"Yep the fact that the top Spanish sides didn't want Cazorla at his peak for a relatively low price shows he is top class"
How would you know who wanted him and who didn't? I bet you had never watched Cazorla is Villareal or Malaga. You're an armchair irrelevance - not his agent, or manager, or club chairman or anything of the sort. It's the same stupid claim you made about Ozil yesterday. Why were you the only club after Suarez in Ajax? Why was Arsenal the only club after him in the summer? You see how desperately silly the question sounds?
"Who scored has the through ball stat.
Coutinho is 2nd, Hazard top I think, Suarez 3rd.
World class Cazorla is about 10th."
Where is the link? Does it measure accuracy or quantity? And I'd imagine setting off the most mobile front 3 in the league is much easier than doing the same for statue, Giroud, or Bendtner or Sanago. And it proves diddly squat about Coutinho's quality.
I watched Cazorla plenty of times in Spain.
You think he chose Arsenal over Real and Barca then
As for Suarez, he was expensive when we signed him (for a player only proven in the Dutch league and with a discipline record), and in the Summer we weren't selling, other clubs are not as stupid as Arsenal to waste all summer trying to buy a player who is not for sale
Thats why you ended up panic buying Ozil.
Why would I provide you with a link?
Are you incapable of using Google?
http://eplindex.com/46985/clear-cut-chances-stats-ramsey-suarez.html
there you go sjb some stats that support coutinho as one of the top playmaker in the league, not his minutes per clear cut chance created, it is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than anyone else's.
and he is only 21, and this is a role that players generally mature in to, reading of the game is something that comes with experience..
I can find more articles if required?
as mentioned in my previous post, he is not the top playmaker in the league, but your claims he doesn't deserve to be mentioned among the top players are as ridiculous as any Liverpool fan claiming he is already world class!
also note that on the above article he is the joint 4th highest chance creator, having played at that point on the season less minutes than the 3 players ahead of him and the two on an equal amount to him.
"I watched Cazorla plenty of times in Spain.
You think he chose Arsenal over Real and Barca then As for Suarez, he was expensive when we signed him (for a
player only proven in the Dutch league and with a discipline record), and in the Summer we weren't selling, other clubs are
not as stupid as Arsenal to waste all summer trying to buy a player who is not for sale Thats why you ended up panic
buying Ozil."
You're still making very little sense. Your moronic question about why Barca or Madrid didn't sign Cazorla applies as well to Suarez. None of the top teams came in for him and it took a Europa team to buy him. And no one other than Arsenal came in for him in the summer. It had nothing to do with you not selling. Don't kid yourself. No top club saw him as worth the hassle.
No top club saw him as worth the hassle.
----------------------------------------------------------------
At least you agree Arsenal are not a top club
conveniently ignoring the stats he requested..
Don't know why sheriff is ignoring those stats.
Possibly as they highlight he is wrong.. ? An open minded person would accept those stats and appreciate being more informed.
Sheriff is burying his head a little..
"conveniently ignoring the stats he requested.."
I can't open it for some reason. Would try it later. And I don't know what you wan't me to do with or say about the info. I rate Coutinho. My first comment here was to say you don't need Eriksen when you have him. It went haywire when I dared contradict GB's claim that he's been better than Ozil, Mata and Eriksen when in truth, those players have done more for their teams than Coutinho's 1 good game in 4. He's about the worst of your front 6 this season. If you didn't have the best forward line in the league to create your attacking menace, his TRUE contributions would be exposed for what it's truly been.
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
comment by Greatteamswinit4times (U6008)
posted 12 minutes ago
comment by KnottyAshTaxDodger (U8934)
posted 12 hours, 38 minutes ago
Ajax were touting him round Europe for about three seasons with no takers. What does that tell you?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Asbolutely not true.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
People were linked ot him
uite different from Ajax touting him around
However, the 12 million fee seems a little low in this market, for a player in "demand"
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
comment by Sheriff John Brown - bring back David Dein (U7482)
posted 14 minutes ago
"conveniently ignoring the stats he requested.."
