He could just be making Italian-y noises.
Did ok, got 72 minutes at RWB. Beat his man once in first half with a good run and dangerous delivery. Other than that reasonably solid. Should have done enough to maintain his place for next league game. Would be great if he nails his starting place.
Udinese are going to struggle this year. Poor side, not sure where their goals are going to come from….
Having a good game at the moment, defensively too. He’s my international wing back starter without any qualms, has the pace to make up for deficiencies.
should have had a very nice assist there but their striker missed an absolute sitter. I think Festy has done enough in the past few games to consolidate his starting position for a while. The only problem will be how poor Udinese are, can’t seem to buy a goal, manager unlikely to last
He was Udinese’s best player. Was able to beat his man at will. Best performance I’ve seen from Udinese this season, but were chasing the game against a tired Fiorentina (3rd game in 7 days) so hard to know if improvement or not. One goal in opening 5 games for them. Festy is our starting right wing back, need to embrace his potential
Was named in Serie A team of the week, hes definitely making great progress
Its really not that complicated!!!
My opinion is that he looked really poor during his cameos for us a couple of weeks ago and i am not convinced that he is automatically a shoo-in ahead of Doherty and possibly a fit-again Coleman in our more difficult games - as Tommy seems to be advocating for. I do feel strongly, though, that he should be our starter against Gibraltar and New Zealand. Give him space to cut his teeth a little more as an international starter.
I thought Doherty was so bad against the Dutch and he annoyed me so much watching that Id be happy to see Ebosele get picked ahead of him vs Greece. I dont know how it looked on TV but live Doherty looked lazy, slow and uninterested. Colemans fitness is obvious the caveat, but with the group now dead Id be looking to pick players for the future that have better long term upsides.Originally Posted by SkStu
Its really not that complicated!!!
I’m not against it in principle, I just thought Ebosele looked poor, really poor. His touch killed one promising attack and another gifted the Dutch a throw in in our half in injury time when it simply shouldn’t have been a turnover. Not a huge sample size but enough of the basics went awry to raise questions for me. As I said, I’d start the transition in the gimme games but I’d like to see us play for points in the last two real competitive games and maybe protect our ranking rather then field a team of hopefuls.
I thought Manning was actually worse than Ebosele and he was on longer. Ebosele didnt bother me too much but I wouldnt have been calling for him to be picked prior to now. I think we are at the point were we are lacking in certain positions so we need to put players in sooner that whats ideal, but if hes starting to get into Serie A teams of the week then maybe Ebosele would be a justified position.
In other positions Id be fast tracking Moran and Azaz in midfield, its time to be a bit braver there I think and Hendrick and McGrath are obvious ones to be replaced.
Our strikers are finally starting to show a bit of life, and at this point Kenny has only good will to gain so he might as well get braver in his team selections... although I think it'll probably be more conservative he'll get now.
Its really not that complicated!!!
With our forwards performing the logical thing would be go 4-3-3 but he's too stuck on 3-5-2. Can't go 3-4-3 cause Greece will likely run through our midfield.
Ferguson is starting so that's one of the two forward positions taken. Connolly has started the season in great form and Ogbene got good reviews after his first PL start plus has performed for us in big games.
Gonna be a tough call for Kenny if he sticks with 3-5-2. Should go 4-3-3 with Ogbene dropping deeper into RM when needed defensively to make it a bank of four.
Am I too old fashioned or is there anything to be said for a 4-4-2 or at least some form of it?
We have decent options for back 4. Midfield we have players like Smallbone, Knight, and now Moran and Azaz who can play centrally but go wide. We have wingers in Johnston, Ogbene and Manning (I dont think hes good defender), Ebosele can also play wide midfield.
Up front Ive always like 2 central strikers and we are starting to get good competition from places when everyone is fit.
I do agree that I wish we'd move on from the 3 at the back, or at least take every game on its merits and adapt instead of sticking to something rigidly
Its really not that complicated!!!
In the second half of last season I was arguing on here that he was making progress at Udinese while others felt differently. He had a settling in 1st season there but has now firmly established himself in the Udinese team, and he has just won their player of the month.
Hes a little bit out of sight out of mind in Italy, but its fantastic to see him doing so well in the top flight of a major league. The type of player that should be central to the plans of the new manager.
Udineses nickname for him could do with some work though, jaysus!
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 04/12/2023 at 11:31 PM. Reason: Embedded tweet
Its really not that complicated!!!
If he was doing this in the PL or even the Championship, he would be getting so many plaudits and deservedly so. Great to see him doing so well and from a player that plays in a position we're light in.
Well let's temper it by noting Udinese have won one league game all season. I think Serie A probably has less strength in depth than the other big four leagues, and Udinese are in a relegation battle at the moment. I'm not sure there'd be any Premier League sides interested quite yet.
It's a positive for sure. Just not sure it's positive enough for him to be central to the new manager's plans
I'd like a side similar to below
Bazunu
Ebosele o shea collins scales ogbene
Cullen smallbone
Moran
Ferguson obafemi
I don't think Coleman & Doherty are going to be too central the new managers plans, so who would you want in that RB position? We need someone coming through in position and Ebosele is the best option in my opinion.
Doherty is only 31: he's not finished yet. That said, if the new manager plans on using wing backs, Ebosele will be in the conversation for sure.
The fact that he's broken into the first team and looks to be playing steadily is a very significant progression over where he was a year or two ago. This is very positive.
Udinese might not be great but he was their best player last month, so why temper any happiness with that?
Hes playing in one of the big 5 leagues. Hes playing well, hes in a position of need and hes improving as a player year on year. They are all big positives and who cares if a Premiership club would be interested just yet, hes still only 21 years old and already has played a huge amount of football. Theres pages and pages of a thread defending a 25 year old goalkeeper who barely has played any football and yet we are supposed to temper any joy in a lad playing well and getting a player of the month award.
Just admit you were wrong on him and move on, its happened to us all.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Doherty still ahead of Ebosele for me, as John83 has put. And yeah, we have a crisis at wing-back, but crisis position options don't be "central to managers' plans", as RLP put it. That's the particular bit I'm disagreeing with here. Ferguson, on the other hand, is very much going to be central to the new manager's plans.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 04/12/2023 at 7:38 PM.
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