Summer recruitment
Whilst many fans will no doubt be jumping on the sack Daniel Farke bandwagon my biggest criticism this season has to lay with our recruitment. We will never quite know who had the ultimate say or the biggest say in terms of making the choices over which players we signed but for me I don't see a single player that we have signed as being an improvement on the starting XI from last year.
Perri - what was that positioning about for the 2nd Villa goal? There was a huge gap to simply bend the ball round the wall but Rodgers didn't even need to do that he simply chipped it up and over and down the middle of the goal. I have seen nothing from Perri that suggests he is any better than Darlow and we spent something like £15m+ on him.
Bijol - Has looked very ordinary in the matches he has played and that is me being generous. Again £15m+ wasted on a player who doesn't look as good as Struyjk.
Bornauw - Yes we needed depth and hard to judge him given his non involvement. Presumably though he is 4th choice so it doesn't fill me with much optimism.
Stach & Longstaff - will bunch them together as I would say their impact has been the same. Both look okay but nothing special. Not a significant upgrade on Tanaka or Gruev. Again both in the region of £15m
DCL - doesn't really look the answer. Works hard etc but I would say at this point Bamford could have done similar. Okay for a free signing but that is the only positive.
Nmecha - Actually liking the look of him. Looks to have good pace and hopefully can keep scoring. Didn't know much about his goal today but heck sometimes that is what being a striker is all about.
Gudmonssen - Our best signing by a country mile albeit is he a huge upgrade on Firpo? A better all round game but lacks Firpo's composure in the final third.
Okafor - Similar to Gudmonnsen he looks very good but lacks the composure, final ball quality, of the player he replaced, Manor Solomon. He flatters to deceive with his flashes of speed and trickery but the end product hasn't been great. At this point I feel the less flashy Solomon would have had more of an impact (barring injuries).
James Justin - Has looked okay and decent as back-up but would the £10m have been better served being spent elsewhere.
As such for me our recruitment has been poor. I don't know whether Farke had a big say or whether it was the transfer department but the majority of money so far seems to have been wasted and not made us any better. Our biggest need in the summer was a good keeper, we saw last season with Burnley and Sheff U how important a good keeper was. With us being a team that was going to be facing a lot of shots this season we needed a keeper that was going to outperform all the xg metrics, the type of keeper that could makes the saves that enabled us to draw instead of lose or win instead of draw. Perri for me has played worse than Darlow and for me is not even as good as Messlier.
Perri - what was that positioning about for the 2nd Villa goal? There was a huge gap to simply bend the ball round the wall but Rodgers didn't even need to do that he simply chipped it up and over and down the middle of the goal. I have seen nothing from Perri that suggests he is any better than Darlow and we spent something like £15m+ on him.
Bijol - Has looked very ordinary in the matches he has played and that is me being generous. Again £15m+ wasted on a player who doesn't look as good as Struyjk.
Bornauw - Yes we needed depth and hard to judge him given his non involvement. Presumably though he is 4th choice so it doesn't fill me with much optimism.
Stach & Longstaff - will bunch them together as I would say their impact has been the same. Both look okay but nothing special. Not a significant upgrade on Tanaka or Gruev. Again both in the region of £15m
DCL - doesn't really look the answer. Works hard etc but I would say at this point Bamford could have done similar. Okay for a free signing but that is the only positive.
Nmecha - Actually liking the look of him. Looks to have good pace and hopefully can keep scoring. Didn't know much about his goal today but heck sometimes that is what being a striker is all about.
Gudmonssen - Our best signing by a country mile albeit is he a huge upgrade on Firpo? A better all round game but lacks Firpo's composure in the final third.
Okafor - Similar to Gudmonnsen he looks very good but lacks the composure, final ball quality, of the player he replaced, Manor Solomon. He flatters to deceive with his flashes of speed and trickery but the end product hasn't been great. At this point I feel the less flashy Solomon would have had more of an impact (barring injuries).
James Justin - Has looked okay and decent as back-up but would the £10m have been better served being spent elsewhere.
As such for me our recruitment has been poor. I don't know whether Farke had a big say or whether it was the transfer department but the majority of money so far seems to have been wasted and not made us any better. Our biggest need in the summer was a good keeper, we saw last season with Burnley and Sheff U how important a good keeper was. With us being a team that was going to be facing a lot of shots this season we needed a keeper that was going to outperform all the xg metrics, the type of keeper that could makes the saves that enabled us to draw instead of lose or win instead of draw. Perri for me has played worse than Darlow and for me is not even as good as Messlier.