I can't open it for some reason. Would try it later. And I don't know what you wan't me to do with or say about the info. I rate Coutinho. My first comment here was to say you don't need Eriksen when you have him. It went haywire when I dared contradict GB's claim that he's been better than Ozil, Mata and Eriksen when in truth, those players have done more for their teams than Coutinho's 1 good game in 4. He's about the worst of your front 6 this season. If you didn't have the best forward line in the league to create your attacking menace, his TRUE contributions would be exposed for what it's truly been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
with all due respect (because I like debate but I hate the arguments and wums on here)
you are categorically wrong that he is not at least every bit as good as those players mentioned, as evidenced by the stats, in which he completley outclasses those "superior" players, admittedly the stats were from December and he has gone a little off the boil since then (he is still young, and youth is inconsistent) so they will have gained ground on him. (apart from ozil who is also off the boil)
its also slightly silly that you say his job is easier because of the great strikers ahead of him, I would say to you that it's no coincidence that we create the most clear cut chances and so have the best conversion rate. and that the excellent strike rates would be more appropriate attributed to the creativity stats rather than creativity being linked to the strike rates which seems a little silly..
yes it helps.having fast runners ahead of you, but that does not improve your passing ability, technical skills do, also coutinho is more effective in tight areas to my mind, in and around the box. and I make that statement having watched every Liverpool game this season. my pet hate is when I am told I am wrong about a players playing style by people who watch him twice a season and on match of the day.
it comes across as you are trying to find a reason to negatively compare coutinho with his peers, despite the fact that he trumps them on most statistics. yes he is a lesser light in our attack but he is a youngster playing what is typically a more mature players role alongside some of the best players in the league.
their standing does not diminish his contribution, in fact it is his contribution of more than 1 ccc per game that so allows these "better players" to excel. would canola be a worse player if he had Messi and Ronaldo either side of him because he would be the weakest player in attack?! no, if he performed as coutinho had and helped those players to excel he should receive even more praise..
as I have said twice now, the criminal underrting of coutinho In response to some people possibly overrating him is moronic and little more than childish "my dad is bigger than yours"
canola is one of the top players in the league, ozil too despite his poor return for the money spent, however it's not his fault that arsenal and Madrid valued him so highly. mata is quality and is showingbhis class at United, he has really helped them kick on. silva has been good but is really a shadow of previous seasons, hazard and Oscar have been standout performers in a Chelsea team lacking edge, and coutinho having orchestrated the Liverpool attack that has yielded the most goals in the prem so far deserves to be mentioned in that company.
anyone saying otherwise are perhaps blinkered themselves, or at least have an agenda to their argument.
canola = Cazorla..
stupid predictive text
I think Stats are not a good way to evaluate how good a player is..especially the goals assists etc..
there HAS to be alot of subjectivity in these opinions
Depends which stats..
Chances created (regardless of whether a striker puts them away or not) is a good measure for a creative player.
certain stats are better than others.
CCC's is a good measure because it shows how many times a creative player sets up a situation where a player is in a one on one situation..
chances created is a poor and ambiguous stat, it could be.laying it off to a midfielder who tries a 40 yard shot.. hardly the best "chance"
similarly tackle %ages are a "bad" stat, if you tackle once in a game and win the ball you get 100% and look fab.. despite the fact you have hardly contributed to the defence, case in point is lucas has an average tackle %age stat. However he wins the ball back on average once every 40 minutes or something, his.nearest rival DM was approximately 20 mins slower.. and this is a stat that reflects what you want your player to do.
another is shots vs shots on target.. it's easier to get the ball on target.if you always smack it at the goalie stood in the centre of the goal. a "good" stat instead is shots vs goals, because I don't care if a striker has 100% of his shots on target of he scores 1 goal in 10 shots. what I want to see is less shots per goal. because it's goals that win the games.
some stats are good measures of comparison, some are a little meaningless.
comment by Greatteamswinit4times (U6008)
posted 14 minutes ago
He had a year left on his contract and had openly stated for 12 months that he wouldn't be signing a new deal. 12 million is about right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And for a player of the Dutch league, 12 million pounds for someone with only one year left on his contract, is actually very high.
