Colliemore columns: Eberechi Eze, Alexander Isak Statement Row, Premier League Review, etc.

In his exclusive column for catch-offside, former Liverpool striker Stan Colliemore discusses some of the biggest story points in football, including Ebebeki Eze’s decision to join Arsenal via Tottenham, Alexander Isaac’s statement, and story points for the Premier League opening weekend.

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Eberechi Eze is a very good signature for Arsenal

Given that he is a fan of the club, it makes a lot of sense that Eze decided to join Arsenal on Tottenham. What came up with mood music and news was that it wasn’t a interaction with Tottenham, and when it started dragging me out, it was a bit worried. And as a player in that situation, your agent can call you and say, “You can say that two or three other clubs are interested, what do you think?” And when one of those clubs is Arsenal, of course it will have a great interest to him.

I think he’s really giving him a good option. I think it definitely strengthens them. I think it’s a very exciting option for someone other than Bukayo Saka to have someone who can set goals five times and five times. He makes Arsenal stronger, so that’s an 8/10 signature for me.

But does it make Arsenal’s favorites for the Premier League title? It’s not for me. But I lick my lips at one Saka’s thought and scream at the other. And if that doesn’t work on one side, I’d like to look at Mikel Arteta’s slightly more tactical flexibility, put Saka on the left and see Eze on the right.

Where does Tottenham go after Ez Snub?

As for Tottenham, I think some of this will stab a bit because of the Gibbswhite situation and because he has one or two injuries like Madison and Crucevsky. They are eager to put their bodies in.

£60 million for a 27 year old can feel expensive, so you can understand some of the reservations they had about agreeing to the fees earlier. But even so, it’s definitely a blow to Tottenham.

However, I am sure there are a lot of pace wingers around Europe where Tottenham can spend their money in another week or 10 days in the transfer period. Of course, the preference is always to buy a known quantity of Premier League players, but there will be many, many, more wider men that Eze can do across the continent.

Alexander Isaac was naive during his Newcastle standoff

I think the situation with Alexander Isaac shows that modern players want his cake. It also shows the naiveness of the player and his agents. On the contract, if ISAK is a regular on scoring goals with the first team after two seasons, he should be trying to negotiate a new contract with Newcastle. These are pretty standard now, but that’s what it means. Isak’s agents and Newcastle did not enter a buyout clause. This allowed players to talk to anyone.

The second is the naiveness of players and agents who trust the football club. And this is not about Newcastle. Because I have had a lot of experience with transfers. Everything can change when you sit around the table with a friendly CEO who says, “We love you, we want you, you’re the best from bread.” If you don’t play well, you’ll be blank and ignored. If you play well, the club is gathering around you to offer you a new deal or looking for potential suitors.

So Newcastle sat around that table and was going to either offer to become king of England or give him a 6 billion pound yacht. But the reality of the situation is that you never trust a football club unless it is written down. And I think that’s especially true for any player. If you need anything in the contract, write it there. If not, it’s trash. And many players will nod their heads in agreement.

My advice to ISAK is to go back with my teammates, go back to the dressing room and have the agent and club sign a brand new contract with the acquisition clause. And if he did well he could go in January. If Liverpool still needs a striker, they’ll go to them in January. Or play this season and head to Liverpool at the end of the season. Every club on the planet will know what caused his acquisition.

If the reality is that Liverpool is not planning on paying £150 million, he has to bow his head. He has to go back to folding and he must start scoring goals sooner or later.

Aston Villa should be worried about the situation for Morgan Rogers

I’m a bit worried about Morgan Rogers because I think players will turn their heads very quickly. He is a young man in the Midlands, but he is used to moving to various clubs. He is one of the players who go to places where he feels he can achieve things. And that’s nothing wrong.

Villafans believe that other clubs would now be staying at the villa because he is a young man in the Midlands. I just wear myself. Because PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year are voted by the club’s chairman and owners like their admiration as your fellow players, and international football players. Engraved with rubber status.

At this point, I don’t think the club will bid on Rogers before the transfer window. But if he continues on the track he is on next year and starts adding more goals and more assists, it’s no surprise that Arsenal, Man United, Man City and even Liverpool will make the move.

The villa needs to do anything they can now to protect its property. Because if I were one of the top four or five teams, I’d take Morgan Rogers to Heartbeat.

Reuben Amorim has a decision to make about his tactical setup

Brian Mbemo has been my favorite Premier League player in the last two or three seasons, so the fact that he went to Man United really doesn’t change that. He is a really good ball carrier and it’s great when you’re about to fight back – likewise Cunha can both pick up the ball at the midline and travel with the ball.

It would be great on a remote day. I think Man United’s counter attack this season is really interesting to watch as there are players who can hit you at the counter. On the away day, if Reuben Amorim doesn’t do that, I’ll be unsure.

