Exactly, those positions are pointless. Some team could’ve faced us, city and Liverpool in that period while another faced southampton, Leicester and Leeds.
Conceded per game with and without Saliba doesn’t lie, albeit the above could still apply had we not faced tough teams with him as well.
I think Saliba’s injury has definitely hit us hard, whether it would have ultimately changed our title fortunes is still to be disputed. Performances like the ones on Sunday, the Etihad and Goodison Park always scare me more at times.
There’s been a few games this year where we’ve struggled to even get a 5 minute period to ever get a handle on it, whether it even be simple ball retention. Every team has their off days but ours can be so bad, feels like watching someone trying to slice through a steak with a plastic knife.
Averaging 1.1 goals per game conceded would be 41 goals conceded over a season vs 30 goals conceded at 0.8 per game.
That’s a huge difference. I cba to check every season but going back to 14/15, The most amount to goals conceded by the champions was 36 Leciester.
The defence has completely collapsed in the final part of the season, but in that middle part post World Cup already we had moved well away from having a title worthy defence. (Which i and others called out).
We need to get to Dias, Laporte, Stones, Akanji and Ake territory of depth at CB. 4 or 5 natural options but a few of them having versatility to play elsewhere.
Applying that across to us, I think we need one more really top class CB giving us a bank of Gabriel, Saliba, NEW MAN then White / Tomi as backup. I’m not sure about Kiwior long term but he’s probably cheap and tbh I’m not concerned if he turns out to be deadwood in 2 years.
Getting a right sided CB is a huge priority.
I wonder if Rice comes in, he will be the CB cover, Caicedo RB cover too
Yes that’s fair but comparatively it wasn’t a big jump like he made it out to be because we ‘went from 1st to 10th’. Over the same period of 13-14 games it was simply 3 goals difference in real numbers is what I meant.
Now what we saw post WC (1.1 average) was not good enough for winning a title defensively across 38 games, agreed. However, there’s a much bigger drop off without Saliba and if we kept up that rate we’d be conceding relegation numbers (72 in a season).
So yes we had started to drop off even before the injury, we know that (trion aside), but not by much in contrast to post Saliba getting injured.
None of the analysis is perfect because it’s all sample sections of a season but I don’t think his analysis focuses on the right things.
Saliba attracting interest.
Don’t let him go into the final year of his contract. If he doesn’t sign then just sell.
You know, I was just gonna pose this question but thought people might take it the wrong way.
Glad I’m not the only one thinking about that scenario.
So here goes:
0 voters
I’d argue I doubt Edu will get anything worth what his play will value in that final year.
I’d be tempted to keep him
The bitch crying from our fans for the next ten years would be unbearable if we lost him for free I genuinely couldn’t take it.
He’s grown on me a lot this season but I still don’t dig this aura around him as though he’s better than Arsenal. When in reality he had a lot of moments where he was raw and reckless.
I’m very much with SRCJJ on this one, if he wants to commit then happy days we’ve got one of the most promising young CBs on our books. If not sell and reinvest, he’s not the only CB in the world and this mysterious back problem might be more trouble than it’s worth down the line.
Rules out any hope of winning the league next season and what fee are we likely to get ?
I just don’t want us going into the season with that headache. We’ve had similar drama before, it never helps.
Last thing you want is Arteta getting pestered every week about Saliba news. It also then raises the question, why would we want to start a guy who might be heading out next summer? Unless he’s on top form it’d be hard to make a case for him to be a starter for us going forward. Especially if we bring in another CB in, on top of Kiwior who looks capable of filling in at RCB.
He’s replaceable. There’s a good CB there but we still concede plenty with him in the team second half of the season. His form dropped off enough for me to believe replacing him wouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult as the first half of the season would have you believe.
I still think it’s pretty likely he signs on vastly increased wages. I can see a get out being included at a large fee but not one that would put off Madrid or PSG if he fulfills his potential a couple of years down the line.
Saliba was a massive key in so much good we did this season.
His passing is elite
His recovery speed is elite.
He’s such an athlete he allows you to gamble a lot as a team.
In my eyes it’ll be a devastating blow to lose him.
Can you imagine you said this on Reddit or Twitter lmao, you’d be run out of town.
Totally agree though. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that but we need someone to geniunely compete with him and I don’t see it being Kiwior or Holding.
Closest in the camp right now is White but we just need better defensive depth in general. There’s a lot of talent out there at the moment in that position.
Exactly, to think he is so replaceable is stretching the truth
He’s as good as it gets for a young promising CB
The game is so much more rounded now than a solid defence.
It’s a collective unit thing. Nobody enthuses about City backline or Liverpool over the last few years.
You need players with certain attributes and Saliba clearly has them but it’s more of a functional thing really.
We have a reliable solution in White and switching the option onto a right back if we choose.
We are in the position of options and dictating this for the best part.
In modern day football he’s as good as you could ask for in your early 20s, his key attributes are want all the top managers want.
I suppose this is the issue with building young teams, if you don’t have the appeal to hold onto Saliba types, it can make the project redundant in the end.