Agree that his mobility (age) is an issue and we need to flip him and move on with someone a lot younger. Despite this our recent semi-resurgence is down to him (and Mainoo) as our other DM options are sh1t - including Amrabat it seems given his lack of selection. There is also one element that is exposing his mobility even more and is a big issue for whoever is playing the #6 - the space between our back-line of 4 and our midfield line of 4 in the 4-1-4-1 shape we are playing in is fricking huge. Big part of this is Maguire and Varane (& Evans). Maguire especially drops off horribly because of his pace issues and that just effs our whole pressing shape which is meant to be high and compact. A mobile/quick #6 and mobile/quick CB(s) are essential first buys next window if we want to be a proper high-pressing team.
Some features that are supposed to help us control that big space, our inverted FB's, our high line and our compact shape in general. We get stretched often for various reasons. The forwards not putting pressure on ball carrier, the defensive line dropping too deep [mostly when Maguires in] and Bruno not really being where he needs to be when we transition. m
Agree - there are actually a lot of issues. Saw a statmandave vid the other day that basically said despite our recent relative success our pressing is still pretty sh1te. Got a long way to go and think some player personnel changes (such as Cas, Mag etc.) will be needed to get us there.
i'd hardly even call this a resurgence. we're just getting away with mediocre to had play again with good results like the start of the season purely because our attackers have found some form. i am not done with Casemiro yet. i'll give him a run of games to find form
To be fair I actually said "semi-resurgence" and "relative success" - ie compared to our sh1t start to the season (mostly with Cas and Mainoo absent).
well i don't mean you only or specifically. it's been described as that in the media too or "turned a corner" or "top 4 charge" it is tangibly better than playing poorly and losing but still not sustainable or repeatable (i know i know). still waiting on that from ten Hag and the team to believe we can build on something. as it stands, the best reason offered for ten Hag to stay to date is basically "we can't keep firing managers". the fans and Ratcliffe are going to need more than that
I don't think Casemiro is going to find any form unfortunately. I mentioned it a lot in pre-season and early in the season that he looked WAY off the pace. I hoped it would just be a slow start which he's kind of known for, but it never bounced back. I don't think he's been better than a 7/10 in any game this season and he's had a handful of games at 5/10 or worse. He still reads the game brilliantly and is decent enough on the ball, but he physically can't cover the ground needed. He still has enough start value to flip him to Saudi and he'd probably been down for it. We need to push that hard this summer. One more season of being a liability at times will tank his value. Side note, what's even more pathetic is that our midfield looks 1000x more competent with him in the side despite him not playing well. That's how bad our midfield is when McT is in it.
I don't know - I still think he also adds a ton of value working alongside Mainoo for his continued development.
If a club came in and offered £40 - £50mil for him, would you turn it down? What about less than £30mil?
He has to be sold this summer for a few different reasons, not only because the game is starting to pass him. If it doesn't happen this summer, he'll never get sold.
Well they're obviously trying to appeal to their younger demographic of citizens with their internal sport washing, but that's really struggling to work. Qatar had to pay the likes of Beckham and Zidane millions over years to promote their white washing World cup, Saudi have gone about it a different way. They got their world cup, and then suddenly had a super quiet transfer window rather than proceeding with it. I just don't think we'll see quite the OTT window they had with Neves and co again
it's all well and good to say sell Casemiro. but unless you actually have a viable, realistic, attainable alternative what good is it
It's one thing we've done very poorly for years now, we don't plan ahead to be able to phase out/sell players. It's something City do well, they have the replacement and normally embedded before they phase out the prior player.
This is a weird take imo. Especially with how much money they’ve already spent on both soccer and golf. They’ve also greatly improved their tourism over the past decade +. And for some reason white people think these countries are a lot more worried about sportswashing, when I don’t think they give a ******** or have a reason to give a ********. I think there are much different aims.
Golf, Boxing and WWE make sense though, as the people that would watch them in London or Vegas, will probably watch them in Saudi, for Tourism they make sense, Football doesn't travel so well. I don't think they'll stop ala China. I just don't think they'll be a dumping ground for big name oldies so easily again.
And it makes sense to you that they spent all that money to get a one off WC? When all their other investments are long term. And in your mind, this is all done for the sake of sports washing?
If a great offer came in yeah, take it, but I still think he has something to offer and wouldn't sell him on the cheap just to move him
No, definitely not all for sports washing. As you said, they do want to be a tourist destination. They're also trying to appeal to a younger demographic within their own country to maintain their control, I don't think the WC is sports washing as much as you said of "location creation" to try to ensure they can be seen on the same stage as Qatar and Dubai. It's a mix of things, and I'll happily be proven wrong if they do keep on spending
If we can't unload him, sign Amrabat and make Case a defender. I always thought he is on of those guys like a Matheus or Dooley who could have a new life as a defender.
I don’t know if our loan for Amrabat has an option or obligation to buy. If it’s the former, I doubt we activate it. ETH doesn’t seem to rate him. As for Cas, I disagree about moving him to CB. I hate buying players and then playing them out of position. It’s something we used to do all the time and it drove me crazy. My problem with Cas at CB is the same as with him in midfield, he doesn’t have the legs or pace for it. For the modern CB it’s becoming increasingly important to have recovery pace. We clearly want to play a high line and if we use slow CBs that’s asking for trouble.
See Madrid were happy to buy our oldies, Becks, Ruud etc, now they're getting us back. The only thing that pisses me off more, watching him not run, is Rashford.