Also, like you already showed, some wild stories about Eriksen which are incorrect.
a. Both Ajax and his agent were not touting him around Europe for 3 years. Au contraire, for the first two of those 3 years he always stated in the Dutch press he was not interested in a move yet, felt he had more to learn at Ajax. The last season ,he did state clearly he was ready for a move, if the right club came.
b. Ajax stated, they wouldn't let him go for less then 10 million, and in the worst case would let him go on a free. They felt he was too important to go for less, and would rather have had him play one more year and don't earn anything on him.
c. Eriksen publically stated, well before his contract with Spurs, that if no team came for him in the summer, that he felt good with (i.e. at least sub top in England, Spain etc), he would extend his contract with Ajax for one year. He said he would never go on a free, because he wanted Ajax to make some money on him as thanks for becoming the player he was.
d. Seen people calling him not mobile enough, which is far from the truth, if he is used correctly. At Ajax, both in the domestic league as in the CL, he - the star player - was the player who ran most miles. He's great at drifting between the striker and midfield, something opponents find dificult to deal with. As proven when City and United played Ajax in the CL and EL.
e. Not saying he would have been guaranteed a place in the starting eleven, far from it, with Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Hendo and Sturridge doing great. But he would have been great to be able to come off the bench, or start instead of a Coutinho, who has had some disappointing games as well. Let's not forget, him, Eriksen and Sterling are all young players, who could do with some rest occasionally.
comment by There are some who call me.........Tim (U7708)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Greatteamswinit4times(U6008)
posted 14 minutes ago
He had a year left on his contract and had openly stated for 12 months that he wouldn't be signing a new deal. 12 million is about right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And for a player of the Dutch league, 12 million pounds for someone with only one year left on his contract, is actually very high.
Also, like you already showed, some wild stories about Eriksen which are incorrect.
a. Both Ajax and his agent were not touting him around Europe for 3 years. Au contraire, for the first two of those 3 years he always stated in the Dutch press he was not interested in a move yet, felt he had more to learn at Ajax. The last season ,he did state clearly he was ready for a move, if the right club came.
b. Ajax stated, they wouldn't let him go for less then 10 million, and in the worst case would let him go on a free. They felt he was too important to go for less, and would rather have had him play one more year and don't earn anything on him.
c. Eriksen publically stated, well before his contract with Spurs, that if no team came for him in the summer, that he felt good with (i.e. at least sub top in England, Spain etc), he would extend his contract with Ajax for one year. He said he would never go on a free, because he wanted Ajax to make some money on him as thanks for becoming the player he was.
d. Seen people calling him not mobile enough, which is far from the truth, if he is used correctly. At Ajax, both in the domestic league as in the CL, he - the star player - was the player who ran most miles. He's great at drifting between the striker and midfield, something opponents find dificult to deal with. As proven when City and United played Ajax in the CL and EL.
e. Not saying he would have been guaranteed a place in the starting eleven, far from it, with Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Hendo and Sturridge doing great. But he would have been great to be able to come off the bench, or start instead of a Coutinho, who has had some disappointing games as well. Let's not forget, him, Eriksen and Sterling are all young players, who could do with some rest occasionally.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
good post!
Insert, that's a bit of a long-winded response. I don't rate Coutinho as highly as Mata, Silva, Cazorla or Ozil. It hardly means I don't rate him and I don't see why that's got you all wound up. He's very inconsistent and while he's good in the final 3rd of the pitch, he's considerably behind the top playmakers in their craft around the centre of midfield. He's generally been the worst of your front 6 this season.
And I stick by the argument the form of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling has made him appear far better than he's actually been. It's a very valid argument. It's one of the reasons Ozil looks half the player he was, trying to supply an Arsenal attack that is very static with little pace or movement or workrate. Everytime he looks up, Giroud or Sanogo are backing the goal trying to make flicks. How on earth do you play through-passes with no runners in behind the opposition defence?
Contrary to your claims, I've watched him a lot this season. He doesn't get the stick players like Ozil and Mata get for poor performances cos at the moment, he's nowhere near a standout player for your team and didn't come with a big reputation and a £40m price tag. His poor performances are overlooked cos no one cares.
