Tom13 Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 8 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Or maybe he accepts he wasn’t good enough at the time and doesn’t loath anyone. Happy for him on his call up but he has call ups before and he never featured. He was misused massively by Steven though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 29 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Or maybe he accepts he wasn’t good enough at the time and doesn’t loath anyone. Happy for him on his call up but he has call ups before and he never featured. He started about 25% of matches he was unavailable for. As soon as Unai comes in that figure shoots up to 92%. Did he suddenly become 4x the player overnight? He had absolutely no chance to make the squad since he wasn't playing and there was only 1 person responsible for that. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 9 minutes ago, Keyblade said: He started about 25% of matches he was unavailable for. As soon as Unai comes in that figure shoots up to 92%. Did he suddenly become 4x the player overnight? He had absolutely no chance to make the squad since he wasn't playing and there was only 1 person responsible for that. True but he still played an average of 41 minutes a game under Gerrard this season. If he was good enough in that time he would have got called up. We’ll never know if he would have gone World Cup if played more but the fact he never even featured in friendlies prior to World Cup suggests it would have been unlikely regardless of manager. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 There's always going to be room for a hard working player that can also be creative. Most are usually only one or the other. Whether or not he's quality enough to take us into the top 8 is a reasonable question and he's had to bear the burden of being part of the supposed Grealish as aggregate, but you'd have to be burying your hand in the sand to not see what he brings to Unai's setup. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Keyblade Posted March 3, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted March 3, 2023 6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: True but he still played an average of 41 minutes a game under Gerrard this season. If he was good enough in that time he would have got called up. We’ll never know if he would have gone World Cup if played more but the fact he never even featured in friendlies prior to World Cup suggests it would have been unlikely regardless of manager. What fringe player gets called up while playing 41 minutes per game for their domestic club? He was already on the outskirts of the national team setup before Gerrard came, and his lack of playing time in 2022 is pretty much what sealed his fate. His chances were already slim to begin with. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted March 3, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 3, 2023 1 hour ago, DJBOB said: There's always going to be room for a hard working player that can also be creative. Most are usually only one or the other. Whether or not he's quality enough to take us into the top 8 is a reasonable question and he's had to bear the burden of being part of the supposed Grealish as aggregate, but you'd have to be burying your hand in the sand to not see what he brings to Unai's setup. Do not worry, he is here and he will comment like a moonlight shadow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 3 hours ago, Keyblade said: What fringe player gets called up while playing 41 minutes per game for their domestic club? He was already on the outskirts of the national team setup before Gerrard came, and his lack of playing time in 2022 is pretty much what sealed his fate. His chances were already slim to begin with. England players do like Kalvin Phillips and Harry Maguire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 5 minutes ago, Zatman said: England players do like Kalvin Phillips and Harry Maguire Both were key players (rightly or wrongly) for England before they stopped playing domestically. I don't even think Emi ever got on the pitch for Argentina. He needed consistent football to stand any sort of chance to make it to the WC, which was denied because he wasn't good at looking people in the eye or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 Very unlucky not to get an assist today. Needs to cut out backheeling the ball in our half though, utterly brainless stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom13 Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 (edited) Just now, The_Steve said: Very unlucky not to get an assist today. Needs to cut out backheeling the ball in our half though, utterly brainless stuff. Yeah, he's too panicky at times. Overall though I thought he was good today. Edited March 4, 2023 by Tom13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom13 Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 Hopefully put to bed the myth that he's only good off the bench soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 1 minute ago, Tom13 said: Yeah, he's too panicky at times. Overall though I thought he was good today. I thought he was one of our better players today and his general tracking back was good. Hopefully Unai will be telling him not to take those silly risks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Tom13 said: Hopefully put to bed the myth that he's only good off the bench soon. How can it be a myth when it's literally been the reality under Emery? Better today. Good even! But we need him to step it up consistently. Cut out a large portion of the silly worldie flicks and shield the ball better. I'd happily sacrifice 25% of his attacking play if he can not give the ball away, or lose it weakly so often. He would be a much better player for it. Edited March 4, 2023 by Tomaszk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Other Mat Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 5 minutes ago, Tomaszk said: How can it be a myth when it's literally been the reality under Emery? Better today. Good even! But we need him to step it up consistently. Cut out a large portion of the silly worldie flicks and shield the ball better. I'd happily sacrifice 25% of his attacking play if he can not give the ball away, or lose it weakly so often. He would be a much better player for it. I can't think of a single moment where he lost/gave the ball away weakly today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 Played well today. Well done to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaParkAvenue Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 36 minutes ago, The_Steve said: Very unlucky not to get an assist today. Needs to cut out backheeling the ball in our half though, utterly brainless stuff. Not only in our half, he did a backheel in our own box. Traore levels of madness (but it worked). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 48 minutes ago, Tom13 said: Hopefully put to bed the myth that he's only good off the bench soon. He wasnt great though either in my opinion today. Was just ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 2 hours ago, Tomaszk said: How can it be a myth when it's literally been the reality under Emery? Better today. Good even! But we need him to step it up consistently. Cut out a large portion of the silly worldie flicks and shield the ball better. I'd happily sacrifice 25% of his attacking play if he can not give the ball away, or lose it weakly so often. He would be a much better player for it. There's a sample size of 1 under Emery right? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 15 minutes ago, Keyblade said: There's a sample size of 1 under Emery right? He started loads under Emery? I think he's mostly underperformed. Mostly for the right reasons. He's being overly ambitious in possession when we need a bit of stability. Certainly a player it's easy to love. Empties the tank defensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted March 4, 2023 Author Share Posted March 4, 2023 Actually thought he was better today without being brilliant. Think that positions suits him. Still think he’s too slow and weak to be a top player. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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