Phoenix711

This is how he lined up for Germany in the Euros. He played at the left of a 4 man midfield. He has played at left wingback as part of a back five but I can't remember seeing him at LB which would mean a back 4 and much deeper. EH plays with a back four but not sure that would work because of his defensive stats compared to other fullbacks. If he were in the team, he might be LM and ASM moved over to RM. But as you said, this deal is unlikely at this time, more like Gosen's agent trying to get Atlanta to give him a new deal.

He's a left midfielder. Not a left back. He has been employed as a left wing back for Germany e.g. in the Euro's but he isn't good enough defensively to be a left back. He's a very similar player to Matt Richie. Under Gasperini (Atlanta manager), they play the 3-4-1-2, that's 3 at the back, 4 midfielders and 2 attackers behind a CF. A bit like how Tuchel has Chelsea playing. So in Tuchel's system, it's Chilwell or Alonso on the left of the 4 man midfield - Gosen plays in this position. As mentioned, he's coming off a severe injury which has already had 1 set back pushing him back a month so seems a bit of a risk. Not that we'd get him but could wait until the summer and see if we are still in the EPL.

After that disappointing result against Watford, to cheer myself up I'm going to mention some players I want for Newcastle (we probably won't get a single one, but I can dream ok!). Prices are in euros (£1 = €1.2) because EPL clubs won't sell us anyone good. We have a €120m budget (£100m)- rumoured, don't know if its true. We have used €45m (£37.5m) on Trippier and Wood so have €75m (£62.5m) left. My priorities on players are in this order: CB > DM > CM > CF > LB Central Defender Name: Sven Botman (22 yo) Club: Lille Cost: ~€55m Why? One word. Lascelles. We need some steel at the back who can close out a 1 nil. Botman is possibly a new Jaap Stam and could be our Kompany. Highly rated 22 yo Lille left footed CB with excellent physical ability (what Lascelle lacked today) and a brilliant passer. Main weakness is a lack of pace so would need to be partnered with someone quick or play a 3 man defence. I know we've tried to get him but we've offered €40m and they want €55m. You can see his stats in Ligue 1, he's a good passer and brings the ball out of defence. https://fbref.com/en/players/ccce7025/Sven-Botman Defensive Midfield Name: Boubacar Kamara (22 yo) Club: Marseille Cost: ~€15m Why? We need someone who can protect the back four. Too often teams go through us. We play Shelvey in front but the man is a sieve, full of holes. Kamara's contract expires in 6 months so would be "cheap" but he wants £150k/wk. He can play centre back, is right footed, quick and an excellent passer. He is 22 and plays for Marseille so the question is, could he justify so much money compared to say Trippier? Main issue is he's unproven in the EPL. He has excellent stats in the league though as one of the best passers and a good tackler. https://fbref.com/en/players/cc77354e/Boubacar-Kamara Midfielder Name: Bruno Guimares (24 yo) Club: Lyon Cost: ~€45m Why? Two words. Sean Longstaff. Need someone who can tackle, protect, pressure and most important pass. Longstaff sadly has regressed and looks like a deer in headlights. He's wanted by Arsenal but thankfully Champions League teams are just monitoring. His best attribute is his passing, think De Bruyne through balls. Just watch some youtube videos. But he's not an Attacking midfielder, he plays a deep role and is an excellent tackler and ball pressurer. He is capable of winning the ball back and starting attacks, exactly what Shelvey is meant to do but hasn't. If he comes it will be for money but he still has his best years ahead of him. https://fbref.com/en/players/82518f62/Bruno-Guimaraes Left Back Name: Nicolas Taglifico (29 yo) Club: Ajax Cost: ~€20m Why? Dummett did a decent job and Lewis is making progress but neither offer an attacking threat. There's a reason why Maximin runs down the left with no overlap. He's a quality left back and can attack and defend. He's fallen out of favour at Ajax, behind Blind, so we may be able to pry him away. Just look at his stats over last 365 days, solid both in attack and defence. https://fbref.com/en/players/f0661424/Nicolas-Tagliafico Striker Name: Dusan Vlahovic (21 yo) Club: Fiorentina Cost: ~€80m Why? We need goals. We can't expect to hold onto 1 nils and we have one of the lowest goal tallies. We are a team under pressure and if we go 2 nil up, we may actually win the game. Wood won't get us more than 5 and is a good impact sub. Its between him and Schick for our "Marquee" signing and the main issue is the guy himself. Vlahovic wants to play in the champions league but only clubs like Tottenham and Arsenal are interested i.e not CL clubs. He has 18 months left and he is refusing to sign a new deal so Fiorentina want to cash out, they'll make more money now than the summer. Arsenal are trying to convince the guy but the stumbling blocks are: 1. He wants 300k/wk. 2. £20m agency fees 3. Fiorentina want cash deal not instalments - poor Arsenal can only do instalments. Apparently, after the transfer fee and wages, it works out to £150m (€180m) over 5 years! Is he worth that money? Probably not, after all that is Mo Salah/ Haaland territory and the guy isn't that good yet but is excellent. 