I'm not wound up, who gets wound up over opinions on a football forum?
my opinion however (which I have backed with statistics that your requested, solid fact on which my opinion is based) is that you are wrong, and everything you say is based on conjecture.
coutinho's stats mince those players you list, and still despite the cold.hard evidence that proves you cannot pay as much attention as you claim, you still won't accept you are wrong, and you continue to peddle your erroneous post as fact.
he doesn't get stick because his "off the boil" form is still comparable to the statistics those other players have been posting for the whole season.
you say his stats are down to.the other three attackers but sterlings form was pretty poor up till the new year, sturridge has missed a large part of the season injured and Share was out for the first 6/7 games. you can create a chance without a goal being scored (I.e ozil/group) and your stats still look good, you can create a clear cut chance without it being converted.
these are the stats that he is being measured against other player with, we are not talking about assists we are talking about creating an opportunity for a teammate to score, and his stats shred those of players over 5 times his value, yet you still don't rate him? it beggars belief.
you cannot.score a goal if someone does not create a chance, the same can not be said in reverse, ergo: his creativity has bettered the stats of the strikers not the other way round.
again, the stats mentioned in this whole article are not assists (good strikers converting chances) its about a player providing the strikers with a chance to score a goal.
you are here with an agenda but your whole argument is built on foundations of sand, they have no factual basis. the counter argument has all the evidence and you still won't accept your views are wrong.
If Ozil doesn't look good because he has no runners in front of him, it just proves he was a panic signing who doesn't fit in with your team.
What is your manager playing at? Can Ozil only look good if Ramsey and Walcott are fit? Why does he rarely play Podolski who is direct?
Surely when you spend £42m on a player you have a plan for him? Not 'hope Walcott stays fit so Ozil has someone to pass to'.
We spent £35m on Carroll with no plan of how to use him, and all those responsible lost their jobs not long afterwards.
There are a shedload of stats other than what you keep going on about. Coutinho has far less chances created than Ozil, half Ozil's league assists (4 to 8), less goals, less passes and passes per game, lower pass completion percentage and lower passing percentage in the opposition half, and has a much lower percentage of completed crosses. Hell, Wilshere who gets insane criticism and plays a deeper midfield role is about as effective offensively as Coutinho. You're cherry picking what suits your agenda. Coutinho is nowhere near as good as those players. And you do sound pretty wound up despite your denial.
Sign in if you want to comment
Eriksen
Page 3 of 4
posted on 14/3/14
"Yep the fact that the top Spanish sides didn't want Cazorla at his peak for a relatively low price shows he is top class"
How would you know who wanted him and who didn't? I bet you had never watched Cazorla is Villareal or Malaga. You're an armchair irrelevance - not his agent, or manager, or club chairman or anything of the sort. It's the same stupid claim you made about Ozil yesterday. Why were you the only club after Suarez in Ajax? Why was Arsenal the only club after him in the summer? You see how desperately silly the question sounds?
posted on 14/3/14
"Who scored has the through ball stat.
Coutinho is 2nd, Hazard top I think, Suarez 3rd.
World class Cazorla is about 10th."
Where is the link? Does it measure accuracy or quantity? And I'd imagine setting off the most mobile front 3 in the league is much easier than doing the same for statue, Giroud, or Bendtner or Sanago. And it proves diddly squat about Coutinho's quality.
posted on 14/3/14
I watched Cazorla plenty of times in Spain.
You think he chose Arsenal over Real and Barca then
As for Suarez, he was expensive when we signed him (for a player only proven in the Dutch league and with a discipline record), and in the Summer we weren't selling, other clubs are not as stupid as Arsenal to waste all summer trying to buy a player who is not for sale
Thats why you ended up panic buying Ozil.
posted on 14/3/14
Why would I provide you with a link?
Are you incapable of using Google?
posted on 14/3/14
http://eplindex.com/46985/clear-cut-chances-stats-ramsey-suarez.html
there you go sjb some stats that support coutinho as one of the top playmaker in the league, not his minutes per clear cut chance created, it is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than anyone else's.
and he is only 21, and this is a role that players generally mature in to, reading of the game is something that comes with experience..
I can find more articles if required?
as mentioned in my previous post, he is not the top playmaker in the league, but your claims he doesn't deserve to be mentioned among the top players are as ridiculous as any Liverpool fan claiming he is already world class!
posted on 14/3/14
also note that on the above article he is the joint 4th highest chance creator, having played at that point on the season less minutes than the 3 players ahead of him and the two on an equal amount to him.
posted on 14/3/14
"I watched Cazorla plenty of times in Spain.
You think he chose Arsenal over Real and Barca then As for Suarez, he was expensive when we signed him (for a
player only proven in the Dutch league and with a discipline record), and in the Summer we weren't selling, other clubs are
not as stupid as Arsenal to waste all summer trying to buy a player who is not for sale Thats why you ended up panic
buying Ozil."
