Christian Atsu

USABlue · February 1, 2015

hetion said:
In fairness I don't think anyone's saying he's suddenly definitely the absolute business. Just that there's hope that he'll come back and really contribute til May.

mate this forum is all about extremes. everyone/everything is boss or absolute crap. no in between apparently lol

LinekersLegs · February 1, 2015

Adversus said:
Del should have played earlier. When he eventually started he was MoM against Stoke. The reason he didn't play him was because he never played Barkley, Del and Mirallas together even though I thought that was our strongest team instead playing Pienaar or Osman but it did make sense as they linked the play in the style we played. However I think Del has the potential to be a playmaker not just a speedy winger.

The Stoke game was Nov 30th so he'd had several months to get up to match fitness, even in late September he was clearly exhausted by half time in the Fulham FA cup game. Think he'd have struggled if we'd used his as a regular starter earlier than we did but we'll never know.

Agree with your point about playing Ross, Kev and Del , can understand Martinez's reluctance to do so as none of them really help out the defence much.

ToffeeTownMilto · February 1, 2015

Adversus said:
He did win player of the season at his last club and was very highly rated but in fairness has been hopeless when played. I just hope his form at ACON does t mean Martinez thinks we can do without signing someone.

Haha - you can bet your life, that's exactly what he'll think.

DanEFC92 · February 1, 2015

http://gfycat.com/EasygoingRaggedAmericanwirehair

Won't let me post gifs, for some reason.

Christiffa25 · February 1, 2015

LinekersLegs said:
The Stoke game was Nov 30th so he'd had several months to get up to match fitness, even in late September he was clearly exhausted by half time in the Fulham FA cup game. Think he'd have struggled if we'd used his as a regular starter earlier than we did but we'll never know.

Agree with your point about playing Ross, Kev and Del , can understand Martinez's reluctance to do so as none of them really help out the defence much.

Isn't that the reason tho that we play with TWO holding midfielders. Most other teams only play with one.

Dozbik · February 2, 2015

His second goal is brilliant indeed, but did anyone see Ghana's second goal? I think that pretty much sums up what joke teams they are playing against. My query is still the same: he's not really fought against by the defenders in these games, so he is basically allowed to play on his strengths, but we've seen that with clever positioning and disciplined defending this lad is already outwitted. Without wanting to offend him, I don't regard him to have too much footballing intelligence (I mean lads, in his introductory press conference the reporters had to repeat every single question, because he didn't comprehend them, in a way that doesn't necessarily suggest intelligence to me...), much rather a bit of flair and decent physical attributes for a winger, but apparently not really tailored to the English type of game, unless he mans up and starts lifting weights, because currently he's a non-factor to most Premier League defenders and he doesn't seem to gel well enough with his teammates that he could compensate with combining and swift passing.

One thing that makes me somewhat hopeful is that he will surely gain some confidence thanks to his fine displays with Ghana, which might spur him on enough to have a decent second half of the season with us. I'm optimistic, as he seems to have some spark of talent in him, he simply needs time to acclimatise at a new environment. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of another in-form winger besides Kev for us.

USABlue · February 2, 2015

Dozbik said:
His second goal is brilliant indeed, but did anyone see Ghana's second goal? I think that pretty much sums up what joke teams they are playing against. My query is still the same: he's not really fought against by the defenders in these games, so he is basically allowed to play on his strengths, but we've seen that with clever positioning and disciplined defending this lad is already outwitted. Without wanting to offend him, I don't regard him to have too much footballing intelligence (I mean lads, in his introductory press conference the reporters had to repeat every single question, because he didn't comprehend them, in a way that doesn't necessarily suggest intelligence to me...), much rather a bit of flair and decent physical attributes for a winger, but apparently not really tailored to the English type of game, unless he mans up and starts lifting weights, because currently he's a non-factor to most Premier League defenders and he doesn't seem to gel well enough with his teammates that he could compensate with combining and swift passing.

One thing that makes me somewhat hopeful is that he will surely gain some confidence thanks to his fine displays with Ghana, which might spur him on enough to have a decent second half of the season with us. I'm optimistic, as he seems to have some spark of talent in him, he simply needs time to acclimatise at a new environment. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of another in-form winger besides Kev for us.

I understand what you're getting at mate but some people just aren't great/confident speakers in the public view. You may be right though and he could lack footballing intelligence but I would judge that only based on his on the pitch decision making, not a presser

DualityNSNO · February 2, 2015

Remember when Goat said Atsu's gonna be amazing?

LinekersLegs · February 2, 2015

Christiffa25 said:
Isn't that the reason tho that we play with TWO holding midfielders. Most other teams only play with one.

But very few teams play with both fullbacks round the penalty box at the same time, S'ton are the only ones I've seen where it it common to see one fullback pass to the other one to attempt a goal and iirc they also play with two holding midfielders.

Chelsea often play a 4231 as well but in a different setup with Matic as the holding midfielder and Fabregas as the creative. But it is not that common to see both Azpilicueta and Ivanovic so far up the pitch at the same time, unless Chelsea are in total dominance one usually hangs back if the other goes forward. Plus Hazard and in particular Willian are tasked with doing a lot of tracking back - Hazard was publicly told off by Mourinho a fair bit early in last season for not doing it. Oscar's defensive workrate is also easy to under-rate, remember being quite surprised to see his both the number of tackles he attempts in a game and his success rate.

kithnou · February 2, 2015

So is he still an Everton player when he returns from Africa?
Ready to take World Football by storm if his goal is any indication...

Goat · February 2, 2015

DualityNSNO said:
Remember when Goat said Atsu's gonna be amazing?

I felt it in my bones.

Lionel Naismith · February 2, 2015

Atsu, su, su, he is fast but he is poo.
Nar? Sound

Milk · February 2, 2015

kithnou said:
So is he still an Everton player when he returns from Africa?
Ready to take World Football by storm if his goal is any indication...

Would have been goal of the month if he'd done it in the Prem.

Can't do anything but boost his confidence - hopefully to our benefit

kithnou · February 2, 2015

Milk said:
Would have been goal of the month if he'd done it in the Prem.

Can't do anything but boost his confidence - hopefully to our benefit

So he is still our player?

Christiffa25 · February 2, 2015

The quality out there is poor. Full credit for the goal mind, was an absolute corker!!

Hope Bobby is not fooled into thinking he's the player we need and resists signing another winger!