He's been really good, in my opinion. But as others have said, it seems really strange that filling a position that many believed was the missing piece of the jigsaw, has seen team performances go through the floor. Barring the first half yesterday with Douggie, the other two midfielders always seem so far away from him when he gets the ball rather than playing a midfield unit.Whatever happens, even though it's only been a few games, I think we can file Bouba under "transfer successes". Very comfortable at this level.
Even if you added in a market value for Kamara, it still wouldn't be enough. We're still playing with largely the same midfield we've had for the last 3 seasons, who have proved time and time again that they're not good enough."Otherwise he has everyone from last season to go with the new arrivals". That's entirely the problem. Of course the Carlos injury was unlucky, but that squad plus Kamara and a few back ups isn't good enough, even allowing for the fact they should be doing better than they are.
Quote from: Simon Page on August 30, 2022, 10:12:47 AMQuote from: Risso on August 30, 2022, 09:54:47 AMI don't think Gerrard would openly be critical of the owners and directors like Parker has, but you can tell he thinks we need more players. Our net spend absolutely does not match our stated aims.That's pretty misleading, especially on a thread dedicated to one of our new signings who would have significantly pushed up that net spend if he hadn't run down his Marseille contract. Gerrard has only lost a promising youngster and the left back he replaced as soon as could, both for decent fees. Otherwise he has everyone from last season to go with the new arrivals. He's not operating on Bournemouth resource levels.Even if you added in a market value for Kamara, it still wouldn't be enough. We're still playing with largely the same midfield we've had for the last 3 seasons, who have proved time and time again that they're not good enough."Otherwise he has everyone from last season to go with the new arrivals". That's entirely the problem. Of course the Carlos injury was unlucky, but that squad plus Kamara and a few back ups isn't good enough, even allowing for the fact they should be doing better than they are.
Quote from: Risso on August 30, 2022, 09:54:47 AMI don't think Gerrard would openly be critical of the owners and directors like Parker has, but you can tell he thinks we need more players. Our net spend absolutely does not match our stated aims.That's pretty misleading, especially on a thread dedicated to one of our new signings who would have significantly pushed up that net spend if he hadn't run down his Marseille contract. Gerrard has only lost a promising youngster and the left back he replaced as soon as could, both for decent fees. Otherwise he has everyone from last season to go with the new arrivals. He's not operating on Bournemouth resource levels.
I don't think Gerrard would openly be critical of the owners and directors like Parker has, but you can tell he thinks we need more players. Our net spend absolutely does not match our stated aims.
The actual or net spend is just a pointer that the squad isn't good enough and not enough has been done to improve it. Kamara can't do everything by himself, we need a proper number 8 and a forward who isn't shit. People are mentioning the fact that we've fallen massively behind Arsenal. Well part of the reason for that is that they've bought in players including Ramsdale, White, Odegaard, Zinchenko and Jesus. Big improvements in all areas of the pitch.
Quote from: Risso on August 30, 2022, 10:58:44 AMThe actual or net spend is just a pointer that the squad isn't good enough and not enough has been done to improve it. Kamara can't do everything by himself, we need a proper number 8 and a forward who isn't shit. People are mentioning the fact that we've fallen massively behind Arsenal. Well part of the reason for that is that they've bought in players including Ramsdale, White, Odegaard, Zinchenko and Jesus. Big improvements in all areas of the pitch.but it isn't a good pointer and right now is incredibly misleading. In the last year and a bit we've made the best part of £150m from sales and yet only 1 player from that would come back in and improve our first 11, that makes our net spend a really poor indicator of the relative strength of our squad now compared to the end of the 20/21 season. In my opinion we're massively improved from then but poor tactics and poor man management mean that we're seeing the squad at it's worst not it's best right now.I think you're overly harsh on our forwards, neither are top 4 standard but both are capable of 10-15 goals and that's enough to be far better than we are. I agree we could do with another midfielder but signing one is almost pointless if we're going to carry on conceding the midfield as we have so far this season, we're not being out battled in there, we're choosing to abandon it and play 2 wide midfielders and DM that's almost a 3rd centre back.
