If we are open to Maguire and Casemiro leaving we have pretty much feck all threat from attacking set pieces not to mention defending them. De Ligt and Branthwaite would help immensely in this regard. We cant be one injury to Licha away from being totally fecked again next season
Jarrad Branthwaite
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
We need that sort of depth. The Europa league has 8 group games that don't finish till late January. Its going to be a long season.
Probably not 'happy', no. They will presumably each be backing themselves to perform well enough to become a main starter. Same as when any player opts to join the biggest clubs.
And Branthwaite, especially, hasn't done enough in his career so far that he should just be expecting to walk into the biggest clubs in the world and be undoubted starter no questions asked. He'd be taking a big step up and I'm sure he'd be aware he'd have to fight for his place and earn the right to become a key starter based on how he performs.
Getting De Ligt signed would show Everton we are happy to walk away, that just might see them drop that £70m valuation. On the other hand it might take him to push for the move and is he willing to do that.
The rumors earlier today were that Maguire was attracting interest from Italy so I assume he'll be the 3rd CB if Maguire is sold.
We can let this drag out and Everton can either stay with an unhappy player or negotiate in a reasonable way.
70m demand is bogus.
We can let this drag out and Everton can either stay with an unhappy player or negotiate in a reasonable way.
70m demand is bogus.
Madrid has Rüdiger, Alaba, Militão (and also had Nacho and are looking to replace him)
City has Diaz, Ake, Gvardiol, Stones, Akanji...
Et cetera. It's okay to have 3 (or even more) great players competing for 2 starting spots — more so, it's healthy.
Good. If we went into next season with Martinez, de Ligt, Branthwaite, Evans and Kambwala as our CB options it’d be ideal.
Move Lindelof and Maguire on.
Move Lindelof and Maguire on.
Considering city have about 6 CBs that would be starters elsewhere, I don't think us having 3 of the required quality is such an issue
It's never an issue at ambitious clubs who aim to compete on all fronts.
Small time mentality to think it would be a bad thing or an issue having 3-4 starter quality defenders in a squad
Im willing to bet that we are still going to sign this dude too if there’s any kind of reasonable deal to be done with Everton. 55 plus add ons will get him. Pretty obvious the plan is to shore up the spine this summer, all heavily linked players are through the middle. I think they definitely want another LCB as well as De Ligt. We don’t have very many left footers in the squad. A perfectly assembled and well balanced squad would have a few more. If Everton don’t budge tell them you’re going for someone like Hato at Ajax who could
turn out to be a brilliant player.
Last edited:
Yep! Martinez can’t play every game next season so Branthwaite would play loads for us! The other two can be our 4/5th choice.
It’s be a huge plus for us and make decent sense.
This one makes me so angry. Move on from him ffs. Calafiori is twice the player available for half the price. But for some reason we got a hard on for Branthwaite. Why, just why? Nothing screams about him even potential wise as elite. He’s so bloody overrated, it’s beyond belief.
People still confused by the idea of having a decent squad of players, will be the same ones moaning in the season that we've got no good replacements when people get injured.
People really need to wrap their heads around it being okay to have good players that don’t start
100m total for JB and De Ligt is good business. Would reshape our CB room drastically
We need a few english players in the squad.
We will have probably 60-65 matches in the upcoming season + Martinez needs more breaks after his set-backs last season = No one will be unhappy.
Yep that would be a perfect solution for the CB position.
Ugarte could be the DM so who would you like to see signed as the goal scorer then?
I’d rather keep Maguire and have him as backup to De Ligt. We’d then have similar pairings to rotate.
Martinez - De Ligt
Branthwaite - Maguire
Evans - Kambwala
Most likely people prefer to put 50m on other needed position(s), than on a rotation CB. Unless of course, the Club is loaded this window.
We really need two centre backs though. Varane has gone, Lindelof seems likely to leave and Martinez has had injury issues. We are almost looking at buying a new starting CB partnership given the issues we had this season.
Calafiori isnt available at half the price. His club have basically dangled him in front of clubs now and I would be shocked if he didnt cost 50m.
Branthwaite is a good player, he is one of the best defenders for his age group. He is proven in the league and has the very rare ability of being two footed. If we can sign him for 50-55m (add ons included), then it would be a good deal.
Yeah the two footed thing makes him appealing
It should be fine if we have sold some. But we haven't.
If we are going for Branthwaite, I wouldnt be suprised if we stop pursuing a LB, since he can also play there.
