M. Gutierrez girona (assuming Davies is going elsewhere). I actually think he would suit the system well. Has played as an inverted fullback, very good in possession and solid all round game + decent exposure for 22
If we have to sell chalobah I'd go tosin.
So keepers: Martinez, petrovic, Marcus bettinelli
Lb: Gutierrez, cucurella (as much as I like chilwell, the injury issues + might be less suitable for system I've said sell)
CB: colwill, fofana, tosin, bads, diasi (with the plan that one of Alfie or Bashir come in season after if one excels on loan and if one of bads or diasi doesn't)
Chilwell made only 13 Premier league appearances this season; 23 the previous campaign; 7 in season 21/22. Totally unreliable and earning over £10m a year
How can someone who is technically poor, tactically naive, dives into tackles, positionally abject and cannot defend one on one going to be any use whatsoever?
If anyone is stupid enough to want to take him off our hands we should count our lucky stars.
I'm not saying he's a world-class full back, and your point about him diving into tackles is very valid as he does has a tendency to be reckless at times, but I don't think he's quite as bad technically as you make him out to be. Our midfield has become significantly more solid since he's been used as an inverted full back and I can see that role continuing for him under Maresca with a more possession based system that will cover his deficiencies a bit more than under Poch, and I can see him rotating a lot with Colwill. He'll try to avoid putting him deep in 1v1 battles against wingers where he seems to struggle most.
On the other hand, I don't think anyone can say with confidence that Chilwell would work well as an inverted full back, he just doesn't have that press resistance or ability on the ball, under pressure to play that role in midfield, his strength lies in receiving the ball on the break in behind the defender and running down the channel for crosses or cut backs, which is the space where Maresca prefers his left winger to be, i.e. Sterling or Mudryk. So I can perfectly understand how people would prefer to keep Cucurella if one of them is going to be let go.
I could not disagree more. Firstly we're a small team, so there's no way we're going to be playing Cucurella there (Chilwell is also short but significantly better in the air). It all points to Colwill being asked to play left back again.
However, it's the RB that apparently comes infield under his system, and that suits us way more because James can absolutely do this.
As for Cucurella, putting a bang average LB (who can't defend) in a system that hides this is no reason to persist with him. His rashness routinely costs us (remember Real Madrid in the Bernabeu?) and he is guaranteed to get caught out of position repeatedly, not to mention his technical defending is atrocious (always flat footed).
If we're playing possession football then neither Sterling or Mudryk should be anywhere near the team.
The brutal truth is that there will be teams who will buy Chilwell (City were sniffing around previously), whereas no one unfortunately will be stupid enough to take Cucurella off our hands.
Height will not matter as much as under Poch seeing as how we're going to be aiming for more possession, we'll be playing it short most of the time and not playing long vertical passes as much where we can be beaten more often, Colwill at LB would be perfectly fine in this system as he will be not have him marauding down the wing like Poch did. My only concern would be from set-pieces but with Cueva coming in I hope we'll improve we'll improve a lot in this regard, remember Azpi is 5'10 and was never bad at defending them himself.
Maresca only inverted the RB at Leicester because Ricardo Pereira was much better in that midfield area than Wout Faes, I think he could easily switch it around and invert our LB instead.
James would be perfectly fine in midfield however if he isn't overlapping we lose a lot of his brilliant crossing ability as well as the fact he'd be pushing out Palmer who we need to have in the right half-space/central area to utilise his creativity and goal threat, pushing Palmer out wide would reduce him significantly and he doesn't have the burst of pace to beat players out wide like Madueke either.
Sterling shouldn't be near a team playing possession football? His best years and most G/A came under Pep in the most archetypal possession-based system out there, this would be his best opportunity to show he still has the capability to start for this team and isn't just washed up. As for Mudryk, with a bit more instruction, as he had under Potter if you watch a few highlights back, he could really do well under Maresca, Poch gave him free wide role and he looked lost most of the time which made him look a lot worse than he really is.
I don't agree that Cucurella simply "can't defend", I think if you put him 1v1 or out wide then sure he looks very helpless at times and the huge amount of space he's been asked to cover leads him to get beaten more often ergo more rash decisions, if you organise him well in a midfield structure where more than one player will be involved in the press, he'll be fine. In my view he's looked much better in the last 5 games and this should only continue with better structure and organisation. The whole point of using a system in football is to amplify your players' strengths while minimising their weaknesses, so if we can do that for Cucurella then he can be much more of an asset than a liability.
As for defenders, ask a Fulham fan about Tosin. They are staying still and very quiet hoping we or Newcastle take him off their hands. But really we don't need any centre backs. Four is plenty, with fifth in case Fofana isn't fit: Trev, Wes and Axel; BB and Levi. Plenty good enough. We just need a LB instead of Cucurella (who is poor defensively and like a dog after a balloon in possession). No idea who though. Depends on what EnzoM want them for. Maybe save a few bob and just bring Maatsen back.
