Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

sportsczy wrote:Absolute not CF as Mbappe's best position.  He plays as an inside forward from the left (like CR7) with France and does the same with PSG when Neymar is hurt (very often).  It's BY FAR his best position.

He has stated publicly that he doesn't like playing CF although he will do it if needed.

There was a lot of talk in the media in France when he was asked "why do you perform better with France than PSG" before the WC.. he answered, "I'm used in a different position at PSG".  That was when Neymar and Messi were healthy and he was forced to play CF.

Buddy that WC he didnt do much until the final where he filled for giroud after the early sub. Signing him and NOT playing him at cf would be the height of foolishness.

He isn't playing wide or else he'll have to track back. And we both know he don't track back whether for psg or even when it mattered for his country France as we all saw last December. If he had tracked back properly, Giroud would not have been subbed out so early in the bloody final.

The only position where he doesn't have to track back is CF! If he comes here, he best get ready to play where benzema left off.

Besides. Vinicius and rodrygo are too short to play cf. You really gonna tell me we gonna play rodrygo cf when we potentially have a 5'10 forward available in mbappe? You want your tallest forward always playing centre fool! Vin is 5'8 and rodrygo 5'9. 5'10 is the bare minimum to play cf. Though there are exceptions, it's best not to be limited tactically because your cf is too short. You have no idea how blessed we were for Benz being 6'1-6-2 or 1.85-1.87m

are you serious Turok?

He has 12 goals in 14 appearances in the two world cups.

In Qatar, he had 8 goals and 2 assists in 7 games.  Yes, 3 of them were in the Final.   The crazy thing is that his 8 goals cames on 28 shots... and 13 shots on goal.  

Was the best player in pool play, had a double against Denmark in elimination... and both goals against Morocco were rebounds off his shots.   And then he was the first player to score a hat trick in a final since before any of us were born (maybe not Bill).

He is already just 4 goals behind klose for all time world cup goals.

Finally, he has scored 22 goals in his last 29 games with France NT.  He has been just utterly dominant.  Teams literally put three people on him.  Giroud scores so much because he is playing 1v1 most times (which never happens for CFs).

Back on topic... i don't think it makes a huge difference where he plays.  He'll just roam.  If vini is killing it on the left, he'll just make runs off of Vini.  The issue at PSG was the with BOTH Neymar and Messi, he was forced to be a pure 9.  That wouldn't happen here.  He played fantastically well with Messi btw... the issue was Neymar.  The ball would just stop at Neymar's feet and slow down everything.  Vini and Mbappe's pace will be lethal.  They'll love playing with each other.

That said, I think Nasser would rather keep him and let him go for free than sell to Flo. So it's either EPL for Mbappe this year (some rumblings about Bayern btw) or maybe Madrid next summer.

Mbappe is not very predictable, unfortunately.

This time it's real... reports are that PSG is asking for bids. 150 million euros starting price.

sportsczy wrote:are you serious Turok?

He has 12 goals in 14 appearances in the two world cups.

In Qatar, he had 8 goals and 2 assists in 7 games.  Yes, 3 of them were in the Final.   The crazy thing is that his 8 goals cames on 28 shots... and 13 shots on goal.  

Was the best player in pool play, had a double against Denmark in elimination... and both goals against Morocco were rebounds off his shots.   And then he was the first player to score a hat trick in a final since before any of us were born (maybe not Bill).

He is already just 4 goals behind klose for all time world cup goals.

Finally, he has scored 22 goals in his last 29 games with France NT.  He has been just utterly dominant.  Teams literally put three people on him.  Giroud scores so much because he is playing 1v1 most times (which never happens for CFs).

Back on topic... i don't think it makes a huge difference where he plays.  He'll just roam.  If vini is killing it on the left, he'll just make runs off of Vini.  The issue at PSG was the with BOTH Neymar and Messi, he was forced to be a pure 9.  That wouldn't happen here.  He played fantastically well with Messi btw... the issue was Neymar.  The ball would just stop at Neymar's feet and slow down everything.  Vini and Mbappe's pace will be lethal.  They'll love playing with each other.

Nobody questioning his impact sports. But he truly didn't have what id call an explosive performance last December till the final. And it was no coincidence it was when he played cf.

Now obviously on hypotheticals, should the turtle arrive, the team sheet will have him placed cf but in reality ofc he will roam. Modern CF > pure 9 and psg were retarded to have mbappe play as a pure 9 if wot u say is true (didnt watch psg last season). And we need him at cf to take pressure off vin and rodrygo so they can do their job easier so in turn makes mbappe goalscoring a breeze.

Noted however you ain't denying mbappe lack of tracking back. That's what I thought. In the defensive scenario where we need 2 lines of 4 defensive block, vinicius and mbappe should be the lone 2 up top with rodrygo tracking back to defend, vinicius being the creator, and the turtle being the finisher should a counter present itself. The tactical setup for mbappe ain't complex. Just minor adjustments with extra speed available without needing a tactical revolution.

