That pretty much sums it up. Additional context; Malik was brought in by ten Hag to be the central offense and defense hub of a Dutch-style 4-2-3-1 system. The new manager plays a more wing focused 3-4-2-1 system where he has publicly said that he wants Tillman to play like a 2nd Striker. Learning curve and injuries. Malik is still not 100% after the two brutal tackles 6 weeks or so ago and niggles from the US camp.
Middlesbrough are absolutely getting dragged into it right now. I would want nothing.........absolutely nothing.......to do with Southampton right now. They are cracking skulls right now and automatic promotion for them is amazingly not out of the realm of possibility. In fact from a Yank/middlesbrough perspective, Id WANT Southampton to get that second auto spot to not play them in the playoffs. Basically if its coventry and ipswich 1-2, they shouldnt even bother with the playoffs because Southampton is going to be team 3.
Yeah, I should add that I don't think Tillman automatically was a flippable asset so much as I think he was an asset acquired to be further developed and either kept or sold on given time. He was speculation, Wirtz is a known known, very different quantities to me.
Once Leverkusen agreed that Xabi would leave they essentially sold their best first team players and went into rebuilding mode buying a bunch of under 23 players with upside. The fact that they are still in UCL contention after firing the manager that they rebuilt the squad around is remarkable. Sold: Wirth 120M, Frimpong 40M, Adli 25M, Kossounou 20M, Xhaka 15M Bought: Tillman 35M, Quansah 35M, Ben Segir 32M, Bade 25M, Fernandez 25M, Maza 12M https://www.transfermarkt.com/bayer-04-leverkusen/transfers/verein/15/saison_id/2025
In terms of top-end skillset, Tillman is an 8/CAM. His attacking numbers from those positions have been elite. Wirtz came to prominence as a WAM/dual-10. His numbers haven't been elite at Liverpool, however. Each player has had to adjust to a sub-optimal role at his current club.
Good point about Wirtz also needing time to adjust. Probably a good idea for Tillman to master the Bundesliga before departing to even more troubling waters. Maybe if there's a PL side that fits like a glove it would be worth it but as with Ten Haag coaches just don't last long in these leagues so if you go to a team for a unique coach you're going to have trouble when they leave and the next coach changes everything. Unless you're an amoeba like McKennie.
Plenty of teams play 433 and 4231. Tillman just needs to be played centrally, whether it's at CAM or the 8.
It should be clear to everyone by now that Tessmann has indeed lost his starting DM job at Lyon. At the March US camp Poch noted Tessmann's poor play during the Belgium match and opined that it may be due to his change in position (to CB) at club. Tessman did get into the match late v Lorient after starting DM Morton picked up a YC. From what I saw in typical Tanner fashion he did no harm. Lyon has gone through a tough spell the last 6 or so matches and are at PSG next match.
Leeds United: Daniel Farke set to hold Brenden Aaronson contract talks Good on Brendan. I don't have him in the 26, but most of his positional numbers and rankings** have indicated significant improvement. Needless to say, CAM is probably not the way forward for him. FW 25/26: 7.6(EPL) 2nd out of 64* 23/24: 6.6(B1) 22/23: 6.6(EPL) RAM: 25/26: 7.0(EPL) 7th out of 21 22/23: 6.2(EPL) CM: 25/26: 6.85(EPL) 29th out of 62 22/23: 6.23(B1) CAM: 25/26: 6.38(EPL) 32nd out of 35 22/23: 6.65(EPL) * he only had 2 starts at forward ** among players with the same or greater # of starts at the position
Wasn't there some coach at Leeds that said "Brenden Aaronson is the ideal son-in law?" He's a good guy that works his tail off and does everything right. Good for him. I'm sure there will still be Leeds fans that say this is a position they need to upgrade. C'est la vie.
I know he's not a Yank but it's good to see Alfonso Davies playing. He's an exciting player to watch.
Auston Trusty went through a tough spell before the US camp with a couple of RC and appeared to be sliding down the Celtic depth chart? He had a very good showing at the US camp and has followed it up with strong performances in his last 2 Celtic match. He showed in the match v Portugal that he can defend wide, can defend 1v1, and is a good help defender, all areas where Ream is poor. Celtic is within 3 points of Hearts and 2 points behind Rangers with 5 matches to go. All 3 teams play each other once with Celtic playing the two others at home, Rangers on the road in their 2 tilt and Hearts home to Rangers and away to Celtic. Is is shocking that Celtic have a shot to take the title even after Nancy's disastrous tenure.
'The future is coming towards you' - USMNT's Alex Freeman on making the move to Villarreal and growing up fast in Spain | Goal.com US
There's a quote from Poch about Freeman but also Reyna that has come up here a lot. Mostly about Reyna. That he brings them up together is interesting. "I want the players to play at their best in the team," Pochettino said in March. "Maybe you say Gio Reyna or Alex Freeman, they are not playing too much right now, but it's different. If you give your best and after you don't get gametime, if that happens, okay. What I don't want is to not give your best, and then you don't get time."
I think we are borderline, but if Nottingham Forest are able to beat teams like Porto..........should we be putting a Europa slot in the Championship for the second place finisher? Halfway joking, halfway r/soccerjerking
England's struggling clubs have had a tendency to do very well in European competition as of late. A championship club would probably do quite well too.
It speaks to the depth of quality in the Premier League. The Europa League and Conference League could easily be won by English clubs. We hope Chris Richards and Palace can close the deal in the Conference League. I'd argue the cream of European soccer right now isn't in England. Frankly, I've found the Premier League kind of boring this year. Bayern and the big Spanish clubs have been much more entertaining. We still have a Yank that can win the Champions League. Johnny Cardoso. I'm old enough to remember when a USMNTer getting on the field in a Champions League quarterfinal would have been an epic event. I'm not sure we even mentioned it on Tuesday. Now he's in the semifinal. Not many Yanks have played in a semifinal.
Forrest have a wage bill of 100 million euro. Porto's is 42 million. The biggest wage bill in the C'ship is 48 million euro. It's not unreasonable to suggest some of the better C'ship teams could do well in the Conference or even Europa League.
I assume you are talking about Europa League not Champions League? There are 2 Liga Portugal, 2 EPL, 2 La Liga, 1 BuLi and 1 Serie A left in Europa League action.
Correct, I should have clarified, Conference for sure. Maybe even Europa. Again, purely r/soccercirclejerk, but curious how a Coventry, Southampton, Ipswich would progress
England's become the powerhouse in terms of finances, and they spread it around, so that even though none of them are quite Real Madrid, the 15th biggest club in England is also the 30th biggest in the world financially. From the Deloitte Money League, English clubs are: Zero of the top 4 6 of the top 10 (yep, the next 6 in a row) 9 of the top 20 15 of the top 30 https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/serv.../analysis/deloitte-football-money-league.html And it likely goes on from there, since the Championship is by far the biggest second division in world football. I remember when Brendan Aaronson was at Leeds in the Championship while Paxton was at Utrecht, thinking, "Paxton's team is the best team in the Netherlands outside the Big 3, Brendan's is in a second division, but Brendan's team is better, and I don't even think it's very close."