Sander Berge

[CentralQuay]

Norwood, Fleck and Lundstram as a 3 don't deserved to be dropped so they have to play when all fit, unless Fleck is out then put Osborn in. I'd rather see Freeman start, but I don't think Osborn is really an impact player, so saving freeman if a spark is needed from the bench would probably be for best.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I just can't believe that Wilder would part with £22m if he didn't think Berge was going to be a top player for us.

Some harsh criticism of McBurnie. He had F-all service v Villa, apart from one cross that, admittedly, he headed straight at the keeper. In fact I've noticed that he's done that quite a few times, off the top of my head similar chances v Norwich and Arsenal and Bournemouth. What I will say though is that he works his nuts off. We defend from the front and he's a big part of that. I'm sure the goals will come.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

My concern about Berge is not so much the fact that his performances so far have been totally underwhelming (to say the least) , but more to do with the fact that he has yet to show any evidence that he has any particular attributes which will make him an outstanding addition to our squad and a significant improvement on what we had before .

For instance , he is laughably poor In the air for his size , seems to take up poor positions , makes little or no attempt to go past people , is easily bypassed and his range of passing seems to be mainly limited to 5 yards sideways or backwards .

I sincerely hope that these shortcomings can be explained away by a lack of confidence / fitness / unfamiliarity with our system as many have suggested but , as each game goes by , I am becoming less and less convinced .

Like most on here , I was totally enthusiastic about his signing and was expecting to see a slightly watered down version of Patrick Viera or Steven Gerrard , which would have been fine . What we've seen so far is a watered down version of John Lundstram and that's not fine , with all due respect to the latter .

 

[Revolution]

I just can't believe that Wilder would part with £22m if he didn't think Berge was going to be a top player for us.

Some harsh criticism of McBurnie. He had F-all service v Villa, apart from one cross that, admittedly, he headed straight at the keeper. In fact I've noticed that he's done that quite a few times, off the top of my head similar chances v Norwich and Arsenal and Bournemouth. What I will say though is that he works his nuts off. We defend from the front and he's a big part of that. I'm sure the goals will come.

I’m not. One of the reasons I don’t think he’ll ever be a regular scorer is the one you describe - he’s forever heading the ball at or too near the keeper. Plus his headers lack power.

 

[Sharp as a blade]

Oconell
Egan
Lundstrum
Basham
Mcburnie
Coutts

List of players there who were written off by a section of our fans after a handful of games. All turned out to be deserving first team members (Mcburnie started to look much better just before football was paused).

On top of that you can add:

Stevens - initially started well before having a dip in form and being labelled as not good enough for about 6 months.

Sharp - some fans were saying his legs had gone 2 years ago!

Berge is 22 years old, has moved to a foreign country and is having to adapt to a much more physical and faster paced league. He's also having to learn a very unique system.

He was here for barely 2 minutes before coronavirus put everyone on lockdown. He probably barely knows his own team mates.

Yet he's been written off after the equivalent of about three games worth of minutes.

The worst thing is he could turn out to be an absolute world beater and the next signing would still get the same treatment after a few games if they weren't ent amazing on their debut.

Berge was no worse than the rest of our midfield Wednesday night.

 

[Mouth of the South]

Apologies if it's been said before as I haven't read all the previous posts but, similar to Lundstram, Berge is being asked to play in a position that's not only unfamiliar to him but one that doesn't suit his physical build or his strengths.
He's excelled previously when playing as a second pivot in a 4-2-3-1 formation. It's no surprise he's not doing as well when being asked to be a right- sided equivalent of Fleck.
The midfield three on Weds was also never going to be mobile or creative enough to supply adequate service to Sharp and McBurnie so it was no surprise to see them isolated for large parts of the game. Neither are quick or explosive enough to create much themselves (McBurnie's goal at Brighton bring the only exception I can think of) so Mouset would have been the obvious choice although the strapping on his leg indicated he may not have been 100% and the reason he wasn't selected to start.
I hope CWAK learn from Weds for their team selection v Newcastle if Fleck is still unavailable. Assuming the formation will remain the same, Freeman for Berge or Lundstram and Mousset up front would carry more of a threat.