17 goals in Serie A this season, good hold up play and an aerial threat. Can score from long range and can carry the ball. Main weakness is he is one footed (left) and positioning, he drops very deep to pick up the ball that he misses out on a lot of poacher goals. This guy is an outside chance and only because of the money but he is the best we can afford if he is willing to come. https://fbref.com/en/players/79443529/Dusan-Vlahovic How I'd pay - note we are only allowed 2 loan signings or I would loan Botman and Taglifico too!: Sven Botman = Transfer: Buy for €50m + €5m add ons (read, if we stay up) Boubacar Kamara = Transfer: Buy for €15m Nicolas Tagliafico = Transfer: Buy for €15m + €5m add ons (read, if we stay up) Bruno Guimarres = Loan-to-buy: Loan fee of €15m + €30m in summer (read, if we stay up) Dusan Vlahovic = Loan-to-buy: Loan fee of €20m + €60m in summer (read, if we stay up) If Vlahovic is out of reach then try Schick who has 17 goals and is two footed and good in the air for €60m, cheaper than Vlahovic, again loan-to-buy with a hefty loan fee that would be subtracted from final buy fee. The loan-to-buy can affectively give us a couple of world class players in form to stave off relegation. The problem with the Van Der Beeks is they are not what we need right now. Also loaning these players first, we can check if they're any good. No point in ending up with another Thauvin (who is classm only in France), we need a Laurent Robert! This is important because of FFP, we can't waste too much money or we'll be like Everton, £400m wasted on mid table mediocrity (e.g. Iwobi) and now can't spend anything for several windows. So that's 50 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 20 = €115m. That means we should sell €40m in players (do we even have €40m in players! joke). We would need to sell for spaces anyway, so I would sell: Longstaff - €6m (contract up in summer, Hello Benitez) Gayle - €3m (championship club) Almiron - €12m (Half what we paid for him but some club would take him at that value as he's still 27) Kraft - €3m (Surplus to requirements, Swedish international, should be worth a few mil) Clark - €1m (32, champions club would pick him up) Total = €25m That's a net spend of €115 - 25 = €90m. So €15m over the €75m we theoretically have left in this window but within margins for error especially for a marquee signing. I know that would mean Vlahovic and Guimarres would cost us €90m more in the next window (even more with add ons) but as it's a new financial year we still have some wiggle room for more players. Most importantly, there are several free transfers that might be available in the summer like Lingard (RW), Zakaria (DM), Onana (GK), Tarkowski (CB), Dembele (RW) that we can replace several of our weakness without spending too much. We can also try and unsettle players with 12 months left on their contract e.g. Gosen (LM) from Atlanta. So with those 5, my starting XI in a 4-1-2-3 would be: Dubravka Trippier Schar Botman Taglifico Kamara Guimarres Joelinton Fraser Maximin Vlahovic If Schar is a liability then put Kamara in the back 4 and Hayden back in the team as the DM. With Wilson back, play 4-4-2 with Maximin or Fraser replace by Joelinton out wide. In a 4-2-3-1, Kamara, Guimarres and Joelinton are excellent ball winners. While Kamara and Guimarres will look for the pass after winning the ball, Joelinton will carry it out of midfield. Maximin and Fraser are to create chances with support from Trippier and Taglifico who are good crossers. Summer window I'd get 2 new wide men and a centre back. Anyway, that's my dream, writing this has made me a little less sad about the result today. Time is the best healer.

Hayden is out to as late as April. He'd start over Longstaff in a heart beat but I hope we can get even better in the transfer window. We've been linked with too many players that the only fun is discussing transfers :). We need some more goals badly, we can't rely on pieces of magic. We haven't scored more than 1 other than against Brentford (3) under Howe. As we can't keep it tight, if we go 2 up we "may" get a win. And we need wins, draws aren't enough.

