Can Caicedo cover Casa's position too
Alexis Mac Allister | Moves to Liverpool for 35m according to Romano
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Can Caicedo cover Casa's position too
Yes please. Very good all-round midfielder. Reminds me a bit of Gundogan.
Bet Chelsea is looking pretty dismayed at that
Nah he isn't the profile We should be looking at as partner for Casemiro as his long term replacement maybe if we have unlimited funds , but otherwise I would steer clear of Brighton in the summer and let Our revamped scouting and recruitment department earn their wages.
So who is then
I hope so!
One of these players where you’re not sure whether he’s going to be a Kante or a Schneiderlin.
I really like him, actually, and think he’d be a good fit for Casemiro, but you never truly know.
I really like him, actually, and think he’d be a good fit for Casemiro, but you never truly know.
How do you feel about so many fans/clubs wanting to plunder your club, and how many of this seasons' stars do you expect to be with you come the close of the summer window?
You do a calm and composed job of warding off some arrogant and/or ignorant takes, but doesn't grate at all?
Honestly No idea as I don't follow football much outside United , you better tag Invictus and Adnan they are pretty good posters who it seem follow lot of football and are pretty knowledgeable when it it comes to this kind of stuff .
Not at all, it’s football - such as it will ever be. I appreciate fans of other teams input and assessment of our players. I enjoy being here a lot, it’s a great forum community - especially compared to many others which are either hostile or brain dead
Obviously it’s flattering that so many clubs want our players - it means they are playing well, the club is doing well and one big sale per season essentially makes us sustainable. It would be a much worse position if nobody wanted our players, as it would mean they aren’t playing well and we are doing badly in the league…
Mitoma is close to signing a new deal, so he’s definitely staying (again, short of an outrageous offer), Caicedo or Mac Allister will likely go in the summer. Ferguson won’t be going anywhere for the time being, Estupinan the same.
The one player who constantly goes under the radar though is Dunk. He is not what many people imagine when he plays. You read 6’3 English centre back, a certain image comes to mind. Dunk has completed more line-breaking passes than any other defender in European football. He is a superb footballer. It’s fortunate that he isn’t called Dunkinho and is an unglamorous Sussex lad. He has been consistently excellent for so many years now.
I think it’ll be largely the same team starting the first game of next season for us, with a few new additions funded by the Mac Allister or Caicedo sale (we haven’t replaced Trossard or Mwepu yet).
Frenkie de Jong. We need to make another attempt to sign him, but not chase him all summer. Unfortunately for us, there aren't many players with his skillset. There are, of course, midfielders who are equally as good as him or better in some parts of the game, but he's got the full package that we should be looking for in a midfielder next to Casemiro. De Jong is world class in controlling the game, passing, progressive passing, dribbling, press resistance and ball carrying.
Caicedo, for instance, is not. He is excellent defensively and would be a fantastic backup for Casemiro but that's not gonna happen.
Alternatives to De Jong are hard to find due to his skillset, but if we're going to look at someone with similar skillset but not equally as good, I'd look at Enzo Le Fée from Lorient.
Statistically, he is an even better dribbler than FdJ and is an excellent ball carrier as well. The upside with him, compared to Frenkie, is that he is excellent defensively and a much bigger goal threat and also assists more. He's scored some absolute cracking goals from distance so he has that in his locker.
My worry with him is his pass completion (80.1%) . It is slightly worse than Fred which puts him in below average for midfielders. Of course, that could easily be improved and with his age, experience is only going to make him better. If it was to me, I'd go for Frenkie de Jong as first priority, and Enzo Le Fée as the number two on the list.
Rice would be great if we didn't have Casemiro. But he's pointless with Casemiro in. Maybe in 3-4 years or whenever Casemiro declines, and I do like Rice and think he could be a starter at a big team, but you'd need a good playmaker next to him for sure. Mac Allister I don't think would ever be more than a squad player.
Would rather have Rice
Agree to disagree. It takes more talent to play as a 10 at Brighton than DM at West Ham. And Mac Allister has worked well both as an 8 and a 10 and been part of a midfield that has dominated all the best teams in the PL.
Yes please.
I hate that brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers get involved in these sorts of things. Players can express a desire to leave at the appropriate time without their fecking grandad briefing the press.
He is his agent as well afaik
Correct
He is one of those players who greatly benefits from their system. They'll do well to sell him at his peak right now.
Being a 10 in the form of Mac Allister is similar to being a 10 like Fred or Sabitzer is. They can do well, but it's squad player well. He's not a playmaker, he's not someone who will dictate games (what big clubs need), he's not some crazy creator or a high scorer as a 10, not a super high progressor of the ball through carrying or passing ... He's an all round decent player, but at an elite side, you need specialists for the roles, and those tweeters are just gonna be squad players ultimately for the most part unless you do something weird in midfield (like Klopp with Liverpool where his fullbacks were the playmakers due to the elite talent set of TAA and the midfield was just energy).
