Fulham (H) build up

[Tredman]

Semedo - Hoever makes me nervous, but its the only option we have I think.

Bloody hope Marcal is back!

 

[Tony Towner]

From Paddy's team, I'd put Donck at RCH and Saiss in midfield. He and Neves worked well as a 2 in the Championship

 

[Norman Deeley]

That's what I would go with too.

Hoever has said he doesn't think he'll be ready to play RCB until he's in his 20s

 

[Kenny]

Hoever has said he doesn't think he'll be ready to play RCB until he's in his 20s

He actually meant about playing in a 2 for Liverpool with that comment. Playing in a 3 with Coady talking him through will be a little bit different and we wouldn't have signed him and praised him as someone who can cover 2 positions now if we didn't think he could

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I'd give Boly-Coady-Saiss one last chance, i feel out of our options they are the most physical and best equipped to deal with Mitrovic over the other potential trios. It was those 3 that got 8 clean sheets in 12, i'm not quite ready to tear it up yet.

I think it's absolutely imperative that Donk plays in midfield, if we win the midfield battle against Fulham we will comfortably win, 352 with Podence and Raul as a 2 up front appeals to me, they linked really well together in 2nd half v City, i can see that bearing fruit.

Traore on the bench, it's been a long time since he created anything, and he unbalances us, but he creates mayhem when he comes off the bench.

 

[Freddeno]

Hopefully both Podence and Marcal are both fit for this.


........................ Rui

........... Boly - Coady - Saiss

Semedo - Donk - Neves - Marcal

..... Traore - Jimenez - Podence

i would go for this team too..

 

[Alan]

From Paddy's team, I'd put Donck at RCH and Saiss in midfield. He and Neves worked well as a 2 in the Championship

Given the void that we left in midfield on Sunday, I think having Saiss there could be a solid solution.

 

[t3ch]

I really like saiss in midfield but not at the expense of donk as cb

 

[Premier Quality]

Donk can’t play CB, he doesn’t have the instincts for it. We should buy an actual defender as an upgrade.

If we’re not doing that and we’re developing all the youngsters and accepting we won’t make Europe this year then we should put Hoever in now.

 

[Sniffer]

Donk can’t play CB, he doesn’t have the instincts for it. We should buy an actual defender as an upgrade.

If we’re not doing that and we’re developing all the youngsters and accepting we won’t make Europe this year then we should put Hoever in now.

Did he run off with your Mrs or something! You're certainly not a fan.

 

[Alan]

I don't recall Donk ever being outright poor at CB.

 

[Kenny]

Donk can’t play CB, he doesn’t have the instincts for it.

Playing there for Anderlecht, Belgium (at times) and us would suggest his managers are happy with him as an option in the position

 

[Premier Quality]

Did he run off with your Mrs or something! You're certainly not a fan.

I like him in 3-4-3, he can get about, his passing is accurate if not incisive and his tackling is good, and he has height. He’s not particularly creative though, as his assists record shows, but we don’t necessarily look for that in those central two (Neves and Moutinho aren’t much different goals/assists for us in that formation) (Donk 6 goals, 0 assists, Neves 6 goals 5 assists, Moutinho 2 goals 14 assists)

I don’t like him in 3-5-2 because he’s the one that gets up with/beyond the strikers, but he doesn’t score many and doesn’t assist at all - I prefer someone who can help us score goals in that position, personally.

He can play defence but isn’t a natural defender - only 20% of his career has been spent there. If we’re going to be pushing for the top 6, I’d rather have someone who is really good in that position over someone who can play there if we’re short.

He’s a good guy, but he’s limited - I’d rather we got someone who can offer more going forward for midfield, or more defensively in defence that’s all.

 

[Derby Wolf]

He certainly had defensive instincts when he Cruyff turned KdB on the edge of his own area and brought the ball out. Certainly didn't shit himself in his presence as Saiss did the other day.

 

[YoungWolf]

I prefer him as one of the two in midfield or as the right sided centre back. Either way an important member of the squad!

I know what PQ means about creativity, he runs well off the ball but once in those positions in the final third is generally safe (which is understandable) with his passing.

 

[Alan]

Just said it in the transfer thread, but after West Ham I'd take someone who keeps it simple every day of the week. Lost count of the number of "incisive" passes we tried to play on Sunday that landed on a West Ham head rather than an attacker's feet.

We made Arthur Masuaku (who I think is good, but not great) look like friggin' Roberto Carlos.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I don't recall Donk ever being outright poor at CB.

He often looked the least secure of the 3 when it was he, Coady and Saiss together at the back in Boly's absence.

We need Donk's presence more in midfield than we do at the back.

 

[YoungWolf]

He was more prone to mistakes but his general performance was really good. Him, Coady and Saiss were excellent in Boly's absence, even if you could see we missed him at times

 

[Premier Quality]

I think for it comes down to whether we’re okay with “Good but not really good” players - because we won’t be pushing for the top 4/5/6 if they are first team regulars.

Saiss and Donk are good but limited premier league footballers. We won’t get relegated with them in the team, they are good players - but we won’t be up the top end where we say we want to be because they are too limited.

I’m okay with giving game time to silva/Vitinha/Vinagre if we think they will turn into top end players and we got them relatively cheaply. But I’d rather upgrade the ones we think are good but won’t improve much where we can get better.

We did it with Douglas, we moved on from Bennett, We upgraded on Doc, my personal opinion is that the next two players to upgrade on would be Saiss and Donk. I’d keep one of them for the squad though, as they are decent players.

 

[prawnking]

my personal opinion is that the next two players to upgrade on would be Saiss and Donk. I’d keep one of them for the squad though, as they are decent players.

I'd be keeping them both until we got a strong CB in, I wouldn't want Hoever and Kilman as our only backup right now.

Surely Saiss would be the first to upgrade out of the two anyway; I like him but he's older and we did sign him in the Championship, whereas Donk was signed in the PL.

Not loving the idea of Neves and Saiss in MF in 2020 incidentally, seems like a regressive step, one of the first things Nuno did when were promoted was ditch that partnership