Christopher Nkunku to Chelsea | Confirmed

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NoPace

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Interesting. I caught the 2nd half of the cup final against Freiburg in which Leipzig were bad as a unit and didn't get the ball up much, what struck me was that Nkunku looked pretty comfortable with his back to goal. It's possible he'd fit nicely here in the false 9 type role Tadic played well for Ten Hag.
 

simonhch

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Nkunku is a player I like, but not a player I'd spend huge money on. If that makes sense. I'd love him here, but spending 70-100m on a BL talent is mental. At the 40M range, I'd want us to be all over this.
 

do.ob

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Interesting. I caught the 2nd half of the cup final against Freiburg in which Leipzig were bad as a unit and didn't get the ball up much, what struck me was that Nkunku looked pretty comfortable with his back to goal. It's possible he'd fit nicely here in the false 9 type role Tadic played well for Ten Hag.
I don't see the value of such accounts. He probably looked at Nkunku's FBref profile for 5 minutes, maybe watched a youtube video to be thorough (though looking at his tweet, probably not) and calls himself an analyst.

see this:

analytical mastermind
 

Theafonis

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As you said, if they can. Who on earth will want any of them? Werner and Lukaku I imagine are on serious money that they'll struggle to get outside of England. Maybe Newcastle will save their hides? Outside of that, I reckon Chelsea are a bit stuck.
Pulisic to Newcastle could be a possibility.
 

Theafonis

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I don't see the value of such accounts. He probably looked at Nkunku's FBref profile for 5 minutes, maybe watched a youtube video to be thorough (though looking at his tweet, probably not) and calls himself an analyst.

see this:

analytical mastermind
Don’t see anything wrong with that. Tammy is a good poacher and knows where the goal is. Just can’t get involved in build or fighting deep defensive blocks. But he does scores goals ultimately and he’s a better finisher than Werner.

Tammy would probably be an ace in the Bundesliga. Those high blocks with his pace and positioning would earn him straight money. He’s just not what Chelsea needed at the time. Neither is Werner right now — A critical failure of a transfer the club needs to learn from. Also one that was a result of lack of actual vision or understanding of how he’d fit the team.
 

marktan

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I don't see the value of such accounts. He probably looked at Nkunku's FBref profile for 5 minutes, maybe watched a youtube video to be thorough (though looking at his tweet, probably not) and calls himself an analyst.

see this:

analytical mastermind
Tbf that's how most people outside professional scouts will judge players. My opinion on Nkunku is mainly from watching one or two highlight videos, in that to me he looks similar to Rashford pre-injury and so wouldn't be a good fit at United. Not a great dribbler, but fast, good finisher and passer. Obviously could be wrong.

Havertz and Werner I think are a better fit for Chelsea and Tuchel than Tammy. Werner imo is a better fit than Lukaku even.

The one player I did actually watch a lot of matches for was Sancho, and I was strongly of the opinion that whilst he was very good, the space in Bundesliga and his inability to beat players from a standing start at pace especially in the CL would cause him issues at United. Seems like our scouts judge players on completely different metrics to most people.
 

do.ob

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Tbf that's how most people outside professional scouts will judge players. My opinion on Nkunku is mainly from watching one or two highlight videos, in that to me he looks similar to Rashford pre-injury and so wouldn't be a good fit at United. Not a great dribbler, but fast, good finisher and passer. Obviously could be wrong.

Havertz and Werner I think are a better fit for Chelsea and Tuchel than Tammy. Werner imo is a better fit than Lukaku even.

The one player I did actually watch a lot of matches for was Sancho, and I was strongly of the opinion that whilst he was very good, the space in Bundesliga and his inability to beat players from a standing start at pace especially in the CL would cause him issues at United. Seems like our scouts judge players on completely different metrics to most people.
Yes. But we are random posters on Redcafe, we don't create Twitter accounts calling ourselves analysts. And Lukaku and Werner were great examples to weed out the imposters, because their issues were clear as day for anyone, who looked past FBref and Youtube.
 

WeePat

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I don't see the value of such accounts. He probably looked at Nkunku's FBref profile for 5 minutes, maybe watched a youtube video to be thorough (though looking at his tweet, probably not) and calls himself an analyst.

see this:

analytical mastermind
He's just a kid apparently. Lots of people were dunking on him a while ago for similar things you pointed out here and it turns out he's just a teenager, 16 or 17 years old, so yeah add a pinch of salt to everything that account tweets.
 

didz

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Dembele seems to have turned things around this season under Xavi's leadership. Robben suffered the same label as injury-prone and bottler in Final at Chelsea and Real too. It didn't stop him from becoming a machine at Bayern Munich. Dembele is still pretty young (25 years old) and should be entering his prime soon if whatever club he joins has competent medical staffs and fitness coaches.

There is no sure-fire transfer in this day and age. If you want to take a player of Dembele's calibre (When he is in top form) for free, you always have to take risk. Bayern took risk with Robben and they flourished. Even Manchester United took risk with Van Nistelrooy after his injury and look how that turned out.
Those are some really, really good points.

I suppose you'd have to ask to what extent is his change in form due to increasing maturity? And maybe more importantly, is the manager right for him? I don't know if Ten Hag has much history of resurrecting careers besides Haller and arguably Tadic.

If Dembele is a bit of a difficult personality, do we have the right setup to get the best out of him anyway? I feel like the control freak authoritarian approach Ten Hag is often credited with might just be the wrong fit for a player like Dembele, but I don't really know.
 

reddevilz007

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Does he have one or two standout attributes or is he a good jack of all trades, like Thomas Muller?
That’s what I had in mind too, with his versatility.
A front 4 of Sancho, Nkunku, Nunez and Anthony / Raphinha some day.
 

