Aaron Mooy

Most of the support will have seen him play, given he was in the EPL for years.

He was a tidy player back then, saying anything more than that is hyperbole.

 

* it, I'm on board. If Ange's happy, so am I. And he'll win me over forever when I see him go through Cuntstram and Arfield.

 

My point with Souza, a lot of people were saying he would be our perfect signing because he constantly breaks up play. I don’t see Mooy as perfect for us at breaking up play, but he’s no slouch at it either. When you look on the surface of it, and people say that a player is fantastic at breaking up play, the underlying stats aren’t as high as what people would imagine they are.

However, if you saw a player make a few tackles, intercept a ball, fouled a bit, make a clearance or two, force a player into a bad pass or two, attempt a couple more tackles that aren’t successful but force a player back, also rounded players up into passing backwards and in general didn’t allow the opposition to get much continuity, personally I’d think that player had done a good job at breaking up play. That’s pretty much what you can expect from him.

 

Simply put, I don’t want him. Isn’t at all the type of midfielder we need. His arrival would signal either McGregor staying in an unnatural position at 6, or, if we also bring in a more natural DM as well, the number 8 positions would be overloaded. Also, it seems he’s lost a yard of place from the player he used to be.
Apart from awareness of Ange and his standards, I don’t see the upside. Would much rather give our current CMs maximal game time to continue to develop.

 

Were we going to pay £7m for Souza though? There was talk of loans too. So I’m not sure. As mentioned earlier, maybe we might have found another target or two that we can spend money on for a bigger overall improvement of the squad.

Regarding pushing McGregor out, nobody is saying he pushes McGregor out of the team, but Mooy can play 6,8,10 and I’d suggest he’ll play as a 6 or 8 in Europe and against the huns next to McGregor. He can then rotate through the rest of the squad in other games or even be a sub coming on to close out games, like McCarthy is meant to do.

 

*Arsefield

 

Look I'm willing to get behind him as a signing.

He could take up mcgregor position and in majority of games where we dominated possession his ability to pick a pass could mean we allow McGregor to play a more advanced role whilst Mooy is the more dictator of the tempo and pace of our game by helping transition from defence to attack.

But in having him in the starting 11 would mean O'Riley and Hatate mostly will see less play time....if assuming Mooy still has the legs and engine to play 2 games every 4 or so days.

 

A bit arrogant to assume we haven’t seen him, when the lad played 2 years at St Mirren and then was all over the highlights packages of the EPL for 3 years.

 

People wanted him as he’s a physically dominating midfielder with good technical ability.

We don’t necessarily need a ball winner, just a player who can add a bit of athleticism to the European midfield battle.

Going into Europe with another wee guy is a recipe for disaster. Even Xavi and Iniesta needed a big guy in there with them, in Yaya Toure or Busquets.

 

Nah..

 

This signing is clearly dividing opinion.

If Ange wants him then who am I to question his logic.

I think he’s a decent footballer tbh, my worry is he’s almost 32 and we will be getting a slower version of the guy who done well in the PL with Huddersfield.

I hope it’s a bonus signing and not one of the two signings Ange said we have lined up. We need two absolute specimens signed up for CDM and CB.

While Mooy may add quality and depth to the squad, his signing doesn’t address the above positions.

 

This should be announced soon. Hopefully get a look at him against Norwich.

 

Well he ain’t 6’2” but it doesn’t appear that we can afford or attract that profile of player at the moment that’s good enough for what Ange wants. If we can’t get that player, no amount of discussion here is going to change that.

I’ll take you back to earlier in the window, we got linked to some player in the Portuguese league that fit the profile except he looked like a giraffe kicking a balloon. Most were rightfully horrified. That’s the type of * that is out there that meets our height and athleticism criteria.

 

Ange hasn't let us down yet. Noone knows him better than our gaffer. I trust him. We all should.

Besides he is better than McCarthy ..

 

Nah, that's in reference to @Valhalla specifically, who completely omits the fact that Mooy played for Brighton.

By the way, let's not pretend that anyone remembers a 19-20 year old Aussie kid who played 30 matches for St. Mirren over a decade ago.

 

We maybe weren't going to pay the £7m now but we definitely wanted to have some form of option on his to buy. Be it this year or next. Regardless, the money would have been there. Loan to buys always make more sense. Try before you buy sort of deal and Ange played it perfectly last year with CCV and Jota.

I know he's not pushing out McGregor. Jesus, he wouldn't even have done that at his peak, we all know that. I just can't see why we need him to play as an 8 or a 10, especially when we have 3 young guys in there who have contributed more than enough to the team and deserve their places. As I said before, I just think it's a pointless, lazy signing.

Another point, Ange won't change his system. So I think the idea of him playing alongside McGregor just won't happen. Ange has his philosophy and he won't change that. Where a big physical DM comes in, he just helps the defence that little bit, helps protect the box for crosses and can be a bit of a threat in the oppositions half, which would then push McGregor forward. I'm worried that we eat into the time on the pitch for Hatate/Turnbull and O'Riley because I believe these guys are the golden nuggets we have for the future. Young, talented and all have different attributes that suit us in some way. I'm not suggesting Mooy isn't but you kinda summed up what he will be doing there. He will basically be the McCartney of the team and I just don't see why we let McCarthy and Ideguchi do that, sporadic appearances from the bench and the odd cup game here and there.

 

We have seen nothing in pre-season that would justify O'Riley or Hatate being benched to accommodate a newcomer who has hardly played this year. Maybe as season progresses and injuries start to have an impact he may get a few starts. But Ange is on record as saying he doesn't rest players, if they are fit and in form they play so I think some are over estimating how much squad rotating we will do.

(we saw this with Hatate who was blowing out his * post split and Ange wouldn't bench him until last game of season, even with Turbull back in contention)

 

Hardly irrelevant, the older you are the more likely it is to happen and the longer it takes to recover. Plus if you haven't been operating at that level frequently already, and now need to reach it, the more likely it is to happen. So the odds on him picking up an injury are magnified, meaning he is more likely to miss games than the younger guys were, while taking longer to get back fit, and even they missed a lot of last season from injuries getting up to speed. So how useful is he likely to be? It's not really that hard to understand the point I was making. Bro.

 

You completely missed the point.

I would assume between Ideguchi, CalMac, McCarthy, O'riley, Hatate, Turnbull, Mikey Johnson and a bunch of youngsters ready for their chance we're not gonna be in a position where Mooy will be expected to play 2 games a week for several months in a row.

Not including B team players, we have 8 players with Mooy for 3 midfield positions.

You're turning a virtually non-existent scenario into a big concern.

 

Mooy is not my favourite player, he's been average for Australia, but was fantastic at Huddersfield and at Melbourne City.
He's played 40 games in 2 seasons in China, both seasons were covid affected and shortened from memory, not a lack of game time due to injury, so his body has not had the rigours that a normal 31 year old might have.
Anges 2nd season is here and it's when his teams really power, any extra quality in midfield for all these games is a positive. I'm pretty confident it's a good move.