One of the few players in our team who looks capable of retaining a football. He doesnt panic when he gets the ball. If a pass isn't on, he'll turn the other way and look up and seems to play passes at the right time.
There's too much chat from our fans about "shielding the back four" and not leaving our defence exposed but most of the chances that teams have against us are from our players giving the ball away needlessly. It's an unforced error and leaves us exposed. If we actually had more than just Allan and James on Saturday who didn't give the ball away so much then we'd have not conceded so many chances. Holgate does it, Keane does it, Iwobi, Davies, Doucoure, Gomes even Rico was on Saturday. We just need players comfortable on the football and we will look so much better. I struggle to comprehend how often professional footballers give the ball away. It's not even like many of our players even take risks. Allan needs to be given proper licence to be a box to box centre mid for me alongside a more defensive player. Whoever that is though, needs to be able to retain possession.
