Player 1:
xG+xA - 0.35
Passes/90 - 60.3
Pass Completion - 86.6%
Progressive Passes/90 - 5.84
Key Passes/90 - 1.19
Shot Creating Actions/90 - 2.97
Tackles/90 - 3.30
Pressures/90 - 24.5
Progressive Carries/90 - 8.00
Player 2:
xG+xA - 0.34
Passes/90: 50.8
Pass Completion - 84.3%
Progressive Passes/90 - 4.40
Key Passes/90 - 1.22
Shot Creating Actions/90 - 3.16
Tackles/90 - 2.18
Pressures/90 - 21.1
Progressive Carries/90 - 5.49
Can you name the two players?
Keita and Bellingham.
Got it in 1! Nice work.
I cheated, saw it earlier.
I rate Keita, thought he was great this season. So happy Bellingham is posting similar numbers.
Naby lad playing well when nobody loves him anymore.
I think there are a couple of us still around here that are big fans of him
Yeah, I’m just joking a little bit.
I’m at peace with him.
He’ll never be what I thought he would be, but then I won’t be blind not to see that he actually plays pretty well the vast majority of games when he’s fit and ready.
Midtjylland away and Real away aside, he’s also someone who doesn’t need a lot of games to get going, he could be out for a few weeks/months and bang, he puts in a good performance.
Naby lad is a very useful player. He won’t be the next gerrard but he’ll still be very good for quite a lot of games.
Unless he gets an injury I would expect Salah to play most games considering his usual numbers and he won’t be going to WC so gets a nice break in the middle of the season.
Naby is great but there is no harm in adding a bit more dynamism into the midfield which is what we lack imo.
I saw someone (maybe Sweeting) make the comparison to Carrick and Anderson for Utd and I think there is something valuable to those comparisons.
Utd changed their approach and even identity with Ronaldo and Rooney and with that the requirements of the other players changed. Carrick was part of that evolution, but it took the Utd fans several years to understand that. They demanded replacements in kind for Scholes and Keane and judged Carrick negatively for not being that despite not being required to be.
Anderson was a bit different, but had the same issue of taking several year for the fans to come around and appreciate him. His issue was he came in with an expectation of being a creative force, but at Utd for whatever reason he wasn’t able to do that and it took him a few years to settle into a very effective midfield workhorse. Utd fans didn’t really know how to judge him because he was never really doing what they expected him to be and many seemed to miss that amongst that confusion he was putting in a series of really effective performances.
I feel Naby is suffering a bit from both of those situations. He isn’t the all action creative destroyer we thought he’d be, a Guinean young Gerrard. I think that’s partly an evolution of the side and partly him having to learn to figure out his role in that evolving side, and it means he can put in a great performance and many people miss it because it isnt representative of RedBull Naby. I think that is relevant to whomever else in midfield we go and get.
Isn’t that basically our Lucas?
Yeah, to a significant degree.
Gini fall’s into that bracket too?
A goal scoring attacking midfielder, that was put to use in a system in which he became a key cog, but not a fancy cog, and a lot of us just couldn’t warm to him.
No.
Anderson contributed to a team that won things. Some of us conned ourselves that Lucas was effective.
He was a real tryer, and seemed to be a lovely guy. But he epitomised an era where we on a different level to now.
He would never have been Anderson at Utd.
Nah that’s bullshit. Anderson had about as much influence on their winning things as Lucas did on our winning things.
He made what, 24 league appearances in his first season and never crossed 18 again subsequently.
Not to derail the thread, only want to say this, to this day Gini’s contributions and thankless duties are/were criminally under appreciated.
You made the original comparison, the description of Anderson being a summary of how Lucas was for us.
Then when your comparison is countered your only argument is to call that counter “bullshit”.
You can do better than that.
Lucas was subject of much debate on TIA, with fanboys such as Stav, Budski snd Zaguero offering fascinating insights into how “good” he was. Whiteboard analysis, decoy runs, the Newcastle pass… all used in a vain attempt to tell people he was brilliant.
He wasn’t
He was a decent player in doldrum years, but he wouldn’t feature now. Even the sacred cow Cardiffpete wrote reams sbout him, at one point comparing him to the great Clodoaldo. He wasn’t remotely like Clodoaldo by the way.
Anderson won things as a squad player at Utd, and the descriptor of him here probably flattered him a bit.
But describing Lucas in the same manner is the real bullshit.
He really wasnt that good.
What I was specifically calling bullshit was the idea that “Anderson contributed to a team that won things”, which I then refuted.
You quite clearly have a grudge against him, which I won’t be bothering with correcting. Here are @Limiescouse’s points about Anderson again, and see why I made the comparison to Lucas.
Also, for that matter, the statement you made of:
also works to basically most of the players in our club’s history.
No one’s saying he’s a legend, he just had a similar story to Anderson.
I think I’m in the wrong place.