Out With The Old & In With 7he New - Transfers, Rumors, & Lies Thread

James is a CM now, especially in European football where 10s are rarely used and he is slow to be a winger.

He was Bayern's best player last season as a CM. I like him there over Kroos for example who is wonderful but lacks effort sometimes. He also is much more vertical in his passing. Has a good number of assists for a player playing deep.

I know people think I overrate him. Nah, he is a tremendous talent. Problem is that he is injury prone and has a diva attitude; therefore, I dont think he will ever become the footballer he had the talent to be and will often find himself in limbos

 

Well, James would have been happy here if he got to play in big games as CM like Kovacic did last year. Threw a hissy fit after all that and now tanking his value at Chelsea. I'd sell Kova, Isco and get Eriksen though. James future depends on him and Bayern.

 

It really depends on who we're banking on to lead us. You build the team around that person. For example, a team for Bale:

For me that would be a: Vinicius - Benzema - Bale frontline and a midfield of Kroos - Llorente - James. Players that are quick to make vertical passes, fast transitions and lead counters from the back... ideal for creating 1 v 1 situations for him.

Bring Hazard and we would have to change our frontline. You'd need a finisher and a true RW similar to what he had in that Lille winning side. Midfield would stay the same with Kroos, Casemiro and Modric.

 

Playing a midfield of Kroos with James would be a disaster. Any team would use physicality and speed to wreck us.

 

They play Thiago and James and that has been their best midfield combination..but I agree. James would play for Kroos. Not Modric

 

Yeah Thiago and James won't work against top teams.

As you stated James would replace Kroos in midfield not Modric. My preference however would be Ceballos. Then buy Eriksen to share time with Modric.

 

It does actually.. they played Thiago, James, Javi and Thiago, James, Tolisso in the two legs against us in CL.

I would also not replace Modric just yet but Kroos for sure . With Casemiro as DM that midfield should work .

 

Not really a good example. They were dominating going forward but we cut through their midfield like cheese.

 

Why are we even discussing a midfield player ? We got the best DM in the world and the best CM plus a pile of youngsters of whom some can become worldclass.

But Hazard for max 80 mil , invest in a young attacker , play VJ and Rodrygo. Invest in a replacement CB for the future . Own shit .

 

He has done that many times and can do it again.

 

I'd rather bring James back than pay for Hazard. Especially with Vinicius' resurgence

 

James is no winger. We need wingers .

 

Another option is Casemiro, Llorente, Ceballos. While upfront Vin, Benzema and magic man Hazard.

 

Agree.

Casemiro is in the best years, Kroos too.
Luka is getting older but this season is not a rule, it is an exception.
He had crazy WC, (3x in a row with 120 mins) + all the problems team had (CR leaving, bad team form etc)
I am sure he has at least 2 more seasons (19/20 and 20/21) on WC level.
We would need to decrease some of his minutes but he can do it when we need him most.
Lorente is a great backup for Casemiro/Kroos and Ceballos for Kroos and in certain situations Modric (although I do not see him constantly playing there).
Replacement of Modric, one WC start player, will be needed but I would say in summer next year.
I am not sure is it needed earlier but will accept a player like Eriksen with both of my hands.

 

Not what I recall . They won possession 60% to 40% in both games and also had more shots than us. The difference for us was being more effective up front, their keeper gifting us a goal and Rafihna giving the ball away to Asensio which lead to a deadly counter. We also had more quality in defense with Marcelo who scored a golazo..
I’ll say that is far from what I consider cutting through cheese.

 

They were good in possession. We weren't sharp in defence and gave lots of chances. Ribery toyed with right back Vazquez for fun. But when they lost the ball we came forward very easily. They couldn't defend us properly. We didn't produce much because we were awful not because they were great in transition from the attack to defence. Their midfield looked soft.

 

How could their midfield be soft when they held possession the way they did?
In the home game they were all over us and Keylor became Savior Navas once again. They created more chances but could not convert.
If we didnt produce much and we were awful how does make out midfied better than theirs?
You have some contradictions there..
If they didnt make those awful mistakes the story could be very different now..
At the end of the day there is no team as mentally strong as our guys in these tough matches.. and that makes a big difference.
If you have quality players all around but you also have players that crap in their pants in these tough matches making silly mistakes like that, you dont deserve to win a big trophy like the Champions League..

 

We had 40% possession against Celta and 25% against Betis, I’ wouldn’t say either of those teams have world class midfields. Bayern had that much possession because we allowed them to and played on the break, if Zidane instructed us to press high it would be a different story.

 

We played pretty bad against Betis.. We make up the difference because we have more quality..

Maybe.. but we did not get to see that so we can only speculate what the outcome would have been.. Also Zidane altering the strategy and playing on the counter means he was not comfortable going full attack against Bayern..

 

Their midfield being soft led to us going forward too easily.

Agreed.

I didn't claim this. I claimed their midfield was soft. They didn't defend us properly. It was an all open match due to both teams' midfields being awful in defence. Their wingers produced the better chances but the whole team weren't clinical enough.

Definitely. And we missed chances in Bernabeu too. Ronaldo missed a sitter. We had some good link up plays that didn't lead to a goal because of a not accurate final pass. Asensio chance in the second half and Marcelo's in the first. The team went through their midfield very easily but we didn't do good enough in the final third.

Totally agreed.

 

Casemiro would make a huge difference - to me he is the best DM in the world. Which is why I said..any two player combination of Thiago, James, Kroos and Modric with Casemiro would be solid. Kroos and James provide about the same workrate defensively but James is so much better going forward.
Eventually Modric, if James is in the team, would make way for Ceballos or Llorente but you no longer lose that playmaking ability in midfield.