Yeh it's normal. Still, it rankles me that they think it's acceptable to be talking about this sort of thing during the business end of the season (that isn't exclusively a thing that family members do but it's still annoying).
Cheers.
If he's good enough for the world champions he's good enough for anyone, sign him up.
Don't get this comparison with Rice, do you even watch football ?
Agree, at #10 he will find himself in good positions, he's agile and his work rate helps him out, but he is just average in the final third.
If we can't get FDJ I wouldn't be against Kovačić and Le Fee, they both would cost as much as FDJ alone.
Agree, at #10 he will find himself in good positions, he's agile and his work rate helps him out, but he is just average in the final third.
If we can't get FDJ I wouldn't be against Kovačić and Le Fee, they both would cost as much as FDJ alone.
Sorry, I should have been clearer, but I meant I'd go for Rice from those 2. Agreed that he isn't needed with Casemiro.
Caicedo looks to have the skillset to cover both roles in a double pivot, so I can see why we're longed with him. Another expensive one though, and doesn't fully fit what we need.
We need someone like FdJ, I just don't know who that is at the moment.
He seems a handy player, but I think you are right... He's not exactly what we need, especially for the premium Brighton will hold out for.
It's very important we get a proper cm beside Casemiro so we can start to control possession better in games.
Yeah we're in a weird position where we are at that cusp where we need to make the step up, but to make that step up, we need the right style player at a truly top level. That's it. We don't need many players, but as that Casemiro partner and at CF, we truly just need a top player. In midfield it would make sense someone like Kokcu as well who would grow into it but shows the perfect traits of what we need there. Those 2 positions we are dealing with a tiny player pool of players who fit what we need. Some others we can be flexible. Mac Allister just isn't it.
I think Fred is a good example as to why some box-to-box players struggle in a possession side. There is a huge gap in quality between someone like Gundogan and Fred.
Yes please! He's very high on my list of players to play next to Casemiro
Licha is his mate?
There is of course, Gundogan has been borderline world class for a decade, Mac Allister has never shown anywhere close to his form or ability on the ball or playmaking ability.
He's all I expected Van de Beek to be.
Not sure how good a player he is. What would be getting?
Not saying it's not a good option, but just not sure how good, and what would elicit decent value.
Not saying it's not a good option, but just not sure how good, and what would elicit decent value.
Statistically, they actually have very similar numbers this season in a range of areas.
- Both in terms of completion rate and how far they move the ball with each pass (Mac Allister is actually a bit more progressive).
- Where they have the ball and how far they move it is also very similar. One of the biggest differences between them is maybe take-on success (59,2 % vs 37 % in favour of Mac Allister).
- Gundogan has slightly higher expected output (xga of 0,13 vs 0,11 and xnpg of 0,27 vs 0,21) and Mac Allister is alot more active defending. I’m sure a big part could also be attributed to playing for Man City vs Brighton.
https://fbref.com/en/stathead/playe...2-2023&player_id2=819b3158&p2yrfrom=2022-2023
He had an interview during the international break where he implied to be actively looking at the possibility if the right club comes in.
It’s not random for people discussing his departure because he, himself have led the conversation there.
That logic worked out fantasically with Kléberson.
You're using end career stats for Gundogan though.. current day Gundogan isn't a top player. Check out his earlier numbers. The key thing with Mac Allister is he doesn't stand out in any attribute... Very much a 50th to 75th percentile around the board with all things like passing into different areas, pass progression, carry progression, chance creation, touches from deeper and midfield areas, etc etc. He's very "mid" in all those aspects. Where he'd show up well would be the work rate and all rounder aspects of popping up in scoring positions or getting shots off, pressing etc. That's not the player we need. You look at 18/19 Gundogan for example, he's at 90s or high 90's percentile for pass progression, passing into final third, passing into the box, midfield touches, progressive carries etc. Also shows up excellently with turnovers (in that he doesn't have many miscontrols, dispossessions) where Mac Allister is lower than Eriksen with, and it's a key point because we need a press resistant deep lying player who can pick the ball up from deep and not have dumb give aways. Always been the issue with Pogba and Fred for example.
Defensive stats on fbref are very meh these days anyway. No more pressure data, not pass adjusted and all that. He's a very active presser anyway, but he's not some positionally sound sitter. He's basically just like Fred from that perspective.
And that was Gundogan in his prime (and maybe the best season he has had). Not where Mac Allister at 24 is today. If you look at 17/18 and compare it to today the main difference (that inflates progression etc) was that he was on the ball more. (Relatively high turnover numbers in 17/18 too.)
With Gundogan though, those were qualities he showed right from the start at Dortmund. He went through a lull with the back injuries before recovering again, but generally speaking, the qualities that stand out about a player just get refined over time as they progress. They get more rounded over time to get other attributes up to standard, while their stand out skills remain so. Mac Allister doesn't stand out with passing progression, creativity, being press resistant or carrying the ball. He's just not a playmaker type - he's an energy, attacking box to box type. Which is fine. He'll improve with that. But I just don't think he has ever shown anything that shows he will be a deep playmaker type, or show those attributes to a high level.
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