Everton's initial Brozovic bid rejected

If true, I don't understand why we need to buy another central midfielder when we have too many already.

Si (#1). Maybe it's because we're getting rid of some?

Si, maybe it's because Koeman thinks he's better than some of the "too many" we have already, some of whom are likely headed for the door (Macca, Besic).

I count seven so even if we sell two we have three playing and two backup.

Klaassen
Gueye
Davies
Schneiderlin
Barry
McCarthy
Besic

The fact he is a holding midfielder especially is why I am confused, we have at least five players who play that one position. Maybe at least three off the current list are going?

Si, the way I would see it, from the names supplied, is that McCarthy has burnt bridges and is on the way out, Barry is about to retire and Koeman is uncertain on Besic, who is returning from an extremely long layoff.

That leaves Klaassen, Gueye, Schneiderlin and Davies who are all going to be there after this season and into Koeman's third and potentially final season.

That leaves room for one on the bench, or after an injury or suspension, none on the bench. Best-case scenario is we have five men for three positions as it leaves depth.

Word on the street would also have it that Klaassen plays a little further forward than Gueye or Schneiderlin so perhaps Brozovic is a replacement for McCarthy and maintaining the current status quo. I.e.

Klaassen replaces Barkley
Brozovic replaces McCarthy

You can never have enough midfielders imo.

Especially with the amount of matches in the Europa League. Is this guy any good, does anybody know from seeing him play? Besides having to check out YouTube – where everyone looks good...

Kris (#5),

My thoughts exactly on the midfield position.

I wouldn't say he's a defensive midfielder necessarily. More an all-action midfielder. Box to box with lots of lung capacity and high energy.

I think Koeman's assembling a high energy team for some exciting crash, bang, wallop football.

Agree... Barry, McCarthy, Besic. From a less ambitious era, methinks.

I normally only read comments and never post.

This guy is class, he is much better suited to the English game and can play anywhere in midfield. I personally think he will be signed instead of Sigurdsson.

He is a Koeman type player, fast, full of energy and presses. Creative also with good passing.

Colin (#6),

Do you recall that Ferguson used to say the same, but about strikers?

Exciting news if we could secure him. A step up in quality to either McCarthy or Besic.

Marcelo Brozovic: Meet Inter's Mancini-loved jack-of-all-trades at the middle of a super-club tug of war

Thanks Tanvir, I know very little about Brozovic – does anyone have any more info/opinion on his attributes and playing style?

I don't think that we have seen enough of Mo Basic to determine where he might best play in midfield. Koeman certainly hasn't.

Mo aside, we have only one holding midfield player. By that, I mean someone whose primary purpose is to ensure that he is always ready to cover in front of the back four. Barry does that. None of the others do.

Koeman was happy to play many games last season with no screen to the back four. In my opinion that's suicidal against good teams. If he doesn't buy a holding player and he continues to allow the others to push on without the back four doing the same we are in for a disappointing season.

Macca can go but we should keep Besic. I will be very disappointed if he leaves as I think he will be a special player given a decent run of games if he can stay injury free.

Drew, I completely agree with your view on Brozovic, smashing player, but have to admit, 'lots of lung capacity' made me smile!!

Here is an interesting article about him when he first joined Inter.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/marcelo-brozovic-meet-inters-mancini-loved-jack-all-trades-middle-super-club-tug-war

I have been trying to post the link to this full article, but it is not appearing. Here is a snippet:

Strengths

Brozovic is a technically proficient footballer, equally capable of providing assists and goals. He's a creative spark with excellent vision and passing, and is a real danger from distance – his goals against Cagliari and Udinese this season were very similar and equally sensational.

Another string to the Croatia international's bow is that he's a versatile midfielder who can be used in a number of roles – central midfield, defensive midfield, attacking midfield and on the right flank. Brozovic's adaptability is also one of his strong suits, given the changes he has already overcome in his short career.

Weaknesses

Premier League suitors would undoubtedly be wary of his physical attributes, given the league's reputation for favouring strong players in comparison to Serie A.

