If Barca was to offer $100 mil. to Chelsea for either Pulisic or Mount anyone seriously think they would take Mount.
I think that the more experienced coaches get, the less they care about gestures that project their authority (especially over a high priced player). Klinsmann may be an exception; he might just have wanted that job too badly, and felt he needed to announce his presence with authority, as Nuke Laloosh once said.
More BS comedy - Pulisic had a good 30 minute spell and the fanboys want to make him King of England. Careful what you wish for. Hero one day, hard tackled the next.
At this point Mensa-Man should start Caballero. Even Willy is better than Kepa, even though he's about to turn 39.
He's top 10, in the EPL, in expected goals and assists provided per 90 minutes. At 21. Imma fanboy that.
What is the goal keeper equivalent to the yips? Ian Baker Finch got them in golf and never recovered. Chuck Knoblauch could't throw the ball 80 feet to 1st base anymore after he got them and had to retire. Hopefully Kepa can recover nothing against the guy personally but he's broken currently. The final cross he didn't claim where all 6 defenders glared at him after was just oof.
I'm glad if we finally got not just a top player, but one who is subdued about celebrations. I still think the Cantona is the best possible celebration ever. Just stand there, lift your arms, no fuss, entirely calm, and let the others come to you to pay their respects as if you were a king.
it is sad actually ... Kepa does not seem at all like a jerk ... but his confidence is absolutely shot.
This seems a little harsh. Klinsmann won the #1 ranking for "Worst Manager" in the Bundesliga this season, as voted by 270 players for Kicker.de. Lampard... is not comparable.
He may be. He mutinied against Sarri when he wanted to replace him in the Cup final against ManCity. At a point when it was known Sarri was on his way out. He pulled that one when he thought the manager was at his weakest with the club. That's a jerk move.
Let's do some myth breaking here (In my opinion of course) Lampard doesn't appreciate Pulisic - This is the easiest busted myth. Lampard favorably compared him to Hazard, and said he's right there with Raheem Sterling in terms of potential. For a wide attacking midfielder, that's pretty much as high of a bar as you can set, with the exception of Mane and Salah Lampard "benched" Pulisic. Literally no evidence of this. A week ago he was praising him like crazy, and Puli didn't have a single poor match. Lampard literally talked about him having slight injury Mount and Pulisic are competing. I will give this one 15% reality. The only time Mount gets in the lineup ahead of Puli is when they go to that bizarro 5-4-1/3-6-1 but most definitely NOT 3-4-3 formation - and the only two times Lamps went to that are obvious times when he wanted to give Pulisic some rest These are, in my opinion, some truths Lampard struggles with his man management. He either doesn't rotate enough, or attempts some crazy formation to deal with weaknesses in his roster. I do believe he overused Pulisic coming out of the break. He might even be aware of his own weakness, and that's one reason why Chelsea are buying so many attackers. With Ziyech, Puli, Werner, Havertz and Mount - he'll have an A team to go with a B team of Willian, CHO, Abraham, Barkley, and Kovacic. Which means he can rotate 10 players for 5 attacking positions Lampard doesn't want to build a team around any one player. This is probably a lesson learned from watching his team post Hazard, and now with Pulisic. Basically, unless Puli's out there creating chaos, his team struggles. The match against a poor Man Utd in the FA Cup is an exception. Really need to emphasize that Lampard is human, and makes mistakes - I don't think his mistakes are born out of not liking his own players, or showing undue favoritism I think he didn't give a crap about Liverpool, and wanted to save Pulisic for finale and the FA Cup final. I think being down 4-1 changed his mind as he didn't want to get even further embarrassed Mount is an excellent central midfield prospect, and is going to be a really good, probably good enough to be an England International
a few other thoughts: 1. FLs #1 problem is defense and keeper .... the entire league knows it. 2. I don't sense that Lampard likes Klopp all that much - of course he is English and we know how much they love Germans ... haha 3. CP was motivated once he got on the pitch .. I don't care how or why but he was flying all over the pitch .... he had a message to deliver. It took all of a few minutes to put his stamp on the game so that both coaches and 21 other players knew it. 4. CP put on the show in front of his sensai (Klopp) ... I wonder if Lampard either did not want that or was worried about it .... 5. The way he is playing right now - if I am Barca or Real I want that kid in my squad in the future ... Frank will not matter at that point - it will be up to Marina and Roman and some other club depending upon the price ... 6. CP has kept his attitude in check and whatever issues (if there are any) he appears to be keeping it to himself.
“Look, nobody is more excited about this kid than I am,” Michael Bradley, then the captain of the U.S. men’s national team, pulled me aside to say in the spring of 2016 after I’d written that Pulisic should challenge for serious minutes during that summer’s Copa America Centenario. “But how many games has he played? Let’s not get carried away just yet.” That's weird.
Not for four years ago - a few weeks after his debut. He did say he's excited about him and I think MB's comment was more about media/ fan hype than anything else. Nothing wrong with the team captain trying to manage expectations for CP's benefit as much as anyone's. I remember it at the time.