Couldn’t agree more on Maatsen - a ready-made replacement, at ZERO cost to CFC. New manager, clean slate, give him an opportunity. He’s clearly good enough, and an improvement on The Poodle - your description of him is EXACTLY how I see Cucu. Not to mention Chilwell, who I like but is rarely available - you could be a World-beater, but it’s rendered useless if you’re hardly ever fit to play. Maatsen just makes too much sense to ignore! 🤷♂️
We already have sooooo many keepers in our books we simply cannot justify buying another one. Surely one of Kepa (yeah, I know), Petro, Sanchez, Bettinell, Bergstrom, Slonina, Beach, Curd, Cumming, Sharman-Lowe or Crampton can play Diet Pep football. It's eleven keepers. Eleven. A team of keepers. No more.
GK... get one of Lafont, Bulka, Bento. We need a top shot stopper who is competent enough with the ball at his feet. No need to go crazy over a ball playing keeper if he is not a good shot stopper. Will hurt us now and in the long run.
LB - Get on of Robinson, Theo, Davis or Kerkez. All this inverted FB thing should not determine who we go for as the LB. Get a well rounded profile. And for the love of God ... sell Cucurella. Stop getting fooled by how good he looks in the inverted LB role. He is the worst LB that we signed in the last 20 years. There are so many holes in his game. Basically he is the Kepa of left backs for us.
None of our centre backs are that good with their feet or at heading. I’d like a ball playing and passing centre back.\
How about Ousmane Diomandevor Giorgio Scalvoni but maybe Antonio Silva would be first choice
Happy to keep cucu. Just don’t think chiller’s coming back for more than the odd game. And even if he were I like cucu.
We need some height at the back so I'd definitely buy a centre back
Emi Martinez
M. Gutierrez girona (assuming Davies is going elsewhere). I actually think he would suit the system well. Has played as an inverted fullback, very good in possession and solid all round game + decent exposure for 22
If we have to sell chalobah I'd go tosin.
So keepers: Martinez, petrovic, Marcus bettinelli
Lb: Gutierrez, cucurella (as much as I like chilwell, the injury issues + might be less suitable for system I've said sell)
CB: colwill, fofana, tosin, bads, diasi (with the plan that one of Alfie or Bashir come in season after if one excels on loan and if one of bads or diasi doesn't)
RB: James and gusto
Beto and the Bournemouth Left back
I am astonished that more people want to keep Cucurella than Chilwell. Utterly incredible.
Chilwell made only 13 Premier league appearances this season; 23 the previous campaign; 7 in season 21/22. Totally unreliable and earning over £10m a year
Because Cucurella would play much better under Maresca than Chilwell, he's been woeful recently and is only somewhat decent on the overlap.
How can someone who is technically poor, tactically naive, dives into tackles, positionally abject and cannot defend one on one going to be any use whatsoever?
If anyone is stupid enough to want to take him off our hands we should count our lucky stars.
I'm not saying he's a world-class full back, and your point about him diving into tackles is very valid as he does has a tendency to be reckless at times, but I don't think he's quite as bad technically as you make him out to be. Our midfield has become significantly more solid since he's been used as an inverted full back and I can see that role continuing for him under Maresca with a more possession based system that will cover his deficiencies a bit more than under Poch, and I can see him rotating a lot with Colwill. He'll try to avoid putting him deep in 1v1 battles against wingers where he seems to struggle most.
On the other hand, I don't think anyone can say with confidence that Chilwell would work well as an inverted full back, he just doesn't have that press resistance or ability on the ball, under pressure to play that role in midfield, his strength lies in receiving the ball on the break in behind the defender and running down the channel for crosses or cut backs, which is the space where Maresca prefers his left winger to be, i.e. Sterling or Mudryk. So I can perfectly understand how people would prefer to keep Cucurella if one of them is going to be let go.
I could not disagree more. Firstly we're a small team, so there's no way we're going to be playing Cucurella there (Chilwell is also short but significantly better in the air). It all points to Colwill being asked to play left back again.
However, it's the RB that apparently comes infield under his system, and that suits us way more because James can absolutely do this.
As for Cucurella, putting a bang average LB (who can't defend) in a system that hides this is no reason to persist with him. His rashness routinely costs us (remember Real Madrid in the Bernabeu?) and he is guaranteed to get caught out of position repeatedly, not to mention his technical defending is atrocious (always flat footed).
If we're playing possession football then neither Sterling or Mudryk should be anywhere near the team.