Top tier source Cortegana confirms Mbappe has been in contact with Perez for several weeks

Le Parisien (idk how reliable they are) says Mbappe only wants Real

Ramon de Mon (2nd tier source for Madrid IMO) confirms what Le Parisien said. Mbappe only wants Real. PSG will negotiate

Let Flo cook

I think it’s time to discredit a lot of Sports bias comments on this matter!

First off reality is there are only a hand full of clubs that have the financial capability to pay the purchase price as well to be able to meet his salary demand. Taking current ownerships into account plus potential new ownership, the only clubs are ManU, City, Newcastle and maybe Chelsea, although the latter is doubtful. Then you have to look at what they already have and City drops out of the possible clubs that might bid for his services. That basically says ManU and Newcastle are the only possible clubs and both of them are rebuilding. Think about it if you were Mbappe, who would be more attractive to you, ManU, Newcastle or Madrid!!  Or a renewal with your beloved home town PSG!

I heard Bayern mentioned as a possibility! Lol, when was the last time Bayern came even near 100M for a purchase?

Then we have Sports trying to rewrite history as to how Mbappe played Flo last time around.

And finally, we have him running around in circles saying what position he could or demand to play at Madrid.

Although he is no doubt a generational talent, i think we are better off without him and I for one hope this never happens.

I quite frankly don’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth, nor PSG for that matter. I think the end game is a renewal with more money and power!

Besides, with the addition of Bellingham, we have the potential of dominating the midfield for the next decade and therefore will likely play a lot of 2-4-4 formation. We just need to acquire a consistent scorer, preferably taller to accompany Vinicius.

I see Bill is paying attention for a change. So you remembered Carlo did float the 442 two seasons ago. With this new midfield a 442 is definitely an option and it won't be outlandish that carlo would revisit it. However, I still expect us to stay in the 433. I don't think you can bench rodrygo and I'm sure Carlo doesn't want to either. Technically when defending we do switch to a 442 and then switch back to 433 when we recover and attack. I don't think there's a need to change. But if Carlo changes it then there should be no problems.

Kylian Mbappé replies to article about him wanting to join Real Madrid this summer #Mbappé

“Lies. I’ve already said that I'm going to continue next season at PSG where I'm very happy”, Mbappé says.

…but PSG position is clear: extend the contract or leave this summer. https://t.co/uG0brNZWlD

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 13, 2023

Was amused by this tbh. I wish the turtle could keep his mouth shut so that we can gain the upper hand against levy. I don't think psg would sell to us anyways. If they any ounce of pride they'll let him go on a free than sell to us. We should just focus on Kolo muani > Osimhen >>> Kane.

i dont think anyone should take what players say about their transfer situations in public seriously. players will say whatever, and a lot of times, at least not until the tail end of the deal, they're not even at these meetings when their deal is being negotiated. what did benzema say about the Saudi Arabia rumors...."internet is not reality" lol.

as i always say, focus less on the rumors until something official comes out. back in the day, it made sense to follow rumors cos we read them in the papers, and the papers wasnt publishing the rumor everyday. the sports pages can only take so much. they would only publish something that they felt would garner readers and was worth the ink.

Now with the internet- the constant influx of info is so much, the bs gets mixed with the real and leads to a bunch of dumb ass "will he or wont he" takes. "player x is looking for a house in spain", "player y is looking at schools in england", "player z is now following player a at valencia on twitter, so he might move there", "player b liked this tweet from barcelona", "player c said haaland deserves the golden ball (so he'll move to city)"

...thats the bullshit that makes the rounds these days. and its an everyday thing. a news paper could post something dumb like that but it wouldnt be everyday. i kinda zoned out from transfer rumors in the 08/09 season when cristiano to madrid first came up. i obviously still hear n listen the rumors but i just dont put stock in them until realmadrid.com says something.

This whole how does mbappe fit never made any sense to me. Mbappe is one of a kind and a generational talent. He will play wherever the RM manager wants him to play. CF, LW, RW even fullback. You dont miss out on a player like Mbappe. You sign him and worry about the tactics later.

i get your point, and i don't disagree with your overall point. but signing and worrying about tactics later is dangerous. big teams do that and regret it; even madrid, i can't go on and start naming people who we went sign first and figure out later. i think before any move, the coaching staff needs to be consulted and figure out how they want to operate and know the expectations for said player.

i like ancelotti, but my biggest gripe with him is his love for playing players out of position. which i don't think he ever did until the di maria success in the la decima season. we have to be careful from that standpoint.

Turok... he DID NOT play CF during his great performances for France.  That's just not true.  The CF was either Giroud, Benzema, Marcus Thuram or Kolo Muani over the past 2 years.  He was always playing from the left.

