Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £80m
Every title winning team (or challenging team) has one insatiable player. Liverpool 13/14 had Suarez who played every game like his life depended on it, he elevated a pile of absolute average players to nearly take the league. City had Kompany Silva and Aguero that season who when fit were just utterly relentless. United with Ronaldo Rooney Tevez etc. they just played full pelt every game whether that was punishing Hull away or turning up for the big game at home. Leicester had Kante, just looking like he'd die for the shirt every game.
Lukaku has probably greater gifts than any striker in the league, indeed he's the only striker I know who can get his goal return turning up for 1 in 3 games. Contrast that to the amount of effort Kane is putting in every game just to be on a par with Lukaku. Horrible to say it but if Lukaku had Suarez's mentality and turned up wanting to give everything to win every single game we could probably challenge for the title without any additions. Not saying we'd win it but we'd definitely be up there.
Everton for the best part of the last decade have been quite comfortable pounding teams at home in the second part of the season when they have nothing to play for. As soon as achievement of any note is in site, however, they completely malfunction. Moyes' 04/05 team was probably the last Everton team I've seen with any bottle whatsoever, they won a derby, spent the whole season being told they weren't going to get 4th, and then won big games on the run in to seal it. Every side since have been complete bottle artists and until that stops we won't challenge for anything. To help stop that you need that one world class player with the mentality to perform every week that everyone else follows. United under Fergie had 2 or 3 and built a dynasty on it, Leicester only had 1 but showed you can still win it. The closest I've seen in blue in recent times was Cahill who's mentality probably elevated his talent to a higher level than his natural gifts. In his prime he was absolutely fundamental dragging at times poor sides to the top 4,5,6 (how some mocked it back then but would kill for those league finishes now). We've not had nayone close to that since though. A succession of players with unbelievable talent Barkley, Deulofeu, Mirallas, Lukaku Stones just floating through games not taking responsibility to win them.
I'm glad Koeman seems to be demanding this level of consistency now. Barkley finally finally seems to have got it in his head that he needs to take responsibility in every game. Schneiderlin and Gueye can hopefully bring a level of standards that others will follow. Sadly for this season its taken half a season to get a handful of players to this level with the rest still just wildly inconsistent and mentally weak. Hopefully Koeman will either clear them out or beat it into them.
Lukaku has probably greater gifts than any striker in the league, indeed he's the only striker I know who can get his goal return turning up for 1 in 3 games. Contrast that to the amount of effort Kane is putting in every game just to be on a par with Lukaku. Horrible to say it but if Lukaku had Suarez's mentality and turned up wanting to give everything to win every single game we could probably challenge for the title without any additions. Not saying we'd win it but we'd definitely be up there.
Everton for the best part of the last decade have been quite comfortable pounding teams at home in the second part of the season when they have nothing to play for. As soon as achievement of any note is in site, however, they completely malfunction. Moyes' 04/05 team was probably the last Everton team I've seen with any bottle whatsoever, they won a derby, spent the whole season being told they weren't going to get 4th, and then won big games on the run in to seal it. Every side since have been complete bottle artists and until that stops we won't challenge for anything. To help stop that you need that one world class player with the mentality to perform every week that everyone else follows. United under Fergie had 2 or 3 and built a dynasty on it, Leicester only had 1 but showed you can still win it. The closest I've seen in blue in recent times was Cahill who's mentality probably elevated his talent to a higher level than his natural gifts. In his prime he was absolutely fundamental dragging at times poor sides to the top 4,5,6 (how some mocked it back then but would kill for those league finishes now). We've not had nayone close to that since though. A succession of players with unbelievable talent Barkley, Deulofeu, Mirallas, Lukaku Stones just floating through games not taking responsibility to win them.
I'm glad Koeman seems to be demanding this level of consistency now. Barkley finally finally seems to have got it in his head that he needs to take responsibility in every game. Schneiderlin and Gueye can hopefully bring a level of standards that others will follow. Sadly for this season its taken half a season to get a handful of players to this level with the rest still just wildly inconsistent and mentally weak. Hopefully Koeman will either clear them out or beat it into them.