 

[CentralQuay]

Again I can only refer to my experiences with adapting new players to this league, so excuse my constant references to 'us/Leicester'.
I will just go through a few of our players, who have joined us, did not have an 'immediate' impact, and hopefully you'll realise that's it's likely too early to see what you want from Berge.


No more obvious player to start that with Jamie Vardy. I don't suspect he get's a lot of christmas cards from any of you lot, but as someone so wonderfully and accurately put it in another thread, he's a "Prolific twat"......And undoubtedly, with both his goalscoring record and what he brings to any side with his work-rate,pace and stamina, he's one of the best and most underrated strikers to ever play in the Premier League.
When he joined us in the Championship he was very raw. You could see that attitude/desire that every fan of other clubs who plays against him, dislikes him for. But he was extremely Lightweight, he struggled to get into the game and often looked a step behind it mentally. His touch was poor, and his pace and directness was not present at all as he didn't have the intelligence in a quick game. He got 4 goals in 26 games, and was very close to leaving the club, if it wasn't for our Pearson/Walsh at the time convincing him to stay.
Go forward to the following season, after a full pre-season and experience of what was required, he was transformed. 16 goals in 36, fired us to promotion, and he just looked so much more prepared Physically. What is interesting with him though, is that his first season in the top flight, was almost identical to that in the Championship, only 5 goals in 34 matches....But this time he was given time to adapt from the fans, because they saw what had happened when given the season to adapt from before.

Mahrez.
Joined us in January of our promotion season. Had obvious technical ability, but looked too weak Physically and was way too Lightweight. He would get brushed off the ball far too easily, and although it's an issue with the modern game, he wasn't intelligent enough to use this lack of strength to win those 'cheap' fouls that all players of a similar stature need to do. The first season in the Premier League saw those same negatives be there, but after a full season to adapt, he became everything that we saw during the season we won the league.
Since our first time back in the PL in 2014-15 until today, i've not seen any player at our ground who has the touch/control and the ability to just ghost past players that Mahrez has had since his first season at this level. Hazard was always considered the best wide player in this league during that time, which I don't agree with, Mahrez is a superior player for me.

Ndidi
Now probably the best comparison.....Why?
Signed from Genk in January (2017) for just under £20 million.
Very poor technically at the start, was not good with the ball at his feet. Physically he was just too Lightweight, he was just too skinny/weak which was an issue because he didn't have the intelligence and speed of thought to use his extra speed to his advantage. We tried him in a double pivot in a 4231, and although he got better and improved vastly over the course of his first full season, he didn't look all that special.
Then Puel loaned in Tielemans. We went from a double pivot, to Ndidi sitting on his own in front of the back 4......He was completely transformed. Since he's done nothing but improve game after game and for the last 12-18 months he's become by far the best defensive midfielder in this league. People talk about Leicester's midfield and they talk about Maddison/Tielemans, but they have nowhere near the ability of this lad. No surprise Real Madrid and PSG are showing interest. He walks into any side in Europe as their holding midfielder. No surprise when he was out for a bit earlier this season we went on a terrible run. Although a different style of player, he's at Kante's level, where I don't see any other player out there in this league or abroad, who does what he does in his position.


Some players have some strange ability to adapt to this league and become World Class within the first 30 seconds, like Kante.
Others need a good season and pre-season to adapt, if they had not been given that time, Vardy/Mahrez/Ndidi would not be the three of the best players in this league that they are today.
The highlighted parts, referring to Physicality and Lightweight, is what i've seen many on here criticize Berge for this far. So hopefully you see that it is an extremely common issue for players in this league, especially when coming from abroad.
(It's probably also evidence of the point I was making about Wilder's past transfers, and Sheffield United fans not really having much experience of foreign players adapting to the English game. No idea why some take exception to the fact when I point out that for whatever the reason may be, Wilder has only used the English market to sign players before January).

