I was between jobs for part of the summer of 2015 and watched pretty much all the 2015 European U21 Championships. Due to weird rules a 23 year old William Carvalho could play for Portugal's U21, after he had already played for at least a year for the senior team. He was awesome. Head and shoulders over most other players in the competition. Obviously he clearly benefited from being further ahead in his development than most other players but I remember at the time thinking that he had a huge future in front of him. Every transfer window I have expected him to move to a bigger team in a bigger league but he has stayed with Sporting. I must note that outside those U21 Champo's in 2015 I've only seen him play once at the last Senior Euro's in 2016 in the final. He looked good in that. From what I have seen he would be great for us. A definitive DCM who sits and holds. Great engine but not a top end sprinter. Resultantly not as everywhere as a Kante, but had very good distribution and vision, exceeding Kante IMO. Very calm on the ball. Very strong and a top tackler. He is a pure DCM in that he didn't push forward too much, I imagine he would work best in a 433 with the middle three working as a 'v' with him at the base. Maybe this is why Bilic wanted fewer attacking mid's as he wants to go 433 rather than 4231?
Looks a good squad. Efectively take your pick from 5 for the two box to box CMs. Fernandes can come in as one of the higher CMs or Wingers, and Lanz can also play wing. Obiang can deputise at DCM if Carvalho is out.
Florin, ;clap ;clap He's always impressed me whenever I've seen him and if we can get it over the line then it would be a great addition for the club. An out and out DCM, very composed, efficient, strong and intelligent in how he plays the game. Would hopefully free up Noble, obaing, Kouyate, etc to play higher up knowing that we do have a high quality holding midfield back.
Would be a huge signing TWC. At the moment I in all honesty am not getting my hopes too high as I thought another big budget signing was unlikely this summer. I just really hope we do see it transfer confirmed on the official site! Freeing up those boys could enable us to play some good technical football IMO, with Carvalho spreading the play and being the lynch pin. Generally I have been a fan of 4231 for us, but feel that formation with Carvalho wouldn't work quite so well, so it would be a change of style for us if it occurred to the 433, however Slav was clearly experimenting with that over the pre season.
Moore_than - in a classic 433 the two wingers don't track back too much. Protection is done with the three middle men who shuffle across slightly where necessary to where the play is, particularly the 'free' DCM. Antonio would certainly not be in the middle three but one of the wingers - he is not technical enough for the box to box men, but is right for the wing position being quick and a good dribbler. For a classic 433 (think Barce) of your three middle you have an out and out DCM (ie Busquets) and then two more box to box but generally technically very astute players (ie Xavi/Iniesta/Rakatic), obviously we'd be on a slightly lower level!
**please note the MO on my above formation at RW should have been MA!
Just realised I misread your point Moore_than, sorry! I personally think Noble, Kouyate, Obiang, Lanzini and Fernandes could all play the middle two above the DCM as box to boxerz. Choose depending on opposition/form. My only concern is that if we do bring in Carvalho we will have too many players vying for only a couple of places and akin to Nordtveit last year, someone will not get enough games and be unhappy. In my opinion that is likely to be Kouyate as he is probably not technical enough to play that formation. This would be a shame as I like CK, but that is what I think is likely. Of course if he would be willing to play at CB...
As far as the central striker goes 433 leads more into the hands of a quick forward as opposed to a hold up man, as he has the two wingers up with him pretty much all the time. With 4231 the lone striker role is more of a target man who then has the three attacking mids catch up to him and he can lay it off to them. Thereby 433 is probably better for Chicharito where as 4231 is probably better for Carroll.
Sadly just don't see Carvalho going to us, think the club are kean and Carvalho does want to go the team EPL.....but at a bigger club and this is just a bit to prompt someone into gazumping us
What's encouraging here is that it seems we have a player who actually wants to come and play for our club. Ditto hart, arny and chicharito. I know £££ will play a big part, however you only need to roll back a year when we were prepared to offer a big fee and package to Bacca and the bloke had no interest in joining us.
is Carvalho really a 30m+ player ? from what I have being told from friends whose clubs were previously linked with him. He is good but not a game changer that some people seem to be making out.
But I guess if its a position that is really that important maybe it would be for us.
Yeh, our defence has been our biggest problem. If hart, zab and supposedly carvalho can't help make that better, then we may aswell all pack up and go home.
Yeh, our defence has been our biggest problem. If hart, zab and supposedly carvalho can't help make that better, then we may aswell all pack up and go home.
I've got my train ticket booked, case zipped up and am just wondering when my lift to the station is going to turn up.
Comments
-----------JH/ASM-------------
PZ/SB---WR/JC--JF/AO---AC/AM
----------Carvalho----------
----CK/MN-------PO/ML-----
MO/RS------------------MA/AA
---------JH/AC/DS----------
Looks a good squad. Efectively take your pick from 5 for the two box to box CMs. Fernandes can come in as one of the higher CMs or Wingers, and Lanz can also play wing. Obiang can deputise at DCM if Carvalho is out.
Moore_than - in a classic 433 the two wingers don't track back too much. Protection is done with the three middle men who shuffle across slightly where necessary to where the play is, particularly the 'free' DCM. Antonio would certainly not be in the middle three but one of the wingers - he is not technical enough for the box to box men, but is right for the wing position being quick and a good dribbler. For a classic 433 (think Barce) of your three middle you have an out and out DCM (ie Busquets) and then two more box to box but generally technically very astute players (ie Xavi/Iniesta/Rakatic), obviously we'd be on a slightly lower level!
**please note the MO on my above formation at RW should have been MA!
As far as the central striker goes 433 leads more into the hands of a quick forward as opposed to a hold up man, as he has the two wingers up with him pretty much all the time. With 4231 the lone striker role is more of a target man who then has the three attacking mids catch up to him and he can lay it off to them. Thereby 433 is probably better for Chicharito where as 4231 is probably better for Carroll.
(note to self: learn from Bats ;weep )
I've never seen him play, but he seems to be highly-rated by everybody else, so very exciting ;thumbsup
If he's as good as I'm hearing, would this represent our best PL transfer window ever?
But I guess if its a position that is really that important maybe it would be for us.
Depends how you define 'game changer'.
If a player could come in and stop the opposition waltzing through our back line at will, that would be a significant change, imo.