Madrid and Barca sold by choice, not dictated by financial needs. Ronaldo's bests years are probably behind him. Barca got Messi, and the stupid money PSG threw at them is unheard of.
Nyari still runs that account, I think. He’s got a real anti-Pulisic tilt. Not sure why, other than he thinks it’s somehow unjust that Pulisic gets hyped up by the BL and American media. Seems pretty obvious why that happens, and it is weird that he consistently feels compelled to respond.
Liverpool does not sell based on “financial needs” either, their last 3 mega sales had nothing to do with money whatsoever. Neymar wanted out of Barca, they didn’t want to let him go but there was a way (in his case within his contract) to force it to happen. Same exact thing happened with players like Coutinho, Suarez, & Sterling. Now... you can say PSG paid a crazy sum, and that’s true! But losing Neymar even for 225M hurts Barca more than losing Coutinho for 130M hurts Liverpool.
By tradition, and in football tradition matters, Liverpool and United are the two big clubs in England. All others live in their shadow. Chelsea and ManCity are new money, Chelsea has won the Champions only once, Arsenal not even that.
Starts: 👇 Unsere Aufstellung gegen @OfficialSSLazio! #BVBLAZIO pic.twitter.com/Ob3pwXtWYP— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) August 12, 2018
??? Does it make more sense to try to sign him in a few years time and find out an asking price you donot want to pay? It is called anticipation to identify young players with the possibility to be a star in your team in a few years time. It's different from the MO of epl clubs hoovering up anything remotely talented just for selling later on, but never ment for the first team.
Striker is where they need an immediate need, not 2-3 years from now. I can understand bringing in an 18yr kid if they still have Auba around.
Running a club isnot about reactive actions, but acting on the present need and the future as well. So it's not either this or that. It's both. So if he's not ment to be the striker now and the management considers that position a failing/shortcoming in the team at the moment they will be looking for one. If they succeed is another story in current prices realm.
They still haven't addressed their immediate need at cf. So they'll deserve a flack if they just lean on green prospects and hope for one to emerge. They can try it for the first couple weeks and see what shakes out. Germany does give them that luxury with the later transfer window, unlike they'd get in England. Just another way other leagues have a development advantage.
it also does not mean that he is the only striker they may be looking at signing. He may be a "plan C" to Isak and whomever else they may be thinking of bringing in. They may have simply got a very good deal (to good to pass up) on him and decided that it would work incorporating him in for the upcoming years regardless of who they want to have starting this season. Clubs need to think long-term while simultaneously thinking "now". I can't say that is what is happening but if does fall into BVB behavior of signing young players with potential.
Dribbling was very good, but he did his thing of going down blind alleys a couple times. Had a nice move and shot from inside box saved at near post. He was directly involved, through a nice dribble and 1-2 that beat a couple defenders, in the build up to the first (deflected) goal. His passing and vision hasn’t been amazing — missed a WIIIIIDE open teammate on the far post during his first counter, after a brilliant move to evade defenders and then take the ball into space. I’m in 78th minute and he’s been pretty good overall, that’s my assessment. He needs to have more awareness... he’s great at making dangerous runs when everything is in front of him, but when he tries to play that playmaker oriented “David Silva” position, it seems like he doesn’t know where to be. When he’s running and countering as a purer winger, he looks great, even if the final ball needs to be better. When he’s against a packed defense, acting as a floating CAM looking to get involved, he is too easily ignored because of his positioning. Lazio should have scored at least one by now.
He lost the ball a couple times on the dribble 3 times that I can recall but I thought he was the second best player on the pitch behind Savic. His combination play and play in tight spaces was spectacular. The play referenced above would have taken a brilliant looping ball as soon as he picked up his head, when he didn’t pull the trigger initially he shouldn’t have tried it, as the window had closed. He tracked back and pressed and closed well. My two cents, 7 out of 10.
A simple lofted ball to the backpost would have sufficed because as soon as he was in some space it was a 3 on 2 break. That’s why I mentioned his awareness, he simply took too long to see the play. And, even though a defender did recover, he still hit it right to a defender along the ground instead of giving anything a chance over the top. It’s not a big deal, it’s one pass. I’m just saying, you can look at it as a microcosm of his (brief) inability to access that next level so far — that play has to be quickly seen and that ball has to be played earlier, that’s the difference between someone with really good vision/passing and someone without it. I saw the same exact thing today with my club, the fullbacks were like before/after examples of someone that was still developing their crossing skill. And I do agree he was good on the day overall.