Transfers, 2024-25 season

[Polarboy 2311]

2 minutes ago, Diego21 said:

Let's see. Let's go by parts.

The first thing I have to say is that the fee seems very high. But I already commented in its day, when it sounded for 40-45 million, that for that price the Real Sociedad would never sell it.

I think I made a post back in the day telling a bit about the player. He is not my favorite if we want to ensure immediate performance, but I do think he is a great signing.

He is a very different player than Wilson. He is very good with the ball at his feet, he moves very well on the wing (left). He is capable of generating chances on his own even though he is outnumbered... He is good in aereal plays.

On the other hand, I think he is still a bit to develop. He has many conditions, but he doesn't know how to use them all.

And I think that also, when he manages to adapt all this, he will also be a very good scorer. Because, today, he is not a top scorer. 

To this day, he has been a streak forward. He had some very good months in the Netherlands, and at Real Sociedad he has been irregular. In fact, last year he and Sorloth were the worst pairing of strikers in Spain and the strikers who missed the most chances.

In my opinion, we should not judge him from the first day for bad. Although the first year he scored only 5 or 6 goals (I think he just scored 6 goals this last year). He is a boy who is 22 years old and has already played 5 in the elite. He has something. But he has to make that leap.

I sincerely hope he doesn't start from day one just because of his high price tag. I have no doubt that's not going to happen, because we saw that it didn't happen with Bruno, and it wouldn't have happened with Botman if Targett was healthy.

So I hope that he is in the shadow of Wilson and little by little he can find his place.

Without a doubt, he is a very good bet for the future. And I think that his style of play can also greatly enhance the second line and players like St. maximin, Bruno and Almirón.

 

From the looks of him he just needs to grow into his body. He's only 22 but he's close to 6'4 and probably still a bit skinny for his frame. Given him a year or two and and he'll be a beast. 

[aimaad22 4128]

4 minutes ago, Diego21 said:

Let's see. Let's go by parts.

The first thing I have to say is that the fee seems very high. But I already commented in its day, when it sounded for 40-45 million, that for that price the Real Sociedad would never sell it.

I think I made a post back in the day telling a bit about the player. He is not my favorite if we want to ensure immediate performance, but I do think he is a great signing.

He is a very different player than Wilson. He is very good with the ball at his feet, he moves very well on the wing (left). He is capable of generating chances on his own even though he is outnumbered... He is good in aereal plays.

On the other hand, I think he is still a bit to develop. He has many conditions, but he doesn't know how to use them all.

And I think that also, when he manages to adapt all this, he will also be a very good scorer. Because, today, he is not a top scorer. 

To this day, he has been a streak forward. He had some very good months in the Netherlands, and at Real Sociedad he has been irregular. In fact, last year he and Sorloth were the worst pairing of strikers in Spain and the strikers who missed the most chances.

In my opinion, we should not judge him from the first day for bad. Although the first year he scored only 5 or 6 goals (I think he just scored 6 goals this last year). He is a boy who is 22 years old and has already played 5 in the elite. He has something. But he has to make that leap.

I sincerely hope he doesn't start from day one just because of his high price tag. I have no doubt that's not going to happen, because we saw that it didn't happen with Bruno, and it wouldn't have happened with Botman if Targett was healthy.

So I hope that he is in the shadow of Wilson and little by little he can find his place.

Without a doubt, he is a very good bet for the future. And I think that his style of play can also greatly enhance the second line and players like St. maximin, Bruno and Almirón.

 

So basically the perfect material for Howe to do his thing.

The couple of times have seen him play for Sweden does seem to have tons of natural ability. Thats the extent of me technical contribution  

[Kid Dynamite 6993]

22 years old and 1 goal every 3 games for Sociedad. 37 International appearances too.

 

Maybe we are overpaying but he still sounds like the best young striker we've signed in years. 

[aimaad22 4128]

34 minutes ago, Howay said:

 

 

 

[Tom 14011]

36 minutes ago, Howay said:

 

I wonder why we'd be telling people we couldn't afford players 🤔

[Polarboy 2311]

2 minutes ago, Kid Dynamite said:

22 years old and 1 goal every 3 games for Sociedad. 37 International appearances too.

 

Maybe we are overpaying but he still sounds like the best young striker we've signed in years. 

