Problem is, he has been tried everywhere. Even when he was the mythical number 10, his odd goal only served to mask his awful performances and plenty of people saw through that. He would regularly avoid responsibility, hiding between the lines, so people would then blame the supply from those behind him and movement of those in front.
See, if you're going to go for Siggy - and there is plenty of warrant for it - i'd recommend not starting your first line with something that can be proven to be factually untrue.
Sig finished the season with 13 league goals. That's as many as Richarlison, Pogba and more than Firmino, Lukaku, Son, Mitrovic, Rondon, Martial, Zaha, Eriksen, Felipe Anderson, Lucas Moura and Rashford. I think we can agree therefore that he got more than "the odd goal"
For someone with his skill set, ie, shooting from distance, and supposedly linking play, he doesn't show initiative to drop deep and take control of the ball in areas he can hurt teams, he just waits. Most of his passes/touches are 1st time passes back to where they came from or the half hearted flick/back heel round the corner that fail way more often than they come off.
Really weird that you are criticising him here for not ignoring his managers instructions. His job last season and this under Silva was to receive the ball in areas where it needed a single pass to create a goal OR where he could have a shot. Controlling the midfield of games was quite clearly the responsibility of Gueye and Gomes. And late in the season Schneiderlin when he got back in.
It was the same this season under Silva. The difference between the two is last season he was excellent at this role. This season he's been terrible.
He doesn't dribble with the ball to draw players in, inviting pressure on himself to create space for others around him.
So you're criticising him for things he can't do. Ok. Can you do a list for all our other players? But I agree, i've never seen him do a stepover in my life.
He's definitely not an option to pass to in a tight space, as he loses the ball a horrendous amount under even the slightest pressure.
Just off the top of my head, against Palace or Soton last season, he receives the ball off Gomes in a tight space and immediately unleashes Walcott who's then in 1v1. Predictably Theo kicks the ball straight at the keeper. So there is evidence that he can create things from tight spaces. Evidence without me even having to think for 5 seconds. There will be more.
He doesn't make clever runs off the ball.
Agreed. But neither does Eriksen. Nor did Mata when in his pomp. Loads of players are quite static. If you don't like that type of player, that's more than fine but it's a personal preference on your part.
His role was clearly as above: "His job last season and this under Silva was to receive the ball in areas where it needed a single pass to create a goal OR where he could have a shot. Controlling the midfield of games was quite clearly the responsibility of Gueye and Gomes. And late in the season Schneiderlin when he got back in."
He doesn't make intelligently timed late runs into the box to finish off moves. In fact, the majority of his admittedly spectacular goals have come from outside of the box and he has scored to my mind, 1 header (West Ham?).
So there's 2 points here, firstly that he doesn't make those runs and secondly that the majority of his goals come from outside of the area.
Again, mostly from memory, these are the goals where he makes intelligent runs to get on the end of things.
2nd goal vs Fulham (h)
v Leicester (h)
v Cardiff (h)
1st goal v Cardiff (a)
Then there is the obvious point that he won't have just made 4 intelligent runs in the season. These are the ones where he received the pass or got the rebound etc. So again, factually it's not true to say he doesn't make these runs. Or didn't last season.
For your second point, yes absolutely most of his goals are screamers. And that's a BAD thing?!
He doesn't shoot nearly enough and when he does, the results range from the sublime to the ridiculous. It's bizarre, but when his efforts don't go in, they are usually insultingly tame or go nowhere the target. Sometimes, a narrowly missed shot can get the crowd up and put a team on the back foot.
See every player in the premier league. Even the De Bruynes of the world. The fact so many go in for Sig in comparison to others in the league shows he's exceptional at this.
His free kicks and corners are abysmal. He has yet to score a free kick for us in almost 3 years. Lucas Digne has scored several. Even Joe Williams scored 1 in the summer.
His shooting free-kicks I agree with. I've been really disappointed.
Corners very hit and miss. More miss than hit.
Free kicks is weird. He has set up some very easy chances that have been spurned. How did Holgate miss that header on sunday for example?
But all in all, yes I agree - his set pieces have not been good enough.
He has missed nearly as many penalties as he has scored, a disgusting waste of opportunity for a team that has struggled to score and create chances. This has the double effect of not only disheartening your own team and crowd, but also lifting the opposition.
All players miss them. But again, yes he went through a little spell of missing them last season. Although if I remember rightly, he scored the follow to one of them? Nothing much to see here.
He can't tackle to safe his life, and I've never seen a player arrive just late enough to not intercept a pass as many times as him, it makes me wonder if it's deliberate. I don't think you could try to be as close without success and be quite as bad. It may be his most consistent talent.
Yep, not good in the tackle. But again, it's something you're focusing on that he can't do. Defensively he's very good (or was last season) at starting and maintaining the press. He's no Gueye when winning the ball, I agree.
He started on the left or right and everyone said he'd be better in the 10 behind the attack. He got his opportunity there and proved to be almost as ineffective, until his biggest defenders started to suggest he should play deeper to be "more involved".
No player that gets 19 direct goal involvements as he did last season is "ineffective". It's just rubbish mate.
People slate Schneiderlin, and rightly so. I never understood why we wanted him, or why United wanted him before us, but when he signed, for those 1st 6 months, he proved me wrong, before falling off a cliff. But for all the criticism of his faults and his lack of heart, he virtually always shows for a pass or as an option, even to his own detriment.
In previous threads i've shown that Morgan will position himself in places that make the passes from the CBs difficult which compels them to be the playmaker in the build up. He hides every single game when he should be dictating the build up. He doesn't have the excuse of being 40 yards up the field with a CB up his arse.
I can say neither of those things about Sigurdsson, who I was equally baffled by our interest. He has never once proved me wrong, and even the goals he has scored, they only strengthened my opinion that all he is and has ever been is a YouTube compilation waiting to happen.
That's your opinion. Can't convince you otherwise seemingly, especially given how much he contributed in goals and assists last season.
Bilyaletdinov was chased for doing pretty much the exact same thing, only he came from a different league, with a different language and culture, for 1/5th of the price, with far far FAR fewer chances to impress, and was certainly never pandered to by Moyes the way this fraud has been.
I always quite liked Bily and thought he deserved more of a chance.
I have never wanted a player to leave so badly, and I genuinely can't wait to see the back of him.
As is your right as a fan to have such an opinion
Hopefully he can take Pickford with him.
Can you do a list for Pickford?
