This is well said. I agree with just about everything you say here except about De Ligt. I'd take Martinez over him as well. I've not been impressed with De Ligt whenever I've seen him. Looks like the Dutch Maguire to me. His performance against Villarreal this year in the Champions League was one of the worst I've ever seen from any defender.
Lisandro Martinez | Signs for United
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This is well said. I agree with just about everything you say here except about De Ligt. I'd take Martinez over him as well. I've not been impressed with De Ligt whenever I've seen him. Looks like the Dutch Maguire to me. His performance against Villarreal this year in the Champions League was one of the worst I've ever seen from any defender.
Against Chelsea in CL which he apparently bossed. But ETH has been on record saying he doesn't fancy him there, something to do with not being able to cover enough ground.
Thanks. I guess he is definitely a centre back then if/when he comes here.
He won't be displacing either Fred or McTominay when it comes to ground covered.
If there was no issue playing Blind as CB in PL with us, there shouldn’t be a concern playing this guy as CB in PL as this guy has better aerial duel stats than Blind. This guy and FDJ are the signings that get me excited this summer if we get them, cannot wait to see the transformation they will bring to our build up play.
Wonder if this means we’ll be playing 5 at the back. Otherwise seems like he may he too expensive to just be a utility player/cover for Maguire or Varane.
Exactly right.
Is their interest in this player another sign that Arsenal are finally sorting themselves out from a recruitment standpoint and should be taken more seriously or are we just slowly turning into Arsenal?
I like him though. He looks aggressive and brave, press resistant, nice pass on him. We could definitely do worse. Finally going with that left footed centre back which should in theory open up the pitch a lot more for us. Hopefully whoever is wide left starts putting in a much more aggressive shift. Malacia looks potentially really good on that front at fullback.
I like him though. He looks aggressive and brave, press resistant, nice pass on him. We could definitely do worse. Finally going with that left footed centre back which should in theory open up the pitch a lot more for us. Hopefully whoever is wide left starts putting in a much more aggressive shift. Malacia looks potentially really good on that front at fullback.
Yeah but if we haven't got that same attacking threat at RB then can see a situation where we look very lopsided as has been the case for years
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a few of our players improve under ETH and with Eriksen and FDJ pinging it around. Maybe Dalot or Laird can do it if we get a harder working striker. I just think whatever happens there are too many players needed to fix us in one window and It’s going to take time for ETH to really appreciate who he can rely on. I think we will give him a free pass next season so if the usual players let him down expect another 3/4 new faces from Jan to next summer and so on. We’ve mismanaged the team for years. It’s probably going to be a long process to get us back competing, if it works at all.
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Give me someone who is good at defending and above 6ft
We don’t need to compromise
Fred's a runner; it's literally his job to run non-stop and press the opposition all across midfield and some (a lot) of the time, he's running backwards in recovery, McTominay's running stats are mostly pointless as he hasn't a clue how to play midfield or have effective, economical movement - his most fruitful role was sweeping up behind Fred in a counterattacking side where he didn't have to think for himself or worry about midfield play as a whole.
Martinez in midfield doesn't mean covering much space or doing a lot of running if he's positionally intelligent and able to read the game going on ahead of him - one of the greatest strengths of a good DM is anticipating danger and being in position to put out fires before they really get going.
I feel that ten Hag quote has been somewhat misinterpreted because he [Martinez] mightn't have been optimal for what Ajax needed in a totally front-foot, attacking team, who are naturally going to have their midfield and backline as high up the pitch as possible (it would be interesting to see their heatmaps traced over City's) and what we will initially need whilst attempting to establish a fraction of such positional dominance in a league where we didn't even have a top ten midfield last season.
In a complete ten Hag team (which I think it's fair to assume Ajax were), things/personnel are likely to be very different to what he currently has to work with here, which is why I think there will be a lot of give and take until we're up and running and the manager can then go about fine tuning specific or specialist roles. Are we even in a position with these players to rule utilitarian utilisation out? Most likely Martinez is deployed where most needed, dependant on the opposition and the threat(s) they pose.
Unless Eriksen really can play deep and be defensively astute, it's absolutely ridiculous pressure to put on De Jong to run such a porous midfield by himself as things currently stand.
Would take Martinez over de Ligt personally. Sure, de Ligt will win more headers and score more goals but think Martinez improves the team more overall.
Varane looked like the ideal redcafe defender, tall, athletic, strong, fast, comfortable on the ball. He has suffered with injuries yeah, but been average at best. There is so much more than this.
Varane looked like the ideal redcafe defender, tall, athletic, strong, fast, comfortable on the ball. He has suffered with injuries yeah, but been average at best. There is so much more than this.
I really do not get all that fuss about height
So he is 175 cm… what is the „good height”that would make you feel ok with CB ?
I would be concerned if i asked him to change a bulb not having anything to stand on around but when he can also add jumping i am relax about that.
Most of the time player is playing on the ground. Especially if we want to implement that highline EtH wants us to play where defenders are taking part in moving the ball. Being shorter means you are more mobile with better balance.