 

[bongleblade]

berge will be looking like our most successful signing this time next year, omb will be loaned back to swansea

 

[Niceguyeddie]

Again I can only refer to my experiences with adapting new players to this league, so excuse my constant references to 'us/Leicester'.
I will just go through a few of our players, who have joined us, did not have an 'immediate' impact, and hopefully you'll realise that's it's likely too early to see what you want from Berge.


No more obvious player to start that with Jamie Vardy. I don't suspect he get's a lot of christmas cards from any of you lot, but as someone so wonderfully and accurately put it in another thread, he's a "Prolific twat"......And undoubtedly, with both his goalscoring record and what he brings to any side with his work-rate,pace and stamina, he's one of the best and most underrated strikers to ever play in the Premier League.
When he joined us in the Championship he was very raw. You could see that attitude/desire that every fan of other clubs who plays against him, dislikes him for. But he was extremely Lightweight, he struggled to get into the game and often looked a step behind it mentally. His touch was poor, and his pace and directness was not present at all as he didn't have the intelligence in a quick game. He got 4 goals in 26 games, and was very close to leaving the club, if it wasn't for our Pearson/Walsh at the time convincing him to stay.
Go forward to the following season, after a full pre-season and experience of what was required, he was transformed. 16 goals in 36, fired us to promotion, and he just looked so much more prepared Physically. What is interesting with him though, is that his first season in the top flight, was almost identical to that in the Championship, only 5 goals in 34 matches....But this time he was given time to adapt from the fans, because they saw what had happened when given the season to adapt from before.

Mahrez.
Joined us in January of our promotion season. Had obvious technical ability, but looked too weak Physically and was way too Lightweight. He would get brushed off the ball far too easily, and although it's an issue with the modern game, he wasn't intelligent enough to use this lack of strength to win those 'cheap' fouls that all players of a similar stature need to do. The first season in the Premier League saw those same negatives be there, but after a full season to adapt, he became everything that we saw during the season we won the league.
Since our first time back in the PL in 2014-15 until today, i've not seen any player at our ground who has the touch/control and the ability to just ghost past players that Mahrez has had since his first season at this level. Hazard was always considered the best wide player in this league during that time, which I don't agree with, Mahrez is a superior player for me.

Ndidi
Now probably the best comparison.....Why?
Signed from Genk in January (2017) for just under £20 million.
Very poor technically at the start, was not good with the ball at his feet. Physically he was just too Lightweight, he was just too skinny/weak which was an issue because he didn't have the intelligence and speed of thought to use his extra speed to his advantage. We tried him in a double pivot in a 4231, and although he got better and improved vastly over the course of his first full season, he didn't look all that special.
Then Puel loaned in Tielemans. We went from a double pivot, to Ndidi sitting on his own in front of the back 4......He was completely transformed. Since he's done nothing but improve game after game and for the last 12-18 months he's become by far the best defensive midfielder in this league. People talk about Leicester's midfield and they talk about Maddison/Tielemans, but they have nowhere near the ability of this lad. No surprise Real Madrid and PSG are showing interest. He walks into any side in Europe as their holding midfielder. No surprise when he was out for a bit earlier this season we went on a terrible run. Although a different style of player, he's at Kante's level, where I don't see any other player out there in this league or abroad, who does what he does in his position.


Some players have some strange ability to adapt to this league and become World Class within the first 30 seconds, like Kante.
Others need a good season and pre-season to adapt, if they had not been given that time, Vardy/Mahrez/Ndidi would not be the three of the best players in this league that they are today.
The highlighted parts, referring to Physicality and Lightweight, is what i've seen many on here criticize Berge for this far. So hopefully you see that it is an extremely common issue for players in this league, especially when coming from abroad.
(It's probably also evidence of the point I was making about Wilder's past transfers, and Sheffield United fans not really having much experience of foreign players adapting to the English game. No idea why some take exception to the fact when I point out that for whatever the reason may be, Wilder has only used the English market to sign players before January).

Great post

 

[FTPE]

Rather than 'he's tidy but does nothing' and 'give him time's posts, has anyone worked out what he's lacking or how we should be trying to get the best from him?

