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2018/19 Idrissa Gueye

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Lanolin said:
Yes I didn't say that we should replace him with somebody equally poor on the ball though did I? So Fernandinho and Kante are very relevant examples. Who do Liverpool have? Is that a joke? ALL of their midfielders do it, that's why they're so good, because their midfield doesn't give you a second, hassling and winning the ball back all over the pitch, pinning teams back. I would argue that the fact United and Arsenal don't have players like that is one of the main reasons why they are the poor relations of the top 6, and often find themselves overrun in midfield by the better sides. Matic used to be great but now seems to really struggle to compete with the athleticism and speed of his rivals.

Also worth pointing out that I was specifically talking about what we need in order to play the style of football Silva appears to favour (high press, high energy, committing lots of players forward) not that every single team in the world needs that type of player, regardless of style.
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Arsenal have managed to bridge the gap somewhat purely by signing Terreira, who is all action. United tried to have Fred to do it but he got Jose'd.

City have Bernardo Silva working like a nutjob to add to Fernandinho's excellent positional sense.

Spurs have Sissoko doing it currently.

All of the top sides have players who get around the pitch, hassle and press. Gana's one of the best at it. What limits him is his passing when he's the player that is being given loads of the ball. That issue has stemmed from a lack of form from Gylfi, Gomes, Davies and Schneiderlin at different points, as well as teams figuring out that they can put two players on, for example, Gomes, and hence mean Gueye sees more of the ball.
 

Best ball winner in the league, will be missed if he goes. However i do believe he is replaceable - and in fact his departure could mean a change in formation / tactics which would be interesting
 
Name another player in the league that wins the balls the ball as much as Gana?

Attacking aside, he is pivotal to our team.

IF we sell him then we have to get a similar player in and if he can pass 5 yards then a brucey bonus.

I can't see us selling him or PSG being able to afford him though.
 

BlueToff said:
We aren't a top side though and have proved when we try to go toe-to-toe with the big boys without Gana, we're hopeless.
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I don't get this at all. We lost to Man City and Spurs when he didn't play, so it means we missed him badly and he's important in these big games. But he played Newcastle, Watford, Brighton and Leicester, and we got 2 points from the lot.

Oh, that's because he's not as suited playing against these teams, they say. With their substandard midfield players with less ability on the ball, they show up areas of Ganas game that Silva, Fernandinio, Sterling, Son, Ali and Ericksson would surely struggle against.

It's insane.

He is good at covering ground, and he makes lots of interceptions and tackles. Those stats can't be argued against. As I've said before though, the amount of ground he covers actually shows how poor his positional sense is, and for every time he makes a successful challenge, there's an equal number of times players walk through the middle, unchallenged, and the amount of fouls he concedes in dangerous areas is a liability.

And it seems the passing thing, which I've gone on about for best part of 2 years, even his strongest supporters have given up on that now. He is atrocious in this area.

The biggest compliment I can pay him, is even with his deficiencies as a player, we got him for an absolute bargain at £7m, especially when we sold Cleverley for more. If we can sell him for £45m, it would be an absolute masterstroke. And as far as not being able to replace him, the last game he didn't play, we won 5-1. I'm sure we will be fine.
 
He'll be good for PSG as he can just be left to do what he's good at in midfield before simply laying it off to their world class stars to do something. He is a little bit exposed in this team and system as he needs to contribute more to make up for the lesser quality we have in other areas of the pitch. Regardless though I do think we should sell him and getting a replacement in with the qualities we're missing in midfield will make us a better team.

Anything above 20m is good business imho.
 

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