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The players are fine (individually). That includes Sandro. Almost universally though, the job they were bought to do or the price paid for them (or both) is wrong. That is on the manager.
See:
In terms of how we play attacking passes, we've played the 4th most crosses-per-throughball of any team in the league. That is not a team for Sandro to play well in. He was not bought for any reason other than the fact that he's young, is a good player, and was insanely cheap.
Note that I have no qualms with that as a general approach to general talent-hoarding (from a club's point of view, though it's a shame for the player) - but it does mean we can't draw any conclusions on Sandro's quality. There is, however, the ugly spectre of Koeman genuinely believing that Sandro would play well in, and add goals to, his system. Which doesn't say much for his tactical acumen.
See:
In terms of how we play attacking passes, we've played the 4th most crosses-per-throughball of any team in the league. That is not a team for Sandro to play well in. He was not bought for any reason other than the fact that he's young, is a good player, and was insanely cheap.
Note that I have no qualms with that as a general approach to general talent-hoarding (from a club's point of view, though it's a shame for the player) - but it does mean we can't draw any conclusions on Sandro's quality. There is, however, the ugly spectre of Koeman genuinely believing that Sandro would play well in, and add goals to, his system. Which doesn't say much for his tactical acumen.
MACCA75
Player Valuation: £70m
Just expecting him to pass to a blue shirt occasionally, or be able to run with a football and have it vaguely under control.
EnglishRoundabout
Player Valuation: £950k
Took the words right out of my mouth. The guy is totally and utterly bereft of confidence. So much so, he literally can't pass the ball a matter of yards to a blue shirt.
If you reflect on his first little cameo when he came on as a sub on his debut, he was full of energy, enthusiasm and tricks. You get the impression now, he doesn't want the ball. His touch is heavy and he appears to be at a total loss as to what he needs to do.
He needs a spell with the under 23's, a few goals there just might restore some of that missing belief.
FCBarça
Player Valuation: £15m
He is not a number 10
Lord Buckethead
Player Valuation: £35m
To be fair, he's not shown that much evidence of being a number 9 either.
ijjysmith
Calm
Hi mate. How's America?
In fairness, the pass he gave to Martina was fine.
Sandro dropped off, turned, moved the ball on and then sprinted to make a run to the near post.
Somehow, Martina managed to miscontrol a pass hit straight to him.
He's what a number 12 used to be before squad numbers
sharkey1001
Player Valuation: £10m
Err Kone scored something like 1 goal in 40 in La Liga for Sevilla
Err Kone scored exactly like 15 in 34 in La Liga for Levante.
sharkey1001
Player Valuation: £10m
I actually got the 1 in 40 for Sevilla correct though. How the hell did I remember/guess that correctly? Fair enough on the Levante stats, didn't realise he scored that many.
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