2023/24 Amadou Onana

You can see hes a very good player, thats plain to see, but when he goes missing for large portions of the games and jogs around the pitch watching the game being played in front of him, well, his potential or his best doesnt help us.

This Newcastle goal explains it perfectly.

Godfrey heads the ball in midfield, Onana makes no attempt to even win the 2nd header, he then watches as Newcastle attack and score whilst casually jogging back.



So yeah, litmus test for sure.

You do see that Onana is doing absolutely what he should be here right? If he goes for that ball, that he’s nowhere near btw (You can also level that criticism at Godfrey who is an equal distance away but that would be equally braindead and neglecting his defensive duties!) and is also falling directly onto Ganas head (I’ve put a green circle round him in case your S tier monitor didn’t pick it up 🫣) then he should be rightly criticised for leaving the middle of the pitch unguarded and that he had zero positional awareness. I’m all for criticism of underperforming players but that is crazy.

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Some players don’t need to run around loads to be their best self

We’re the kind of fanbase that would’ve had peak Berbatov scoring 30 a season and still have fans calling him lazy… in fact we did have peak Lukaku and had fans calling him lazy

Sometimes I think it’s a good think James only played behind closed doors!
 
You do see that Onana is doing absolutely what he should be here right? If he goes for that ball, that he’s nowhere near btw (You can also level that criticism at Godfrey who is an equal distance away but that would be equally braindead and neglecting his defensive duties!) and is also falling directly onto Ganas head (I’ve put a green circle round him in case your S tier monitor didn’t pick it up 🫣) then he should be rightly criticised for leaving the middle of the pitch unguarded and that he had zero positional awareness. I’m all for criticism of underperforming players but that is crazy.

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Some players don’t need to run around loads to be their best self

We’re the kind of fanbase that would’ve had peak Berbatov scoring 30 a season and still have fans calling him lazy… in fact we did have peak Lukaku and had fans calling him lazy

Sometimes I think it’s a good think James only played behind closed doors!

For me, one of his strengths is his positioning. Another would be the discipline to get back to position as im sure are the managers instructions.

As a fanbase, perhaps moving Onana on for big money and bringing in a couple of u21 'all round' midfielders similar to Garner may be more suited to the 'dogs of war' all action approach...
 

I'd give up my unborn children to have him up front for us though!
Oh yeah defo, technically one of the most gifted of all time probably, just incredible skill and control. He won't fit with how Dyche wants to play at all, but in a team that tries to play football he was always amazing. In CSKA he was a bit of a joke, ironically, as football here is a different animal than in Europe lol

Still lazy and a bit of a knob though. He was a primadonna for the national team (leaving the game and off on a private jet as soon as he gets subbed off; he was captain at the time) and dodged playing as soon as he got the record for goals lol

He also lost the FA presidential elections (twice) to a guy who's pretty much "the worst of us", but that's not a strictly on-the-pitch thing I guess.

I've met him several times, he's a cool guy to have a chat with and is actually very relaxed as a person. Surprised he's not a coach as he honestly knows his stuff a lot, but I guess it's not for everyone and all that.
 
For me, one of his strengths is his positioning. Another would be the discipline to get back to position as im sure are the managers instructions.

As a fanbase, perhaps moving Onana on for big money and bringing in a couple of u21 'all round' midfielders similar to Garner may be more suited to the 'dogs of war' all action approach...
Air force one
 
You do see that Onana is doing absolutely what he should be here right? If he goes for that ball, that he’s nowhere near btw (You can also level that criticism at Godfrey who is an equal distance away but that would be equally braindead and neglecting his defensive duties!) and is also falling directly onto Ganas head (I’ve put a green circle round him in case your S tier monitor didn’t pick it up 🫣) then he should be rightly criticised for leaving the middle of the pitch unguarded and that he had zero positional awareness. I’m all for criticism of underperforming players but that is crazy.

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Watch the run of Longstaff. He goes straight past Onana and if Isak passes to him he’s free in our box to slot, whilst Onana jogs back.
Or is he worried about leaving the centre of the pitch unguarded whilst they are about to score?
 
For me, one of his strengths is his positioning. Another would be the discipline to get back to position as im sure are the managers instructions.

As a fanbase, perhaps moving Onana on for big money and bringing in a couple of u21 'all round' midfielders similar to Garner may be more suited to the 'dogs of war' all action approach...

I'm all for selling him to Bayern for enough money to get 2 players in his place around the 20-24 age range who have high potential but either haven't gone to a club who play them the right way (like how we ended up with Peinaar from Dortmund) or who haven't done the move before the move to Premier "league" (example: Onana at Hamburg rather than Onana at Lille)... Don't have to both be CMs either (a rapid/direct winger would be nice)
 

I'm all for selling him to Bayern for enough money to get 2 players in his place around the 20-24 age range who have high potential but either haven't gone to a club who play them the right way (like how we ended up with Peinaar from Dortmund) or who haven't done the move before the move to Premier "league" (example: Onana at Hamburg rather than Onana at Lille)... Don't have to both be CMs either (a rapid/direct winger would be nice)

We need 2 CMs...one to replace Onana and another to replace Gomes.

Id expect us to be back for the kid at Watford too.

I dont think we'll sign many but who we sign will be in the young age brackets imo.
 
You do see that Onana is doing absolutely what he should be here right? If he goes for that ball, that he’s nowhere near btw (You can also level that criticism at Godfrey who is an equal distance away but that would be equally braindead and neglecting his defensive duties!) and is also falling directly onto Ganas head (I’ve put a green circle round him in case your S tier monitor didn’t pick it up 🫣) then he should be rightly criticised for leaving the middle of the pitch unguarded and that he had zero positional awareness. I’m all for criticism of underperforming players but that is crazy.

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Gana has 2 players around him, but more than happy to say I consider Gana a bit half arsed and nothing like the player he was before he left for PSG and I would rather not comment on Ben Godfrey.
 
Watch the run of Longstaff. He goes straight past Onana and if Isak passes to him he’s free in our box to slot, whilst Onana jogs back.
Or is he worried about leaving the centre of the pitch unguarded whilst they are about to score?
But nobody has mentioned any of that except for you, that’s a completely different point to pulling Onana up for not trying to win a header that he was never going to, which subsequently would of left his man free in the centre of the pitch in doing so. He did what a central midfielder should do.
 

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