January Transfer Window 2010/2011 Season Rumours/Signings

[Biz.Kid09]

Adebayor expected to leave for Monaco some time this week \o/
Hasn't really been given a chance this year, and i think he could be useful but theres no point keeping him if Mancini don't like him. Hopefully this will pave the way for the Lukaka deal to be done.

 

[Tummy]

He's good when he's motivated, but that's nowhere near often enough.

How much are you selling him on for? Arsenal are stilll laughing at the ammount you paid for him

 

[Tombstone]

Could he not sit in front of the back four? You could play Lucas and Mireelselses? (can't spell his name ) a bit more forward.

But then where do you play Gerrard and , if he also signs, Suarez (or the other additional striker if not Suarez), at the end of the day, its difficult to see how you would play Maxi, Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Gerrard and Adam all in a midfield.

I could foresee something like..

Meireles, Adam, Gerrard, Kuyt.

or,

Maxi, Meireles, Adam, Gerrard

or something else...

Either way its difficult to see where you would fit in Lucas, Poulsen or Joe Cole, or who you would drop in order to fit them in.

 

[Tummy]

But then where do you play Gerrard and , if he also signs, Suarez (or the other additional striker if not Suarez)

Front three?

Suarez likes to cut in from either side, so you could adopt a diamond with Gerrard on top and Saurez either side?

Torres with Gerrrard and Saurez either side of him?

Could always play the standard 4 4 2, and just push Gerrard on to the right of midfield?

 

[Tombstone]

Front three?

Suarez likes to cut in from either side, so you could adopt a diamond with Gerrard on top and Saurez either side?

Torres with Gerrrard and Saurez either side of him?

Could always play the standard 4 4 2, and just push Gerrard on to the right of midfield?

But then , if you had

Suarez, Torres, Gerrard

then how do you select 3 for the middle from the 6 of Maxi, Meireles, Adam, Kuyt, Lucas, Cole.

If you play Gerrard on the right of the 4 in midfield, then I guess the other 3 would be Maxi, Meireles and Adam. But what then of Kuyt, Cole and Lucas. As well as playing Gerrard "out" of position. Playing Gerrard on the right would also presumably put the deathknell on any chance of Johnson taking a forward position ahead of right back instead of right back.

As I say, whichever way I look at it, someone would effectively have to be dropped.

 

[Tummy]

mmm suppose so, but would Adam be first choice?

Would it mean that one of those would be leaving?

Kuyt is a forward, who's not good enough to be a forward who plays in midfield

 

[Tombstone]

mmm suppose so, but would Adam be first choice?

Would it mean that one of those would be leaving?

Kuyt is a forward, who's not good enough to be a forward who plays in midfield

I would imagine Adam would be first choice, I rate him as better than Lucas and Poulsen at least.

Poulsen might be happy to benchwarm, I dont think Lucas would be. I also dont think that Meireles, Kuyt, Johnson or Cole would be happy benchwarming for very long so I'd feel they would be looking elsewhere. Equally I am not sure that Adam would be happy to swap being a club captain to sitting on the bench at Liverpool and getting the occassional early round cup match.

For all his faults, Kuyt is a player I would keep hold of simply for his work ethic and determination. He isnt the most skilled around but sometimes drive like that can create a goal.

Ultimately, if Adam comes, and assuming that he isnt coming to take up a position polishing the bench, I'd have to say that one (or possibly 2) of Lucas, Poulsen, Cole, Kuyt, Maxi, Babel, Spearing would have to go.

(oh !! and I forgot about Shelvey and Jovanovic...and Aquilani if he returned, though Shelvey has age on his side, come to think of it, we have too many midfielders to be honest )

 

[Robert1986]

I'd love to see Suarez in the EPL, don't care what team he plays for, just bring him over.

btw, BL have rejected Adams request.

 

[Azza]

Or what position he plays, I've heard he's pretty handy as a keeper.

 

[Weebull]

[Stuff]

It's good to see you're still as lacking in a sense of humour and as unable to take criticism as ever.