 

60m with 5 in add ons for a 22 year old who's supposedly the next Ibrahimovic is potentially a steal in this market. All depends on how he develops obviously. 

[Christmas Tree 4702]

[Gemmill 44417]

 

 

 

[ewerk 30295]

Quote

There is a new type of target man running amok. 

 

As top-level football becomes increasingly focused on attacking moves in transition, the attributes needed to play as a lone striker have gone through a rewrite. If Didier Drogba in his Chelsea prime a decade ago was one of many who harkened the dominance of 4-2-3-1 and the end of front men who only worked in the opposition penalty area, then the likes of Erling Haaland are part of a new breed who press, create and score. 

 

The strikers of the next decade are likely to be physically imposing athletes capable of moments of explosive speed and strength to break through high-line defences. They will need to be able to play with their back to goal, but also to press from the front and to hassle defenders in the wide areas. These players are likely to possess a smattering of skill-based moves to beat at least one defender from a standing start and a handful of shooting techniques so they can finish off chances with both placed and power finishes.

 

It is a big ask, and that is why any player who looks capable of meeting such a lengthy job spec is mentioned alongside eyebrow-elevating transfer fees. These are footballing unicorns — players who shouldn’t really exist but are out there if you go on into the early hours scouting talent from unknown lands (or just watch La Liga and Ligue 1 highlights, like we do).

 

Alexander Isak, a 21-year-old, 6ft 3in tall striker for Spain’s Real Sociedad and Sweden, looks to be one of the next generation of this ilk.

 

Isak is a streaky player in that when he’s hot, he’s really hot. Across the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, for example, he scored a late equaliser against Barcelona (in a 2-2 draw on December 14) to spark a run of 12 goals in as many games, including two at the Bernabeu to help knock out Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals.

 

Born in Stockholm to parents from Eritrea in north-east Africa, Isak’s goalscoring prowess has seen him compared to Zlatan Ibrahimovic (another “fluid” kind of target man). While there are some similarities between the two Swedes, there are plenty of differences as far as the younger striker is concerned,

Isak doesn’t quite have Ibrahimovic’s limitless self-belief and ability to bend footballing events to own will yet, but he does have seemingly extendable legs and an ability to score from some unbelievable positions.

First emerging at Stockholm club AIK in the 2016 season with 10 goals in 23 appearances, he was signed at age 17 by the Thomas Tuchel-coached Borussia Dortmund, who beat off an array of suitors including Real Madrid in January 2017. Isak then spent the better part of two years flitting between Dortmund’s senior and B teams and Dutch side Willem II on loan.

His combination of explosive speed and inventive finishes meant Isak’s talent was never in question — during his spell in the Netherlands for the second half of the 2018-19 season, he became the first foreign player there to score 12 goals in his first 12 games — but, like many prodigious talents, it became a question of which club would be the best environment for him to properly bloom. 

 

The answer turned out to be Real Sociedad, after technical director Roberto Olabe convinced the young Swede to join in the summer of 2019.

 

Isak’s two seasons in the Basque city of San Sebastian have seen him first display his talents as counter-attacking forward, running on to balls in behind defences from Martin Odegaard in 2019-20, and then as a competent passer, forming build-up triangles with David Silva and other team-mates last term.

 

This past season saw Isak become the first player aged 21 or under to get to 17 goals in La Liga since Sergio Aguero did it for Atletico Madrid in 2008-09.

A good demonstration of Isak’s talents can be found in a 3-2 loss away to Sevilla in January, with the forward first pressing defender Diego Carlos into scoring a comedy own goal before ghosting in at the back post from a corner for a one-touch finish to make it 2-2. 

 

Isak’s smarterscout profile also helps break down his most recent season.

 

For those unfamiliar with smarterscout profiles, they break down parts of a player’s game into different performance, skill and style metrics, and then give scores based on how often they perform a given stylistic action or how effective they are compared with others playing in their position, producing an overall score between zero and 99.

 

 

Isak shoots a lot (the high rating for shot volume), contributes highly to his team’s chances of scoring (the high score in xG from shot creation) and generally picks up the ball in central locations in the penalty area (receptions in opposition box).

 

He’s a good ball carrier (the high score for carry and dribble volume) but tends to dribble only over short distances from A to B, rather than more expansive runs and passes into space, as a winger would do. He performs well in effectively pressing the opposition from the front, too (that strong number in defending impact).

