English Premier League Thread 2015-2016
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Spurs, what the?
2nd place for the Gunners and it feels bad. Wegner will be back but he has to make changes,
LC should commission a statue of Ranieri.
John Terry is a d-bag. Have fun in China.
Almost forget, clean sheet in his swan song, Tim Howard. Bravo!
2nd place for the Gunners and it feels bad. Wegner will be back but he has to make changes,
LC should commission a statue of Ranieri.
John Terry is a d-bag. Have fun in China.
Almost forget, clean sheet in his swan song, Tim Howard. Bravo!
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IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
What a wonderful day today. Bitter to not win the title but love continuing the tradition of finishing above the Spuds.
That being said, we desperately need to add to this team with at least 3 players. Personally, would like to see a change in tactics to make better use of our midfield players as our wingers just don't have enough quality beside Sanchez.
That being said, we desperately need to add to this team with at least 3 players. Personally, would like to see a change in tactics to make better use of our midfield players as our wingers just don't have enough quality beside Sanchez.
Chelsea offered him a contract, I'm guessing he'll come back. Unless it was a terrible deal just so the club wouldn't look bad not offering anything.
The craziest season ever comes to an end. Luckily it's a busy summer with Euros, Copa America, and Olympics. Anyone planning on going to a Copa America game? I really want to go to the semi-final in Chicago if the teams are good. And I might go to the USA game in Chicago too.
wettsten
- Chicago
granit xhaka rumor has a lot of smoke to it.
Do you think some players are hesistant to come to Arsenal because of all the injuries? I'm a firm believer that almost 100% of the time injuries are simply bad luck. But injuries have been so consistent with Arsenal lately it makes you wonder what is going on within the club. They've had injury problems for what, 5 or 6 years now?
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Seriously doubt it plays much of a roll. Xhaka is gaining a lot of steam for sure. There is also a good amount of smoke around Kante but we will see if Wenger goes for both.
I want to see Arsenal switch to a 4-3-1-2 anyway to make use of our best players and the fact that our wingers are either poor or central players moved out wide (Sanchez being the exception who could play either).
This would give Arsenal 4 spots to fit Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Elneny, Coq, and Kante/Xhaka (or both). Right now, we only have 3 spots for those players and it means a lot of loss of our top players playing their best positions. With a 3 man midfield with an attacking mid in front, it would give better protection to our defense, and improve our ability to play counter attack.
This would also give us 2-3 DM in Coq, Kante/Xhaka, 2 box to box midfielders in Elneny and Ramsey (who is the more offensive player and would not have to have as much defensive duties), 1 or 2 deep lying CM (Cazorla and Xhaka), and 2 attacking Mid in Ozil/Wilshere (Ramsey would work here too). You could also use Wilshere as a box to box or CM easily similar to Ramsey.
This would then allow Giroud and Alexis to play up top with Welbeck and Walcott their back ups (we definitely need an improvement up top as Welbeck is injured, Walcott should be sold, and Giroud not reliable enough to carry the whole team for a full season). Personally Ibra would be ideal as he doesn't require a transfer fee, Aubameyang and Higuain would also be absolutely home run buys, but I doubt any happen. I feel like we end up going after Marotta or someone else.
This line up would give much needed cover for the defense and help to limit some of our weaknesses, esp if we can't sign a star CB like we need to. It would also allow players like Ramsey and Wilshere to achieve the level of play that made them some of the best in the league. Finally it would give flexibility as we could still easily switch to a 4-2-3-1 with Ramsey and Alexis shifting out wide, or could seal up our defense we a center 3 of Coq, Cazorla, Xhaka/Kante against bigger teams.
Finally, players like Ox and Iwobi would still easily fit into this line up or be subs to change the formation as needed. Right now, our current set up makes us vulnerable to the counter and our wingers are not quality enough to make up for not utilizing our midfield.
I'm not sure it's as much about tactics as it is about missing quality in key positions. IMO if you want to win the title you must have a strong forward and a strong CDM. Playing without those is like playing without a PG and C, and many people on here are familiar with that.
Look at Leicester this year. Kante was the best CDM in the league and Vardy was one of the best forwards. Chelsea the year before had Costa and Matic.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
I'm not sure it's as much about tactics as it is about missing quality in key positions. IMO if you want to win the title you must have a strong forward and a strong CDM. Playing without those is like playing without a PG and C, and many people on here are familiar with that.
Look at Leicester this year. Kante was the best CDM in the league and Vardy was one of the best forwards. Chelsea the year before had Costa and Matic.
O for sure, we are missing a striker. But when you don't have the players you need to make he tactics work for the team.
wettsten
- Chicago
I'm not sure it's as much about tactics as it is about missing quality in key positions. IMO if you want to win the title you must have a strong forward and a strong CDM. Playing without those is like playing without a PG and C, and many people on here are familiar with that.
Look at Leicester this year. Kante was the best CDM in the league and Vardy was one of the best forwards. Chelsea the year before had Costa and Matic.
agree about the missing quality. coq is a decent cdm that helped to balance the team last season but not quite the quality to win the league. giroud went four months without a league goal. he has shown ability to score goals but lacks the consistency.
looks like we're finally strengthening the CDM by adding xhaka. we also appear to be targeting morata and icardi to help fill in for welbz. i'd also like to see some new youngsters at CB with mertescielny aging and gabriel still adjusting.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
If we keep playing a 4-2-3-1 we need a new winger too. Walcott should be gone (who knows if it will happen tho) and Ox was disappointing. Ramsey/Wilshere aren't true wingers and same goes for Iwobi.
wettsten
- Chicago
i agree that it's time to sell walcott. we won't get a better price than this summer. but i think ox is still young and may yet have some potential.
if gibbs leaves, we'll need some more LB cover too. chambers can potentially play LB/RB as cover but i'd rather he get more time at a permanent position (CB).
jenko! i forgot about carl as bellerin's backup at RB meaning debuchy is free to leave.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Agreed, I like Ox a lot but maybe a loan year would be helpful (potentially same for Chambers). We need a striker and DM the most though, and really a defensive player is key. Either we go for youth and potential or need a solid CB but there just are not many available.
No European football for Klopp next year. Which could be a blessing in disguise because of the extra time off. It'll be interesting to see how he assembles his squad.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Bad result for Liverpool. Thought they were going to win at halftime. Oh, well. Sevilla is good. Hats off to them.
Klopp has done very well managing the Reds. Think they'll be moving up the table.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Biggest issue is recruiting players to play for Pool when there is no European football and Man U, City, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal are all going to be out buying players. I know the same problem applies to Chelsea but they have a whole different level of buying power.
wettsten
- Chicago
Don't forget Leicester!
with the new tv deal, you can include all premier league clubs.
Belgium definitely has enough options at striker. Lukaku, Benteke, Origi, and now Batshuayi.
Who was Kane's backup this season? I can't think of another striker on the team.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
They never bought one, which is why something like this is a must. They had a couple of wingers (Son, Chadli) who could also play up front and a few young guys from the U21 team that played in some of the Europa League matches.
That's what I thought. I'm excited to see what Spurs do with Yedlin this summer. He had a pretty good year with Sunderland. Obviously Walker has the RB spot locked down for awhile so we'll see if they loan him out again or sell him. If he has a strong Copa America then Spurs will probably make a decent profit. I would like to see him play on a team that can attack a little more than Sunderland. I think he could fit in well with a mid table team like Southampton.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
He needs to improve his defense first which is his problem right now.
wettsten
- Chicago
i've heard big sam wants to make his loan move permanent at sunderland. he's also targeting gomis and ayew from swansea but there's no way he'll get both.
transfer season is silly season!