Adam Wharton

[Upside Down]

5 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

If I was Wharton I'd look abroad. The top clubs in England are chaotic at the moment and have huge squads. It's hard to be that sure you will get consistent games.

Man Utd - really poor team, and have ruined and are ruining so many good young players you would have to be mad to go

Man City - very stifling tactical setup, massive squad, what happens when Rodri is fit? Like Utd have track record of taking on young players and marginalising them

Chelsea - truly massive squad, vast turnover, got a lot of centre mids.

Liverpool - maybe best bet - but do they have any money after spending so huge in the summer? 

Arsenal - Could work but not sure they are looking to spend at the moment?

Munich, Real, Barca all good shouts I would say. 

Man United are not a top club 

[waynerovers]

On 08/12/2025 at 15:43, roverblue said:

 

 

25 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Man United are not a top club 

 

While they haven't had much glory glory over the last ten years they are still undeniably one of the biggest clubs in the world, just as Liverpool were when they went two decades without winning the league and to a lesser extent Arsenal now.

Edited December 9 by waynerovers
quote in post not required

[riverholmes]

Wharton did some great work to create the chance for Palace's penalty goal today against Leeds. However, he was also involved the other way at three set-piece goals conceded by Palace. To me, it looks like he was marking Calvert-Lewin for both his goals and then relieved of that duty, arguably didn't do enough to try to stop a knock down on the edge of the box that Ampadou seized on.

I would say the first conceded goal was the biggest mistake, the other two were harder for him to defend. Nonetheless, I do think it highlights some defensive frailties in a clearly wonderful player. It reinforces to me that he is not (yet) the defensive midfielder some present him as and, arguably, Glasner, was at fault for putting him on duty on Calvert-Lewin at set-pieces in the first place.

Edited yesterday at 00:01 by riverholmes

[Rogerb]

Complete mismatch to have Adam trying to mark Calvert Lewin it's the job of a centre half.

[BRFC4EVA]

He just wanted the Dingles further adrift in the relegation zone..

[Mike E]

On 09/12/2025 at 13:43, joey_big_nose said:

If I was Wharton I'd look abroad. The top clubs in England are chaotic at the moment and have huge squads. It's hard to be that sure you will get consistent games.

Man Utd - really poor team, and have ruined and are ruining so many good young players you would have to be mad to go

Man City - very stifling tactical setup, massive squad, what happens when Rodri is fit? Like Utd have track record of taking on young players and marginalising them

Chelsea - truly massive squad, vast turnover, got a lot of centre mids.

Liverpool - maybe best bet - but do they have any money after spending so huge in the summer? 

Arsenal - Could work but not sure they are looking to spend at the moment?

Munich, Real, Barca all good shouts I would say. 

The foreign teams would give him a better chance to stand out for the national side too. 

[rigger]

On 09/12/2025 at 19:27, Upside Down said:

Man United are not a top club 

They might not be a top team, but as much as it pains me to say so, they are a top club.

[Leonard Venkhater]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

They might not be a top team, but as much as it pains me to say so, they are a top club.

Don't like them either, but they are one of the biggest clubs in the world...

[Lancaster Rover]

Claude Makelele arguably the best DM ever, not sure he was great at defending corners. Wharton shouldn’t be marking DCL, strange decision if it was pre-agreed

Edited 23 hours ago by Lancaster Rover

[Mashed Potatoes]

16 hours ago, Lancaster Rover said:

Claude Makelele arguably the best DM ever, not sure he was great at defending corners. Wharton shouldn’t be marking DCL, strange decision if it was pre-agreed

Makelele is 5ft 9inches tall so was not going to be defending balls in to the air at corners. In contrast Wharton is 6ft tall so it is not unreasonable to expect him to defend .

[roversfan99]

Another contrarian view. He clearly isnt a player who is going to win many headers nor should he be marking the oppositions main aerial threat known for scoring headers, if indeed he was.

[Mashed Potatoes]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Another contrarian view. He clearly isnt a player who is going to win many headers nor should he be marking the oppositions main aerial threat known for scoring headers, if indeed he was.

Why is a 6 footer clearly not going to win many headers ?

For Wharton's sake I hope he doesn't have the sort of defeatist attitude shown in your post. To reach the very top in any walk of life requires a determination to be the best possible, not just giving up when things seem hard. To quote the old prayer " Do not ask for tasks equal to your powers, ask for powers equal to your task".