But I think there’s a problem that they have to follow a much higher line. It’s okay to occasionally hit Arsenal in attacks at home. It’s okay to do that against Liverpool and Man City. But against Brentford, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Bournemouth, they’ll expect to take control of the ball. And that comes with following a much higher line.

The truth is that I don’t value Man United’s defenders or midfield as much as their forward players. So how will Reuben Amorim play High Press, a high line, in a house with plenty of green grass behind a potentially available defender for the team? That’s a big question mark for me.

Will Man United effectively do what Nottingham Forest did very well last season to become a counterattack team? Now it may work if they are in the top six of the Premier League table, but sooner or later Man United will have to go with the back four defending the middle line. I don’t think they’re there yet.

Viktor Gyoker needs time to adapt to the Premier League

I think critics, fans, or influencers throwing new signatures under the bus are the illiteracy of football in the most epic order. It is a player’s achievement that they can come from different clubs with different philosophies and embed themselves very quickly. But that’s not the norm. Standards are players who understand the system that everyone has to play, create partnerships and relationships on and off the pitch with the city they move into, train and play every day.

Gyoker should not be reviewed, at least until the Christmas period is out of the way. You have a nice night of light, so the clock goes back, and then back one week a week with the European football grind from October to December. And you have the classic cliches of a busy Christmas period.

Like I said, if someone is stupid enough to write down players at least until the new year, they will be my guest. However, up until then, it is not possible to determine how players are calming on and off the pitch. I’m blending with my teammates and enjoying the new club experience.

Liverpool fans shouldn’t worry about their defense

I don’t think Liverpool supporters should be worried about their defensive performance against Bournemouth. Because Arne Slot wants to play football, which is clearly attacking the front foot. Jurgen Klopp football tastes a different taste, but they still want to attack. They want to use Anfield’s threat. If you are moving a lot of your bodies forward, you will automatically create risk in your area of ​​defense.

Now Virgil van Dik is as good as he is, and as good as he covers the round, he’s getting older. And there’s the argument that anyone standing next to him as the central defender is a great defender, even if it’s close to the level of reading the game. And I don’t think both Kerkez and Frimon differ from the way Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander Arnold were during their best years.

I think Liverpool will settle very well, as Bournemouth is a very good team and can hit you very well with counter attacks. We’ll see if they’re enough for the best in a very big Sunday match against Man City and Arsenal. In these matches, alongside two central defenders, they need to defend more, maintain tight chains, and defend well with their own defensive third for the game. But I think that going forward, Liverpool’s spirit is entertainment, creating goals and scoring. And Kerkez and Frimpong absolutely give them more than they take away from the team.

James Tarkowski’s handball decision was one of the worst decisions I’ve seen.

James Tarkowski’s handball is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen in a very modern football. Deliberate handball has been introduced into the laws of the game to avoid fraud, such as when defenders jump in and process the ball to prevent it from entering the net. That was the idea from the father of the game.

What I saw in Tarkowski is a huge number of rules changes and does not acknowledge physiological reality, the biological reality of players with arms. It was very scary. When the ball is hit, we have little time to decide what to do, keeping in mind that we are talking for a moment from the ball being hit by the infringement. They haven’t seen it in slow motion with replays that we all can see thousands of times.

None of the VAR staff or judges used common sense on the day. Because if they had done it, they would have seen it not intentional. It wasn’t intentional as James Tarkowski had his arm pulled off the ball. The ball is coming to him right away. He is thinking about blocking the ball with his breastplate or shoulder, so he needs to lean against it, and he lets his arms go off the ball. It’s not the body movement of someone who wants to knowingly handle the ball. That’s why it’s such a dishonorable decision.

Leeds and Sunderland supporters should be their 12th man

Traditionally, when you see clubs that fall regularly, they are all great clubs: Southampton, Norwich, West Brom, Burnley, Sheffield United. I’m not going to knock on these clubs, they all had their accomplishments. They all have fans who pay a lot to watch their club play. But what I’m heading for readers is when I think about Southampton last season, do you think the supporter base is the 12th guy who’s been hostile, loud and difficult in St. Mary? No, they weren’t.

And I think in Leeds and Sunderland, due to the loud nature of both the set of supporters, the teams going there may be picking up whether or not they are not at its best. If you are chosen, it means Leeds and Sunderland points.

What Sunderland and Leeds like is to pick up points when supporters are found and get raucous. They help the team, pass the team to the line and get them for 90 minutes. And even if that’s one point, it might be enough to end up on West Ham’s Brentford, the wolf this season.

For me, that’s not the case that there’s a mythical 12th guy who’ll carry them to win all the games. This would mean Sunderland and Leeds will end in the top 10.

And I can’t fully express that as a player who has played for some big clubs, when you get that noisy vibe, you can stand behind a rather poor run and take a draw or get a victory due to the noisy nature of support. So, that sounds cliché, but I think it might be enough to stay in the Premier League at the end of the season, even if it’s just one or two that Sunderland and Leeds managed to get from the energy of their supporters.