Here is my quick take, we lost two players from the same side against Villa in JOC and Fleck that was probably the main reason we looked unbalanced. Enda gave it his all as usual but very little came off.

We looked narrow and created very few overlaps and overloads. A few times Ollie received the ball very square on, had hardly any outlets and gave the ball away in the middle.

Maybe Sander needs more space? He shouldn't with the attributes he has but if he is used to a slower pace or at least not being pressed as much then an advanced role probably wont suit him until he is fully bedded in?

 

[coaxingstar71]

Again I can only refer to my experiences with adapting new players to this league, so excuse my constant references to 'us/Leicester'.
I will just go through a few of our players, who have joined us, did not have an 'immediate' impact, and hopefully you'll realise that's it's likely too early to see what you want from Berge.


No more obvious player to start that with Jamie Vardy. I don't suspect he get's a lot of christmas cards from any of you lot, but as someone so wonderfully and accurately put it in another thread, he's a "Prolific twat"......And undoubtedly, with both his goalscoring record and what he brings to any side with his work-rate,pace and stamina, he's one of the best and most underrated strikers to ever play in the Premier League.
When he joined us in the Championship he was very raw. You could see that attitude/desire that every fan of other clubs who plays against him, dislikes him for. But he was extremely Lightweight, he struggled to get into the game and often looked a step behind it mentally. His touch was poor, and his pace and directness was not present at all as he didn't have the intelligence in a quick game. He got 4 goals in 26 games, and was very close to leaving the club, if it wasn't for our Pearson/Walsh at the time convincing him to stay.
Go forward to the following season, after a full pre-season and experience of what was required, he was transformed. 16 goals in 36, fired us to promotion, and he just looked so much more prepared Physically. What is interesting with him though, is that his first season in the top flight, was almost identical to that in the Championship, only 5 goals in 34 matches....But this time he was given time to adapt from the fans, because they saw what had happened when given the season to adapt from before.

Mahrez.
Joined us in January of our promotion season. Had obvious technical ability, but looked too weak Physically and was way too Lightweight. He would get brushed off the ball far too easily, and although it's an issue with the modern game, he wasn't intelligent enough to use this lack of strength to win those 'cheap' fouls that all players of a similar stature need to do. The first season in the Premier League saw those same negatives be there, but after a full season to adapt, he became everything that we saw during the season we won the league.
Since our first time back in the PL in 2014-15 until today, i've not seen any player at our ground who has the touch/control and the ability to just ghost past players that Mahrez has had since his first season at this level. Hazard was always considered the best wide player in this league during that time, which I don't agree with, Mahrez is a superior player for me.

Ndidi
Now probably the best comparison.....Why?
Signed from Genk in January (2017) for just under £20 million.
Very poor technically at the start, was not good with the ball at his feet. Physically he was just too Lightweight, he was just too skinny/weak which was an issue because he didn't have the intelligence and speed of thought to use his extra speed to his advantage. We tried him in a double pivot in a 4231, and although he got better and improved vastly over the course of his first full season, he didn't look all that special.
Then Puel loaned in Tielemans. We went from a double pivot, to Ndidi sitting on his own in front of the back 4......He was completely transformed. Since he's done nothing but improve game after game and for the last 12-18 months he's become by far the best defensive midfielder in this league. People talk about Leicester's midfield and they talk about Maddison/Tielemans, but they have nowhere near the ability of this lad. No surprise Real Madrid and PSG are showing interest. He walks into any side in Europe as their holding midfielder. No surprise when he was out for a bit earlier this season we went on a terrible run. Although a different style of player, he's at Kante's level, where I don't see any other player out there in this league or abroad, who does what he does in his position.


Some players have some strange ability to adapt to this league and become World Class within the first 30 seconds, like Kante.
Others need a good season and pre-season to adapt, if they had not been given that time, Vardy/Mahrez/Ndidi would not be the three of the best players in this league that they are today.
The highlighted parts, referring to Physicality and Lightweight, is what i've seen many on here criticize Berge for this far. So hopefully you see that it is an extremely common issue for players in this league, especially when coming from abroad.
(It's probably also evidence of the point I was making about Wilder's past transfers, and Sheffield United fans not really having much experience of foreign players adapting to the English game. No idea why some take exception to the fact when I point out that for whatever the reason may be, Wilder has only used the English market to sign players before January).

