Upamecano has had some pretty good form lately:

Still not seen him play myself, but he seems to have struggled with injuries for the first part of the season.

The only time I've seen Upamecano play this season was the 3-3 with Dortmund a few weeks back, and the less said about that performance the better. It really was a horror show from him.

Klaus wrote:

Upamecano has had some pretty good form lately:

Still not seen him play myself, but he seems to have struggled with injuries for the first part of the season.

And that's just December. He's been playing a bit longer. He's actually had a better season this year than his stablemate Konate (who has played less due to injury). The one concern with a bid now is Konate has been injured since October and will only return when the winter break ends. If he's fit, maybe RB would be willing to let Upamecano go, but when they are both fit, they often play in a 3 with Mukiele. Fuck it, get all 3. 

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That's a strange agreement without even an option to buy.

They probably just want him off their books.

KingslandBarge wrote:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dayot-upamecano/verletzungen/spieler/344695

This guy's knees will not hold up I fear. Ball playing CB sounds great in theory, but we can't afford another crock defender on the register.

I think that is a slightly unfair characterisation. If I remember correctly at the beginning of 2019 he had a major knee injury in training, probably a cruciate. That kept him out for most of the end of last season. And then, like Holding or Bellerin etc, he's had some stalled recoveries at the end of last year and beginning of this year on the same knee. But since his return around October this year he has looked the business. He's holding up alright, tackling, jumping, accelerating etc. There are no other major injuries that I know of.

Fair enough! Looking forward to watching him in the two leg matchup against Spurs.

By the end of the season, he will have had the equivalent of 2 top class years starting at centre back. That's more than our other hopefuls like Chambers, Holding and Mavropanos; and will include Champions League action as well. I'd be happy for him to be the anchor with one of Saliba, Chambers, Holding, Luis or Sokratis fighting it out for his partner. Not even sure who I would want. What I know from the Dortmund experience is we probably don't want just a bunch of kids at centre back.

upa has looked rough this season on the 3-4 times i've watched him. not sure if his head is turned or the injuries are taking their toll

so ive been kind of tuned out, lots of other stuff happening...we're not signing anyone in january, right?

the leipzig CB that i prefer is konate.

Meatwad wrote:

the leipzig CB that i prefer is konate.

I think that's also the CB that Leipzig prefers to keep ðŸ™‚

Eddie being linked to Villa and Norwich.

Personally I think it would be a mistake to loan him there, not because he's not good enough to play but because he probably won't. You don't come into a Premier League side in January from the Championship and start pulling up trees, and both of those clubs are going to be involved in the relegation battle too. He won't get any time to adjust. It'll be another six months wasted.

I think he could get decent playing time at those clubs to be honest, both lack a goalscorer (since Pukki stopped scoring). Clubs down the bottom, especially a side like Norwich, will be looking to get any sort of boost they can, so they might look at a goalscorer like Eddie as a potential x factor in the fight to stay up. If he can at least get a few starts and off the bench every game it'll still be a great experience.

Do you really reckon Eddie will start ahead of Pukki? He's struggling a bit with his hamstring at the moment, but by the time Eddie has signed Pukki will be good to go again.

Decent as Pukki is, Norwich are crying out for a bit of speed, so I think he'd get chances there.

Villa's only real striker, Wesley, snapped his ACL two weeks ago, so Nketiah would certainly have the opportinity to stake a claim there.

The only other striker they currently have is an 18 year old American kid, and he didn't look anything special when he came on against Leicester on Wednesday night. I was watching said game wondering why Villa, and the other teams down the bottom of the PL, weren't trying to snap up Nketiah.

Didn't know Wesley did his ACL. I still think it's a big step up physically to ask of Eddie after riding the bench in the Championship for half a season though. He won't have months to adjust because the season will be over in 17 games, and Villa can't afford to give him any leeway.

It could still work out of course, I just think the circumstances are stacked against it being a successful loan. Virtually the only thing that should matter right now is for him to get 15-20 starts before the season is over. Otherwise we might as well keep him.