toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
Thought his passing was a little bit off for the first 20 mins or so and I was fully expecting a fewmathon on here about him at that point, but thought he was pretty much faultless after that. Won't get mentioned in the MOTM stakes because of brilliant performances from the likes of Lukaku, Barkley, Stones, Jags etc but that's the sort of form he was producing in his first year here.
We won't need to be too expansive against Man City next weekend because they'll come and have a go at us so I'm hoping that he can continue in this vein for a little while yet.
His problem, IMO, is when we open up and he gets exposed for pace by other sides. On Saturday our defensive line wasn't very high and he had willing runners like Cleverley and McCarthy helping him. Even then he still covers more ground than anyone else, it's just his lack of pace that can be exposed. That will never change but his use of the ball is in a different league to McCarthy usually, so he remains an important option - just need to manage him better than we did last season.
We won't need to be too expansive against Man City next weekend because they'll come and have a go at us so I'm hoping that he can continue in this vein for a little while yet.
His problem, IMO, is when we open up and he gets exposed for pace by other sides. On Saturday our defensive line wasn't very high and he had willing runners like Cleverley and McCarthy helping him. Even then he still covers more ground than anyone else, it's just his lack of pace that can be exposed. That will never change but his use of the ball is in a different league to McCarthy usually, so he remains an important option - just need to manage him better than we did last season.