Raul's Transfer Targets: Summer 2019

[Yousif Arsenal]

i love how slow we are announce deals i bet they'll post Jenkinson and Mustafi dancing next just to piss us off even more.

 

[isop]

But You have to be able to do both things as a full back. Up and down tirelessly. Nacho hasn't the legs for that.

We seen against Rennes he lost the ball in the other teams half and just stood there cause he knew he wasn't getting back. Robertson would have bust a gut to try.

He's picked to play centre back because our centre backs are either injured or crap.

Why does Robertson not play centre back. Because Liverpool have V.V.D alongside Matip (steady but nothing more),Lovren (steady but nothing more) and Joe Gomez who is excellent. They also have Fabinho who can play the odd match effectively at CB.

We were trying to play 3 at the back with only Mustafi, Sokratis, Koscielny and Monreal. What a comedy.

He's getting older, sure. But I've still seen him contribute to the attack well and run up and down the pitch in other games. You make it sound like he can barely move in every game he plays. There are examples where his age can catch up with him, and there are examples where he can defy his age. I don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be. His performances against Chelsea away and Sp**s away show what he's still capable of.

He isn't a preferred option for CB, but he is an option because of his outstanding defense. That's why he can be picked there, unlike Bellerin, Kolasinac and AMN who no one would dream of playing at CB.

Some of our CBs are not rated but they are still CBs, and yet Monreal is trusted to play there. So his defensive game must be rated well enough to do so.

Ultimately a fullback is part of a back four. His first job should be to defend. Once he can defend well, then he can contribute to the attack. I'm tired of these auxiliary wingers who charade as fullbacks. It should either be someone who can do both well, or someone who specializes in defense and is ok at attacking. Putting poor defenders there just because they can run fast and cutback is a recipe for disaster imo.

It's why I like the idea of Tierney signing. Someone who can do both well will add real value to the squad.

 

[Makingtrax]

The point from me is more they waited to sign Van Dijk. They could've kept on signing 20-40m CB's who didn't make a true difference, but they waited for the right player to come along.

And that's what I want us to do. I don't want us wasting £45M on a soon to be 28 year old Lewis Dunk who just isn't good enough to take us up a level.

The gradual process was getting into the CL by signing the likes of Mane/Robertson first to then be able to sign VVD for big money and for him to say yes, I want CL football i'll go to Liverpool.

If we could go and sign Upemacano/Konate etc right now, i'd completely agree with you, splurge on that CB. But we can't do that right now and those two players wouldn't join. So we sign players who can get us into the CL in other positions.

Point well made.

But it’s a hell of a gamble if you think our current defensive setup can get us CL football, with Saliba out on loan, Cellabos added, and possibly Tierney instead of Nacho. FWIW I don’t think Nacho is even our weakest defender by some distance.

Even if we bust the bank for Zaha, he’s not going to stop the mistakes at the back. And whoever this decent CB is who might become available next window there’s several clubs that can easily outbid us, so there’s no guarantee even then.

 

[samshere]

Point well made.

But it’s a hell of a gamble if you think our current defensive setup can get us CL football, with Saliba out on loan, Cellabos added, and possibly Tierney instead of Nacho. FWIW I don’t think Nacho is even our weakest defender by some distance.

Even if we bust the bank for Zaha, he’s not going to stop the mistakes at the back. And whoever this decent CB is who might become available next window there’s several clubs that can easily outbid us, so there’s no guarantee even then.

We've already signed a decent CB who's going to join us next summer. Our current defense saw us finish one point and a second half performance away from the CL, so its not all doom and gloom. I think adding Tierney and Zaha will help us get 1 point more than last year.

 

[Malky]

Point well made.

But it’s a hell of a gamble if you think our current defensive setup can get us CL football, with Saliba out on loan, Cellabos added, and possibly Tierney instead of Nacho. FWIW I don’t think Nacho is even our weakest defender by some distance.

Even if we bust the bank for Zaha, he’s not going to stop the mistakes at the back. And whoever this decent CB is who might become available next window there’s several clubs that can easily outbid us, so there’s no guarantee even then.

If we're not buying a world class CB this summer we won't next summer with Saliba coming into the equation. Personally think the club are pinning their hopes on a Saliba/Holding partnership as the future.
Keeping our current selection of CB's for this summer is a big gamble, like you said, neither Chambers or Mustafi fill me with confidence, Sokratis is incredibly rash and Holding could hit the ground running on his return or it could take him months to get upto speed, no one knows.
Weird how everyone at the end of last season were saying that a CB was the priority, now no one seems to care because they all think a winger and a LB will solve a lot of our problems, when Monreal was far from being our worst player last season.
Edit: not saying I'm against the club signing Zaha or Tiereny, I'll be delighted with both, but a CB should still be a top priority for us.

