About the left back issue, if we can’t fill it, (it doesn’t appear that we are going to sign a replacement) then would we have to perhaps switch our formation? A 3 at the back could potentially work, and Navas, (or hopefully Vidal) can fill in on the right, and then have someone else on the left.
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One hour left to save the season, will Monchi do it?
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Unbelievable…
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That’s a risky gamble, not even logical projection. But, perhaps there wasn’t a proper LB in the market that we could snatch and they didn’t want to loan someone in for half a season.
However, Escudero is well past his prime and even at 100% fit, he doesn’t have the capabilities of the LB’s we’re used to have with this formation, namely Reguilon and Acuna. I liked Reguilon the most and still do because I think he adapted to the formation very well, considering his pace. Acuna was doing well too until the injury, but sometimes he wouldn’t offer much options going forward, but his crosses have become much better now.
As for Pablo Perez… he’s not experienced enough for the very demanding rest of the season, so I doubt he’ll be able to help us. If he by some miracle turns into a new Pozo (although Pozo is still not a proper RB starter material for us), then it’s ok. But again, it’s a huge gamble and the more Escudero will take to come back, the more Rekik will be playing, the more we’ll look like an airplane without the left wing. Then we also have the Navas issue - because if Navas would be fully fit and without the constant muscle problems and coming out injured from every match, I’d be a whole different scenario as we could have Vidal cover the left full back position while Acuna recovers and just hope that nothing happens to the two for the 'many weeks (read months) that Acuna will be out.
Now we have to hope for a lot… hope that Escudero will come back soon and be at his prime again to help us, hope that Acuna will recover well and not have anymore issues, hope that Navas won’t have any overload problems, hope that Pablo Perez will shine etc. etc. - too much hope, not much logical action.
Atletico Madrid of 2013-14 didn’t hope for much, they didn’t leave anything to luck but planned carefully beforehand and went on to have a historic season. The only mistake that they made was perhaps loaning out their second target man striker Leo Baptistao to Betis on January 2014, as Diego Costa was injured and couldn’t play more than 10 mins in the final of CL vs. RM. Not saying that Baptistao would’ve win them the CL but he’d be there and they wouldn’t have to change the tactics and what not in an important mach such as the CL final. So it would be more natural for the players, even though they surely trained for the back-up plan but it often doesn’t work in football. The winning formula should never be changed.
With all that being said and with constant issues with full backs that are the most important positions (foundations) of the 4-3-3 system, I doubt we’ll reach anything more than the 4th spot and even that is questionable. Anything more and it would be a miracle. It’s not that we’re not using seeing miracles with this club anyway…
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So to sum up, our winter transfer market was more or less a failure. Papu is good and he will help us in attack, but our problems (identified and very obvious already) are full backs and a player like Banega. The management have not addressed these issues in this window and left everything for June, in a way abandoning this season and relying on luck - Papu can be considered as a ‘cool distraction’ at this point. As someone mentioned here it was a very weak transfer window in overall with not many teams signing players, while loans dominated the market.
Back to the drawing board in summer!
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Maybe there wasn’t anyone to grab other than someone that might have put us in a worse position. Rekik hasn’t been that bad and hasn’t cost us any goals that I can remember. Vidal is a great backup to Navas. It’s going to be ok. 
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We have a bad experience with trying to snatch a full back in the last minute day of the transfer window - Lionel Messi Carole. But it was a whole different story with whole different objectives and aspiration (the infamous Eduardo Berizzo reign).
Hopefully it will turn out to be all good in the end, but unless we switch to a 3-5-2 or similar, I’m afraid the 4-3-3 won’t work with Rekik with tougher teams.
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Rumors that Betis has signed Rui Silva for the summer window
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This rumour won’t die!
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Apparently, Isco wants a Sevilla move but Monchi isn’t interested. Imo this would be a good transfer if it was cheap enough but at the same time he’s not a youngster anymore and is gonna take up playing time from Oscar and Oliver Torres
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Also funny rumour, Antonio Conte seems to desire our lord and saviour Nemanja Gudelj as their main focus in summer. What?
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Good!
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Liverpool attacker Takumi Minamino is reportedly attracting interest from La Liga side Sevilla whilst impressing during his loan spell with Southampton.
Hahah - this is the shit that makes me laugh. Like where would he fit in? Plus he isn’t good enough for this team.
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