Douglas Luiz - coming back?

[chrisw1]

Barkley plays deeper now. He was in the Luiz role all year for Luton.

We have loads of players who can play more or less where Luiz was when he played at his best. None who play where Kamara does.

We have two who can cover the Luiz role, both of whom we'd really rather see further forwards.

I actually think Tielemans and Barkley are both pretty ideal for the Luiz role and I think they'll share it next season.  I think Luiz is better, but we've been screwed by FFP.

[LeeB]

I hope you're all right. It just seems like when we signed Heskey under a (then) popular manager and everyone was performing mental gymnastics trying to convince themselves it was a good idea signing a player that literally nobody would have wanted to sign two months earlier.

One manager though was a man that got angry with James Milner for suggesting they don't train enough, and the other is Unai Emery.

It's like backing Terry the window clearner's view on election polling over John Curtice.

Sure, it's more similarity in fan reactions than manager I'm seeing. Was anybody on here suggesting Ross Barkley two months ago? If so, do they post or were they virtually tarred and feathered for such a suggestion?

Well that's depends on who suggested it, obviously. But none that I can remember, no.

[Drummond]

We couldn't even name a full bench last season. With the signings we're making, we'll have plenty of choice, opportunities to rest players, and the chance to ask the players to play with more intensity as a result.

We're letting defensive and creative midfielders go (and raising the money we need to stay within the rules), and bringing in more experienced ones, who  give us a better level overall. There is then the argument about which players coming in are better than which players are going out.

Luiz is a great player who will be missed, the question is, how much?

[chrisw1]

I'm not sure why a proper defensive midfielder can't do that. One that can also tackle, unlike Barkley.

I'm not quite sure why you are referencing Barkley to Kamara.  He's almost certainly been brought in to be an option for the more advanced of the two pivots, ie Luiz's role.  We haven't signed anyone to fill the Kamara role yet, but it seems like this Juve lad will be one of the options for that.  I'm sure we'll sign someone else before the season starts, or it will be McGinn starting there again. 

[cdbearsfan]

Monty said he couldn't understand why people wanted Enzo but not Barkley. That's how I got onto talking about Kamara as Enzo would seem to be cover for him whereas Barkley isn't.

[Monty]

We then moved on to your opinion that Morgan Rogers can cover Douglas Luiz's position of attacking midfield...

[cdbearsfan]

We moved on, I was answering the question of why Kamara was getting brought up.

[Monty]

Shrug.

[chrisw1]

To sum it up this is what I think our team will look like

                                       Martinez

New RB/                   Konsa                  Pau                 Maatsen/
(Cash)                      (Carlos)                (Mings)               (Digne)

                          new DM/                   Tielemans
                         (Barrenechea)             (Barkley)

McGinn /                                                                          Ramsey/
Bailey                                                                               Rogers/
                                                                                        (Iling Jr)

                          Diaby/                    Watkins   
                          Buendia

But certain players can play in a number of positions, McGinn can fill in at DM, 10 and on the left, Rogers could play 10, Buendia could play left, both Tielemans and Barkley could do a job further forward etc.  But this is how I see the likely broad structure of the team.

I think Bailey will probably start ahead of Diaby or Ramsey with other players shuffling about, but I wanted to put players in what I see as their main position.

[Rigadon]

I suppose transfers depend on a few factors.  1. How competitive are we looking to be, 2. what will FFP allow us to do, 3. how much, actually, does qualifying for CL do to our ability to sign better players than we currently have.

I really hope the answers are 1. very, 2. lots and 3. more than we think.  But my expectation is more 1. quite, 2. some and 3. not as much as we hoped.  Might be overly pessimistic, but it's not suppose to be - we have Emery and that's worth a massive amount.

[aj2k77]

I wouldn't touch this Argentinian player with a barge pole. Sounds like a plan D and we'll get ripped off.

What on earth are you basing that on?

Based on the fact that his glass isn't so much half empty, as smashed against a wall.

Because I don't want to lose one of our best players for the 2 nobodies and the price of a Wesley when other midfielders have gone for significantly more? Ok. We'll see how it pans out. We'd be extremely happy if we were the other side of this transfer.

[Brazilian Villain]

Because I don't want to lose one of our best players for the 2 nobodies and the price of a Wesley when other midfielders have gone for significantly more? Ok. We'll see how it pans out. We'd be extremely happy if we were the other side of this transfer.

Whatever you say (just like your prescient analysis of Tim).

We'd get peanuts for him. Nothing of note this season and didn't stand out on loan last season. £2m tops.

[Garyth]

Yes, the way I'm thinking of it is imagining a hypothetical week next season where we play mid-range premier league opposition (say, Bournemouth at home), then a good Champions league team midweek (eg. Inter away).

Ideally we won't want to play Kamara and [Big Money Luiz Replacement] in both so Barrenechea & Barkley play vs Bournemouth, while Kamara & [Big Money Luiz Replacement] play vs Inter.

Emery & co will have a range of 'slots' they want to fill - and any combination of swap players they can get in June will leave one or two 'big' signings later in the summer once they are in a new financial year and know how much they can actually spend from the Luiz deals etc.

                          new DM/                   Tielemans
                         (Barrenechea)             (Barkley)

[KevinGage]

I realise it's early in the summer.

But most of these deals - the young Dutch LB apart - look like the kind of deals we'd have made had we missed out on CL football.

[KevinGage]

I also didn't feel we needed a total rebuild.

But the two players for Luiz, plus Dobbin, Maatsen and Barkley point to that.

Five prospective incoming early July with (hopefully) more quality to come.

That will most likely be 7-8 new faces through the door minimum, and all the fun of turning that into a cohesive unit in our debut CL season.

2-3 big purchases and perhaps the loss of Duran only (of the active playing squad) seemed the better route to go.