Thread: Gervinho

Originally Posted by travis

I try to approach ITKs first with the outlook that they are, in fact, lying, because then I won't be disappointed... with the added fact that they are usually wrong. But I'm worn out BlueCrew! These rumors are wearing me down and making it easier to believe them! lol I'm weak!

I'm a huge fan of Gervinho. I hope it's true....

Surely we will sign someone that we want to sign. Fair enough Parker will be a good signing if that happens but surely we will get one of the half decent strikers we have targeted or allegedly targeted. I don't know much about Gervinho, I will be honest but I was impressed with him at the World Cup last summer, He looked very quick and pressed very well. He seems like a very similar player to Suarez but didn't Redknapp turn down the opportunity to sign Suarez because he didn't think he could do the job that he was needed for? I hope we get him though, he seems a very good player from youtube compilations.

Originally Posted by Short But Speedy

tbh i think harry might have been right not to sign saurez. He hasn't exactly scored tons of goals since he joined liverpool, his greatest contribution is breaking down the defence and creating opertunities for other players. He hasn't shown he's a great finisher thus far. We don't "need" a player who can break the defence down so much as a player that can finish in the box and hold the ball up. Very good player no denying that, but might not have been what we need.

Gervinho isn't a striker per say more of a winger or a player to play in the hole. Even if we sign him we'll need a #9 probably 2 just to be safe. I would be surprised if we don't sign him, assuming we're actually interested in him.

Personally I think he's exactly the type of player we need. People complain about our strikers all the time and rightly so but lack of a serviceable striker isn't our only issue. At times during matches we seem painfully one dimensional. The game plan seems to be get the ball out to the wings and whip crosses in and keep doing that until it works. So basically hope someone gets a head to it or it gets knocked down so one of our strikers/midfielders can put it away. Or when crouch is playing, it's hoofball. Any tactically astute manager only needs to watch a few of our matches to make an effective game plan.

When you have a midfield like ours you should channel offensive play through them. That's why I've been saying we should be playing variants of the 4-3-3. With some sort of combination of VDV (in a more advanced position), Modric, Sandro, Thudd (rotated). When that's the case your wingers can do other things rather than just whip crosses in from out wide.

That's were a player like Gervinho becomes so useful. He works well with others and he has the ability to create or finish on his own. We've gone through how versatile he is but another thing he excels at being to change his approach radically in the course of a match. It's not just shown when he's changing positions but actually changing philosophy. I've seen a few matches were he's started on the wing, playing a more traditional winger role. Whipping in crosses and trying to beat his man with a little skill and pace. If that's not working, he'll start to cut in more and link up play. Then if that's not working he'll essentially turn himself into the goal threat from the wing. Oh yeah and he plays 5 different positions ST, RW/LW, CAM, CM and sometimes FB. To me that's the sort of thing we're missing. With Bale and Lennon, more so Lennon, they excel at a few things but when those things aren't working they lack a Plan B and it shows IMO.

So yeah, while I agree we should be looking for more strikers, I also think we should be pursuing versatile players. I wouldn't be for signing Gervinho alone, just like I wouldn't be for signing a #9 alone. Also, I'm not married to the idea of Gervinho, any similar player would do. Lavezzi could come in and do a similar job.

If we get one from each category I'll be a happy boy. Each would give us a different dimension so depending on the particualar siuation we could rotate to our particular opponent.

Drogba/Llorente/Leandro/Lukaku/etc

Falcao/Aguero (£30m or less)/Gameiro/etc

Gervinho/Lavezzi/etc

Lille confirmed at the start of the week that midfielder Yohan Cabaye is set to join the Magpies, while L'Equipe claims attacker Gervinho is also primed to move to St James' Park.

Booooooooo!

Seriously though excellent signing if true for Newcastle. My fiancee will be pleased.

well newcastle still has the money from carroll im pretty sure they can put in some good money for the transfer on gervinho and will probably want to spend even more money than us.

But seriously why would he go there? With Lille he has CL football and with newcastle he will never get CL football also the europa league will be very hard for them.

Only motive could be a lot higher wages.

Are we that unattractive as a club that we can't sign a player ahead of Newcastle? Or are we looking at anyone below the age of 32? Parker, Freidel, Drogba, the list goes on. I don't know if this transfer window is going to end the way us lot want it to. Prepare for another disappointing window just in case.

Maybe we will have to turn to the swedish league? or worse... danish ligen

Originally Posted by gazza

Maybe we will have to turn to the swedish league? or worse... danish ligen

The new Henrik Larrson I wouldn't mind