I thought Kone showed a lot of promise last season and thought he'd have a stellar season this year, but whilst it's early days it doesn't look like that's the case sadly. You're right about Louza, as soon as he's out the game we have no progression at all. I wouldn't be against Asprilla partnering Louza in central midfield as TDB just doesn't offer anything at all.
After three games it appears that the love in has ended. The realisation that Pozzo/Duxbury are not going to spend any money has hit home. We just don't have the money.
But that’s my point. what does that say about us, who actually needed to score at least one goal to get anything from the game and yet we still got a lower Xg in that half compared to the team who didn’t need another goal? I wasn’t aiming that comment at you, you actually initially said Stoke were better value for the win due to having the higher Xg, the fact we had a lower Xg when we were the team needing to attack is pretty poor.
I don't really know what type of player Koné is (could also say the same about TDB and Kayembe). His demeanour doesn't help, he's got a very lazy looking style like he thinks he's a bit too good for this level. It's probably not that and I know he's young but if you spend £8m on a player in the Championship, you need them to make an impact pretty damn quick rather than having the luxury of letting them develop for a couple of years.
He's not "one of those our own", he's one of Southampton's. Andrews is one of our own though, and he was even more bobbins.
Sorry if I missed this, but were the odds/chances of the two results based on the xG actually posted anywhere?
Last season (above) he was a bit of a creative ball carrier with decent enough all round stats, I thought VIs system would suit him well so not really sure what's happened. But agree, 8m is a lot for a backup CM in this league. https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/stoke-city-1-0-watford-19-08-23.60476/page-10#post-3270140 Stoke win: 43% Draw: 38% Watford win: 19%
Whilst not the problem, he’s not without blame. He seems to have his substitutions pre-planned. How Bayo stayed in the pitch for the full 90mins was astonishing.
Not how it works. Plus the cheaper the price and the lower we fall the more likely we’ll be picked up by another ten bob Bassini who just wants to own a club rather than someone with prem ambitions.
Sorry, I may not have been clear, the 'one of our own' comment was flippant. Agree with Andrews though, also gash yesterday.
I have to say, I just assumed Koné would be a starter this season as he was (intermittently) last season, he's not exactly battered down the door to start. Asprilla with Louza is tempting (how much did we see it last season?), although my instincts suggest it wouldn't work as I'm not sure we'd get much defensive output out of Asprilla, and he's also left-footed like Louza
That was my main concern also, but we're also not really getting much defensive output out of TDB either so can't imagine it would be much worse. Especially if Livermores swapped out for Kayembe also as Kayembes defensive numbers have always been pretty solid.
Quite a poor game really, at half time I thought it was dead cert for a draw which I would have taken. Stoke will likely be a difficult place to tho for a lot of teams this season. I am just praying we bring in some players as we are a few players short still. Hopefully Lewis is fit as James Morris was woeful yesterday and we may as well have just played with ten men than start Bayo. We need an extra midfielder also TDB should be an option for the bench not a starter. Surely there are some more adequate loan options. . Stoke isn't half as bad as some people have suggested, been to worse places. The designated away pub near the station was decent and fairly priced from what I remember anyway (which isn't a lot in all honesty).
Kayembe himself might be an option next to Louza, he can offer a more progressive option with his strong dribbling, although he is horrendously one-footed. Right now with Sierralta out and Livermore on his last legs though, Kayembe probably is the best option for the DM role, I do wonder why he hasn't been considered as a starter (perhaps the same reasons as the ones quoted for Healey? He spent a long time injured last season!)
Kayembe not being English might not have helped? It depends how much the club wants to be able to sign non-working permit eligible players next season as to how important it is we keep our English quota on the field up. On the question of a partner to Louza, I think that Asprilla next to him would just be too weak, and they would both want the right-sided 8 spot. If we want a bit more creativity there then I wonder if Chakvetadze next to Louza might make more sense. He hasn't seemed averse to putting himself about when on the pitch so far. They'd still need a solid DM behind them though. Sierralta is good enough defensively when fit, not sure if Kayembe is or not, while Livermore probably isn't enough.
Yesterday we had Morris and Andrews on either flank tbf, though I'm not 100% sure how that rule works
We need an average of 20% or above (which is 2.2 out of 11 players) of our team's minute across the season to have been England Qualifying Players if we want to be able to purchase at least one non work permit qualifying player next summer.
Is there anywhere I can find out more about this rule? I seem to recall there was confusion over whether Northern Ireland international Jamal Lewis would qualify for this even though he's lived his whole life in England
Besides, I'm not sure that would have been the main thinking behind picking Livermore (especially for Ismael!), our main areas of operation seem to be South America and Belgium, and players from there generally don't have much issue getting work permits
You can read the FA's guidelines below. It doesn't seem clear, and if @reids or someone else has heard more about the regulation in practice that would be welcome. But when I initially viewed it, it appeared that players like Lewis wouldn't count - which would be utterly ludicrous if true and disentivise lower league players becoming internationals and gaining international experience for nations such as NI, Wales, Jamaica etc. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...UQFnoECA4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0O7__qBbQVPaj4plFZBeW1
Those will have in part been our main areas of operation by virtue of them being where it is fairly simple to get work permits from. I've pasted below the leagues where at the moment it's pretty much impossible to sign players from unless the player is either a full international, youth international, or their team plays in one of the major European or South American club tournaments (Europa League, Copa Libertadores etc). I'd have thought a newfound ability to sign players from leagues such as 2. Bundesliga, Serie B, La Liga 2, Austrian Bundesliga, and the Colombian league would potentially be of interest to Pozzo and Manga. Band 4: Czech First League, Croatian First Football League, the Swiss Super League, La Liga 2, Bundesliga 2, Ukrainian Premier League, the Greek Superleague, the Colombian Categoría Primera A, the USA’s Major League Soccer, the Austrian Football Bundesliga and Ligue 2 Band 5: Serbian SuperLiga, the Danish Superliga, the Polish Ekstraklasa, the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the Chilean Primera División, the Uruguayan Primera División and the Chinese Super League Band 6: Everything else not covered by the above (one key one being Serie B)
I dunno, it seems like a stretch to suggest we'd potentially sabotage our season in order for one non-work permit spot
Maybe they're trying to figure out which of our English players are up to it and if we can do as well as we hoped with them in the team - eg if there is no real difference between how well TDB and Kone play, then they might as well give more minutes to TDB. If Andrews is good enough as an attacking RB then keep him over Ferreira etc. It's not really clear that such decisions would amount to "sabotaging" our season per se (unless it also is partly behind us giving lots of minutes to Livermore for example).
I can't believe people are being so negative after only three games - there's plenty of time for things to get even worse....
A mate of mine who's a Stoke ST holder told me those were two teams battling it out for 10th & 11th place. He reckons we're a decent striker away from the playoffs, but then who isn't?
He knows where the bodies are buried or his agent sorted out a watertight contract or something or other . It's the only logical conclusion.
Interesting game of football and definitely wasn't pretty, especially in the first half. There was some lacklustre performances from Morris, TDB, Andrews, Martins to name a few. They are still young however. Thought we looked more dangerous second half. It helped having Koné who is more progressive than TDB and Chakvetadze who has impressed me in all his cameos so far. Surely a start is in order? Also Hoedt was a rock, again. Think generally Stoke got their tactics right on the day and a good goal. Also, ref had a shocker.
Are the afflicted among us really panicking after three games where we have looked a more than decent team for 75% of the time played?
Now come on, that's not how works on here! Facts can not get in the way of the endless conspiracy theories. We are doomed, DOOMED! alright
