Summer Transfer Window 2025 Thread


Simon Buttle said:
Wolves had Neves and Moutinho as their two in the middle for a number of years and neither one had a yard of pace between them, they were just both very good players. Way too much is made of the pace thing at times imo.
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Where did they finish? Probably behind teams that had some mobility in the middle.

Look at the team that’s just won the CL, and how they punished teams by having absolutely flyers in every position who could press high and track back.

The top teams do not buy slow players so I don’t know why we should indulge it. Yes there’s the odd exception of technical players so good they don’t need to get round the pitch but these tend to be players at the very very top e.g old Messi, Pirlo, old Modric etc. The vast majority of very good players are all able to cover the ground required in the modern game now.
 


Saint Domingo said:
Where did they finish? Probably behind teams that had some mobility in the middle.

Look at the team that’s just won the CL, and how they punished teams by having absolutely flyers in every position who could press high and track back.

The top teams do not buy slow players so I don’t know why we should indulge it. Yes there’s the odd exception of technical players so good they don’t need to get round the pitch but these tend to be players at the very very top e.g old Messi, Pirlo, old Modric etc. The vast majority of very good players are all able to cover the ground required in the modern game now.
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Think in midfield you are confusing pace for movement.
Ruiz, Vitinha & Neves all aren't super quick, but they constantly move.

Gareth Barry was the same
 
Saint Domingo said:
Look at the team that’s just won the CL, and how they punished teams by having absolutely flyers in every position who could press high and track back.

The top teams do not buy slow players so I don’t know why we should indulge it. Yes there’s the odd exception of technical players so good they don’t need to get round the pitch but these tend to be players at the very very top e.g old Messi, Pirlo, old Modric etc. The vast majority of very good players are all able to cover the ground required in the modern game now.
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Also. First thing they did when they started their reset was to tell Gana to find himself a new club. As his quality on the ball was nowhere near where it need to be for a team that wants to play front-foot, offensive and modern football.

We can't play that style of football with the players we have. We will never play offensive, high energy and positive football with Moyes as a manager.

Not sure those PSG high energy midfielders would look as impressive when told to defend in a low block and spend 70% of the matches deep in their own half.
 
Raino85 said:
Think in midfield you are confusing pace for movement.
Ruiz, Vitinha & Neves all aren't super quick, but they constantly move.

Gareth Barry was the same
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It’s not about being super quick, it’s about being cumulatively quick enough to control space vs top opposition. Barry was great for us whilst we had pace around him as the space he had to control was minimal, McCafthy Barkley in front, two rapid full backs either side, and Jags and Stones behind meant he could focus on a small area to win the ball. Once those players fell away and were replaced with slower players then Barry’s own lack of pace became an issue and he got exposed, a lot, and we had to sit deeper and deeper which means teams get on top of us and we can’t get the ball back.

Ruiz Vitinha and Neves are quick enough, that’s the key thing, and with the rapid pace all around them it’s more than good enough coverage across the park.

We have slow CBs, slow fullbacks, slow centre mids, slow wide players, with the only pace in the team being Beto or DCL upfront.

We don’t need to add more one paced players, we need to improve the cumulative pace of the team to press, counter, recover opposition counters, and ultimately dominate games.
 
caliblue said:
Also. First thing they did when they started their reset was to tell Gana to find himself a new club. As his quality on the ball was nowhere near where it need to be for a team that wants to play front-foot, offensive and modern football.

We can't play that style of football with the players we have. We will never play offensive, high energy and positive football with Moyes as a manager.

Not sure those PSG high energy midfielders would look as impressive when told to defend in a low block and spend 70% of the matches deep in their own half.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons we have to play in a low block is the lack of pace in the team. We can’t play in a high line, we don’t have the recovery speed for it. We’re not good at pressing either as we don’t have the legs so get played around. It leaves us with a low block and often ceding possession to most teams in the league.
 

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