It’s Luca by a country mile. If he remains in the team, we will go down. He is lost for 60% of every game. His positional sense is woeful and the amount of times yesterday he is not showing for the ball slows everything down and makes other players look inefficient. I am really surprised more people have not picked up on it. I guess like the early days of Ben Watson when you get a fan club like that you just cruise through unnoticed. Any ball over 4 yards he either loses possession or can’t be controlled by our player. It’s more frustrating and damaging than 10 miisses by Benteke!

Edited by wisdom man (19 Nov 2017 10.50am)

Agree, looks a strongman in that clip but seems sheepish for us.

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Don’t see this at all, think he’s been pretty decent, one of the few who want to play forward. Opinions I suppose. Don’t think Roy wants to break up the partnership with him and Cabaye though. However I’d like to see RLC given a go through the middle with Yohan.

Totally agree. Thought he was our MOTM yesterday. What I like about him is he pushes up higher than Jedi when we have the ball, can intercept and recycle the ball when it's cleared and therefore keep up the pressure on the opposition. Maybe lacking a bit of confidence, as the whole team does, but don't understand how people can't see his class.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

Worth also pointing out that Wood, Murray and Abraham are able to lead the line physically - all of them are well over 6ft and strong, which makes them an entirely different type of threat to Gayle. To compare strikers purely on goals and assists in a lower division is pointless - if you're going to be a lone striker in the premier league, you need to be more than a decent goal scorer.

We all watched Gayle over quite a number of years, and matteo is grossly overstating his impact - a decent goal scorer who was entirely anonymous unless he was scoring - not even in the same bracket as Benteke.

Edited by EverybodyDannsNow (19 Nov 2017 1.31pm)

That’s my point that he actually doesn’t keep the pressure on the opponents. Watch him closely in the next two games, we never pick up a second ball from a corner or set piece clearance. He never plays a forward incisive ball like Cabaye’s for the goal. There were times yesterday when he made Ward look uninventive because when Ward gets the ball back from RLC down the right at least 50% of the time Luca isn’t showing to get the ball back.
As is proven in the premiership this season, possession is one thing but what you do with it is totally another.
We don’t move the ball quickly enough from that part of the pitch which was the reason for our early season lack of goals.
With Wilf and RLC back you now rely on their brilliance to make attacks which puts a lot of pressure on them which to be fair they recently have been fantastic.
It’s a team game and Luca’s part of the pitch needs to start more sparks.

Edited by wisdom man (19 Nov 2017 6.00pm)

Edited by wisdom man (19 Nov 2017 6.01pm)