"A lot"
He played Rice anywhere except DM and went away, when he came back Pellegrini had already made him into a DM and had given him captaincy once or twice.
View attachment 342146
Red hot midfielder as soon as he left for a year, interesting development. Had he not continued to play him there when he returned it'd be hell.
Interesting ninja-edit for something you can very easily check too:
View attachment 342145
Had to win his spot from what, in those 16 minutes? To save you making up something, Snodgrass got a knock in that 6 minute game and they had no other right winger, turned out he's "ready". Snodgrass then got injured later during the bizarre season so they still had no other right winger.
I know you're David Moyes in disguise, but it's not a myth if it's provable and he's well known for it. He doesn't hate youth but unless you're somehow instantly "ready" (which only makes sense in his head), or a generational talent, you're not playing, yeah - 2 to 6 min a game until we face an injury crisis and we go "hold on, he's actually alright him".
We've had a lot of young players absolutely wasted as well, or just flat out never played. Maybe not all of those would've worked out, maybe most wouldn't, but if you don't give anyone a chance you won't get anything good out of it. Martinez had to bring in Stones and Barkley, Ross being a more egregious example of "1 mistake and you're out" with his loaning out for nothing for a month and the stuff that came out around it after he was gone. Anyone with eyes could see Rodwell had talent too, for example, but he played about 10 minutes in his first 2 seasons and it would've been less if there wasn't Europe (credit to Moyes for that before you go insane) so he can play against BATE Borisov and the likes. Cautious to a T.
Yeah, he's known for nurturing talent and giving youth a chance, definitely.
He still leads the tables for least minutes given to players U21 and is well renowned for missing such obscure talents that have gone on to win the actual World Cup.
We currently have a left back that hasn't/will not play because of being overly cautious while the one that plays offers nothing anyway (and he played our best CB there too); Armstrong had to be sent on loan, because he wasn't gonna be given a chance here, and brought back when we got into a crisis; Gueye instantly back in the team and in midfield, despite the last few games being good with the younger players; favourites and experience over youth again, as it always has been and always will be. Similar how Armstrong is higher up in the pecking order than Dibling so he had to play winger for no reason. Branthwaite at LB because he's left footed instead of a young LB too. The classics.
Moyes is a very good manager in the long run but we don't have to pretend he can walk on water - he's got his shortcomings and that's fine, they were well known and documented at this point, as he's been in the league for over 2 decades.
All of that said, George will likely play as we have
no other right winger currently and he's available
.