Despite being quick and agile, Brozovic doesn't possess the most imposing frame and his lack of strength (31% of tackles won this season) and poor ability in the air (36% duel success rate) could cause concern.

Barry used sparingly, McCarthy sold, Besic always crocked. There will be injuries. It's hopefully going to be a long season. I see every reason to get another midfielder in.

I think this is a big clue to our playing style next year. Midfield is were Koeman thinks the game is won.

He might be right but, with no quality width in the squad save for Bolaise and Lookman, who he's more likely to use as part of a front three, then the depth is important.

I share the view posted several current players will be allowed to leave. Still worries me that we aren't fishing for enough centre-forwards.

This lad though is reasonable from the little I've seen, and that's not much. Very good passer, technique, I'd venture a genuine midfielder rather than this holding midfielder bollocks that gets used.

Brozovic isn't just a central midfielder – I've seen him play very well out wide. Some players will be off and we need a big squad to compete on all fronts.

John P, "holding midfielder bullocks"? Really?

That feller Kante, just a luxury player then? Chelsea would have pissed it anyway. Luckiest player ever to win two Premier League medals on the bounce with different clubs. Footballer of the year? Don't make me laugh.

Dier at Spurs? Don't know why he gets a game either.

Traore at his best at Man City? Nah, let him eat (birthday) cake.

The absence of a holding midfielder cost us the first two goals at Anfield and the first against Chelsea at home. It plays a big part in our failure to turn the ball over and move forward quickly.

We're better off without them though!

I think Klaassen will play further forward in the No.10 role (between the lines).

That means that, if Barry retires (soon) and McCarthy leaves we have Gueye, Schneiderlin, Davies and Besic for 3 positions.

We also have Barry for one more season and two more coming through from the excellent youth team, so one more signing makes sense to me.

So that would be:

Defensive Midfielders – Gueye / Besic
Distributing Central Midfielders – Schneiderlin / Barry
Box-to-box Midfielders – Davies / Brozovic
No 10 – Klaassen / Barkley (or replacement)

Coming through – Walsh / Williams

Sold – McCarthy

John Pierce,

So far we have:

Lukaku (on his way but no club has yet made a firm offer; no need to sell as still 2 years on his contract);
Niasse (has he done enough at Hull to convince Koeman he can play a role);
Calvert-Lewin (fancied by Koeman and had a good summer in Korea);
and probably Sandro to come in.

Given we normally only play one striker anyway, my guess is we don't need to look for forwards unless we have agreed terms with another club for Maximus Lumpus, at which point we have some serious moolah to tempt other clubs.

Hey guys, I hate to say it, but I can't see any more players coming in before the 1st July 2017, when Lukaku will go to Chelsea as Everton have run out of money.

Peter Roberts, you're entitled to think the list you've provided is good enough.

I have to completely disagree. We have to find more goals, forwards are primarily game changers. The quality isn't there for me.

Lukaku is more than likely to go. Even should he stay, the lad has to understand he won't play every game and will play with others. Everton won't win the required number of games across 4 competitions with that quality of centre-forward. Not enough goals.

My distaste for Koeman grows with his collection of power-house midfielders with little regard for width. We will, I think, flatten smaller teams with this style but not the 6 we are trying to catch.

My hope is he's bulking the whole squad up and more forwards will come later in the window.

Peter Lee, an unconventional spelling of Toure at Man City, but I knew who you meant!

A defensive or holding midfielder is not the panacea you believe it is. There was far more wrong with Everton's displays in the games you cite than an absence of this type of player.

Midfields should be a unit and show balance, not rely on one limiting facet of a player to protect their team. Each player should be able to do all aspects of the game.

Kante didn't 'hold' anything for Chelsea last season – he played so far up the pitch, there was nothing defensive about him.

As for Dier, a closer inspection again would tell you he played a lot games at centre-back because of injury or as Tottenham dominated most of their games higher up the pitch as with Kante.

All players you cite are very good players, don't pigeon-hole them into a position which limits their output.

