Overall that was a vert straight forward win, much to Sky’s disappointment.
The positives
Gordon is the perfect cover for Richarlison on the left. He’s an incredible young talent and he’ll learn a lot this season from the likes of Richie and Rodriguez and the fact he’s not going to be first choice this year will ease expectations on the lad which is a good thing. The last few times we’ve had a promising talent they’ve buckled under the weight of expectation so hopefully Gordon can progress at his own pace without calls for him to start every game and just keep improving.
Nkoukou showed he;s ready now to be Dignes cover. I love that he’s completely different to Digne and Baines too. My man of the match.
Keane again was very solid and a great goal.
Firmly in the middle is Gylfi, now I got some stick for not praising him enough on twitter but I think what I said was fair. When he has time and the ball at his feet he can be brilliant. The problem is when he’ doesn’t have the ball, certainly in defensive situations he just disappears and better teams, prem teams won’t give him that time. He looked decent against league 2 opposition which is the minimum you’d expect from him. On a side note fair play for giving the penalty to Kean.
The negatives
Davies poor again. He lost the ball within the first 30 seconds and I lost count of the number of times he would go forward with the ball and then turn and pass it back to Keane. Chalk and cheese with the likes of Allan and Doucoure at the weekend who were progressive and driving forward. Again this is league 2 opposition and he should have been bossing that midfield.
Kenny…. Bang average. Totally shown up by Nkoukou on the left, if you asked me which one had prem experience and had spent a season playing first team in Germany it wouldn’t have been him. Getting a better RB has to be a priority now.
Kean – I just don’t get him. I don’t get what he does. He can’t hold up the ball, he doesn’t run, when it was handed to him on a plate he fluffed it. I get his confidence is down but again League 2 opposition. He should have run those CB’s ragged. You’re playing for the right to line up with the likes of Rodriguez but he looks so disinterested! If an offer came in or we could trade him to fill a position we need I’d get rid.
Walcott – he’s done. RB and CB are top priorities especially with Branthwiate now out too but we have no back up options on the RW if Rodriguez is out. I’m not a fan of Bolasie but why wasn’t he playing tonight, I don’t think he’s good enough but you can’t tell me he’s any worse than Theo.
In an ideal world we’d get another RB, CB and RW and that would be an amazing window. Striker too if Kean goes.