Good post mate.

I liked the way Hamza Choudhury played when we played you earlier this season. Looks a really good player.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Of the 10 players brought in during the summer, only 2 were not from clubs in the country, and one of those was an Englishman playing abroad.
This is not 'outdated' it's the most recent summer window that has taken place, Wilder's transfer policy has been to buy home grown players. I'm not sure why you take offence to this, as there's nothing wrong with it, and it's entirely accurate.

Wilder/the club knows it's far more difficult to progress at this level without looking abroad, I said this a while back, that Berge/Retsos were promising signings so again, i'm not really sure what you're taking offence to.

His transfer policy in January is a vast change to the one from the summer. Wilder/the club may have looked at targets from abroad previously, but that's just guesswork.

Bit touchy, aren't we?

Must learn to differentiate between criticism and something far more personal....as for what you refer to as 'taking offence', please show where I was 'offended'?

All I did was explain our trajectory. These are Wilder's words, so if you have a beef take it up with our manager, not myself. Wilder explained why it was right to pursue British players whilst SUFC were a Div 1 and Championship side, now that things have improved he's spreading his net wider, again, his words, so if you feel like correcting Wilder I suggest you write to him.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I’m not. One of the reasons I don’t think he’ll ever be a regular scorer is the one you describe - he’s forever heading the ball at or too near the keeper. Plus his headers lack power.

You may be right of course and time will tell. The last 4 years have told us, if nothing else, that players improve their game at our club. Even if McBurnie can get 10-12 a season, I think that would be good, but I think his main strength will be enabling his team mates to score.

However, I still maintain that our best strike partnership this season is Moose and Didzy. With Fleck out at Villa, we needed Didzy there to pick the ball up in midfield areas. I hope to see those two start v Newcastle. Good for rotation and Sharp and McBurnie were largely ineffectual when we played Newcastle in December.

 

[Balham]

Good post mate.

I liked the way Hamza Choudhury played when we played you earlier this season. Looks a really good player.

Choudhury is a great prospect but his tackling is reckless bordering on dangerous. He needs to sort that out.

 

[CentralQuay]

Good post mate.

I liked the way Hamza Choudhury played when we played you earlier this season. Looks a really good player.

Choudhury is a great prospect but his tackling is reckless bordering on dangerous. He needs to sort that out.

If i'm being honest, i'm not a huge fan of Choudhury, I don't really see anything about him that convinces me he can make a push to being anything other than a squad player.

If anything though, he's an example of why it's important to have a reputation of being a club which improves players. When you develop players like Vardy/Kante/Mahrez from absolutely nowhere, suddenly there's a huge interest, and to an extent overrating, or players which haven't really showed anything yet. I guess it's a bit like the old 'Guilt by association' thing.
Ndidi/Soyuncu/Maddison/Tielemans deserve the hype, and to a lesser extent Barnes too. But Chilwell is massively overrated, Gray even more so and Choudhury hasn't really played for us at all.....But because we've improved players probably to a better extent than anyone in the league over the past 5 years, even the ones that haven't improved at all, like Demarai Gray, still get media hype they do not deserve at all.

The fact that Chilwell is likely to move this summer for anywhere between £50-100 million is just as ridiculous as the Maguire transfer, when both are so severely flawed.
We're being linked with Tagliafico/Tierney for £25 million, and they're both better than Chilwell, providing Tierney can stay fit.
When we replaced Maguire with a player who was better and younger for a quarter of the price, we didn't expect to be doing it again 12 months later.


Had Berge had been available this summer, I think we would have taken a look at him.

 

[Niceguyeddie]

If i'm being honest, i'm not a huge fan of Choudhury, I don't really see anything about him that convinces me he can make a push to being anything other than a squad player.

