Ian Maatsen

[LeeB]

I walked past him shopping in the Bull Ring on New Year's Eve, so at least he's spending a bit in the local economy.

[AV84]

Any chance we could play Maatsen and Digne at the same time? We've tried about every other combination at the back, can't be any worse than the leaky excuse for a defense we have at the moment.

[Dante Lavelli]

Has to start next league game for me. Linked up well with bailey when he came on

Maatsen the LB linked well with the RW?

[paul_e]

Has to start next league game for me. Linked up well with bailey when he came on

Maatsen the LB linked well with the RW?

Well he did assist him for the goal.

[PaulWinch again]

He did great, but Digne is comfortably one of our best, and most consistent, players. He starts for me and Maatsen remains a brilliant impact player for now.

[LeeB]

The key to success with Maatsen will be Ramsey coming back.

[Brend'Watkins]

The key to success with Maatsen will be Ramsey coming back.

You could be right. I wasn’t overly impressed with JJ until Mattsen came on. In attack, Mattsen is very tenacious as his contribution to the winning goal showed.

[ROBBO]

Could Mattson be used on the left flank, he has the speed and tenacity?

[Demitri_C]

Has to start next league game for me. Linked up well with bailey when he came on

Maatsen the LB linked well with the RW?

Take it you missed the goal then dante 🤣

[Ian.]

The key to success with Maatsen will be Ramsey coming back.

That’s going to be a very good combination when both up to speed. I do like Digne, he’s a great player and in very good form, however before Moreno and Ramsey both got injured, those two caused havoc going forward.

[john e]

The key to success with Maatsen will be Ramsey coming back.

Agreed, but Ramsey keeps getting injured it’s a big problem

[Dante Lavelli]

Has to start next league game for me. Linked up well with bailey when he came on

Maatsen the LB linked well with the RW?

Take it you missed the goal then dante 🤣

Nah, linking is interplay and one/two, not crosses.

Ramsey/Maatsen could be an upgrade on Ramsey/moreno.  Add Rogers in the middle and I think that’s our best attack.

[Percy McCarthy]

Half way through the season and cannot see what he's bringing to the team, barely getting on the pitch. Why did we sign him for so much money?

I like Maatsen and would agree, he's definitely more of one for the future, but I also don't understand why, if we were in such a tight PSR spot (see that interview Monchi did where he was talking about how close it was getting the Luiz sale done - think it was in an Athletic article) we opted to spend over 30m on a player in a position where we already had options (and Digne has been excellent this season).

You could say similar about Onana. Another good player, but the sort that we needed to drop 50m on at that point in time?

And I appreciate we signed Ned, but if he too is one for the future, why weren't we thinking about the here and now - Cash is the best example of a player who is just not good enough for where we now want to be, and Konsa at RB is at the very best "an option", certainly not ideal.

I suppose signing him for £37m, amortised over five years, and selling Kellyman to them for an immediate £20m onto our accounts, helped make our PSR position less tight.

[AV82EC]

Half way through the season and cannot see what he's bringing to the team, barely getting on the pitch. Why did we sign him for so much money?

I like Maatsen and would agree, he's definitely more of one for the future, but I also don't understand why, if we were in such a tight PSR spot (see that interview Monchi did where he was talking about how close it was getting the Luiz sale done - think it was in an Athletic article) we opted to spend over 30m on a player in a position where we already had options (and Digne has been excellent this season).

You could say similar about Onana. Another good player, but the sort that we needed to drop 50m on at that point in time?

And I appreciate we signed Ned, but if he too is one for the future, why weren't we thinking about the here and now - Cash is the best example of a player who is just not good enough for where we now want to be, and Konsa at RB is at the very best "an option", certainly not ideal.

I suppose signing him for £37m, amortised over five years, and selling Kellyman to them for an immediate £20m onto our accounts, helped make our PSR position less tight.

Is the correct answer. I think sometimes what you want to do in the transfer market just doesn’t work out and you have to improvise. The Maatsen signing wasn’t ideal from a squad perspective because there seemed a more pressing need to upgrade Cash on the right hand side but for whatever reason we just couldn’t find or get a deal for what we wanted so we decided to strengthen elsewhere. Bearing in mind the position with Moreno who seemed to fall out of favour quite quickly last season, there was a gap on that left side and Unai probably thought happy to go with this deal and we can sort the other stuff out later.

[Percy McCarthy]

Half way through the season and cannot see what he's bringing to the team, barely getting on the pitch. Why did we sign him for so much money?

I like Maatsen and would agree, he's definitely more of one for the future, but I also don't understand why, if we were in such a tight PSR spot (see that interview Monchi did where he was talking about how close it was getting the Luiz sale done - think it was in an Athletic article) we opted to spend over 30m on a player in a position where we already had options (and Digne has been excellent this season).

You could say similar about Onana. Another good player, but the sort that we needed to drop 50m on at that point in time?

And I appreciate we signed Ned, but if he too is one for the future, why weren't we thinking about the here and now - Cash is the best example of a player who is just not good enough for where we now want to be, and Konsa at RB is at the very best "an option", certainly not ideal.

I suppose signing him for £37m, amortised over five years, and selling Kellyman to them for an immediate £20m onto our accounts, helped make our PSR position less tight.

Is the correct answer. I think sometimes what you want to do in the transfer market just doesn’t work out and you have to improvise. The Maatsen signing wasn’t ideal from a squad perspective because there seemed a more pressing need to upgrade Cash on the right hand side but for whatever reason we just couldn’t find or get a deal for what we wanted so we decided to strengthen elsewhere. Bearing in mind the position with Moreno who seemed to fall out of favour quite quickly last season, there was a gap on that left side and Unai probably thought happy to go with this deal and we can sort the other stuff out later.

The feeling in the club, according to Tanswell, was that Moreno lost his pace after his injury.