Personally think he'd be better playing in the 10 role behind the King. Give him a bit more licence to roam. Too isolated on the right and too easy to mark out the game. He is a more intelligent footballer than he's currently showing us, of that I have no doubt, but he's painfully one-dimensional at the moment and easy to play against. Give him more freedom and he's harder to pick up. I think back to that Newcastle home game in our relegation season where after half-time he was playing all over the front line and was a nightmare to pick up. Very much a confidence player.
Except he's basically been doing this of his own volition for large portions of games this season, including Arsenal, and he's done absolutely nothing - the problem isn't him being stationed, or indeed marooned out on the right wing, it's that he doesn't spend enough time on the right wing, and refuses to do half of what he could and should be doing when he is there.
I think he needs to bulk up a bit too - he relies too much on his pace. I noticed a few times on Saturday that when high balls were in his vicinity, he looked like the schoolboy who was always too scared to head the ball and waited for it to drop - but obviously his opponents aren’t going to let that happen. He needs to put some muscle on and get a bit more stuck in - he spends too long waiting for the ball, and indeed the game, to come to him…as opposed to being confident and strong enough to battle for it. Hence why people think he has the look (in my opinion, mistakenly) of a player who has downed tools or isn’t interested.
This is interesting, it's not something I'd really thought about, I think because A) he is 6'1'', and B) it's not like he turned up as an Ozil, if you get me - he's definitely wiry, for sure, but especially given the relative lack of physical problem he seemed to have last season down in the muck with the orks, I've generally assumed he is as much one of those '(relatively) strong but not big' kind of players. I certainly agree he needs to get stuck in far more, but he seemed to be prepared to do it to a greater degree last season, which is one of those reasons why it presents to some of us as a laziness/tool-downing thing. I don't doubt there would probably be only upsides from getting a bit bigger physically, as long as he doesn't go overboard and lose pace (though the risk of that is often overstated in a bit of a fantastical way for players, I think) but to me it does still seem more like it's the confidence, or indeed mentality/attitude bit, that could really do with some work. Strength and size alone doesn't explain that clear reluctance to open up with his pace and either try and go past, or beat to the ball, the opposition defender. For the millionth time on here over the past few years between the lot of us, I guess I find myself asking again whether the club employs psychologists, and if so what they are doing with their time, because it really doesn't seem to be improving and developing players via mindset, nor making them more mentally strong or able to deal with setbacks. And, of course, if we don't - why the fuccking hell not?
To be fair to Sarr, he does put in a shift defensively, so I wouldn't say he's downed tools at all, but I do wonder if he is too tame to make the most of his obvious gifts, the amount of times he just seems to refuse to take on his man is maddening, and for someone as reliant on his pace as that, it renders him ineffective
This team needs a psychologist. Most sports teams employ them to work with players on an individual basis. If we are not. Why not ? I have the grave suspicion a fee has been agreed with Riyadh United and he will be off in January and that we are spending some of that money now as with the new keeper who is highly rated before anyone can get their oar in.
Goals : https://mobile.twitter.com/VoicesOf...io/iframe/twitter.min.html1459976259363119116 https://mobile.twitter.com/VoicesOfTheVic/status/1459976875250487301
Sick as that first goal is, my concern is that it's emblematic of what Sarr thinks he is now, which is a mercurial, roaming, floating Messi type - picking up play wherever and banging it in from anywhere he feels like, when in reality he doesn't have anywhere near the control or intelligence at present (at least) to have anything like that kind of impact, or play that kind of role, in the Prem. He's been wandering increasingly this season and it's done absolutely nothing for us, as we've discussed ad infinitum on here already - I honestly think this could be instructive in terms of what we need to work on: his perception of who and what he is and what he should be doing, which is owning the right wing and taking on his bloody full back repeatedly.
Couldn't even get a hat-trick, what a loser. In all seriousness I think we should be switching him over to the left more often like we did against Arsenal. We're always asking him to beat his man on the outside but he looks perfectly capable of cutting in from the left when he plays for Senegal.
Not just rubbishing this at all, because I get it, but this was against Congo, and not even the DRC - Congo-Brazzaville. I don't mind the idea of Dennis having a go on the right, but I just don't think we've really seen much evidence at Prem level that Ismaila can find the space and have the guile to get through a defence and do that, especially not when they'll be paying special attention to him already. I could well be wrong, though, of course, and it would be great to see this happen for us once in a while.
I just think opening up the pitch for him might help him a bit. He looks so predictable at the moment, we just give him the ball and he slings an aimless cross in or occasionally runs at the full back if he feels like it.
I’ve just stumbled across a pretty impeccable source which reveals the fee we paid for Sarr: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/79cca7996fc92ca8/original/Sarr.pdf So it’s €35m (£30m) plus add ons for appearances and goals. Plus, maybe I missed it but I don’t remember this row with Rennes being reported on anywhere?
Scenes when Gino thinks he's got away with it because we get relegated again, only to have to stump up when we win the FA Cup and he scored shitloads in the Europa League
Wow. Great find. I don’t think it was reported anywhere, no. I wonder if we had any other such disputes or whether such disputes were v common around this time last year. Don’t think it’s such a crazy fee and also makes sense given the range of fees (£30m-£40m) reported. €35m rising to €40m in eminently achievable add-ons. No sell-on fee or more fanciful add-ons mentioned but that might be because they were not implicated by the proceeding.
Wow, good find - so by my reckoning we've already (or already should have, at least) paid them €3m in add-ons. Wasn't there a loose transfer report for another Rennes player some time this summer in which the report made some vague mention of them being annoyed at us, and we confusedly conjectured for a little bit why they could possibly be annoyed, before putting it down to a probable mistranslation or misunderstanding? I feel like that's at the back of my mind, somewhere.
Wrong, it was £27m and not a penny more according to the scout experts on here. It’s held as a shining example of Gino and Scott’s genius.
Also, I love the fact that we just didn’t bother paying Rennes. Surprised we didn’t have the lads from Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away turn up at London Colney.
Amazing that we tried to claim that our relegation was a force majeure event! Unsurprisingly, judge gave it very short shrift.
"High Court enforcement officers Mick and John arrived but unfortunately for the claimant they were unable to find anything of value at the business premises..."
Certainly plays into the Chinese whispers within the game about why clubs hate dealing with us - they probably expect to be chasing us through the courts at some point for moneys owed.
I think one of Sarr's first clubs were chasing us for some sort of instalment at some stage and we hadn't paid up. Although I was confused at the time as to why that payment liability would have fallen on us and not the club he joined immediately after leaving the claimant club.
Article on that here although not sure why it says “golf equipment “! Translated ? https://journaltime.org/sports/foot...se-clubs-are-demanding-payments-from-watford/
No need. Their sister company 'Any Old Vaguely Competent EPL Left Back Ltd' turn up at the Vic most match days.
What’s frustrating is it seems the club isn’t even good at litigating these cases. They should really get different lawyers; FIFA hardly entertained the claim that relegation+covid is a force majeure event so I wonder why the lawyers suggested this was worthwhile. Nothing good seemed to emerge from the Pape Gueye case and I think we lost the Mobo Mbaye case as well (for which I’d imagine the fees spent litigating the case approached or exceeded whatever the amount in controversy was). It’s all very well being litigious, but being unsuccessfully litigious is not a good look at all.
Haven't we been told for the last decade that the Pozzos are football people? I didn't know that meant buy crap players from your mates, then use crap lawyers to get you out of a hole when a crap deal goes down the crapper.
