Redcoat Turned Royal - The Conquest of Trent Alexander the Great

After the Modric corner to Sergio Ramos in the 93rd minute of the CL final, Trent’s corner kick to Origi against Barcelona is probably my favourite corner kick.

 

The Drogba equalizer against Bayern in the CL final was insane drama and technique, and the Diarra header in the Mallorca comeback in 07 are both close, but because it was a hilarious 4-0 comeback win against Barca I think I agree with you.

 

As far as corners are concerned IMHO will make little to no difference if we have no one in the box with the skill to take advantage of the corners, no matter who takes them, we currently have no one on the level of Cristiano or Sergio,... not even Gareth i'd say, in terms of making them count often enough, no matter who took em, Cristiano or Sergio could get to them, it was an art, a skill getting away from and above defenders,James, Luka, Toni, Angel anyone

Unless the taker is putting the ball too long or too short or in the stands, as long as they are putting it in the box i think a very high percentage of converting corners relies on the player in the box getting to them properly, moreso than who's taking them, but i've always thought that, maybe there's some stat out there that disproves that

 

Huijsen has scored quite a few headers already plus flick on assists. Rudiger and Tcho are decent threats. Carva is short but had fantastic strategy in the CL final. Kroos delivered it twice and Carva converted one.

TAA and Huijsen will improve our set-piece scoring. Arda another good set-piece taker assisted Tcho's header in CDR Clasico. But Arda wasn't a starter so wasn't mostly available to take set-piece.

 

Don't forget Mastantuono too. I will be here to remind people of Mastantuono's existence every step of the way.

Im sure theyre saying theyre made because he lied, but the truth is theyre mad because they didn't get any money for a player they created (and who was worth a lot). Interesting though how you forgave Mbappe so easily who did ten times worse, but feel compelled to constantly balance "biased" Madrid fans. Youre just cherrypicking arguments and positions at this point honestly.

 

I really wouldn't. If youre a free agent, it is obvious you are considering your options. I wouldn't look too much into it.

Again, its only my theory that they are pissed because of losing him on a free rather than him saying he would stay. Most Liverpool fans who are my friends thought Bradley will replace him soon in the starting lineup even before the contract situation happened.

 

Yeah, same here.

Also regarding the point of "as long as he performs (...) taking pleasure in his misery": that's a bit strange. People know the strengths and weaknesses of TAA. If he consistently f*cks up defensively and we consistently concede and lose points due to that, he'll be torched like any other player and for good reason. But he won't be torched because he "screwed his club over to join us", that's nonsense of the highest order.

 

People can dislike a certain player (for a variety of reasons), while - at the same time - acknowledging his immense talent and potential ability to transform our forward line? I see no reason as to why that can't co-exist.

 

Do you seriously think Trent would not have signed the final deal he was supposedly offered, if they’d offered it two years before his contract expired?

Liverpool showed him (and Salah and VVD) their priorities when they failed to enter into meaningful negotiations when they were supposed to, and Trent made his choice.

It’s way more similar to the Kroos situation than the Ballack one.

“You’re not a priority, but here, have this contract that’s less than what you can get elsewhere. Oh, by the way, make sure you don’t leave on a free, make sure we get a nice chunk of money when you do eventually leave”.

 

Probably laid the foundations when they weren’t serious about an offer two years ago. Which is quite right and proper.

What he says about it now is irrelevant. It’s like when Ancelotti used to go out and say everything is great with no signings, or that all the players are fantastic. Everyone knows what really happened.

They didn’t think he was a top priority, they preferred to sort the ownership and managerial positions as a way bigger priority and thought he would wait.

I bet you if he’d had a serious injury in the year that they made him wait, they would have lowballed him on the wages offer. And they kept him on the same lower salary whilst he waited. So basically they told him wait, but you take the risks of the wait and we’ll reap the rewards.

No wonder he left.

 

Mbappe played one side against the other for years just to get a better financial deal or a better career timeline or whatever the hell his mother's 4D chess bullshit was. He broke his word to Florentino, and misled Nasser, essentially he is a traitor to both us and PSG. Hes the ultimate mercenary and gloryhunter, Trent isnt even in the same league

 

How do you know he wanted to leave 2 years ago?

Laying a foundation for the eventual future (2023 for 2025) to have good options for the future is not the same as acting on it immediately (in 2023).

 

misunderstood.

 

The fact that he is this fluent in Spanish tells me alot of time and consideration went into his decision and he's fully invested. I feel 100% better about the transfer already.

I was afraid that he was simply an opportunist and mercenary who jumped at the chance to join a CL contender, get a huge signing bonus and not have any competition for a starting place beginning on day one.

I'm not sure this transfer can really be framed as the player taking a risk. Of course winding down your contract is always a risk, but coming to a Real Madrid team with Vini, Jude and Mbappe and your only competition for minutes is a 33 year old RB returnig from a busted ACL.

Sure it's a risk in theory but this particular situation has played out in reality to be as perfect as could get for TAA.

Trents a guy who has already grown on me. He's got my support but while I think he really wants to be here, he still has to perform and while I like the fact he took the initiative to learn spanish and think that will translate to other things (on the field/in practice) and still have my reservations that his first and final touch will look not look as clean and polished on a sunny day in Sevilla as they did on a rainy night in Stoke City.

See I just never got to the point where I thought Mbappe was going to "transform" our forward line, at least not for the better. Apart from the rollercoaster ride and merry-go-round he had put the club on for several years it had become obvious that his signing was a bit redundant with Vini's 2024 form and the emergence of Jude.

Haaland is a guy who I would argue would have "transformed" the front line if he was flanked by speedy wingers like Vini, Rodrygo and Brahim and had a someone like Jude playing underneath, cleaning up with those late back post runs.

 

It's a totally mitigated risk. He could get injured and not move to Madrid, but that's completely independent of his decision to renew or not. There was only way he could take control of the situation and his move to Madrid and that was playing out the contract.

It's a mitigated risk when you are playing with millions, gambling for more but in the worst case scenario you still have millions.

Not the same world of risk taking as for a player like Raul Asensio who doesn't have anything to fall back on if he decides to run down his contract and hopes there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 

Lol are mitigated risks not still risks?