@Bill.  Just because Marca or Flo (or both) say their version of the story was the truth regarding the last Mbappe saga doesn't make it true.  Mbappe and PSG say that their version is true.  Which one should we believe?  Frankly, unless there was a signed contract, Mbappe could do whatever he wanted.  Flo is a seasoned enough businessman to know that of course.  So Mbappe decided not to come to Madrid...  happens.  Madrid is not entitled to players automatically wanting to come here.  It's a mutual agreement that is signed.

I think Marca talked out of their ass (as often) last time.  If it was that bad, Flo and Madrid would not be trying to bring Mbappe to Madrid again.  IMO, it was just a lot of butthurt by everyone at Madrid and nothing of more substance than that.

titosantill wrote:i get your point, and i don't disagree with your overall point. but signing and worrying about tactics later is dangerous. big teams do that and regret it; even madrid, i can't go on and start naming people who we went sign first and figure out later. i think before any move, the coaching staff needs to be consulted and figure out how they want to operate and know the expectations for said player.

i like ancelotti, but my biggest gripe with him is his love for playing players out of position. which i don't think he ever did until the di maria success in the la decima season. we have to be careful from that standpoint.

Buddy... seriously?

What has Carlo done to deserve such disrespect? I guess his ac milan days really are a distant memory now.

sportsczy wrote:Turok... he DID NOT play CF during his great performances for France.  That's just not true.  The CF was either Giroud, Benzema, Marcus Thuram or Kolo Muani over the past 2 years.  He was always playing from the left.

@Bill.  Just because Marca or Flo (or both) say their version of the story was the truth regarding the last Mbappe saga doesn't make it true.  Mbappe and PSG say that their version is true.  Which one should we believe?  Frankly, unless there was a signed contract, Mbappe could do whatever he wanted.  Flo is a seasoned enough businessman to know that of course.  So Mbappe decided not to come to Madrid...  happens.  Madrid is not entitled to players automatically wanting to come here.  It's a mutual agreement that is signed.

I think Marca talked out of their ass (as often) last time.  If it was that bad, Flo and Madrid would not be trying to bring Mbappe to Madrid again.  IMO, it was just a lot of butthurt by everyone at Madrid and nothing of more substance than that.

You really gonna die on that hill huh. In the end it matters not, Guy gonna be cf for Real Madrid whether u like it or not. Ain't no way he displacing vinicius from his spot. He can roam but to maintain tactical shape, he has to stay central when we're defending. Especially when we need him to finish a play as I expect us to make the turtle the primary goalscorer.

No way in the world that a) he would come to Madrid without assurances that he plays in his favorite position and b) that he will play CF other than to bail the team out due to injury or circumstance here and there.

will. never. happen. in. a. million. years.

Mbappe with Haaland is right now one of the two best players in the world (your preference in terms of who you prefer).  Vini is far far far below these two.  So Vini would need to accommodate for Mbappe, not the other way around.

The same thing occurred when CR7 joined, Zidane joined, R9 joined, etc.   Other players adapt to generational talents... not the other way around.

If this is an issue, he will sign somewhere else. That simple. But if he isn't sold this summer and leaves for free, Real Madrid is likely.

I think he puts up CR7/Messi-like numbers in La Liga given how much more protection he would get as an offensive player. Ligue 1 is the opposite.

Vini is not far far far below those 2 lol. You don't have to discredit vini to big up mbappe

Mbapay is biggest drama queen I've ever seen, even more than Ronaldo. Shit, it's all about Mbapay. Transfer windows is when he gets the biggest limelight

Clutch wrote:Vini is not far far far below those 2 lol. You don't have to discredit vini to big up mbappe

That's @Sports for you

Vini showed up in all our big games last season, Mbapay went and hid in his closet and Haaland was carried by City in their biggest games.

Vini won't move an inch for anyone, he's a future Balon d'or player. If he doesn't get one next season he'll get one the season after, you don't shift a guy like that from the position that maximises his strength for a drama queen. I already know for a fact that we want Mbapay to replace Benz, hence why we are getting no other CF if he comes. If he wants that for himself he's welcome to join, otherwise he should save us all the headache and join some other team.

@Turok, i'm not sure where u got any form of disrespect from my post. i didnt say carlo sucks nor did i say they should fire him. out of all his great attributes, i just mentioned my one gripe with him. which was in reference to @perucho21's comment. the last thing i want to see is madrid sign a midfielder and we start playing him at rw. or we sign a forward and we play him as central mid. and carlo seems to love that....i dont recall him doing that in milan. hell if he did, he would have found a spot on the pitch for rivaldo. its no disrespect to him whatsoever. you can like a player/coach and still have a few things you would want them to change (whether rightly or wrongly)

Tito, he played Valverde and Camavinga in other positions because of necessity and both of them played very well in those positions. The only valid criticism about Carlo, other than the over dependence of veterans (Kroos and Modric) is playing AMs in different positions and that is because we don’t play with an AM position. You can fault the club for signing AMs.