A team only needs a 'holding' midfielder if they as a team aren't good enough. Everton now have enough quality in that position for all midfielders to contribute more. We should not be holding on to anything in most of our games.

How many times did Gana get pulled after we got Schneiderlin? Too defensive from the coach, and Gana not good enough going forward.

For me, the term is outdated and is a cop-out for teams not brave enough to put more attacking players on the park.

We differ John. You appear to go with attack being the best form of defence, whereas I start from a solid platform that won't concede.

However you set the team up you have to deny the opposition space to play directly in front of your back four. We didn't do this well last season and that, in my view, was because we had players selected who were looking ahead rather than behind and got caught doing neither one thing nor the other.

Years ago, a coach said to me that if you are making a tackle towards your own goal you've already fucked up. Gana and Schneiderlin did this far to often last season.

Peter Roberts (#27),

No I don't think we can start the season with Sandro, Lukaku, Niasse and Calvert-Lewin as our four central strikers. There is no way Niasse will be in the mix. If he's not sold or put out on loan again he'll be with the U23s.

Calvert-Lewin can't lead the line yet and couldn't realistically cover Lukaku if he got injured. So we will need one more central striker option to replace Niasse.

We also need to consider the options out wide. With Bolasie out until Christmas ,we only have Lookman, Deulofeu and Mirallas. I think Deulofeu will be off. Mirallas doesn't do it for me and I am not sure Lookman is ready for more than a cameo role.

So another wide attacker is needed – perhaps we can get one additional forward player that can cover Lukaku and play down the channels?

Talking of wide players/wingers, any news on Lennon?

The Echo (house organ of LFC) now sawing we are not in for Brozovic which is a pity if true as he looks a very good player

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/everton-not-looking-marcelo-brozovic-13240240

Peter (#31), I think that coach was full of it. There is no more important tackle than a saving tackle, especially when you're making it – as Gana and Schneiderlin did so often last season – to cover a teammate.

Alan (#33), you shouldn't expect news until there's a resolution to the situation... one way or the other. The privacy of the Lennon family is, or should be, the top priority for everyone involved.

Mike,

Sorry but that coach was absolutely correct. If you're always having to make those types of tackles, it means errors were made before then. Last season, especially as the season progressed, Gana was guilty of this more and more. He would be out of position or fail to read the situation correctly which resulted in those lunging tackles to try to save the day.

Taking that approach leads to a much higher probability of accumulating cards, allows the referee the chance to see a foul when there might not have been one, increases the risk of the tackle being missed and then leaving us one less defender, which is exactly what happened in the derby, and pulls the player out of position to try to turn defense into attack.

There is a reason you would see the greats like Pirlo, Viera or even the current Spurs midfield only making those tackles on a limited basis. They instead read the game and position themselves better, organizing to spot the danger before it becomes necessary to have to dive in for a tackle from behind or lunging from the side.

I'm not saying it's not required at times. But last season Gana became more and more dependent on those tackles and was getting beaten more and more. It's no coincidence that he was the player being subbed off at halftime with regularity toward the end of the season.

They shouldn't be covering a teammate's mistake. They're supposed to be doing the job ahead of the defense. If they're making mistakes, getting caught out of position and not spotting the danger, then the defense is having to cover them and it all goes pear shaped fairly quickly. Again, as seen in the derby.

Mike, David has said it all but I have to defend the coach. He was part of the Everton first-team staff at the time, 40 years ago, assessing me on behalf of the FA for a coaching badge.

A long time ago, true, but the basics of the game haven't changed.

Don't let the ball bounce, head it at the highest point you can reach.

If you have to make a tackle, make it with the furthest leg from your opponent.

As far as possible, make sure that you can see the ball and the man you are marking and never let him get nearer the goal than you.

Always make sure that you are on the straightest line between your man and the goal.

Simple game really but better players make you look crap at times.

Reports saying we are not interested in him... That is a shame.

Mike (#35); Sorry if someone caring worries you or is it your writing style that sounds like you don't practice what you preach?