Your Says of the Day: Ojo to shine; Champ has untapped talent

Stewart Dent
Sheyi Ojo: Tipped to have a good season

Sheyi Ojo: Tipped to have a good season

Our readers discuss who will be this season’s surprise package, why the Championship has many hidden gems and who will solve Arsenal’s striker problems. 

If you have anything to add on these, or any subject, join the debate right here.

Moyes right to complain

Let’s get it right, the reasons for the poor finish were:

1. Finishing 1st in SAF last season flattered us. Had we finished 3-4 that season then Moyes season would not have seemed so bad in comparison.

2. The Moyes season had many teams finishing close to the top 4. Moyes 64 points tally would have seen us finish 5th in LvG’s first season. Conversely LvG’s 70 points would have seen us finish 5th in the Moyes season.

3. The squad Moyes inherited was poor (i.e. mediocre misfits and ageing players) as evidenced by the fact LvG shipped them all out for peanuts. The team needed to be rebuilt. The club came to agree hence them giving LvG a warchest.

4. Senior players (e.g. Rio) organized a rebellion. The team would not play for Moyes. Look what happened to Chelsea when players rebelled against Jose Mourinho.

Roygbiv summed it up when he said “the real mistake was to hire him in the first place”. Moyes was condemned by fans and players before he started. The reason being he came from Everton and not a top club.

He may have been a bad choice and may have failed anyway but we will never know for sure. That doesn’t change the fact he was not given proper chance with time and money.

His complaint that he was not treated fairly no doubt refers to the club going back on assurances they gave him. This is believable especially when it seems the club did the same to LvG.

MacGuffin

 

Season’s surprise packages

Delefeou at Everton is having a blistering pre-season playing upfront in Lukaku’s absence. Will be interesting if Lukaku moves on to see if Delefeou’s form continues…

Manthistle

Batshuayi is young and largely unproven. From what I’ve seen of him in pre season I think he’s going to surprise the Prem by scoring a ton of goals and finishing the season as one of the Prem’s top scorers, with any potential new suitors next summer being quoted £70m plus!

AshCFC

Sheyi Ojo,if he stays at Liverpool and doesn’t get loaned out. Genuinely excited about this lad. So clever in possession, knows where the net is, and has pace in abundance.

Klopp has gone on record as saying that Ojo’s long term future is at Liverpool,but he is undecided about whether or not to send him out on loan for this season. Personally, I’d love to see him stay here,and press his claims for a first team place. With Ibe leaving and Markovic’s future uncertain at the moment, Ojo has a real chance of making a big impact for us this season. The lad has so much pace, is very direct, intelligent with the ball, and could be a real asset for us this season. If Klopp decides he needs another loan spell, so be it, but I feel,with our lack of wide men currently, Ojo has a real chance of regular football here this season.

suarezsteeth

 

Championship signings the way forward

Michail Antonio: Celebrates West Ham's goal

Bacca must thinking to himself if they are prepared to pay Tevez £150k a week, then why not me? I don’t know much about Bacca but from what I have read he does not seem very excited about the prospect of joining West Ham. I have been talking to my buddy in Nottingham who marked my card about Antonio last summer, and he reckons we should give Antonio the chance in pre–season to play as our main striker.

He’s quick, skillful, can head a ball and scores goals. He also feels Ross McCormack would be a good signing for us.

He watches Championship football and claims he could easily step up to the Premiership. Norwich have just bid £13m for him, but I would imagine he would jump at the chance of playing in the Premier League. He has averaged nearly one goal every two games throughout his career in poor teams. I am all for taking a chance on Championship players. It’s a tough league and if you are a stand out player you must have something to offer. Cresswell, Antonio and Byram all prove that.

HarryHammer

 

Mourinho harsh but justified

Mourinho, it appears, has chosen Carrick as the senior midfielder. I have also heard rumblings about Schweinsteiger leaving Manchester during his injuries and showing lack of commitment but that is just speculation. His dodgy knees also aren’t helping his case.

In the end we have Schweinsteiger, Rooney, and Zlatan on superstar wages with Pogba expected to sign on similarly large wages.

These are the tough decisions that make or break a manager and it’s better that Mourinho is decisive instead of leaving any grey.

hatters

 

Have respect for Schweinsteiger both as a player and as a person however the simple fact is that, given his age and injury issues plus the wages he is on, he is a good candidate for a player to be sold this season.

If he does end up leaving I wish him all the best.

Sympathy for the Devils

 

 

Icardi v Lacazette – who will finally solve Arsenal’s striker issue?

Maurco Icardi: Wanted by north London duo

Icardi any day of the week. He seems like a better fit. He plays like a younger Higuain, probably more physical than he was.From what I’ve seen of him, he’s a physical player who can hold the ball well but most importantly can use his pace to run in behind and finish. And like I mentioned at 23 being captain for a top club is a huge signal of his character.

Just to reiterate on Lacazette, can’t fathom why anybody is suggesting him. I don’t need to watch too much of him. If he’s being kept out by the likes of Giroud (our first choice so absolutely no sense to displace him) and Gignac, then something must be wrong there!

the specialone

 

Can I ask why you think of Icardi as physical? Is that from watching him? “Can use his pace to run in behind…” Okay, he’s not slow, but he’s hardly got pace! He lacks that acceleration over 10m that can take out defenders, and it’s something that is becoming a requisite in the PL for forwards. He holds the ball up, but can’t exactly hold defenders off the ball. His passing and vision are poor. And these are things that Lacazette does better. Icardi is just pure finishing and not a great deal else. Sounds good, but is that sufficient in the PL?

Icardi being a captain so young is impressive, but who else in that Inter team is a clear leader? Miranda maybe (who’s VC and only joined last season)… Melo is just a hot head! Not sure of Handanovic… So really there are few candidates. Whereas in Lyon, I think Gonalons is the captain. Then you had Umtiti, Yanga-Mbiwa who captained Montpellier to the league title, Valbuena… Lacazette is a leader in that team even if he’s not a nominal captain, and you see it when you watch him play. So it’s apples and oranges using captaincy as a basis for comparison.

You say you “don’t need to watch” Lacazette, but maybe you do in order to make a valid comparison. Icardi would mean we played a little differently, because it would become more of a “serve and finish” type of football. And with the current balance in the team and how everyone wants to be behind the ball, I dare say Icardi will be isolated up top a lot, which would make him easier to nullify by PL defenders.

I’m not discounting one for the other – neither of them are top of my list – but it’s not as cut and dried as you make it seem.

The fees for either of them would be ridiculously high. Lacazette is probably closer to his peak in terms of knowing what he’s about, but there are question marks about whether he can make the step-up. Icardi has the talent but does he have the application to fulfill that potential? Because he still has a bit of developing left to do. And we’d be taking up that project for £50m+?

barber_