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Ballou Tabla


shermanator

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They beat Mallorca 2-0 the week Ballou signed, and went top, into a direct promotion spot. 

Since then: 

Scoreless draw.

Scoreless draw.

1-0 loss to Cadiz, a leading team in the league.

1-0 loss to Gimnàstic de Tarragona, last place team in the league.

No goals in 4 games, and an new outside attacker has played the tail end of one of those games, no more.

No ambition.

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13 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

They beat Mallorca 2-0 the week Ballou signed, and went top, into a direct promotion spot. 

Since then: 

Scoreless draw.

Scoreless draw.

1-0 loss to Cadiz, a leading team in the league.

1-0 loss to Gimnàstic de Tarragona, last place team in the league.

No goals in 4 games, and an new outside attacker has played the tail end of one of those games, no more.

No ambition.

Obviously the only reason a team can lose is because a lack of ambition. Makes total sense. Two teams enter the field, one has ambition and the other just lacks it, hence the result. 

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1 hour ago, shamrock said:

Obviously the only reason a team can lose is because a lack of ambition. Makes total sense. Two teams enter the field, one has ambition and the other just lacks it, hence the result. 

You are deliberately being obtuse, your prerogative. 

I have mentioned not expecting to promote this season, selling key players in the winter window,  not using all subs when losing, not scoring at all in a month and then Ballou not dressing when he's an outside attacking option they said they'd been following since MLS.

So it's an interpretation based on evidence and data. You're the one being puerile about it.

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Sometimes teams do not have the money to promote and can risk bankruptcy if the added revenues of playing in the 1st division do not match the added expenditures especially if the team already has some debt. I don't know the specifics of Albacete but it could be the case that the team does not really want to promote. They aren't necessarily throwing games but they may also not be giving 100% to win promotion. 

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19 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

You are deliberately being obtuse, your prerogative. 

I have mentioned not expecting to promote this season, selling key players in the winter window,  not using all subs when losing, not scoring at all in a month and then Ballou not dressing when he's an outside attacking option they said they'd been following since MLS.

So it's an interpretation based on evidence and data. You're the one being puerile about it.

No it is your argument that is flawed. I conceded that the club might not want to promote for a bunch of reasons. But still coaches and players want to win games. I've never heard of a coach deliberately throwing games. 

There's a difference between the club level and the technical group. The latter just want to win all games (although realizing they probably won't). The "lack of ambition" of the club which can be true (again, I don't know) doesn't mean a coach will purposely lose games.

No way. 

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1 hour ago, Dominic94 said:

I mean he does need playing time but like he shouldn’t be there over Akindeke for example.

Tabla has close to 1000 minutes of playing time this season even if most of it has been at 3rd division level and he hasn't played much since his switch to 2nd division. Not to mention that he is in the system of arguably the top team in the world. Akindele scored a nice goal in his first game with Orlando but otherwise had a fairly quiet game and is coming off a poor season and has only played 98 minutes so far in the season although that is also due to the MLS season just starting. Plus his main position is centre forward even if he can also play on the wings and it seems like that is where Orlando intends to play him. I hope he gets his career back on track and starts challenging for selection as a centre forward where his competition will be Cavallini, Larin, hopefully a resurgent AJH and possibly David though he looks like he will be a number 10. I don't see any reason to consider Akindele an obvious selection though that should definitely be chosen over Tabla. At 19 playing in the second division in Spain (apparently the strongest second division in the world according to some Voyageurs LOL) and in the Barcelona system I still see him as a much more attractive prospect and deserving of selection than a guy turning 27 in a couple of weeks even if he is able to get his career back on track (although in a weird coincidence they actually share a birthday so Tabla will turn 20 on the same day - March 31st).

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34 minutes ago, Shakmur said:

I'm not the biggest Ballou fan, but i'd pick him before Akindele for sure. Akindele will be 30 in 2022.

Not that I would pick Akindele over Ballou (although Akindele should be considered if he continues to play and product in the MLS).  I think they're referring to this upcoming Nation's game vs French Guiana and possibly the upcoming Gold Cup.  The logic doesn't make sense if a player has earned it.  Do we not call up Arfield because he's going to be 34 in 2022?

Like I said I prefer Tabla and I don't think the two games that Akindele has played with a new team isn't enough to earn a spot into this months squad.  But if he continues to play and hes earned it then absolutely he should be considered, regardless of his age.

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11 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If he is not playing lately, you can't call him up. The only player I'd give a nod like that to is Leutwiler, there are plenty of top keepers for their countries who are on the bench for the club. That is that though. I don't think we'll go for Leutwiler though, having Crepeau nearby.

Best leave phonzie out then. 

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The playing vs not playing debate I think is just one factor to go along with many other factors when deciding who to pick for the national team. It really shouldn't be as black and white as "If he is not playing lately, you can't call him up." Especially for a country in our position in the world. If we were strict about not calling people that aren't playing regularly (and as a result, also out of contract players) then we would probably (at least in the last 10 years, hopefully not going forward) have to resort to calling up players at a L1O/PLSQ/U-Sports level to fill in for a benched Hoilett, Arfield, or Davies.

As great a story as George Pakos is, I don't think we should make that our game plan.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Obinna said:

My opinion: that sort of deal never works. What if Ajax does not like the player? Or the fact that Barça has enough money to go anywhere, not just Ajax, to pick up players?

In any case, they are both in the last 8 of Champions, the level of quality is there, but not enough to justify a sort of big brother-little brother relationship. 

 

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On 3/22/2019 at 4:57 PM, Obinna said:

Sure - why not start a partnership with every single small market team and get right of first refusal for every player in the planet?  It's not like Barca doesn't already have right of first refusal on most players from Ajax!

this is silly - Ajax already have a "special" relationship but that doesn't mean they want to give a discount on transfer fees to their "special" Catalan partner.  Meanwhile, Barca just want to load up their stable and then loan out underachieving players until they figure out which ones will be superstars?  I thought Chelsea were also well on their way to doing that.

 

 

 

 

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28 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

I’m  surprised we didn’t see him sub in last night. I hope he’s part of the U23 team! That team has the  potential to win a medal at the  Olympics if they use our best players

I was more surprised to not see Millar. I guess we're in for more of these surprises as our player pool gets stronger and tough decisions have to be made on playing time. 

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