don't make assists out of his perfectly fine crossing as much as the season before.

Totally disagree, Baines is playing aswell as he has ever done and now that Piennar is back I flly expect them to pick up where they left off last season
 
Moving Distin over is definitely not great, he can o a job as an emergency LB but that is about it

Greetings to All:
 
Well, it would seem that this deal will actually come through since he made it over there for the medical. We've (Olympiacos fans) been wondering if/when the deal would be sealed or if Everton was used as a ploy to get Arsenal to swoop in and snatch him. I guess that, although a better fit at Arsenal (stylistically) he needs to approach this a step at a time, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, he aint in Kansas anymore. (Yes. Kansas being the Greek League)
 
By the way, I read a few pages back in a posted link his scouting report. ( Toffee Scouting I believe). It's pretty much on the money.
 
I quiet and disenchanted pup he was when he arrived a few years back (on loan) in Pireus. We didn't know what to expect exactly. We could see the quality from the pre-season friendlies but were not sure if it would blossom and fit into the "mold" and overall team "culture" of Olympiacos (to be victorious and play with pride). The kid worked extremely hard, often going to practice 2 hours earlier than anyone else practicing and honing his skills, and then staying an extra hour after practice. On his own - no coaches working on him. Eventually he gained confidence and took the starter's jersey home with him, becoming the fan favorite as he displayed excitement and finesse that the crowd loved to look for and get excited about. We knew he would "move on" to greener pastures eventually (he deserves to) so although we are bothered by it, it didn't come as a surprise.
 
Kevin (who played mostly left wing, then center forward and the least at right wing in a 4-2-3-1. The coach Valverde liked having reverse footed wingers who would cut in and create havoc, as well as swap sides during the game), was better at left wing than at the right. He was also good at CF but the stock of defenders in the EPL is sliiiiightly different than that in the GR League.
 
All in all, my take is, that with players like Kevin (their skillset) the determining factor to make or break it in the EPL is to "steal" the confidence of his opponents before they "steal" his. If he takes on the defenders with confidence and twists them around they will fear him. If he hesitates and they "rock him" a few times he will lose his confidence and be reluctant to push the throttle.
 
Hope this shed some light on the impeding aquisition and best of luck this season.

I still can't see why you're so pessimistic. He created 8 chances, for himself and for team mates, which is clearly above average, against a very good PL side. And the 20 goals in 25 games illustrate that he clearly does have end product, even if they don't show it in those vids. And we're signing him for 6 milion pounds which can't get you 1/2 of Matt Jarvis. I think that's great business.

I hope we'll see:

Howard



Hibbert Heitinga Jagielka Baines



Gibson Fellaini



Naismith Osman Pienaar



Jelavic


 
Perhaps we could switch Fellaini and Osman.

You can say that again!

You must not have seen Austin powers then, cos that's not true as Dr Evil was the son of a drunk, womanizing, self-improving Belgium baker, with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.
 
Look how that turned out?

Well, it's two good seasons in the Greak league, just one great one. Of course he might not make it, but that goes for every player, with every transfer you take a risk. If you want someone who's proven himself in the PL for that money, you're not going to get it. And I think, having seen him play for the national team, that he might turn out to be a better player than a lot of the more expensive, PL proven talent. I'm not saying that he's going to have similar statistics to the ones he had in Greece here, because he isn't going to. But if we can get about 8 goals a season from a 6m winger I think that will have been a very good deal.

You English people always seem to think (or is it really hope?) Newcastle are shit. I remember plenty on here saying the same thing before last season. Reality is that they've got plenty of stand-out players (Krul, Coloccini, Tioté, Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Cissé), a couple of good ones (Ba, Jonas...) and they've further strenghtened their squad without selling anyone. Vurnon Anita for one is a really good holding midfielder. I believe they'll be right up there and we'll have to perform really well to best them.

I found a video of him talking at a conference on YouTube. It may interest some.
 

 
I get the impression that people are trying to take football down the 'Moneyball' route. Man City are releasing a batch of data today to the public and encouraging people to come up with their own equations for how to measure a successful player and build a successful team.

Pulp - Common People

Rodwell has the potential to become a decent enough English international. If he wasn't a young English lad that has come through the Everton academy there's no way any of us on here would have called him a "potential world beater" or someone with the potential to become "one of the best centre mids in the world" based on what he's actually shown on a football pitch for this club. I'm sure we'll cope without him.
 
Baines is 27. He's got at least 6 more years in him. Also, Baines and Pienaar combining on the left are one of the aspects of our game that work incredibly well. I think I've said it before, but if we want a more balanced attack, we should strenghten our righthand side, not weaken our left.

it's because Baines is an integral part of our team and Rodwell isn't.