I'll think Martinez will be playing there.
Last edited:
Also possible. I would be reluctant to move Martinez away from the middle due to his elite ball playing ability, but iirc Arsenal wanted to get him to play as an LB too.
New tactical approach will utilise Martinez’s ball playing ability extremely well. Seems we’re now looking at players for a system, rather than trying to fit them in and changing tactics to cover their weaknesses. Him and Shaw as back up is very strong.
A successful EPL CB pairing is usually made up of an old school type of CB who win every aerial duel, does the tackling etc and the pacey and cultured CB who covers behind him and who pass the ball in the correct channels. Classic examples of that are Vidic and Rio or Terry and Cahill.
De Ligt is a sort of half way house. He's got the silky passing of a Rio but at 32.81km/h he's not the fastest. He's not slow. For example he's faster then Maguire (30,01km/h) and more around Lindelof's territory (33%) but he's not a fast CB either. De Ligt is also decent in air but at 1.8 aerial duels won he's more of a Saliba (1.8) then a Branthwaite (2.6) let alone a Maguire (3.3).
Martinez is also a half way house. He's got Vidic character but lacks his physicality and aerial prowess (0.4). He's got excellent passing skills at 92% and he's relatively fast but he's also very aggressive. A duo together will be too aggressive, it wouldn't be good enough in air (though an improvement from last season since Varane is at 1.2) and it wouldn't be fast enough.
That's were Jarrad comes in. At 2.6 Branthwaite is superb in air. We're talking the best you can have without having to play a typical old fashioned CB whose specialized mostly in aerial duels (ex Tarkowski and Maguire). If you pair him with a De Ligt then our CB pairing can defend corners/freekicks without the need of a tall player coming from elsewhere for support (ex McT). At 35.1km/h Jarrad is an extremely fast CB. He's faster then Guehi (33.94km/h) and Bayern's current speedster in defence Upamecano (35.02km/h) let alone De Ligt (32.81km/h).
Jarrad isn't perfect though. His passing completion is around the 80% mark. I think that would improve if he plays for a manager whose not Sean Dyche but it would never be elite. I think he can reach the levels of a Maguire (84%) or stretching it maybe a Guehi (86%). That's where De Ligt comes in with his pass completion at a staggering 93.1%. That makes him better then Lisandro Martinez (92%), Varane (88.7%) and Saliba (91.7%). We're talking of an elite passer of the ball here.
At Ajax ETH played with a converted CB as LB in Blind which in turned allowed Mazraoui to bomb forward on as RB. Lisandro can play as a LB as well. What if that's what ETH's planning for us?
I have seen this mentioned a lot of times that Branthwaite is two footed. Is he that good with his feet actually? Both I mean.
Martinez-Branthwaite-De Ligt-Dalot
That could be a very solid solid back 4. Well balanced, enough height and pace to cover. Shaw could slot in too and we could move to a back 3 in certain games or times during a game if need be and it gives us tactical fluidity. No need to buy a back up left back again and we'd have enough central options in case of injuries.
That could be a very solid solid back 4. Well balanced, enough height and pace to cover. Shaw could slot in too and we could move to a back 3 in certain games or times during a game if need be and it gives us tactical fluidity. No need to buy a back up left back again and we'd have enough central options in case of injuries.
Safer. Not necessarily better. He obviously isn't in Martinez's league for passing. As good as or possibly better than Varane though, I'd agree.
this guy and De Ligt would be great. Imagine Branthwaite, De Ligt and Martinez in a back 3 with Ugarte sitting in front.
Stacking up our CB position makes sense, especially if we also sell Lindelof who is poor. Time for some proper competition
I am not a big fan of this signing and had made my concern pretty clear in this forum. However even I has to admit that De Ligt's passing is off the charts though we're talking of fine margins here.
De ligt is perfectly fine on the ball. Comfortable, but generally safe. He isn't as good a passer as Martinez though. Pretty much no centre back is.
Maguire wants his place back in the England squad therefore i think he will leave if we would really sign De Ligt and Branthwaite.
At least i think Kambwala is ready as "fourth choice" in this position.....otherwise he should go on loan.
Apparently we've told you its £70m in one lump now or £90m over 3 years.
neither of which you can afford i presume
neither of which you can afford i presume
Bro the dozen or so games I’ve seen him play, I’d say he is very good with his right. I believe he recently mentioned that he actually plays short passes with his right, and longer passes with his left.