A shining example of the right mentality would be Andy Murray where early in his career it looked as if stamina might be an issue; he worked his socks off to be one of the iron men of tennis. There is no reason why Wharton can't do something similar.

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Why is a 6 footer clearly not going to win many headers ?

For Wharton's sake I hope he doesn't have the sort of defeatist attitude shown in your post. To reach the very top in any walk of life requires a determination to be the best possible, not just giving up when things seem hard. To quote the old prayer " Do not ask for tasks equal to your powers, ask for powers equal to your task".

A shining example of the right mentality would be Andy Murray where early in his career it looked as if stamina might be an issue; he worked his socks off to be one of the iron men of tennis. There is no reason why Wharton can't do something similar.

Defeatist attitude?

He clearly isnt a player whose strengths include winning headers. Where he plays means that he rarely will be involved in winning headers.

If suggesting that he shouldnt be marking a big, powerful striker who is really strong in the air from a set piece is me being defeatist, then fine.

I never said anything about giving up either.

[bob fleming]

8 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Why is a 6 footer clearly not going to win many headers ?

For Wharton's sake I hope he doesn't have the sort of defeatist attitude shown in your post. To reach the very top in any walk of life requires a determination to be the best possible, not just giving up when things seem hard. To quote the old prayer " Do not ask for tasks equal to your powers, ask for powers equal to your task".

A shining example of the right mentality would be Andy Murray where early in his career it looked as if stamina might be an issue; he worked his socks off to be one of the iron men of tennis. There is no reason why Wharton can't do something similar.

I'd be tempted to stick with football if I was Wharton. 

[Gav]

25 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Why is a 6 footer clearly not going to win many headers ?

For Wharton's sake I hope he doesn't have the sort of defeatist attitude shown in your post. To reach the very top in any walk of life requires a determination to be the best possible, not just giving up when things seem hard. To quote the old prayer " Do not ask for tasks equal to your powers, ask for powers equal to your task".

A shining example of the right mentality would be Andy Murray where early in his career it looked as if stamina might be an issue; he worked his socks off to be one of the iron men of tennis. There is no reason why Wharton can't do something similar.

Give over Mashed 🤣

[arbitro]

Did anyone else notice that Morishita was picking up one of the big Millwall centre halves from set pieces. It was in a crowded penalty area and there was quite a bit of blocking but Morishita did his best to stay with him and to a degree succeeded because they didn't really hurt us.

I'm guessing this is done to allow our bigger player to attack the ball.

 

[Dreams of 1995]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Did anyone else notice that Morishita was picking up one of the big Millwall centre halves from set pieces. It was in a crowded penalty area and there was quite a bit of blocking but Morishita did his best to stay with him and to a degree succeeded because they didn't really hurt us.

I'm guessing this is done to allow our bigger player to attack the ball.

 

This the way teams are being trained to defend these days

The smaller lads are blockers and the defenders who are good in the air mark zonally. Fantastic when it works, looks awful when it doesn’t. It works more than it doesn’t though hence pretty much every team does it these days. Started in Italy and brought to England with the likes of Rafa and Wenger

It helps that the smaller lads can draw fouls easier.

[StHelensRover]

3 hours ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Why is a 6 footer clearly not going to win many headers ?

 

Height is not a given that a player will be good in the air, see Sam Gallagher or Maktar Gueye.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

This the way teams are being trained to defend these days

The smaller lads are blockers and the defenders who are good in the air mark zonally. Fantastic when it works, looks awful when it doesn’t. It works more than it doesn’t though hence pretty much every team does it these days. Started in Italy and brought to England with the likes of Rafa and Wenger

It helps that the smaller lads can draw fouls easier.

I recall Beck marking Frey at QPR last season on corners and their very first one he scored.

Interestingly it was the first time I had seen Morishita doing that. In some recent matches he has stayed further up the pitch from corners but I'm guessing that Ventre has autonomy on set pieces and is looking for variety which I'm all for.

[aletheia]

While we're on corners (sort of) seems that keeping 1 man up front (necessitating 2 defenders to mark) has gone.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, aletheia said:

While we're on corners (sort of) seems that keeping 1 man up front (necessitating 2 defenders to mark) has gone.

It seems that since Ventre came in we are mixing things up on set plays (as we should too) and a variety of signals are used by the various corner takers. I

My thinking on Saturday was that as Millwall posed a real threat from corners it was all hands to the pump.