You went from complaining about how we have such a short team to immediately proclaiming we'd lose to Barcelona. Forgive me if I naturally assume that the two points must be related, because you're not exactly known for your clarity of posting. I just thought it was rather amusing that you seemed to be saying we were too short to beat one of the only teams smaller than us.

As for your idea of playing 4-4-2 and lumping it down the wings, I'm not sure where to start. Perhaps your strange assumption that nobody has tried a 4-4-2 against Barca yet, and that they'll be therefore completely unaccustomed to it? Or the fact that you repeatedly say we don't have any wingers in the squad, and yet think that somehow the team will transfer to a formation with wingers fine? Or the idea that Maxwell and Alves aren't fast enough to deal with a quick winger formation? Or that conceding a player in the middle, against a team who love to get forward and apss it through teams, will work? Especially when said player will most likely be replaced by the workaholic Nicklas Bendtner in your quest for "punt it long, cross it in" glory? Never mind Big Sam, are you Martin O'Neill?

How do I think Arsenal should play against Barcelona? Well generally, I reckon the formation that we're most comfortable with, using our best players, would be better than foolishly abandoning it in search of kick and rush silliness. Wilshere and Song doing their best to deny Iniesta and Xavi the time to work their magic. Fabregas pushing up into Busquets' territory, so there's no easy out for the team when they need it. Nasri giving Alves serious food for thought on the left. RvP troubling a very high back line.

Will it work? Probably not, but that's more to do with the fact that Barcelona are just so damned good at the moment, and also that we're far more likely to lose because of a back line mix-up or failure to cover (something which we did against Ipswich frequently, thank you for pointing that out), than how many wingers we play.

Cheer up DM, you don't always have to get itchy for a fight when I disagree with you.

 

[BaZ87]

I wonder where Adam will play if he signs for Liverpool. I'm guessing if he signed it would definitely be the end of Poulsen and possibly Lucas too.

But then where do you play Gerrard and , if he also signs, Suarez (or the other additional striker if not Suarez), at the end of the day, its difficult to see how you would play Maxi, Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Gerrard and Adam all in a midfield.........

It looks like we're going to mainly be playing a 4-3-3 though

If Adam signs he'll be competing with Lucas and Meireles to play alongside Gerrard in CM. And if Suarez signs, I suspect he'll play in 1 of the wide forward positions, as well as providing cover for Torres but could also play alongside/just off Torres in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1.

You can't just look at signings as where he'll fit into the first 11. It's a squad game and every player isn't going to be available all the time. An injury to Lucas, Gerrard or Meireles and we're left with Poulsen as our only senior replacement which is not good. Adam could well effect Poulsen's future but I seriously doubt it will effect Lucas.

 

[Weebull]

What's not to get? Why wouldn't you be upset about losing your best player, especially when Liverpool aren't offering much for him.

I can fully see why Holloway wants more than £4m for him. Regardless of his "true value", it's not exactly much to tempt Blackpool to sell, especially if he's as crucial to the team as is being made out. I'd want at least twice that if I were him.

 

[Tombstone]

It looks like we're going to mainly be playing a 4-3-3 though

If Adam signs he'll be competing with Lucas and Meireles to play alongside Gerrard in CM. And if Suarez signs, I suspect he'll play in 1 of the wide forward positions, as well as providing cover for Torres but could also play alongside/just off Torres in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1.

Yeah, as I say, someone somewhere has to go to make way.

If he has to compete with Meireles, then I'm afraid I'd take Meireles over him. I'd take him over Lucas though. Personally though I'd rather we drop the whole interest in Adam and concentrate on getting in a winger instead.

 

[BaZ87]

Yeah, as I say, someone somewhere has to go to make way.

If he has to compete with Meireles, then I'm afraid I'd take Meireles over him. I'd take him over Lucas though. Personally though I'd rather we drop the whole interest in Adam and concentrate on getting in a winger instead.

As per my edit, you can't look at it purely from a starting 11 point of view. If we're going to play a 4-3-3, we need 4 CM's and as it is, Poulsen is the 4th CM. There's certainly room for improvement there.

