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Totally Unofficial 2023/24 Premier League Thread

Henderson had a very bad season last season at most traditional stuff you want goalkeepers to do keeping the ball out of the net. Good at peripheral stuff like commanding the box, playing with his feet, throwing, stopping crosses, and positioning, but one of the worst in the league at post shot expected goals against +-. I liked him a lot before last season but his numbers fell off a cliff. Not a good shot stopper at all, it seems, and maybe that can be taught?
 
So (likely untrue) rumors that United want to include one or both of Maguire and McTominay (seen both reported) plus £50M for Rice. I would do that deal, even if it's both of them rather than just one of them.
 
yeah, especially if Maguire is the 1.

get the wages off the bill (he isn't going to command a big transfer fee anyway)
don't let a rival strengthen
Rice can learn from Casemiro for a couple seasons and then take over as the full-time 6. Until then he can spell Cas and work at the 8 or in a double-pivot 4-2-3-1 when EtH wants to set up counters instead of controlling possession. Although, I am less than convinced about Rice's ability to play a deadly ball forward that starts an incisive counter. He's pretty decent at them but I'd like to see that area of his game improved if United brought him in
 
TownieDeac said:
Henderson had a very bad season last season at most traditional stuff you want goalkeepers to do keeping the ball out of the net. Good at peripheral stuff like commanding the box, playing with his feet, throwing, stopping crosses, and positioning, but one of the worst in the league at post shot expected goals against +-. I liked him a lot before last season but his numbers fell off a cliff. Not a good shot stopper at all, it seems, and maybe that can be taught?
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Yes. And no.

He played basically the same number of matches as Keylor Navas (18v17) for them and had more clean sheets (6v1), Forest won slightly more often when he played (30%v24%), and keep in mind that his save % last season was a huge negative outlier from his career numbers, so personally I'm not reading much into it if I'm Forest.
 
Havertz to Arsenal seems on.

If they don't try to fit him in as a last line striker-type it could work. He is just -- and always has been -- better as an attacking midfielder/wide forward. Watched a bit of Germany/Colombia, and Flick had him at the 9, where he seemed to end up with Chelsea often, and he was just so lost. No hold up play, nothing threatening behind, not really a physical presence to occupy the central defenders or even drag them wide. Germany was just bad overall, but he didn't help.

It's kind of a weird one on the face of it, but he seems to have been a priority, so I'm guessing Arteta has a good idea of what to do.
 
deacvision7 said:
Yes. And no.

He played basically the same number of matches as Keylor Navas (18v17) for them and had more clean sheets (6v1), Forest won slightly more often when he played (30%v24%), and keep in mind that his save % last season was a huge negative outlier from his career numbers, so personally I'm not reading much into it if I'm Forest.
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Two of those clean sheets he faced zero shots (Palace and Soton). Another against Leicester they generated 0.1 xG on one attempt. Seems like he had three games, against West Ham, Brighton and Liverpool where opponents had a post shot expected goal of 1 or more that he kept clean sheets. All the rest of his matches he conceded and had a below expectation save rate. It’s an outlier compared to prior seasons, and his defense was not good all season, but it’s a concern for me.
 
Timber to Arsenal rumors getting louder, would absolutely love to get that one over the line early in the summer
 
I had kind of hoped Liverpool might be in for Timber to do a bit of CB/RB/MF, but seems like they're focusing on left sided guys. I think Timber would have fit perfectly in how Liverpool finished the season.

Not sure I'm super confident about them relying on the fitness of Konate, Matip, and Gomez again.

He can def do the thing Ben White was doing, but I guess I thought they might see Tomiyasu as someone with that profile, too.
 
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Looks like Gundogan to Barca is happening
 
OldGouldandBlack said:
Havertz to Arsenal seems on.

