I think he's going to squeak in as my POTS. Feels like we only need one goal to win games and he covers his part of the pitch impeccably. A monster of a defender.
It is a very strange feeling to have an aerially-dominant centre back, who you can rely on to just gobble up long balls and win the vast majority of his battles. I can't remember the last time we had one; I don't really recall Prodl even being particularly amazing in the air, despite being 6'5'', so maybe someone like Martin Taylor?!? His positioning seems to be very, very good too.
Perhaps we should have a "Most Improved Player" award, as he would win that with flying colours, but Kiko just pips him IMO mainly because Kiko played more games than him over the whole season and was just as consistently good.
Vital we hand onto him in the close season. There are clubs sniffing about apparently who have been watching his performances. Will be in the Chilean Copa squad and might get more suitors after that. He still has enormous potential to get even better.
Would have to be an unrealistically high bid to get us to sell at this point I think (hope). He doesn't seem one to rock the boat, either. Might be a different story after a year in the Prem if he continues to impress. One thing is for sure assuming he stays... He's going to have a busy season!
I'm sure we'll keep him now, unless really big clubs come in for him and spend big big bucks which I don't think is likely. He was linked with some of the London PL clubs recently, I have to say he's done fantastically to stay on task and not be distracted
As I mentioned elsewhere, it’s amazing to consider he had played only 13 games in nearly three years since moving over to Europe from Chile. On arrival at ours, he featured for just 3 minutes in our opening 19 league matches. I don’t think I can ever remember anybody making such a big impression for us having arrived with such little recent playing experience and then hardly hitting the ground running either. The irony is it actually took the sacking of our very defensive minded Head Coach for our best defensive player to actually get noticed!
I have a feeling this season is the exception and not the norm, and he'll revert to being utter dog droppings next season. Hope I'm wrong like!
He bloody loves heading the ball and that's what a large chunk of the Championship is all about. He has been very impressive but the Premier League is still going to be a big step up for him. Makes far more sense to go into next season as our first choice centre back than chance his arm elsewhere.
Might sound a bit weird but if was dropped into a better PL team he’d probably carry on relative to where he left off with us, if we end up struggling then he’s going to end up with a lot more to do and potentially end up making more mistakes etc. I’ve no doubt he can make the step up, but a lot of that will come down to how well we strengthen elsewhere on the pitch, so he isn’t subjected to an unmanageable work load like our last PL defence.
He has been excellent. Both at defending, and with the ball at his feet. I haven't seen him tested against fast, top strikers, but if he passes that test then it's only a matter of time before the big clubs start knocking.
Without doubt the most improved player of the season along with Bachmann. Both need their contracts extended immediately. Would like another quality CB in with FS someone like Celtics Ajer who has run his course in Scotland. He's an absolute beast and would compliment each other I believe. If his 6m valuation is correct it would be an absolute steal for someone of 22 and over 200 competitive games under his belt Todibo is also available for around 9m euro it's not like we haven't looked at him before.
Ever the negative Even though I have to admit the thought has crossed my mind that he could possibly be a one season wonder, but nothing is suggesting that he will be and of course I am really hoping that will not be the case
I'm hearing he will be sold back to Udinese as a makeweight in our "£25m + player" re-purchase of Ignacio Pussetto.
His own goal at Cardiff was the only real mistake he made this season, and even that was pretty unavoidable. When you consider he's had to carry WTE the whole time as well, I think you can safely conclude that his potential is enormous. Very similar to Diego Godin in his pomp
Had he not scored his own goal at Cardiff, we’d probably still be stuck on that annoying stat of not winning an away match in which we’d fallen behind for three years or so
Certainly wasn't a howler, just a minor lapse (from him and Bachmann arguably) which just ended up having grave consequences
Reminds me a lot of Prodl, and not just for his hair, although he Looks like we were bang on with Dawson's form at West Ham being a flash in the pan, nothing to suggest Sierralta will fade away like that!
Joins Ben Brereton in the Chile squad. https://mobile.twitter.com/WD18Fans/status/1396890803860086790
To be filed along with Abdi, Vydra and Ighalo in the "How the **** were they not getting game time for Udinese" file.
Might be that he just matured this season tbf, he's still fairly young. Might also be that the Championship suits him down to the ground, I don't know how much of a premium there is on old-school English style ********* centre backs in Italy! (Would have been hard for Iggy, Abdi and Vydra to crack that Udinese team too!)
Goes to show how one world class striker is the difference between Udinese in Europe or battling relegation. Really hope they pick up again soon. Feels a bit like we've pushed them down since our first promotion. Loved watching them on Football Italia when Amoroso was up front.
Didn't play for Chile as they picked up a decent 1-1 draw in Argentina. De Paul did though, hopefully Franky Boy had a nice long chat with him...
