The new number 9…
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Don't blame them. Their entire working life is being fit, eating right, early starts and late nights. 365 days a year.
All the money in the world and it must be fucking dull 90% of the time
My eyes must be deceiving me. They're trying to persuade me Crouchy scored his second from a decent cross by Gonzalez.
Makes sense.
Only took him 15 years and 50lbs to do it
Alvarez twice the player.
Some of our past signings were funded by the greatest value multiplier sale in our history - Coutinho. There was also the sale of several youngsters - Ibe, Kevin Stewart, Solanke which helped us make less risky middle-of-the-road expensive signings like Jota. Currently, we have too many positions to fill in the next couple of years. We need those value multiplier signings. Hjuisen, Kerkez, Alvarez - we are looking at 160 million plus. We need to distribute the money more effectively. We need peak Edwards magic to hit again - atleast a couple of Robertson-level signings over the next couple of windows.
I think in general we don't need to be chasing bargains. I think our position is good enough that signings in that middle range like Kerkez and Huijsen are the most appropriate targets. We're in a strong financial position and the squad is quite good. Maybe we could do with leaving one or two signings you'd ideally make this summer for another year - I'm thinking someone like Huijsen - but that's not the end of the world. I certainly don't think we need to be taking huge gambles on cheap low probability signings.
I'm not saying all of our signings need to be bargains. But we need a couple of Robertson-level hits in the next few years.
I’d like to continue my train of thought from my earlier post about Cunha. Looking at the history of the Premier League, there are very few players who consistently scored screamers from outside the box year after year - only Gerrard and De Bruyne come to mind and those are literally the 2 greatest AMs in the history of the Premier League. For everyone a rung below, they might at best have produced a season or season and a half of great attacking output before the league forced them to regress back to the mean… this league isn’t considered the toughest in the world for nothing!
As case studies let’s take Grealish and Coutinho. Coutinho’s trademark finish became superbly consistent in his last full season at LFC, but even so our overall balance have improved when Milner took his place - and Phil then spectacularly failed at Barcelona being unable to adjust to their more patient system. Grealish’s last season at Villa everything he tried flew in the net (much like Cunha this season) and look at him now... You can point the finger at Guardiola for coaching the joy of football out of Grealish, but there is surely a method to Pep’s madness - he has calculated that the occasional moment of magic isn’t worth the reduction in control and you have to say the results proved him right. The common thread here is that free-spirited players who look like gods in smaller teams often struggle in more rigid systems top coaches play - and a good way to predict whether a player will succeed at a top team is to evaluate what qualities they have to fall back on besides the wondergoals: do they playmake, do they work hard defensively, do they cross the ball well or carry the ball consistently on the dribble or provide calmness and leadership…
Unless the player is in the Gerrard/De Bruyne bracket of talent, it’s a safe assumption that the long-range goals will dry up - even Salah couldn’t sustain it after the league caught on to his trademark finish, but being Salah he managed to adjust his game to become a deadly combination of a poacher and a playmaker. Szoboszlai has a great long-range shot, but because creating space to shoot is so hard in this league, in truth he would have already been considered a failure if he didn’t have his work-rate to fall back upon. I’ll leave it to your judgement whether Cunha is more of a one-trick pony or someone well-rounded enough to succeed at a top club.
As case studies let’s take Grealish and Coutinho. Coutinho’s trademark finish became superbly consistent in his last full season at LFC, but even so our overall balance have improved when Milner took his place - and Phil then spectacularly failed at Barcelona being unable to adjust to their more patient system. Grealish’s last season at Villa everything he tried flew in the net (much like Cunha this season) and look at him now... You can point the finger at Guardiola for coaching the joy of football out of Grealish, but there is surely a method to Pep’s madness - he has calculated that the occasional moment of magic isn’t worth the reduction in control and you have to say the results proved him right. The common thread here is that free-spirited players who look like gods in smaller teams often struggle in more rigid systems top coaches play - and a good way to predict whether a player will succeed at a top team is to evaluate what qualities they have to fall back on besides the wondergoals: do they playmake, do they work hard defensively, do they cross the ball well or carry the ball consistently on the dribble or provide calmness and leadership…
Unless the player is in the Gerrard/De Bruyne bracket of talent, it’s a safe assumption that the long-range goals will dry up - even Salah couldn’t sustain it after the league caught on to his trademark finish, but being Salah he managed to adjust his game to become a deadly combination of a poacher and a playmaker. Szoboszlai has a great long-range shot, but because creating space to shoot is so hard in this league, in truth he would have already been considered a failure if he didn’t have his work-rate to fall back upon. I’ll leave it to your judgement whether Cunha is more of a one-trick pony or someone well-rounded enough to succeed at a top club.
Cunya would be best suited to a false nine flanked by two goal scoring wingers. I agree he's not going to be a prolific nine but the quality is there at this level if Slot wants to set his team up that time way (admittedly unlikely). His temperament is very much in question, too, and will put people off. He is more than good enough for CL football, but it would take the right set up and some personal growth for him to make it at the top of the game.
I don't know if we could get better, what Cunha do
Not reason enough to sign him IMHO - we took that approach with far too many signings during the barren years before Klopp. Is he LFC standard (both technically AND temperamentally), no matter who else is available? If yes, by all means sign. If not, our plans need changing.
Neither. I answered the serious point (or what I thought was the serious point) in the first bit of Onions' post, and I meant what I said. That whole "near enough is good enough" approach to recruitment went on for far too long before Klopp arrived and kicked it into touch.
And the stats saying he's a lazy git.
Seriously though, what’s his 2nd best attribute? Passing, movement, chance creation? He only has 4 assists in all competitions, so doesn’t seem like he creates a ton for his teammates. Can he hold the ball up under pressure like Firmino did?
I am not supporting Cunha as I have limited knowledge of players outside of ours. But you can't use statistics like 4 assists without looking at the context - style of play, quality of strikers and other attacking players, etc. The key aspect is whether they have attributes that can explode and go to a new level if they are in a better environment, players, and tactics.
Maybe @KingBinny can find some stats on chance creation or key-passes/expected assists, but I think the eye test is also important. Transition to a better team does not automatically improve all stats accross the board; some players are just more focused on creating chances for themselves rather than their teammates. With someone like Elliott he might not have a huge number of assists, but we all know from watching him that he is always on the lookout for a killer pass. I don’t quite get the same feeling from Cunha.
Aye, I don't honestly know but like @peekay states perhaps it's the team and style he currently plays for. He has progressed overall especially this season but those stats showing he walks about irks me. That and his disciplinary record as per @Judge Jules fears.
How Cunha compares to others AMC/Wingers & Forwards:
How he compares to other Fowards:
How he ranks in the domestic league in terms of Shot on Target per 90 mins (overperformed his xG by 6 goals)
How he ranks in the domestic league in terms of Shot Creating Actions per 90 mins
How he compares to other Fowards:
How he ranks in the domestic league in terms of Shot on Target per 90 mins (overperformed his xG by 6 goals)
How he ranks in the domestic league in terms of Shot Creating Actions per 90 mins
Amazing as always, @King Binny.
So Cunha is near the top of the pile in passes into final 3rd, progressive passes and the like, but only 23rd in “shot-creating actions”? Not sure how that’s possible - he does seem to generate a lot of shots for himself and those also count as “shot-creating actions”, no? Do all the other cunts on that team simply refuse to shoot from all the passes into penalty area he is supposedly feeding them?