Bojan Djordjic

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Dembele seems to have turned things around this season under Xavi's leadership. Robben suffered the same label as injury-prone and bottler in Final at Chelsea and Real too. It didn't stop him from becoming a machine at Bayern Munich. Dembele is still pretty young (25 years old) and should be entering his prime soon if whatever club he joins has competent medical staffs and fitness coaches.

There is no sure-fire transfer in this day and age. If you want to take a player of Dembele's calibre (When he is in top form) for free, you always have to take risk. Bayern took risk with Robben and they flourished. Even Manchester United took risk with Van Nistelrooy after his injury and look how that turned out.
Might be underestimating the power of Bayern's infamous medical department under that mad scientist fellow!

I think you can afford to take risks when you're at a mature phase in your team building. If we take the maxim that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour then I think it would be a serious folly for a club in our position desperately needing wins and trophies to buy someone that is so plagued by injury and for whom there is anecdotal evidence of being unprofessional. I don't think United can write off another season because our star signing has had a season ending injury or because there's been another civil war in the dressing room between the French contingent and X other country contingent over Dembele playing FIFA until 2 am and not showing up for training.
 

mu4c_20le

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Leipzig have state so often that they won't sell him that I'd be surprised if they let him go for an amount another club would be willing to pay.
Thought I walked into the Sancho thread again.
 

Cloud7

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Looks a player. Think he fits Liverpool or City more than us though.
What does this even mean? Liverpool and City play drastically different styles of football with very different sorts of attackers and attacking patterns.

Or does this simply mean "A team better than us" ?
 

WhyYouGottaBeSoRuud?

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Ten Hag has been employed to change things...primarily the playing style.
Fair comment.

What does this even mean? Liverpool and City play drastically different styles of football with very different sorts of attackers and attacking patterns.

Or does this simply mean "A team better than us" ?
A more flexible, fluid attack.

Where'd he play for City?
In an attacking position pal.
 

rbnZz

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I hope Ten Hag will create a more dynamic playing style. Players rotating their positions, which is harder to defend. If I see Nkunku play, you could let him start from the wingers position and in the game he is allowed to rotate positions with Fernandes, Ronaldo and Sancho.

Behind these players 1 playmaker. PSG wants to buy a lot of players this summer. So I would reach out to Verratti. Maybe he likes a new challenge considering he only played in Ligue 1 so far. Next to the playmaker, 1 strong defensive midfielder. Tchouameni was perfect but I think he goes to Real Madrid. I'd go for Rice.

The backs, the 2 Dutchies. Leftback Malacia. I really like his mentality. Like a Pitbull. On the right, Timber. Centre defenders: Lindelof and Varane. I think Lindelof could suprise us. He has good crosses/passes.
 

Andersons Dietician

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Do have to wonder where he would be deployed if he was purchased. Like Sancho he can play LW, AM,RW and even striker. From the limited amount I’ve seen him he looked quite good playing centrally. A position that will continue to remain Bruno’s no doubt as no matter how terrible he has been I won’t believe anyone has the balls to drop him till they actually do it.

Although those 3 constantly rotating position and if Bruno gets good and learns how and when to pass could be fun to watch.
 

Rolaholic

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They really could do sith making better use of their academy rather than always buying big names. They've consistently produced some of the best talent in Europe over the last decade yet they rarely ever remain at the club for their senior careers given their 'Galactiques' recruitment strategy
 

CM10

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That would probably be quite a good move for PSG actually. Not sure they will do it when there's already so many names to shoehorn in, but I think he'd be a player worth restructuring their attack for.
 

do.ob

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That would probably be quite a good move for PSG actually. Not sure they will do it when there's already so many names to shoehorn in, but I think he'd be a player worth restructuring their attack for.
I think those other big names could precisely be a reason why he's interesting for him. Because he doesn't have an overly inflated ego (yet) and would probably be fine playing a more supporting role for their superstars. Having grown up at PSG he could also potentially serve as a bridge between players and fans.
 

DannyCAFC

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I know, I'm just interested to see what he/she would say
Well it's obvious isn't it? Off the right, off the left, through the middle, wherever they need him. He has all the qualities to fill the roles that Mane, Jota, Firmino, Foden, Sterling etc play.
 

Mainoldo

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Didn't realise Rangnick was Nkunku's life partner, gutted by this.
We wasn’t really scouting him before that and the relationship with Leipzig we will lose. So no Ragnick discount code at the checkout.
 

Drizzle

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As much as I like Nkunku, and he looks a lot more technical and intelligent than Nuñez, I don't see him as our main striker over the next 5 years. Looks more like an inside forward/10 to me. Which means if we spent £70m+ on him then we'd still need to spend big on a striker next summer. Doesn't feel very smart to me.
 

Seven Seas Sardines

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I noticed that comment.

Nkunku should be our top priority. His versatility in all attacking positions would be priceless to us right now with the amount of positions that need covering.
Indeed. Not only can he play backup to Ronaldo, but also to Sancho, plays well at RW and can even rotate with Bruno and VDB as AM.
 

Mainoldo

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As much as I like Nkunku, and he looks a lot more technical and intelligent than Nuñez, I don't see him as our main striker over the next 5 years. Looks more like an inside forward/10 to me. Which means if we spent £70m+ on him then we'd still need to spend big on a striker next summer. Doesn't feel very smart to me.
What’s wrong with that? Ronaldo is our forward anyway. We just get a striker next summer. I’m sure they’ll be a new Darwin plus no.11 might be back and on form by then (strictly football related).
 
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