 

He doesn’t frequently compete in the air for a player of his height (see his low score for aerial duel quantity).

 

Neither, as the below chart shows, does he rate too highly in terms of success in his aerial duels — being considered below average in his ability to win them both in open play or from set pieces.

 

 

This is a common side-effect for footballers who have their growth spurts early, as their back muscles aren’t as well developed as in smaller players; this is something Isak will have to develop if he wishes to be more like Ibrahimovic.

 

What your eyes might tell you watching Isak at Euro 2020

 

He scores with a lot of one-touch finishes, similar to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s recent work for Everton.

He’s a bit skinny, somewhere between Ibrahimovic and Peter Crouch in terms of build for tall strikers, though is likely to bulk up with age if he wishes to develop his hold-up play.

 

How you might explain Isak if you’re in a bar with friends and his name pops up

 

“Imagine Jamie Vardy — but 6ft 2in, and with better dribbling.”

“He’s a nuisance of a target man, like Ollie Watkins — a pest to defenders when pressing, but you can also volley long passes in to him to hold up.”

“Did you ever see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at Dortmund, when he was lightning-quick and picking off wasteful passes from opposition full-backs?”

“He’s going to get linked with a Champions League club next year and then tear up the competition, along with a bunch of other 6ft-plus, dribbling strikers.”

That last one might get you some strange looks but here’s some further smarterscout data for those wanting a comparison with some forwards already in the Premier League. 

 

“I think this is the natural evolution of the striker position based on tactical trends — most notably pressing and high lines,” says Sam Tighe, a football journalist from the podcast Ranks FC who has covered Isak previously. 

 

“The on-the-shoulder runner who aims to exploit the space in behind is back in vogue but, thanks to sports science, they’re bigger and stronger and better than ever. So you have Isak, Tammy (Abraham), (Dusan) Vlahovic from Fiorentina, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and more. Big and strong, fast and quick, but good footballers too. And they can change from ‘in behind’ to ‘target man’ on demand, depending on the game situation.”

 

The demands placed on target men are changing as football reinvents itself at the top level but Isak looks more than up to the task at hand. 

 

 

Gentlemen, you may want to read the above in your respective sheds.

[Howay 12496]

Hopefully we gazump the dildo salesmen to Paqueta, as well as sign Isak and Pedro. What a window that would be, especially after the good start we’ve had. 

[Craig 6682]

7 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

 

 

 

Something else AP doesn't pronounce correctly 

[Sonatine 11321]

7 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

 

 

 

The only word I understood of that was Isak 

[Tom 14011]

SUBTITLE UPDATE 

[Craig 6682]

 

[aimaad22 4128]

8 minutes ago, Craig said:

 

 

[wykikitoon 19934]

47 minutes ago, Kid Dynamite said:

 

Certainly wouldn't have used that goal for 'the real deal' where it spoons off the defender  

[zico martin 89]

Awaiting Jimbo's telly obvs

[aimaad22 4128]

So this is what Bruno's tweet yesterday was about? 

[Alex 34870]

Mackems have confirmed he’s shit btw 👍🏻

[wykikitoon 19934]

CN is livid. He thought we only had fifty quid left 

 

 

[David Kelly 1224]

4 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

Certainly wouldn't have used that goal for 'the real deal' where it spoons off the defender  

That was a superb finish man.  He knew scooping it over the defenders outstreched leg was the only way it goes in.

[wykikitoon 19934]

 

 

😂

[wykikitoon 19934]

 

 

 

[Monkeys Fist 42103]

33 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

 

 

Uhwencuh tuh duh Toon… oooooow??? 
 

 

 

Who taught this gimp to speak? 
 

 

[Homelander 6]

16 hours ago, Polarboy said:

Newcastle United To Miss Out On Callum Hudson-Odoi, Winger Bundesliga Bound (insidefutbol.com)

 

Looks as if we'll miss out on Hudson-Odoi if we were ever serious about him. Interestingly he's away to Leverkusen, Diaby's club, of course Diaby mostly plays on the left, so while you wouldn't expect Hudson-Odoi to join a club if he wasn't guaranteed minutes, it doesn't necessarily mean that Diaby is leaving. 

Diaby could be on the move in January depending how Leverkusen performed in the Champions League group stage, as at the moment they are currently bottom of the Bundesliga and went out of the German Cup to a 3rd Division side.