Kamara will be like prime Kante for three games then Ashley Westwood after that.
Quote from: paul_e on August 30, 2022, 11:10:47 AMQuote from: Risso on August 30, 2022, 10:58:44 AMThe actual or net spend is just a pointer that the squad isn't good enough and not enough has been done to improve it. Kamara can't do everything by himself, we need a proper number 8 and a forward who isn't shit. People are mentioning the fact that we've fallen massively behind Arsenal. Well part of the reason for that is that they've bought in players including Ramsdale, White, Odegaard, Zinchenko and Jesus. Big improvements in all areas of the pitch.but it isn't a good pointer and right now is incredibly misleading. In the last year and a bit we've made the best part of £150m from sales and yet only 1 player from that would come back in and improve our first 11, that makes our net spend a really poor indicator of the relative strength of our squad now compared to the end of the 20/21 season. In my opinion we're massively improved from then but poor tactics and poor man management mean that we're seeing the squad at it's worst not it's best right now.I think you're overly harsh on our forwards, neither are top 4 standard but both are capable of 10-15 goals and that's enough to be far better than we are. I agree we could do with another midfielder but signing one is almost pointless if we're going to carry on conceding the midfield as we have so far this season, we're not being out battled in there, we're choosing to abandon it and play 2 wide midfielders and DM that's almost a 3rd centre back.The squad might be stronger, but these were the players who played the majority of the season in 20/21 (Number of games in brackets):MartinezCash (28) Konsa (35) Mings (36) Targett (38)Luiz (32) McGinn (37)Traore (29)/El Ghazi (17) Barkley (18) Grealish (24)Watkins (37)So all we've really done in two years is swapped Targett for Digne, Traore/ElGhazi for Buendia/Bailey, and Grealish for Coutinho. The squad is stronger overall, as we're not having to use the likes of Trez from the bench, but the end result is we just haven't upgraded a first team that has finished 11th and 14th nearly enough. Compare the Arsenal team from then to now.
Quote from: Smithy on August 30, 2022, 10:26:47 AMHe's been really good, in my opinion. But as others have said, it seems really strange that filling a position that many believed was the missing piece of the jigsaw, has seen team performances go through the floor. Barring the first half yesterday with Douggie, the other two midfielders always seem so far away from him when he gets the ball rather than playing a midfield unit.Whatever happens, even though it's only been a few games, I think we can file Bouba under "transfer successes". Very comfortable at this level.It's probably because when he looks up to pass, his two colleagues in midfield are behind him to the left and right filling in for Roberto Carlos and Cafu.
Quote from: LeeB on August 30, 2022, 10:34:32 AMQuote from: Smithy on August 30, 2022, 10:26:47 AMHe's been really good, in my opinion. But as others have said, it seems really strange that filling a position that many believed was the missing piece of the jigsaw, has seen team performances go through the floor. Barring the first half yesterday with Douggie, the other two midfielders always seem so far away from him when he gets the ball rather than playing a midfield unit.Whatever happens, even though it's only been a few games, I think we can file Bouba under "transfer successes". Very comfortable at this level.It's probably because when he looks up to pass, his two colleagues in midfield are behind him to the left and right filling in for Roberto Carlos and Cafu.This. It is frustrating beyond belief the number of times our midfield players drop into the space between Kamara (or the centre-halves) and the fullbacks, achieving nothing other than slowing our progress because the ball can comforably be passed directly to the fullback that is higher and wider.Closing a clear passing channel like this would be spotted and corrected by most parks teams, yet it happens with such frequency it is clear (to me) it is coached and part of Gerrard's pattern of play Kamara has been one of few positives so far this season and looks real quality. UTV
Yep, this is the biggest problem right now for me. Them both dropping in means Coutinho has to come really deep and we end up with something like a 532 but with all of our central midfielders in that 5, which is fucking stupid.