Back to the Mbappe discussion, i can just see it now Vini on the left, Mbappe at CF and drifting to the left and Rodrygo at RW, but drifting to centre then left! The opposition can play without a defender on the right side!

That as opposed to Davies, Camavinga, Vinicius on the entire left side!

Didn't he also do it with Seedorf, though I didn't follow his Milan career in any real detail to know for certain

titosantill wrote:@Turok, i'm not sure where u got any form of disrespect from my post. i didnt say carlo sucks nor did i say they should fire him. out of all his great attributes, i just mentioned my one gripe with him. which was in reference to @perucho21's comment. the last thing i want to see is madrid sign a midfielder and we start playing him at rw. or we sign a forward and we play him as central mid. and carlo seems to love that....i dont recall him doing that in milan. hell if he did, he would have found a spot on the pitch for rivaldo. its no disrespect to him whatsoever. you can like a player/coach and still have a few things you would want them to change (whether rightly or wrongly)

Maybe it's a result of the conversations that have traditionally been held on here, but I also didn't mean to berate or suggest that Mbappe sucks when I pointed out that I've observed over time that he frequently seems to struggle against players who can keep up with his speed. That opinion has yet to change. All players have some kind of flaw or limitation, and I don't think there's anything wrong with discussing those. It would be boring to recycle the same conversations about obvious players strengths.

I think it's more interesting to discuss what can be improved upon, or the extent of those flaws. Mbappe is a top player, regardless of that one observation. It is quite obvious, and I don't think anyone would find interest in listening to me talk about what I like about him as a player. It's also been frowned upon or suggested to be "hate" whenever I've pointed out flaws in generally high quality games that have been discussed on here.
It's fair to disagree with criticism of something, but many of us seem to have developed a very hyperbolic perspective on things. Counter-arguing from an objective perspective may be more productive than boiling it all down to spitefulness

So if I take Sport’s view of what Mbappe will demand, then I think this bodes well for us that don’t want the primadonna.PSG is asking 200M from Flo and 150M for others plus insisting he either renews or they sell.

Flo has stated multiple times, club has limited acquisition funds with Bellington taking a large portion of it. Flo would be willing to pay something but not that asking price, plus I think if Mbappe insists on LW as Sports says he would, Flo will wait at least a year.

Meanwhile the only clubs that can afford Mbappe, both the acquisition costs and salary are City, ManU and Newcastle. City will not enter the bidding war and the other two being rebuild clubs may not be attractive enough for Mbappe!

That then likely puts it off to summer of 24, IF HE DOESN’T RENEW. If he is a free transfer then he will have options and Flo’s thoughts will very much depend on how next season works out plus the development of midfield, Vinicius and Rodrygo. Priority will likely be Davies and a RB plus arrival of Endick!

Note, I still am not convinced with Rodrygo. He is definitely playing out of position and will be second fiddle to his LW or false 9 desires. If Mbappe would agree to RW, there could be an interest, but according to Sports that is a no go!

Thimmy wrote:

titosantill wrote:@Turok, i'm not sure where u got any form of disrespect from my post. i didnt say carlo sucks nor did i say they should fire him. out of all his great attributes, i just mentioned my one gripe with him. which was in reference to @perucho21's comment. the last thing i want to see is madrid sign a midfielder and we start playing him at rw. or we sign a forward and we play him as central mid. and carlo seems to love that....i dont recall him doing that in milan. hell if he did, he would have found a spot on the pitch for rivaldo. its no disrespect to him whatsoever. you can like a player/coach and still have a few things you would want them to change (whether rightly or wrongly)

Maybe it's a result of the conversations that have traditionally been held on here, but I also didn't mean to berate or suggest that Mbappe sucks when I pointed out that I've observed over time that he frequently seems to struggle against players who can keep up with his speed. That opinion has yet to change. All players have some kind of flaw or limitation, and I don't think there's anything wrong with discussing those. It would be boring to recycle the same conversations about obvious players strengths.

I think it's more interesting to discuss what can be improved upon, or the extent of those flaws. Mbappe is a top player, regardless of that one observation. It is quite obvious, and I don't think anyone would find interest in listening to me talk about what I like about him as a player. It's also been frowned upon or suggested to be "hate" whenever I've pointed out flaws in generally high quality games that have been discussed on here.
It's fair to disagree with criticism of something, but many of us seem to have developed a very hyperbolic perspective on things. Counter-arguing from an objective perspective may be more productive than boiling it all down to spitefulness

That’s a very good observation of GL behaviour! Either you love him or hate him!