Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[pauliewalnuts]

I like the idea of Douglas Luiz but what we've actually seen has been, most of the time, not particularly brilliant.

[SoccerHQ]

Maybe getting Douglas Luiz back will be like another signing - certainly enough to put Nakamba back on the bench.

What position was he playing in for Brazil?

Pat MacMahon’s (of this parish) Brazilian mate says Doug played brilliantly in our weakest position (CDM).

Yeah he played deep but infront of Casemiro so role McGinn plays these days.

More I think about it I'd say our best balance for midfield this season would be new DM- Luiz-McGinn.

Gives us hopefully a good reader of the game, Luiz our best passer who can get our tempo up and ball up quickly to the creative players and McGinn has real licence to get forward into the box and hopefully get close to double figures.

Said it yesterday but as excting as the signing was Danny Ings isn't half going to cause us some tactical issues this season. Without him it would be pretty easy to fit buendia, Bailey and Watkins in a reasonably fluid front 3 ahead of that midfield and we'd be looking pretty strong.

No real idea how DS is going to work it all out in the long run unless one of them gets a serious injury which I certainly wouldn't wish for or he benchs one for long spells but good luck explaining that to the owners given what we've spent on them.

[SoccerHQ]

I like the idea of Douglas Luiz but what we've actually seen has been, most of the time, not particularly brilliant.

He was DM after lockdown when we defensively became very strong and also DM between August-Jan when again we were rarely conceding more than a goal a game on average and kept many clean sheets. So surely that deserves some credit.

Yeah inconsistant after that period but to me even an average Luiz is simply higher calibre player than Nakamba and he is still very young.

[Percy McCarthy]

If Luis can recapture the form he had in the first half of last season then I'm not sure we need a new DCM

No, one won’t do. Luiz in an emergency. DCM + JWP for me. Might even get away with a two in centre-mid then.

[PaulWinch again]

I like the idea of Douglas Luiz but what we've actually seen has been, most of the time, not particularly brilliant.

He was DM after lockdown when we defensively became very strong and also DM between August-Jan when again we were rarely conceding more than a goal a game on average and kept many clean sheets. So surely that deserves some credit.

Yeah inconsistant after that period but to me even an average Luiz is simply higher calibre player than Nakamba and he is still very young.

I agree and I suspect he will get better as well.

[villadelph]

Is it me, or does Arsenal going in for Odegaard make no sense..?

They just locked up ESR and gave him the 10 shirt.. and he can't move out right because Saka is there?

[Drummond]

‘TheHotelEnd’, yes I had to read the name of their fans forum twice, don’t seem to rate big Chuck at all

You know, that's no bad thing. Often when fans see a player that doesn't fit at a lower league level, they think it's because they're crap when actually they are just operating at a different level...

[Drummond]

Anyway....

                        Martinez

         Tuanzebe Konsa Mings

Cash.   Luiz.       McGinn.      Young

       Buendia.   Watkins.      Bailey

----
                      Martinez

Cash. Tuanzebe Mings Targett

                      Konsa

             McGinn      Luiz

Buendia.      Watkins.   Bailey

----
                      Martinez

         Tuanzebe Konsa Mings

Cash.   Luiz.       McGinn.      Young

                   Buendia.     
            Watkins.   Ings

Ings instead of Watkins, or take a defender off and replace with Traore /Bailey etc plenty of systems that don't necessarily need this magical DM that we haven't had but still did well without for a long time last season.

There's so much flexibility with the players we have now. Our centre backs have all played full back. Our midfielders are all flexible and the forward line is too. There's loads of scope.

Anyway, I may just be delirious after a very long day. (drove to Drayton Manor, lost car key, train home, then back again and about to pick the car up and drive home again...)

[ROBBO]

I like the formation where you have moved Konsa to a defensive midfield role, he could be a short term answer. I would suggest that he will play Watkins and Ings together so come up with a format that has both.

[Drummond]

I like the formation where you have moved Konsa to a defensive midfield role, he could be a short term answer. I would suggest that he will play Watkins and Ings together so come up with a format that has both.

That's tricky. Because frankly it's hard to find a system that fits all the attackers and allows a DM in the system. Perhaps that's why we haven't bought one yet.

[KRS]

Yeah there’s absolutely no way that we can play all our attacking options without compromising midfield. Also you can’t play 2 wingers with both Watkins and Ings in a front 2, so we’d lose width and have to work the channels more. In theory we could play a 442 diamond, McGinn would literally be box to box and the wide players would have to tuck in and track back a lot, but I don’t know if Buendia and Bailey have that in their game?

               Martinez

Cash.  Konsa. Mings. Targett

                  Luiz
     Buendia.           Bailey
                McGinn

           Ings.     Watkins

[ozzjim]

Surely we can't have promised those players certain starting roles. If we want to kick on, good players are going to be rotated, that's modern football. We need to pick the most balanced side we can or we become spurs under Ardilles. With the current squad, that means a 3 in midfield with McGinn, Luiz and Nakamba if need be. Get a foothold in the game and pick 3 forwards to win it. That's good enough to get enough results to be comfortable in mid table and get 45-50 points over the season.

[Dante Lavelli]

Surely we can't have promised those players certain starting roles. If we want to kick on, good players are going to be rotated, that's modern football. We need to pick the most balanced side we can or we become spurs under Ardilles. With the current squad, that means a 3 in midfield with McGinn, Luiz and Nakamba if need be. Get a foothold in the game and pick 3 forwards to win it. That's good enough to get enough results to be comfortable in mid table and get 45-50 points over the season.

Completely agree.  Looking at the team around us and they all have £20-30m players sat on their bench without it being a crisis. 

[aev]

If we hadn't signed Ings, who would have played on Saturday?

We spent a lot of time talking (in my view rightly) about the lack of back up for Watkins. Davies and Wesley probably aren't good enough.

[sid1964]

Unless we sell Conor and big Wes, I don’t see us signing anyone else