If anything though, he's an example of why it's important to have a reputation of being a club which improves players. When you develop players like Vardy/Kante/Mahrez from absolutely nowhere, suddenly there's a huge interest, and to an extent overrating, or players which haven't really showed anything yet. I guess it's a bit like the old 'Guilt by association' thing.
Ndidi/Soyuncu/Maddison/Tielemans deserve the hype, and to a lesser extent Barnes too. But Chilwell is massively overrated, Gray even more so and Choudhury hasn't really played for us at all.....But because we've improved players probably to a better extent than anyone in the league over the past 5 years, even the ones that haven't improved at all, like Demarai Gray, still get media hype they do not deserve at all.

The fact that Chilwell is likely to move this summer for anywhere between £50-100 million is just as ridiculous as the Maguire transfer, when both are so severely flawed.
We're being linked with Tagliafico/Tierney for £25 million, and they're both better than Chilwell, providing Tierney can stay fit.
When we replaced Maguire with a player who was better and younger for a quarter of the price, we didn't expect to be doing it again 12 months later.


Had Berge had been available this summer, I think we would have taken a look at him.

Choudhury was the best player on.the park.against us most bladesfans thought so too

 

[CentralQuay]

Choudhury was the best player on.the park.against us most bladesfans thought so too

That's fair enough, he just isn't going to get a look in without injuries though.
Unlike Maguire/Chilwell, we're not open to selling Ndidi, so i'd expect us to even turn down £80 million for him.
It's going to be difficult for Choudhury to break through.

I'd have liked Berge to see whether he could either be a longer term replacement for Ndidi, or play alongside him.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Again I can only refer to my experiences with adapting new players to this league, so excuse my constant references to 'us/Leicester'.
I will just go through a few of our players, who have joined us, did not have an 'immediate' impact, and hopefully you'll realise that's it's likely too early to see what you want from Berge.


No more obvious player to start that with Jamie Vardy. I don't suspect he get's a lot of christmas cards from any of you lot, but as someone so wonderfully and accurately put it in another thread, he's a "Prolific twat"......And undoubtedly, with both his goalscoring record and what he brings to any side with his work-rate,pace and stamina, he's one of the best and most underrated strikers to ever play in the Premier League.
When he joined us in the Championship he was very raw. You could see that attitude/desire that every fan of other clubs who plays against him, dislikes him for. But he was extremely Lightweight, he struggled to get into the game and often looked a step behind it mentally. His touch was poor, and his pace and directness was not present at all as he didn't have the intelligence in a quick game. He got 4 goals in 26 games, and was very close to leaving the club, if it wasn't for our Pearson/Walsh at the time convincing him to stay.
Go forward to the following season, after a full pre-season and experience of what was required, he was transformed. 16 goals in 36, fired us to promotion, and he just looked so much more prepared Physically. What is interesting with him though, is that his first season in the top flight, was almost identical to that in the Championship, only 5 goals in 34 matches....But this time he was given time to adapt from the fans, because they saw what had happened when given the season to adapt from before.

Mahrez.
Joined us in January of our promotion season. Had obvious technical ability, but looked too weak Physically and was way too Lightweight. He would get brushed off the ball far too easily, and although it's an issue with the modern game, he wasn't intelligent enough to use this lack of strength to win those 'cheap' fouls that all players of a similar stature need to do. The first season in the Premier League saw those same negatives be there, but after a full season to adapt, he became everything that we saw during the season we won the league.
Since our first time back in the PL in 2014-15 until today, i've not seen any player at our ground who has the touch/control and the ability to just ghost past players that Mahrez has had since his first season at this level. Hazard was always considered the best wide player in this league during that time, which I don't agree with, Mahrez is a superior player for me.