And although I didn't say initially, I suspect it will be a straight fight between Meireles and Adam if he was signed, can't see it effecting Lucas too much. Gerrard's obviously not going to be asked to play the anchor role in midfield and neither Adam or Meireles appear capable of playing as the most defensive CM of a 3 man midfield. Although it's not his natural position, Lucas is the most capable defensive midfielder we've got, so him Gerrard + 1 is what I'd imagine we'll see if we were to sign Adam.

edit: I hope and expect that we're looking at improving every area of our squad so I don't imagine it's a case of Adam or a winger/striker etc. Not saying that will all happen in January of course.

 

[One More Solo]

Yeah ****ing Holloway being ****ed off that his best player has had his head turned, the *******!

I'm not Holloway's biggest fan but he's spot on here. Blackpool took a chance on Adam and gave him the support to be the main man in the team - if it wasn't for that he would probably still be benchwarming at Rangers. He at least owes it to them to keep his mouth shut until the end of the season and repay the faith in him.

 

[BaZ87]

I'm not Holloway's biggest fan but he's spot on here. Blackpool took a chance on Adam and gave him the support to be the main man in the team - if it wasn't for that he would probably still be benchwarming at Rangers. He at least owes it to them to keep his mouth shut until the end of the season and repay the faith in him.

Providing they keep giving 100% on the pitch, I have no issue with players requesting transfers. It's not as if clubs don't try and sell players who want to stay at clubs.

As Holloway said, just because Adam has asked to be allowed to join Liverpool, that's not going to effect Adam's commitment to Blackpool's cause while he's still their player.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

He's good when he's motivated, but that's nowhere near often enough.

How much are you selling him on for? Arsenal are stilll laughing at the ammount you paid for him

I know :/
9m ..not bothered about the fee its more the fact of Mancini clearing the team of Mark Hughes players. Fortunately he signed a few excellent players in Kompany, De Jong and Zabaleta.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Lescott and k Toure moved on at the end of the season with a good young CB coming in such as Subotic. Boyata would then be ready for the prem by then also so he would be backup.

 

[Tom84]

Do Liverpool fans even want/think Adam is good enough for Liverpool?

TBH I haven't seen any of Blackpool's matches this season apart from when they got battered by Chelsea (tomorrow night will be the first game I have seen of them on their own ground) so I haven't got a clue how good Adam is but I cant help but think how Rangers let him slip through the net if he's good enough for Liverpool or will he simply be a stop gap signing for Liverpool hence the small fee they're willing to pay?

 

[BaZ87]

Do Liverpool fans even want/think Adam is good enough for Liverpool?

TBH I haven't seen any of Blackpool's matches this season apart from when they got battered by Chelsea (tomorrow night will be the first game I have seen of them on their own ground) so I haven't got a clue how good Adam is but I cant help but think how Rangers let him slip through the net if he's good enough for Liverpool or will he simply be a stop gap signing for Liverpool hence the small fee they're willing to pay?

Can't make my mind up to be honest.

While he's an improvement on Poulsen and adds something to our squad right now, I'm far from convinced a quartet of CM's consisting of Lucas, Meireles, Adam and Gerrard is good enough to take us to where we want to be.

Lucas has come on a lot and looks a very good player now and Meireles and Adam are clearly decent players too but none are in the class of what we had before in Mascherano and Alonso.

Imo, we need to add a top class CM to our squad either now or (more likely) in the summer, which will mean either Adam will be a stop gap signing or 1 of Lucas and Meireles will be shown the door sometime in the not too distant future.

edit: with the system we're playing, I'd love Aquilani to come back in the summer and add a decent DM to our squad in the sumemr, not sign Adam, and possibly let Meireles go.

 

[Tombstone]

edit: I hope and expect that we're looking at improving every area of our squad so I don't imagine it's a case of Adam or a winger/striker etc. Not saying that will all happen in January of course.

I agree, in the long term we could do with improving all over the pitch, but right now, this window I think the need for a good winger is more pressing than the need for a CM. We have others who can do a decent job in midfield, we dont really have others who can do a decent job on the wings. So if it was me, I'd be looking primarily at 3 positions in this transfer window. A 2nd/additional striker, a good pacey winger and a left back. Come summer I'd be looking at the other positions, with a special eye on a high quality CM and a high quality centre back (preferably young as a long term candidate to replace Carragher)