You're still making very little sense. Your moronic question about why Barca or Madrid didn't sign Cazorla applies as well to Suarez. None of the top teams came in for him and it took a Europa team to buy him. And no one other than Arsenal came in for him in the summer. It had nothing to do with you not selling. Don't kid yourself. No top club saw him as worth the hassle.
posted on 14/3/14
No top club saw him as worth the hassle.
----------------------------------------------------------------
At least you agree Arsenal are not a top club
posted on 14/3/14
conveniently ignoring the stats he requested..
posted on 14/3/14
Don't know why sheriff is ignoring those stats.
Possibly as they highlight he is wrong.. ? An open minded person would accept those stats and appreciate being more informed.
Sheriff is burying his head a little..
posted on 14/3/14
"conveniently ignoring the stats he requested.."
I can't open it for some reason. Would try it later. And I don't know what you wan't me to do with or say about the info. I rate Coutinho. My first comment here was to say you don't need Eriksen when you have him. It went haywire when I dared contradict GB's claim that he's been better than Ozil, Mata and Eriksen when in truth, those players have done more for their teams than Coutinho's 1 good game in 4. He's about the worst of your front 6 this season. If you didn't have the best forward line in the league to create your attacking menace, his TRUE contributions would be exposed for what it's truly been.
posted on 14/3/14
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 14/3/14
comment by Greatteamswinit4times (U6008)
posted 12 minutes ago
comment by KnottyAshTaxDodger (U8934)
posted 12 hours, 38 minutes ago
Ajax were touting him round Europe for about three seasons with no takers. What does that tell you?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Asbolutely not true.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
People were linked ot him
uite different from Ajax touting him around
However, the 12 million fee seems a little low in this market, for a player in "demand"
posted on 14/3/14
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 14/3/14
comment by Sheriff John Brown - bring back David Dein (U7482)
posted 14 minutes ago
"conveniently ignoring the stats he requested.."
I can't open it for some reason. Would try it later. And I don't know what you wan't me to do with or say about the info. I rate Coutinho. My first comment here was to say you don't need Eriksen when you have him. It went haywire when I dared contradict GB's claim that he's been better than Ozil, Mata and Eriksen when in truth, those players have done more for their teams than Coutinho's 1 good game in 4. He's about the worst of your front 6 this season. If you didn't have the best forward line in the league to create your attacking menace, his TRUE contributions would be exposed for what it's truly been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
with all due respect (because I like debate but I hate the arguments and wums on here)
you are categorically wrong that he is not at least every bit as good as those players mentioned, as evidenced by the stats, in which he completley outclasses those "superior" players, admittedly the stats were from December and he has gone a little off the boil since then (he is still young, and youth is inconsistent) so they will have gained ground on him. (apart from ozil who is also off the boil)
its also slightly silly that you say his job is easier because of the great strikers ahead of him, I would say to you that it's no coincidence that we create the most clear cut chances and so have the best conversion rate. and that the excellent strike rates would be more appropriate attributed to the creativity stats rather than creativity being linked to the strike rates which seems a little silly..
yes it helps.having fast runners ahead of you, but that does not improve your passing ability, technical skills do, also coutinho is more effective in tight areas to my mind, in and around the box. and I make that statement having watched every Liverpool game this season. my pet hate is when I am told I am wrong about a players playing style by people who watch him twice a season and on match of the day.
it comes across as you are trying to find a reason to negatively compare coutinho with his peers, despite the fact that he trumps them on most statistics. yes he is a lesser light in our attack but he is a youngster playing what is typically a more mature players role alongside some of the best players in the league.
their standing does not diminish his contribution, in fact it is his contribution of more than 1 ccc per game that so allows these "better players" to excel. would canola be a worse player if he had Messi and Ronaldo either side of him because he would be the weakest player in attack?! no, if he performed as coutinho had and helped those players to excel he should receive even more praise..
as I have said twice now, the criminal underrting of coutinho In response to some people possibly overrating him is moronic and little more than childish "my dad is bigger than yours"
canola is one of the top players in the league, ozil too despite his poor return for the money spent, however it's not his fault that arsenal and Madrid valued him so highly. mata is quality and is showingbhis class at United, he has really helped them kick on. silva has been good but is really a shadow of previous seasons, hazard and Oscar have been standout performers in a Chelsea team lacking edge, and coutinho having orchestrated the Liverpool attack that has yielded the most goals in the prem so far deserves to be mentioned in that company.
anyone saying otherwise are perhaps blinkered themselves, or at least have an agenda to their argument.
posted on 14/3/14
canola = Cazorla..
stupid predictive text
posted on 14/3/14
I think Stats are not a good way to evaluate how good a player is..especially the goals assists etc..
there HAS to be alot of subjectivity in these opinions
posted on 14/3/14
Depends which stats..