If they don't try to fit him in as a last line striker-type it could work. He is just -- and always has been -- better as an attacking midfielder/wide forward. Watched a bit of Germany/Colombia, and Flick had him at the 9, where he seemed to end up with Chelsea often, and he was just so lost. No hold up play, nothing threatening behind, not really a physical presence to occupy the central defenders or even drag them wide. Germany was just bad overall, but he didn't help.

It's kind of a weird one on the face of it, but he seems to have been a priority, so I'm guessing Arteta has a good idea of what to do.
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I think the best spot I've seen Havertz play in is as a wide forward on the right that drifts in and out of the middle. Not exactly a inside winger or forward but kinda like what Thomas Mueller did for Germany at this start of his international career. The problem with that is Saka is surely undroppable from RW for Arsenal... and Martinelli/Troussard seem to have LW locked up... so that leaves the 9 and 10...and Arsenal can't really drop Odegaard.

70ish mil is a lot to pay for a guy that doesn't have an obvious home in a starting XI and has a career of being a below average finisher, especially in England.
 
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Dzeko to Fenerbache
Balogun to Inter

the rumor mill continues to swing round and round this morning
 
ok these values really aren't far off so I guess I have to get used to the notion of Mount joining United



I'm just so unconvinced about him as a player. He's "fine" but if Erik wants him this badly then I'm good with reevaluating once he comes into the fold and plays in red.
 
Saudi Prince to Saudi Club - buy Ruben Neves and then loan him to my other Premier League club. Do it or be murdered.

This seems like a fair way to conduct transfer business!
 
deacvision7 said:
I think the best spot I've seen Havertz play in is as a wide forward on the right that drifts in and out of the middle. Not exactly a inside winger or forward but kinda like what Thomas Mueller did for Germany at this start of his international career. The problem with that is Saka is surely undroppable from RW for Arsenal... and Martinelli/Troussard seem to have LW locked up... so that leaves the 9 and 10...and Arsenal can't really drop Odegaard.

70ish mil is a lot to pay for a guy that doesn't have an obvious home in a starting XI and has a career of being a below average finisher, especially in England.
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Depending on whatever midfielder(s) we bring in the rest of the window, Havertz is also an option to play the Xhaka role as a left-sided #8. The number of times Xhaka ended up being the furthest man forward this season was surprising, and Havertz more naturally fits into a role higher up the pitch than I think Xhaka does.

But I also think it's missing the point somewhat to think about it as spending 65M on a player who may not be a 50 game starter for Arsenal, it's that we are actually spending the money to buy players who can provide quality depth. We saw what acquiring Trossard did for Martinelli's fitness and form in January-April when Martinelli wasn't pulling 90 minutes game in, game out. I said it a million times during the season but I'll say it again, the biggest reason I never believed Arsenal really had a chance at the title and why I always thought City would come back was because City has elite depth across every single outfield position. When Arsenal had to make substitutions or when players would go down injured (Saliba being the biggest example), our replacements were just not at the level required to contend.

Our best XI last season could compete with City, they proved that, but we didn't have our best XI for half the season or more. When City starts Grealish-Haaland-Mahrez, they can sub on Foden-Alvarez-Silva and probably still be the best front 3 in the league. They can casually throw Joao Cancelo in the trash in January because they have six other international starting level defenders on the books. They bought Kalvin Phillips for 45M as a luxury midfielder, and they just did it again with Kovacic, just to have on ice in case of emergency. Only two outfield players for City made more than 30 starts in the league, Rodri and Haaland.

I have my reservations about Havertz, his stint at Chelsea obviously did not go well. The price is the price, 24-year old German international from your London rivals is going to run a price. But my reservation doesn't have to do with whether or not he will start 38 games in the PL, with UCL and the domestic cups, there will be more than enough games to go around. Even if his best role for the team next year is to be a RW depth option to give Saka some rest and to rotate through the front 5 as needed, that's fine. Arsenal have to pay the going rate and I'm just happy that the owners appear to be on board with doing so.
 
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