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How would Joao Moutinho have changed us?

Dicko

Dicko

Edgar Davids
There's been a lot of threads on here lately discussing our midfield, there's a good thread on Dembele, one on Parkers strengths and weaknesses (mostly on his weaknesses!), One on Tom Carrolls potential, and one pretty much just praying for Sandro to come back as soon as possible!!*

I was just wondering, seeing how we all still seem to be crying out for a ball playing centre-mid with a brain and also how close (supposedly) we came to finally getting Moutinho on Deadline Day... Just how different would things have been if that deal had gone through?

Would it have likely meant a central 2 of Moutinho and Dembele playing together (and Sandro and Parker not getting many minutes)?
If so, would there be enough steel in that pairing to cope?

Would it have been the 4-3-3 people say AVB wanted with Sandro also in there? If so, what happens to all those players who can currently play in the hole who would probably not fit in to that system i.e Siggy, Dempsey and Holtby (Who may not have arrived)? Would Dembele be the one playing as the furthest forward of the 3 or would he be dropped in favour of one of these?

Could Moutinho have made all the difference this season in terms of the creativity we seem to lack through the centre?

I think maybe I'm just missing Modric... but I know how much I would've liked to have found out if Moutinho could've filled that void better than we have done this year...





*I won't mention the Livermore thread
 
We'll never know. I think we'd definitely have played a different formation, but then Bale wouldn't have been so effective maybe. We are crying out for a creative midfielder. We haven't had one for years. I never regarded Modric as a creative genius. He had excellent technical ability but he often sat too deep and was another player who didn't really do enough in the final third. He rarely caused panic or havoc in the opposition. Bale is starting to do that now though.

Doesn't Moutinho also sit a bit deeper?
 
I think Damiao would've improved us the most of all the players we nearly signed. I wish we had some form of backup winger as well after the last few games without Lennon.
 
if Modric and Moutinho are similar as some say then i wonder why Mourinho didnt sign Moutinho instead and saved a heap of money in the process:-k

i think there is too much hype around Moutinho. Nearly 27 and up to now hasnt really come close to joining a top club. Makes you wonder

with Sandro and Dembele as our first choice two i dont see where Moutinho would have fitted in. What we have lacked is creative ideas and penetration ahead of the midfield two and Moutnho wouldnt have solved that problem.
 
indianspur said:
if Modric and Moutinho are similar as some say then i wonder why Mourinho didnt sign Moutinho instead and saved a heap of money in the process:-k

i think there is too much hype around Moutinho. Nearly 27 and up to now hasnt really come close to joining a top club. Makes you wonder

with Sandro and Dembele as our first choice two i dont see where Moutinho would have fitted in. What we have lacked is creative ideas and penetration ahead of the midfield two and Moutnho wouldnt have solved that problem.
Click to expand...

We'd have played an orthodox five man midfield I think, behind a lone striker as opposed to having a man play in the hole.
 
We'd average more possession and we'd have been able to create more chances for our strikers to miss.
 
indianspur said:
if Modric and Moutinho are similar as some say then i wonder why Mourinho didnt sign Moutinho instead and saved a heap of money in the process:-k

i think there is too much hype around Moutinho. Nearly 27 and up to now hasnt really come close to joining a top club. Makes you wonder

with Sandro and Dembele as our first choice two i dont see where Moutinho would have fitted in. What we have lacked is creative ideas and penetration ahead of the midfield two and Moutnho wouldnt have solved that problem.
Click to expand...

I've never thought about that, and it is an excellent point. Not to say he would be a flop with us, but we were going to shell out over 20mil on this guy.
 
We'd have been less solid defensively, but we'd likely have done more with the possession that we had.


Would he have made that much of a difference? No, not particularly. Assuming the form of Ade and Defoe remained the same, then no.
 
Spursalot said:
We'd have been less solid defensively, but we'd likely have done more with the possession that we had.
Click to expand...

Why do you think that? He'd have been playing instead of Sigurdsson/Dempsey, defensively he's much stronger than either of those.
 
Rossi22 said:
Why do you think that? He'd have been playing instead of Sigurdsson/Dempsey, defensively he's much stronger than either of those.
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I rate both Dempsey and Sig very highly defensively. Dempsey puts the legs in and closes people down whilst Sig's reading of the game is excellent. He gets a decent number of interceptions.


Plus everything i've seen of Moutinho is far deeper than the Sig/Dempsey role, he'd be in the Parker/Dembele position.


Of course if your going to talk about him in a 4-3-3 then this topic is redundant, as we haven't seen any of our players try to cope in such a formation.
 
I think we need a Spanish midget and not a Portuguese one. Mata, Silva, Cazorla, etc are the attacking playmakers for their teams and instigate a large portion of their attacks. They play further up the park than Moutinho would and this would allow us to keep Dembele and Sandro on the park as the platform off which to build attacks. For me Siggy is not the answer, or at least the answer to a different question, and Holtby may grow into that type of player but he is not good enough yet.

I think we should be sounding out Isco. He's had a breakthrough season this year and Malaga are out of Europe next season for financial irregularities. He just might be gettable.
 
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This transfer was all a bit "Emirates Marketing Project" for me - a massive fee, smashing our transfer record, not a youngster for a 4 year contract and resale value, big wages probably...

I think he would have been very useful and worthwhile, but it never felt like a Levy signing. I struggle to imagine us paying that sort of money for anyone tbh.
 
Thanks for starting the thread dingdongo, it's a really interesting question and one I am going to have to think over before replying
 
I don't think having Barcas 1st team would do much! Put them in our shirt and we'd still bottle it!
 
Roy1983 said:
I don't think having Barcas 1st team would do much! Put them in our shirt and we'd still bottle it!
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I think it would be pretty simple, tbh.

Back 5

-----Moutinho-------Sandro--------------
Lennon------Dembele--------Bale
---------------Defoe----------------

Sigg, Dempsey, Carroll, Holtby etc would come in and out. I think, in a perfect world, Dembele wouldn't have had to play soooo much football this season. Looks pretty exhausted to me.
 
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