Ndidi
Now probably the best comparison.....Why?
Signed from Genk in January (2017) for just under £20 million.
Very poor technically at the start, was not good with the ball at his feet. Physically he was just too Lightweight, he was just too skinny/weak which was an issue because he didn't have the intelligence and speed of thought to use his extra speed to his advantage. We tried him in a double pivot in a 4231, and although he got better and improved vastly over the course of his first full season, he didn't look all that special.
Then Puel loaned in Tielemans. We went from a double pivot, to Ndidi sitting on his own in front of the back 4......He was completely transformed. Since he's done nothing but improve game after game and for the last 12-18 months he's become by far the best defensive midfielder in this league. People talk about Leicester's midfield and they talk about Maddison/Tielemans, but they have nowhere near the ability of this lad. No surprise Real Madrid and PSG are showing interest. He walks into any side in Europe as their holding midfielder. No surprise when he was out for a bit earlier this season we went on a terrible run. Although a different style of player, he's at Kante's level, where I don't see any other player out there in this league or abroad, who does what he does in his position.


Some players have some strange ability to adapt to this league and become World Class within the first 30 seconds, like Kante.
Others need a good season and pre-season to adapt, if they had not been given that time, Vardy/Mahrez/Ndidi would not be the three of the best players in this league that they are today.
The highlighted parts, referring to Physicality and Lightweight, is what i've seen many on here criticize Berge for this far. So hopefully you see that it is an extremely common issue for players in this league, especially when coming from abroad.
(It's probably also evidence of the point I was making about Wilder's past transfers, and Sheffield United fans not really having much experience of foreign players adapting to the English game. No idea why some take exception to the fact when I point out that for whatever the reason may be, Wilder has only used the English market to sign players before January).

There's a long list of Blades players that Wilder brought in that adapted similarly. I'm most looking forward to seeing the players that we brought in this season, next season. I've never see a fitter team than Wilder's Blades. It'll be very interesting to see the likes of Moussett, Mcburnie and Berge next season.

 

[CentralQuay]

There's a long list of Blades players that Wilder brought in that adapted similarly. I'm most looking forward to seeing the players that we brought in this season, next season. I've never see a fitter team than Wilder's Blades. It'll be very interesting to see the likes of Moussett, Mcburnie and Berge next season.

Lets hope he can do it at this level too, and bring Mcburnie/Berge on......
Hopefully he's got more faith than a few on here.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Maybe Sander needs more space? He shouldn't with the attributes he has but if he is used to a slower pace or at least not being pressed as much then an advanced role probably wont suit him until he is fully bedded in?

Lack of space and time on the ball are the biggest differences between the roles. Playing in a deeper role you sometimes get a lot of time on the ball. Berge is used to dealing with the one man pressure that's normally put on deep midfielders, he can take them on, get past them and deliver a pass to a teammate. That's where he's looked so good in his highlights videos. What Wilder's been hoping is that he'd be able to do that in a more attacking role as well.

Unlike Fleck, Norwood and Lundstram have a weakness in that they rarely beats players. Norwood dictates space by passing before he's closed down. His impact is reduced if the opposition team have singled him out to stop his playmaking. Lundstram has added the ability of running off the ball to his game, but he very rarely tries a dribble. So I think Wilder was hoping that Berge would be able to add more driving runs from midfield.

But pressing is a lot more aggressive further forward. There were six players playing central midfield vs Villa, so it's often a congested area. We don't like losing possession in dangerous areas, so it can be difficult to find the right balance between trying risky things, like running on the ball or "risky" passes. Trying to avoid that, it's easy for a newcomer to chose the safe options too often. Berge's passing accuracy was 88% vs Villa, second only to Norwood. But of course we expect him to be more involved in creating chances, not just keeping possession.

I think a little patience is needed, let's not try to draw conclusions just yet.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Lack of space and time on the ball are the biggest differences between the roles. Playing in a deeper role you sometimes get a lot of time on the ball. Berge is used to dealing with the one man pressure that's normally put on deep midfielders, he can take them on, get past them and deliver a pass to a teammate. That's where he's looked so good in his highlights videos. What Wilder's been hoping is that he'd be able to do that in a more attacking role as well.

Unlike Fleck, Norwood and Lundstram have a weakness in that they rarely beats players. Norwood dictates space by passing before he's closed down. His impact is reduced if the opposition team have singled him out to stop his playmaking. Lundstram has added the ability of running off the ball to his game, but he very rarely tries a dribble. So I think Wilder was hoping that Berge would be able to add more driving runs from midfield.