The brutal truth is that there will be teams who will buy Chilwell (City were sniffing around previously), whereas no one unfortunately will be stupid enough to take Cucurella off our hands.
Height will not matter as much as under Poch seeing as how we're going to be aiming for more possession, we'll be playing it short most of the time and not playing long vertical passes as much where we can be beaten more often, Colwill at LB would be perfectly fine in this system as he will be not have him marauding down the wing like Poch did. My only concern would be from set-pieces but with Cueva coming in I hope we'll improve we'll improve a lot in this regard, remember Azpi is 5'10 and was never bad at defending them himself.
Maresca only inverted the RB at Leicester because Ricardo Pereira was much better in that midfield area than Wout Faes, I think he could easily switch it around and invert our LB instead.
James would be perfectly fine in midfield however if he isn't overlapping we lose a lot of his brilliant crossing ability as well as the fact he'd be pushing out Palmer who we need to have in the right half-space/central area to utilise his creativity and goal threat, pushing Palmer out wide would reduce him significantly and he doesn't have the burst of pace to beat players out wide like Madueke either.
Sterling shouldn't be near a team playing possession football? His best years and most G/A came under Pep in the most archetypal possession-based system out there, this would be his best opportunity to show he still has the capability to start for this team and isn't just washed up. As for Mudryk, with a bit more instruction, as he had under Potter if you watch a few highlights back, he could really do well under Maresca, Poch gave him free wide role and he looked lost most of the time which made him look a lot worse than he really is.
I don't agree that Cucurella simply "can't defend", I think if you put him 1v1 or out wide then sure he looks very helpless at times and the huge amount of space he's been asked to cover leads him to get beaten more often ergo more rash decisions, if you organise him well in a midfield structure where more than one player will be involved in the press, he'll be fine. In my view he's looked much better in the last 5 games and this should only continue with better structure and organisation. The whole point of using a system in football is to amplify your players' strengths while minimising their weaknesses, so if we can do that for Cucurella then he can be much more of an asset than a liability.
Goalkeeper-someone that 100% meets the criteria of the new manager who has very exact needs from the goalkeeper? Nick.Pope
Pope incredible GK very poor with his feet in my opinion
Thanks, that’s why I had the question Mark as I wasn’t sure. How is Trafford at Burnley with his feet?
Excellent with his feet, his overall game needs some work
Gk - ederson, unrealistic i know but let me dream
Lb- use the scouting department to find another jackson/gusto type player.(keep cucu)
As for defenders, ask a Fulham fan about Tosin. They are staying still and very quiet hoping we or Newcastle take him off their hands. But really we don't need any centre backs. Four is plenty, with fifth in case Fofana isn't fit: Trev, Wes and Axel; BB and Levi. Plenty good enough. We just need a LB instead of Cucurella (who is poor defensively and like a dog after a balloon in possession). No idea who though. Depends on what EnzoM want them for. Maybe save a few bob and just bring Maatsen back.
Couldn’t agree more on Maatsen - a ready-made replacement, at ZERO cost to CFC. New manager, clean slate, give him an opportunity. He’s clearly good enough, and an improvement on The Poodle - your description of him is EXACTLY how I see Cucu. Not to mention Chilwell, who I like but is rarely available - you could be a World-beater, but it’s rendered useless if you’re hardly ever fit to play. Maatsen just makes too much sense to ignore! 🤷♂️
We already have sooooo many keepers in our books we simply cannot justify buying another one. Surely one of Kepa (yeah, I know), Petro, Sanchez, Bettinell, Bergstrom, Slonina, Beach, Curd, Cumming, Sharman-Lowe or Crampton can play Diet Pep football. It's eleven keepers. Eleven. A team of keepers. No more.
GK... get one of Lafont, Bulka, Bento. We need a top shot stopper who is competent enough with the ball at his feet. No need to go crazy over a ball playing keeper if he is not a good shot stopper. Will hurt us now and in the long run.
LB - Get on of Robinson, Theo, Davis or Kerkez. All this inverted FB thing should not determine who we go for as the LB. Get a well rounded profile. And for the love of God ... sell Cucurella. Stop getting fooled by how good he looks in the inverted LB role. He is the worst LB that we signed in the last 20 years. There are so many holes in his game. Basically he is the Kepa of left backs for us.
Precisely. It seems some people ignore the glaring deficiencies because he runs around like a lunatic.
He's so bad.
Suggestions, based purely on my extensive knowledge of FM, rather than being a connoiseur of all things Series A and Scouse football ...
GK: Mamadashvilli
DEF: Brainthwaite
Goalkeeper: Diogo Costa
CB: De Ligt (unrealistic) --> Tosin Adarabioyo
LB: Miguel Gutierrez
Exactly this - and even during that period he was abject defensively.