In terms of heading the ball there are 5 things that are important:
height, jumping, timing, agression and positioning… from what i have seen he is pretty good at 4/5 of those things…
If you want to score a header you need to hit the ball in the centre part or top half to put It to the goal… but being defender you just need to touch it, even from the bottom. So that alone gives you around 10 cm advantage.
Ivan Toney is 179 cm and he won 2nd most nr of headers per 90 min last season.
Falcao was 177 cm…. And he scored shitload of header…
So just relax and wait for what our manager wants to do.
So he is 175 cm… what is the „good height”that would make you feel ok with CB ?
I would be concerned if i asked him to change a bulb not having anything to stand on around but when he can also add jumping i am relax about that.
Most of the time player is playing on the ground. Especially if we want to implement that highline EtH wants us to play where defenders are taking part in moving the ball. Being shorter means you are more mobile with better balance.
In terms of heading the ball there are 5 things that are important:
height, jumping, timing, agression and positioning… from what i have seen he is pretty good at 4/5 of those things…
If you want to score a header you need to hit the ball in the centre part or top half to put It to the goal… but being defender you just need to touch it, even from the bottom. So that alone gives you around 10 cm advantage.
Ivan Toney is 179 cm and he won 2nd most nr of headers per 90 min last season.
Falcao was 177 cm…. And he scored shitload of header…
So just relax and wait for what our manager wants to do.
Huh? There was an issue playing Blind at CB. He wasn't great hence he didn't have a long career here. He might have been more convincing than he was at DM or LB but he wasn't an unqualified success and most people considered him lacking physically. Obviously this guy seems more athletic anyway.
His height became a problem once Mourinho joined.
Mourinho dropped and sold him due to his obsession with height and physicality, under Van gaal he was one of our best performers
It's actually unreal how unlucky we've been with Argentine's.
Heinze, Tevez, Di Maria. Even Rojo tried to manoeuvre a move to Madrid
Heinze, Tevez, Di Maria. Even Rojo tried to manoeuvre a move to Madrid
It's actually unreal how unlucky we've been with Argentine's.
Heinze, Tevez, Di Maria. Even Rojo tried to manoeuvre a move to Madrid
Let’s hope that having two of them at te same time would change that curse
I feel he's strangely better suited to our midfield than De Jong. Hope we get this over the line.
It's actually unreal how unlucky we've been with Argentine's.
Heinze, Tevez, Di Maria. Even Rojo tried to manoeuvre a move to Madrid
Think Heinze and Tevez were both successful here. The others weren’t for different reasons (Di Maria was a quality player).
Garnacho looks a gem.
I didn’t see any issue of him playing as CB under LVG.
Hopefully he will because hes playing and they arent
Serious question; season is long, you need depth and shit like that but regarding central defenders, you always have first pair who starts most of games. So are we buying him as backup or first choice?
Tbh everyone's is a guess work. Maybe he will be first choice alongside Varane.
Look at how many goals we conceded last season then you tell me if you are focusing on signing backups
This exactly..^^
I'm not even so certain that Martinez is coming in as a CB, I just have a sneaky feeling he might be earmarked for a DM role....We shall see.
Did Ajax turn down our bid or are we waiting for a response?
Yeah I'm still not sure what position
I guess you are still living in the 90s.
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With it coming out publicly that he wants to be allowed to leave, I'd say it's a matter of time before it gets resolved. Ajax will just be trying to squeeze every last penny out of the deal which is their prerogative.
Thiago Silva is 1.81cm, Ricardo Carvalho 1.83cm. Does Lisandro Martinez being 6-8cm shorter render him useless?
If we believe latest rumours we're close but havent agreed the fee. Ajax want a bit more than we've offered
Not useless but it is definitely a concern in the PL if we are indeed looking at him as a CB longterm.
Wood is one of the last big and tall no9s. He scored 2 goals last year. Era of big and tall defenders and strikers are over
If we control possession a lot better then we won't get into as many defensive box situations as we have in the last 2 years.
Whats the best way to defend? keep the ball in your opponents half. Thats the reason why City/Liverpool concede barely any goals.
Now obviously that's easier said than done, but it's a major reason of why we let so many shots at our goal.
We'll have to assume ten Hag and his team have done their due diligence on the PL and, knowing Martinez as well as they obviously do, are confident he can contribute.
Teams play with inside forwards and 9s who drop deep. Teams try to play the ball on the ground these days, the days of teams getting it wide to lump it in are gone. If you think about it, playing a midfield 3 with a lone striker up top lessens the bodies in the box so a big man knocking it down or getting 2v1 against a CB just isn’t optimal in todays game.
If you remember our period of conceding from crosses most of them were from not tracking back post runs. That’s the threat from wide these days, those byline crosses that are cut back across rather than big brave CBs getting their head on long balls
Yes I read he has made his intention known to Ajax and also Arsenal are scheduled a meeting with Ajax most likely they'll try to top our current offer.
City and Liverpool have Dias and VVD as well as class holding midfielders shielding their back fours.
Of course he will contribute. I am just saying that his height will likely cost us goals from crosses and set pieces. I would much prefer Gvardiol for this reason amongst others. But unfortunately our scouting department still hasn’t a scooby and we seem to be relying on EtH to identify targets which is far from optimal to say the very least.
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