But pressing is a lot more aggressive further forward. There were six players playing central midfield vs Villa, so it's often a congested area. We don't like losing possession in dangerous areas, so it can be difficult to find the right balance between trying risky things, like running on the ball or "risky" passes. Trying to avoid that, it's easy for a newcomer to chose the safe options too often. Berge's passing accuracy was 88% vs Villa, second only to Norwood. But of course we expect him to be more involved in creating chances, not just keeping possession.

I think a little patience is needed, let's not try to draw conclusions just yet.

Well summarised Bergen. To use a familiar explanation, the lad needs a good pre-season to adjust and familiarise himself with the way we play

 

[CentralQuay]

And I really wouldn't pass judgement too much after the restart, we look terrible.

Edit: Blimey, even Chilwell looks decent, told you the restart means nothing.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

If i'm being honest, i'm not a huge fan of Choudhury, I don't really see anything about him that convinces me he can make a push to being anything other than a squad player... Choudhury hasn't really played for us at all.....

As others have said, he was the best player on the park along with Vardy when you guys came to the Lane at the beginning of the season.
I've only seen us be soundly dominated three times this season; first half at home to Leicester, first half away at Chelsea, entire 90 at Liverpool.

What do you think his market value is & do you think you guys may look to sell him?
I think he'd be a great addition for us, potentially in the overlapping centre half role that Basham occupies & as cover in centre mid.

 

[CentralQuay]

As others have said, he was the best player on the park along with Vardy when you guys came to the Lane at the beginning of the season.
I've only seen us be soundly dominated three times this season; first half at home to Leicester, first half away at Chelsea, entire 90 at Liverpool.

What do you think his market value is & do you think you guys may look to sell him?
I think he'd be a great addition for us, potentially in the overlapping centre half role that Basham occupies & as cover in centre mid.

He might be available for loan depending who we bring in, but we won't sell him unless the offer is something crazy like with Maguire. In all honesty, nobody is going to pay £50/60 million + that we will ask for him.
Although we only operate at around a £15 million deficit on transfers every year and don't chuck money around, I think when I last looked our owners are the 4th wealthiest in the league, that's why we're able demand crazy fees.
Kante was the exception, but he had a clause in his contract of only £32 million, fortunately our owners have banned release clauses in contracts since.


I actually think it would be a great move for both clubs. His versatility would be great for your system and would likely get decent game time in the premier league. I don't think Choudhury knows what his best role is, and in fairness I think he could play all 3 roles in your midfield as he's played all 3 in ours, as any kind of CB i'm not that sure, as he's not had much experience with a lot of defensive responsibility.

 

[CentralQuay]

Come 16:00, all you bedwetters criticizing the young man will be rimming him.

He will step up today, no worries.

 

[Birley Blade]

Come 16:00, all you bedwetters criticizing the young man will be rimming him.

He will step up today, no worries.

You do realise as Blades we don’t want to have to criticise him, but it’s no lie, his performances haven’t been reflective of the price and the subsequent raving about him as though he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Hope the lad does prove us all wrong.

 

[CentralQuay]

You do realise as Blades we don’t want to have to criticise him, but it’s no lie, his performances haven’t been reflective of the price and the subsequent raving about him as though he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Hope the lad does prove us all wrong.

There's no such thing.

Would you allow a free transfer to not pull his weight?
All players are expected to contribute the same, regardless of price.


You don't pay 'only' £20 million in this league and 'expect' an established Premier League player.
If you got that, Chelsea wouldn't be spending £100 million on a striker.

 

[Plymouthblade]

And is he established premier league ?

 

[Birley Blade]

There's no such thing.

Would you allow a free transfer to not pull his weight?
All players are expected to contribute the same, regardless of price.


You don't pay 'only' £20 million in this league and 'expect' an established Premier League player.
If you got that, Chelsea wouldn't be spending £100 million on a striker.

I don’t even know how to reply to that utter dross.

 

[CentralQuay]

And is he established premier league ?

Berge or Werner?

Neither are.....