The championship should be easy for him, he can’t quite cut it at Leicester, but players like Kiko and Sema find the championship easy and they’re awful at PL level.
Excellent. I lumped him together with Cleverley and Kayembe, there aren't enough words in the English language for me to convey how sorry I am.
He does a great job defensively, but his offensive weaknesses need to be supplemented by having a more attack-minded midfielder next to him. Having Kayembe and Choudhury there really limits progression of the ball unless it is sideways and backwards.
I do wonder if playing Asprilla from the start ahead of Kayembe would have made a difference? I suppose it's easy to say now mind you, would we have lost something defensively by picking Asprilla again?
I do also understand the reluctance to play Asprilla every game, we don't want another Richarlison case where he's wiped out by March
What you have to say though is that he's really good at what he's good at, so we can be a bit more lenient with his faults, him together with Louza and JP/Asprilla should be a really good midfield at this level, whereas Kayembe isn't at that level
One thing I've noticed is that Choudhury, through no fault of his own, is often left exposed by either midfield partners or by advancing full-backs/wing-backs, he's often having to sprint full pelt to get back and make a big tackle, but to be fair to him, when he gets to his man he's been timing his tackles perfectly (end of the Brum game when he could have given away a penalty aside), it's just that he's not superhuman and can't always cover
Can't praise his performance today enough. Really turned up and played with some real grit and determination. Who said these players wouldn't understand the importance? Hamza certainly did and it shone through. A hard choice for MOTM today because there were some excellent showings from several players, but for me he just edges it. The rock on which the win was built.
Like Kayembe, he needs to follow this up. Both are capable, but we've seen the two of them go into their shell too often and we get overrun
And one booking was for preventing Stoke taking a quick free kick in the 90th minute or something stupid.
The most certain event of this season was that Choudhury was going to get a ban for excessive yellow cards. Maybe the second most obvious actually, after the fact that Cleverley, Cathcart and Kabasele would spend most of the season in the treatment room.
Sounds like Bilic thinks JP could play alongside Kayembe. Wouldn't be surprised if it's JP and Asprilla playing just ahead of Kayembe on Wednesday though. Nobody else in the midfield sniffs out danger like Choudhury so it's not going to be great whatever Bilic does to be honest.
I'd drop Joao alongside Kayembe for a one off game. Would imagine he'll probably put Gosling in there though
Yes, not a huge vote of confidence for Gaspar if he continues with Gosling at right back and drops JP into midfield.
Yeah it's an odd situation. Hard to drop Gosling as Gaspar isn't a guaranteed upgrade. I'd love to see what Joao would be like as a centre mid. He's a player you want to see as much of the ball as possible
If he gets told 'play defensive midfield' he'll just kick people to win the ball then spray it forwards like Beckenbauer.
Tbf, the way he plays, it was inevitable he'd get a ban sooner rather than later! Could probably do with the rest in fairness!
Asprilla in the #10 role? Agreed that Gosling at CM is more likely, although it's not a particularly promising sign that Gosling is still preferred to Gaspar
Is TDB fit? Played a cameo up at Blackpool, hasn't got on the pitch for the first team since, but did play for the U21s against QPR along with a few other first teamers, so I presume he's at least somewhat ready to play some part
I never consider TDB an option because he seems to be good for a 2 min cameo then be injured for two months. I don't even know what sort of player he is