Chances created (regardless of whether a striker puts them away or not) is a good measure for a creative player.
posted on 14/3/14
certain stats are better than others.
CCC's is a good measure because it shows how many times a creative player sets up a situation where a player is in a one on one situation..
chances created is a poor and ambiguous stat, it could be.laying it off to a midfielder who tries a 40 yard shot.. hardly the best "chance"
similarly tackle %ages are a "bad" stat, if you tackle once in a game and win the ball you get 100% and look fab.. despite the fact you have hardly contributed to the defence, case in point is lucas has an average tackle %age stat. However he wins the ball back on average once every 40 minutes or something, his.nearest rival DM was approximately 20 mins slower.. and this is a stat that reflects what you want your player to do.
another is shots vs shots on target.. it's easier to get the ball on target.if you always smack it at the goalie stood in the centre of the goal. a "good" stat instead is shots vs goals, because I don't care if a striker has 100% of his shots on target of he scores 1 goal in 10 shots. what I want to see is less shots per goal. because it's goals that win the games.
some stats are good measures of comparison, some are a little meaningless.
posted on 14/3/14
comment by Greatteamswinit4times (U6008)
posted 14 minutes ago
He had a year left on his contract and had openly stated for 12 months that he wouldn't be signing a new deal. 12 million is about right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And for a player of the Dutch league, 12 million pounds for someone with only one year left on his contract, is actually very high.
Also, like you already showed, some wild stories about Eriksen which are incorrect.
a. Both Ajax and his agent were not touting him around Europe for 3 years. Au contraire, for the first two of those 3 years he always stated in the Dutch press he was not interested in a move yet, felt he had more to learn at Ajax. The last season ,he did state clearly he was ready for a move, if the right club came.
b. Ajax stated, they wouldn't let him go for less then 10 million, and in the worst case would let him go on a free. They felt he was too important to go for less, and would rather have had him play one more year and don't earn anything on him.
c. Eriksen publically stated, well before his contract with Spurs, that if no team came for him in the summer, that he felt good with (i.e. at least sub top in England, Spain etc), he would extend his contract with Ajax for one year. He said he would never go on a free, because he wanted Ajax to make some money on him as thanks for becoming the player he was.
d. Seen people calling him not mobile enough, which is far from the truth, if he is used correctly. At Ajax, both in the domestic league as in the CL, he - the star player - was the player who ran most miles. He's great at drifting between the striker and midfield, something opponents find dificult to deal with. As proven when City and United played Ajax in the CL and EL.
e. Not saying he would have been guaranteed a place in the starting eleven, far from it, with Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Hendo and Sturridge doing great. But he would have been great to be able to come off the bench, or start instead of a Coutinho, who has had some disappointing games as well. Let's not forget, him, Eriksen and Sterling are all young players, who could do with some rest occasionally.
posted on 14/3/14
comment by There are some who call me.........Tim (U7708)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Greatteamswinit4times(U6008)
posted 14 minutes ago
He had a year left on his contract and had openly stated for 12 months that he wouldn't be signing a new deal. 12 million is about right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And for a player of the Dutch league, 12 million pounds for someone with only one year left on his contract, is actually very high.