 

[PoleInGoal]

Starting the season without adding a CB to the squad is absurd, when you consider Kos is probably gone, Chambers has spent the last year playing DM, and Holding hasn't played for 9 months.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Starting the season without adding a CB to the squad is absurd, when you consider Kos is probably gone, Chambers has spent the last year playing DM, and Holding hasn't played for 9 months.

do you know we have 6 CB? we need to sell before buy we can keep adding CB while having these 6 here.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Announce Ceballos and Saliba Arsenal or i'll ban everyone.

 

[PoleInGoal]

do you know we have 6 CB? we need to sell before buy we can keep adding CB while having these 6 here.

Yes but I'm guessing Koscielny will either leave or won't play after his strop.

With Holding injury we have 4 who are available and three of them are Chambers Mavropanos and Mustafi. I think CB is a bigger priority than LB

 

[Kingslayer]

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

John Cross saying tomorrow we'll confirm the deals.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

John Cross saying tomorrow we'll confirm the deals.

Unreal that means today then

 

[DanDare]

Perhaps Emery has been sufficiently impressed with Chambers to keep him and play him with Sokratis until Holding is fully back. Cheers will be starting against Newcastle it seems.

Saliba replaces Chambers/Mustafi next year and we make a first team CB signing next summer. Wouldn't be surprised if that's what we do.

 

[field442]

Getting a bit annoyed that Cross is covering us again. Hopefully it’s only because he wanted a free holiday around the US this summer and he ****s off back to writing about everyone else now the tour is done.

 

[Judasviking]

If we don't announce anyone this week im calling a psychiatrist.

 

[Garrincha]

Interest in Chambers seems to have dried up. The last bid talked about two summers ago now?

 

[14Henry]

We've already signed a decent CB who's going to join us next summer. Our current defense saw us finish one point and a second half performance away from the CL, so its not all doom and gloom. I think adding Tierney and Zaha will help us get 1 point more than last year.

Our current defence only got that because our fowards bailed them out.

Our defence is probably in the bottom half of the league. It really is that bad.

I'll ask you a question.

Would you rather sign say Harry Maguire or Zaha? And who do you think would make the biggest difference?

Personally I think Maguire in centre half while he isn't as good as Van Dijk could help tighten the whole defence up a little bit.

How many times have we seen we can't grind games out if Auba or Laca or both are having an off day.

In football you need clean sheets and our defence isn't able to do that because man for man we are rubbish. It is that simple. Lower quality lower results.

You can say well our defence finished 5th. However you put Leicester or Wolves defensive line up with our attack and we finish 3rd easily.

Had Auba got an injury last year for a significant length of time we were screwed. In the end we were screwed anyway but we need a solid defence and we seem to be so scared to buy big based on previous failings.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

I fear we could be in a position where we'll be going into the final weekend of the window with just Saliba and Ceballos signed.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Our current defence only got that because our towards bailed them out.

Our defence is probably in the bottom half of the league. It really is that bad.

I'll ask you a question.

Would you rather sign say Harry Maguire or Zaha? And who do you think would make the biggest difference?

Personally I think Maguire in centre half while he isn't as good as Van Dijk could help tighten the whole defence up a little bit.

How many times have we seen we can't grind games out if Auba or Laca or both are having an off day.

In football you need clean sheets and our defence isn't able to do that because man for man we are rubbish. It is that simple. Lower quality lower results.

You can say well our defence finished 5th. However you put Leicester or Wolves defensive line up with our attack and we finish 3rd easily.

Had Auba got an injury last year for a significant length of time we were screwed. In the end we were screwed anyway but we need a solid defence and we seem to be so scared to buy big based on previous failings.

I think its a collective issue personally. Some of our defenders would have better defensive records at lower tier clubs, the style of play doesn't suit our current players in defence.

Bellerin and Holding are pretty much the only ones it suits in a 4 back. It would of course suit Tierney and Saliba as well.

So I don't think its just a case of buying defenders for the sake of it to try and sort the problem, they have to be the correct players.

 

[GDeep™]

I fear we could be in a position where we'll be going into the final weekend of the window with just Saliba and Ceballos signed.

Highly likely. I’ll be abroad though.