See, this is where I think we should be smart. We absolutely need 1 DM and 1 CB this week for Leeds. Lascelles and Longstaff should be squad players or see if you can flog Longstaff to Benitez for a few million before he is sacked. As for those players, we could get £40m+ players like Bruno Guimaraes (Deep Lying Playmaker who can tackle and an amazing passer), but offer a loan to buy but pay £10m or even £15m as a loan fee. Apparently Lyon would be willing to accept that and those kind of loans suit us perfectly as its like a buy before you try and if they don't fit or we are relegated then we can just not purchase. If we did that for both loans we could pay the stupid fees these clubs want in the Summer IF we stay up. I'm not sure who these two targets should be and there is an issue if they would want to come, but it's an excellent way to save money. And we need to spend wisely because of FFP or we'll be another Everton, £400m for average players and mid table finishes for 5 years and now in a relegation scrap. Even with amortization, we can realistically spend £100m in this window and £100m in the summer without worrying about FFP even if we finished mid table (UEFA have a lower FFP amount than EPL). There are also a couple or high quality midfielder available for cheap (~£10m) because their contracts are running out this summer like B Kamara and D Zakaria, but they would both incur high wages so we'd need a relegation release clause but that should be fine for 6 months and if they can make the transition to the EPL they would be amazing buys. Kamara can also play CB but he wants £150k/week.

Not sure about that, Everton have just 5 (FIVE) points from their last 12 matches, that is the worst in the league (we have 9 in that period). Yes they have 19 but they can't buy a point let alone a win at the moment - the win against Arsenal was a 90th min long range screamer, you get that once a season usually. Benitez may well be sacked and they have a better squad than us but they have no money because they spend 400m+ over the last few years so are restricted by FFP. That's why all Benitez could buy was Gray and some cheap players and right now the new fullbacks have mainly been funded by Digne. If Everton go down they are in real trouble. However, I get what you mean, Everton have quality players like Calvert Lewin and Richarlison. They "should" be able to put some results together but they are by no means guaranteed. The same for Leeds, when they get their best players back they should be able to put a few results together too. Our main hope right now is we stay within 3 points of survival until Wilson is back. If we let 17th place get away from us we'll be relegated by March. Reinforcements will make or break us.

Disappointed by the result. We were decent until we scored, after which we just sat back and invited pressure :(. My Player Ratings: Dubravka - 6. Made one important save, ok in commanding his area but no clean sheet so no 7. Trippier - 6. Solid defensively but him and Lascelles were caught a couple of times with through balls which allowed Denis in. Offered some kind of attacking threat down the right with Fraser. Lascelles - 4. Some missed aerial duels and needs to be stronger vs Pedro. Can see why we want Diego Carlos as his yard of pace can cover at the back. Schar - 6. Solid enough. He distributed the ball better than Lascelles but no team clean sheet. Dummett - 6 - Much better defensively than Richie but grew tired as game went on and was lunging a lot. Should have done better to prevent cross at the end. Fraser - 5. Was good first half and put some decent balls in. Again after we scored faded and offered little help to Trippier. Shelvey - 5. Not a defensive midfielder. Offers zero protection to back 4 and doesn't have the physical stats to boss the midfield so relies on slide tackles. Early booking meant he was even less effective. Passing was ok but lack of movement upfront meant he couldn't unlock the opposition. Longstaff - 4. Absent for long periods. Doesn't help the defence nor the attack. Not sure what he offers. Joelinton - 7. Best player for Newcastle. Broke up the play a lot and bossed Sissoko. Unlucky not to score but that's also his biggest problem. Carries the ball 20-30 yards but then can't pass or shoot. If only he could add goals or assists to his game ... Saint Maximin - 6. Mixed performance. Gave the ball away a lot, at least 6 times, probably more. Was in the right back's pocket for most of the game but he has that bit of magic which we need. Could have helped Dummett out more, but Joelinton did a good job to cover for him (Longstaff should have being doing the same down the right). He needs to work on his crossing/ goal creating and develop his left foot because he's pretty easy to stop crosses/ passes against. Wood - 5. He tried but didn't offer as good an outlet as say Rondon did for us. To be fair the Watford lads are all huge so it was a struggle. Not much in the way of chances but its also clear to see why he only scored 3 goals this season. Howe - 5. Set up was fine, and we were the better team the first half but they always looked dangerous on the counter. Disappointing that he just made us sit back and invite pressure after our goal. Especially after Watford missed a few good chances. I don't think its all doom and gloom but we are in serious trouble. We need at least one DM and one CB before Leeds. And then some creativity in midfield or the wing. This is the bare minimum, we could also do with another goal threat and a LB who can go forward. That's 3 to 5 players before the window closes. I also think we should try and use our two loans to get £40m+ players for 6 months with an option to buy but include a loan fee that is a quarter of the buy price. That way if we go down, these expensive players aren't on our books but also we can see if they work in the PL. This is oppose to getting someone like Van der Beek who although a class player is not what we need. Norwich winning today is not a bad result as it drags Everton into the mix. If we can beat Leeds that will be 6 teams in the mix which gives us a better chance of survival. I know, we only have a chance against Leeds with a few new reinforcements but maybe a silver lining is we are forced to try and push a few deals through.