Also, like you already showed, some wild stories about Eriksen which are incorrect.
a. Both Ajax and his agent were not touting him around Europe for 3 years. Au contraire, for the first two of those 3 years he always stated in the Dutch press he was not interested in a move yet, felt he had more to learn at Ajax. The last season ,he did state clearly he was ready for a move, if the right club came.
b. Ajax stated, they wouldn't let him go for less then 10 million, and in the worst case would let him go on a free. They felt he was too important to go for less, and would rather have had him play one more year and don't earn anything on him.
c. Eriksen publically stated, well before his contract with Spurs, that if no team came for him in the summer, that he felt good with (i.e. at least sub top in England, Spain etc), he would extend his contract with Ajax for one year. He said he would never go on a free, because he wanted Ajax to make some money on him as thanks for becoming the player he was.
d. Seen people calling him not mobile enough, which is far from the truth, if he is used correctly. At Ajax, both in the domestic league as in the CL, he - the star player - was the player who ran most miles. He's great at drifting between the striker and midfield, something opponents find dificult to deal with. As proven when City and United played Ajax in the CL and EL.
e. Not saying he would have been guaranteed a place in the starting eleven, far from it, with Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Hendo and Sturridge doing great. But he would have been great to be able to come off the bench, or start instead of a Coutinho, who has had some disappointing games as well. Let's not forget, him, Eriksen and Sterling are all young players, who could do with some rest occasionally.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
good post!
posted on 14/3/14
Insert, that's a bit of a long-winded response. I don't rate Coutinho as highly as Mata, Silva, Cazorla or Ozil. It hardly means I don't rate him and I don't see why that's got you all wound up. He's very inconsistent and while he's good in the final 3rd of the pitch, he's considerably behind the top playmakers in their craft around the centre of midfield. He's generally been the worst of your front 6 this season.
And I stick by the argument the form of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling has made him appear far better than he's actually been. It's a very valid argument. It's one of the reasons Ozil looks half the player he was, trying to supply an Arsenal attack that is very static with little pace or movement or workrate. Everytime he looks up, Giroud or Sanogo are backing the goal trying to make flicks. How on earth do you play through-passes with no runners in behind the opposition defence?
Contrary to your claims, I've watched him a lot this season. He doesn't get the stick players like Ozil and Mata get for poor performances cos at the moment, he's nowhere near a standout player for your team and didn't come with a big reputation and a £40m price tag. His poor performances are overlooked cos no one cares.
posted on 14/3/14
I'm not wound up, who gets wound up over opinions on a football forum?
my opinion however (which I have backed with statistics that your requested, solid fact on which my opinion is based) is that you are wrong, and everything you say is based on conjecture.
coutinho's stats mince those players you list, and still despite the cold.hard evidence that proves you cannot pay as much attention as you claim, you still won't accept you are wrong, and you continue to peddle your erroneous post as fact.
he doesn't get stick because his "off the boil" form is still comparable to the statistics those other players have been posting for the whole season.
you say his stats are down to.the other three attackers but sterlings form was pretty poor up till the new year, sturridge has missed a large part of the season injured and Share was out for the first 6/7 games. you can create a chance without a goal being scored (I.e ozil/group) and your stats still look good, you can create a clear cut chance without it being converted.
these are the stats that he is being measured against other player with, we are not talking about assists we are talking about creating an opportunity for a teammate to score, and his stats shred those of players over 5 times his value, yet you still don't rate him? it beggars belief.
you cannot.score a goal if someone does not create a chance, the same can not be said in reverse, ergo: his creativity has bettered the stats of the strikers not the other way round.
again, the stats mentioned in this whole article are not assists (good strikers converting chances) its about a player providing the strikers with a chance to score a goal.
you are here with an agenda but your whole argument is built on foundations of sand, they have no factual basis. the counter argument has all the evidence and you still won't accept your views are wrong.
posted on 14/3/14
If Ozil doesn't look good because he has no runners in front of him, it just proves he was a panic signing who doesn't fit in with your team.
What is your manager playing at? Can Ozil only look good if Ramsey and Walcott are fit? Why does he rarely play Podolski who is direct?
Surely when you spend £42m on a player you have a plan for him? Not 'hope Walcott stays fit so Ozil has someone to pass to'.
We spent £35m on Carroll with no plan of how to use him, and all those responsible lost their jobs not long afterwards.
posted on 14/3/14
There are a shedload of stats other than what you keep going on about. Coutinho has far less chances created than Ozil, half Ozil's league assists (4 to 8), less goals, less passes and passes per game, lower pass completion percentage and lower passing percentage in the opposition half, and has a much lower percentage of completed crosses. Hell, Wilshere who gets insane criticism and plays a deeper midfield role is about as effective offensively as Coutinho. You're cherry picking what suits your agenda. Coutinho is nowhere near as good as those players. And you do sound pretty wound up despite your denial.
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