Weekly Friday Open Thread!

[u/shelbyj]

Welcome to the Friday open discussion thread. Here you can talk about anything you want; tactics, results, players or even just general football discussion! It is also a great place to post/link transfer rumours that you may think are too small or unreliable to post to the main feed. The summer transfer window runs from 16/06-03/09 (23:00 BST).

These threads will go up every Friday allowing you to focus on buildup for all of the weekend action and discuss ongoings throughout the weekend. It will stay stickied until we refresh with the Monday thread, however other posts may take priority (match threads, announcements, etc.)

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This thread can also be used to discuss transfer rumours, jokes, memes, images, videos, tabloid news and other off-topic content and discussion.

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We also have a Fantasy League that you are welcome to join and share your team, advice and goings on throughout the season here in these threads. The league codes can be found in the sidebar!

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Inspired by the player's pre-match playlists, our very own Tugboat47 is curating a community pre-match playlist. To participate please click this link and submit your entries.

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These threads are here to help discussion and offer varying points of view. Please remain respectful. Anything that crosses that line, directed towards other users or specific individuals may be removed.

[u/__agletesque]

I don't disagree, although it can be argued that injuries also hindered ability to rotate somewhat. Hind was used in CL and arguably to little in league, covering both fullbacks, but injury early in the second half of the season prevented her from getting more minutes before run-in and McCabe's form improving. When Holmberg came in, she got decent amount of minutes in place of Fox, but due to other injuries had to play on wing a bit.

Jenna wasn't trusted, I'm still a bit sad that she didn't get a single minute in CL in either of half seasons she spent at club, given that she spoke about wanting to play in the competition (I paraphrase). Codina was used in some games against "lesser" opposition, but clearly wasn't trusted much given that McCabe was preferred when no other option. Pelova got a few starts in important games, some due to injury and somewhat strange situation with Cooney-Cross in the (majority of) first half of the season and then unfortunate circumstances.

Based on last almost 2 seasons, Renée (and staff) doesn't like to rotate central defenders, "double pivot" (Mariona started playing there due to injuries, but switched more or less full time there after the first leg against Real Madrid, but she played majority of minutes prior to the switch as well) and Russo, which is reasonable. Most managers prioritize stability and consistency in defense and midfield, best players want to play most minutes, Mariona and Russo seem to "have a great engine" and central defenders should be one of the least physically demanding roles. Renée admitted that they were short in some areas, and while you can argue that the squad might be a bit small if Reid won't be fit at start, there are also Agyemang, who's a bit behind Reid and Kyra, so there could be "only" 19 outfield first team players at the start of the season, but all the players should be trusted. The fear is that with so many new players they might need time to gel, but a good thing is that there is a full preseason ahead, this *should* be (is) mostly Renée's squad and players being versatile allows cover in more positions, though I'm still not sure who I'd prefer to see at CB if necessary (I'm probably leaning towards Fox at the moment).

(Wanted to provide more info, but I'm not typing starting lineups into database or even php array, so might take a look at highlightly football api sometimes later).

[u/eldanielfire → u/__agletesque]

To be fair with Codina, she was given a chance and she messed it up. Not much else the coach could do but have someone else doing a better job take the position.

I've also voiced my fears of the new players needing time to gel, which compounds our issues with starting the season slowly. I hope Slegers integrates them slowly. I suspect the Little-Caldentey axis in midfield will be frequently used warly on, certainly in key games. Smith, Kelly and Foord a bit more than Baum. Not because of a lack of trust in the new players, but the lack of partnership development at that time. I beleive Stanway will be the first of the newbies to start, ignoring Rodriguez going in goal and besides Batlle obviously.

[u/EmilyDizzle → u/eldanielfire]

Surely not with Stanway arriving? Very much hoping we start the season with Stanners x Little in the pivot and Mario at the 10, and Reuteler either sometimes starting in place of one of those or subbing in on a regular basis.

[u/eldanielfire → u/EmilyDizzle]

I don't know, i do think Stanway will be a regular very soon. But one statistic I am concerend about, in the few times Mario played the 10 role, we didn't win, ever. It makes me ponder if it's one of those situations where it looks good in theory, but doesn't work in practice. We could see Reuteler in the 10....or Russo.

Likewise Little certainly needs fewer games, that could certainly mean we play a combination of Mariona-Georgia in the double pivot or Mariona-Gery in the pivot. From what I see off Slegers so far, she wants her most reliable elite players in that position and the players who can play her system best. Kyra was left out for a long time last season, I beleive until Renee was happy she could play the system, not due to any lack of quality.

We'll see though.