Summer 2020 Transfer Window (Extended Version)

[Langers]

What have you seen from Boly to suggest he wouldn't work if we played 4 at the back? He doesn't really have any weaknesses.

Fair enough with Coady, he fits our system perfectly but Boly would work either way. Hell - we could play 1 at the back and teams would find it hard to get past him.

 

[Deano]

What have you seen from Boly to suggest he wouldn't work if we played 4 at the back? He doesn't really have any weaknesses.

Fair enough with Coady, he fits our system perfectly but Boly would work either way. Hell - we could play 1 at the back and teams would find it hard to get past him.

Agreed, Boly is one of the top 5 CB's in the league for me. Mental to suggest he wouldn't work in a back 4, he has every attribute you'd want.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

It's not just Boly, it's difficult to name more than 1 or 2 defenders that have been better than Saiss since the turn of the year either, especially since Soyuncu has fallen off a cliff as many expected he would.

7 out of our last 8 games have been clean sheets - this is the best defensive unit we've ever had.

 

[The Bear]

Soyuncu hasn't fallen off a cliff. Leicester just haven't been getting the results.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Soyuncu hasn't fallen off a cliff. Leicester just haven't been getting the results.

You think? He doesn't look half the player he was at the start of the season to me, seems to have lost confidence, which was a huge part of what made him good as he always played right on the brink.

For me his form is why Leicester have stopped getting the results.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd say it's more that Vardy isn't scoring. No-one else in their team chips in enough to make up for that.

They haven't started to decline defensively to any appreciable extent.

 

[The Bear]

Their fans are bemoaning how poor Vardy had been since Christmas. They still think Soyuncu is great.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Originally I was skeptical of "star players" coming from the Primeira, but it does seem now that it was more that the high profile failures from that league just stick out more than the successes.

Even in Boly's case, though, there will always be a part of me that wonders just how good he'd be in a 2 CB system.



Still not really buying the similarities between them tbf.

https://www.pulse.ng/sports/football/porto-coach-julen-lopetegui-ruben-neves-no-gamble/eytclp9

Neves was already rated as a wunderkind in 2014.

LOL what. I’m not comparing their “potential”. Boly barely played the year before, neither did Neves, that is all. Boly was a good player, Neves was a good player. We’re either of them world beaters - no. Hence why they joined wolves in the championship and weren’t playing for an average Porto team.

James Henry was touted as a wonderkid, so was David Bentley, Michael Johnson, Zele Ismail... the list goes on.

FIFA and FM don’t always get the wonderkid status correct, otherwise we’d be talking about Cherno Samba and not Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

[Alan]

What have you seen from Boly to suggest he wouldn't work if we played 4 at the back? He doesn't really have any weaknesses.

Fair enough with Coady, he fits our system perfectly but Boly would work either way. Hell - we could play 1 at the back and teams would find it hard to get past him.

Didn't say he wouldn't, it's a curiosity thing given Coady has said his biggest weakness is concentration.

Personally (and I've said this before), I think our system is perfect for our defenders because it allows all of them to totally maximize their strengths while almost completely minimizing their weaknesses.

 

[Deano]

Didn't say he wouldn't, it's a curiosity thing given Coady has said his biggest weakness is concentration.

Personally (and I've said this before), I think our system is perfect for our defenders because it allows all of them to totally maximize their strengths while almost completely minimizing their weaknesses.

I'm pretty sure Coady said that he sometimes had to talk Boly through games in the Championship because Boly found everything so easy at that level. I doubt he lacks concentration playing at this level, it would get shown up pretty quickly.

 

[Tredman]

Didn't say he wouldn't, it's a curiosity thing given Coady has said his biggest weakness is concentration.

Personally (and I've said this before), I think our system is perfect for our defenders because it allows all of them to totally maximize their strengths while almost completely minimizing their weaknesses.

Good post that Alan, I'd give it at least a 7,5/10

There's always an odd fascination with changing our formation - our players, style, tactics and manager perfectly suit 3 (or 5) at the back.

 

[Alan]

Good post that Alan, I'd give it at least a 7,5/10

There's always an odd fascination with changing our formation - our players, style, tactics and manager perfectly suit 3 (or 5) at the back.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but I'll take it. :icon_wink:

The last thing I'm doing here is slating Boly. If anything, I'm meaning it as a compliment to Nuno that he has something of a track record of building CBs to huge reputations, only for them to go to pot without his coaching.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Haven't seen anyone anywhere suggest we ever move to four at the back? Other than maybe as an in-play, short term mechanism when we're chasing a game or for those where it's 0-0 and the opposition are playing 9-0-1 at Molineux like Sunderland/Brighton/others have.

3-5-2 and 3-4-3 have the same primacy, we just switch when it suits.

 

[Tredman]

Haven't seen anyone anywhere suggest we ever move to four at the back? Other than maybe as an in-play, short term mechanism when we're chasing a game or for those where it's 0-0 and the opposition are playing 9-0-1 at Molineux like Sunderland/Brighton/others have.

3-5-2 and 3-4-3 have the same primacy, we just switch when it suits.

Not so much on here (other than in match threads), but its a regular occurrence on twitter & elsewhere.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It was more of an issue when we were clearly not having to do any defending but we still had Benno as one of the back three (God love him, but he got to the absolute maximum level he could on the ball and it still wasn't good enough for those situations). Less of a problem now Saiss is in there.

You obviously follow the wrong people on Twitter

 

[Tony Towner]

If we went to a conventional 4 at the back then Saiss and Boly would be fine as the two. We'd need to find a new right back and captain though

 

[Tredman]

Its much better now, though oddly Saiss seems worse with the ball / getting forward than Boly did at LCB

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

There are situations where I think one of the back three could play further forward. Coady would be the obvious choice, but Boly is currently the most adventurous in possession and the three of them are perfectly able to cover each other.

Could Boly ever be called up for the French national team, or did I read somewhere that he would not be willing to play?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Boly is French (born there, lived there all his life until he signed for Braga) but of Ivorian descent.

France have never picked him for any senior squad, Ivory Coast did and he ignored them.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

There are situations where I think one of the back three could play further forward. Coady would be the obvious choice, but Boly is currently the most adventurous in possession and the three of them are perfectly able to cover each other.

Could Boly ever be called up for the French national team, or did I read somewhere that he would not be willing to play?

Ivory Coast tried to call him up, but he turned them down.

No idea why France don't call him up, particularly as they have called Sakho up fairly recently.