Juan Modesto aka Nino plays for Elche. A strikers striker. Aged forty so just about to hit his peak years. Worth a punt and bus pass.
Harry Pickering starting off in League 1 where he left off in League 2. The kid is going to be a star. He really should be the LB we sign. It’s so infuriating to know we won’t sign him. https://www.whoscored.com/Players/343002/Show/Harry-Pickering
On a more serious note, how is 0 goals and 0 assists and a 64% passing accuracy so far in his 3 games evidence of him "starting off in League 1 where he left off in League 2"? He seems to have the 4th highest overall player rating so far for a team towards the bottom of the table.
Mainly because he’s ahead of his teammates thinking. Get him around better players and you will see. For example, He avgs 2.3 key passes a game, more than anyone in our current squad. Even more than Sema. Defensively he is winning 69% of his ground duels. That’s massively high. In all duels he’s winning 58% Sema who currently plays as our LWB is winning 32% ground duals, 31% all duels. Basically he can’t defend. He gets fouled way more often than what he fouls. Defensively he stats are not too dissimilar from Ngakia. Ngakia beats him on interceptions and tackles per 90, but Pickering beats Ngakia on one on one ground duels and overall duels. Pickering is also fouled more than Ngakia and gives away less fouls than Ngakia. As stated earlier, he’s averaging 2.3 key passes a game, Ngakia is averaging 1. By no means am I saying he’s better than Ngakia, but the kid is 21 and already producing these numbers in League 1. In his first few games up from league 2, he’s showing that he can make the step up from league 2 to league 1. Can he do it in the championship? I definitely believe so. If he carries on, next summer, he will be on the lips of every championship club, plus a few bottom table Prem clubs. P.s I know quality of opposition makes a difference, I’m not discounting that. However, the kid is good enough for us.
It never works. I tried it for Gary Cahill all last summer and didn’t come to anything. Which is why I’ve switched my focus to defending Andre Gray all this summer.
State your terms. We are buying. FFS Cristiano get it done. That Kirk lad isn't too shabby either. The Alex are playing some great football.
Looking at the LB/LWB in the Prem. We really only have five to choose from; Brandon Williams at Utd (Highly doubtful) Rose at Spurs Lazaar at Newcastle Rahman Baba at Chelsea Douglas at Leeds Unless we go for highly rated unproven youngster like who might be a massive risk; Dennis Cirkin at Spurs Larouci at Liverpool Options really are limited in the Prem. When I look at the championship; Jay Dasilva at Bristol City Sam McCallum at Coventry (probably not good enough but highly rated) Yuri Ribeiro at Forest Ryan Manning at QPR Pedersen at Birmingham Richards at Reading (cheap, contract expiring according to transfermarkt) If we go league 1 It’s either; Alfie Doughty at Charlton Harry Pickering at Crewe Both would be good. My preference would be Pickering, obviously. Going to be very interesting, wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with Rose. He wanted to sign for us before. Would prefer Brandon Williams from Utd though, but don’t see that happening. However, before Rose, I would seriously take Pickering. Prem preference: Williams, realistically, Rose Champ preference: Manning, Dasilva, Richards League 1: Pickering
Not sure about that. We wanted him to sign for us but I think you’re reading too much into him coming over to the training ground on deadline day.
At least it displays that the club have held an interest in him not too long ago though so you’d think his name would at least be under consideration among others if we truly are looking at that position.
I don't know why you're always so insistent on using passing accuracy % as a barometer of how good a player is, it shows no context to how they play or how good they are. He could have 95% passing accuracy simply by turning round and passing it back to the goalkeeper, which by your standards would make him a better full-back than one that bombs up the pitch and attempts to play high risk/high reward passes into the penalty area. Which would you rather have in your team?
Full-backs don't get much more attacking and risk-taking than TAA, but even his passing accuracy tends to average at about 77%. Andy Robertson is about 84%. Ben Chilwell 78%. At Leeds last season their two bombing full-backs, Dallas and Ayling, were 79% and 80% respectively. Whichever way you may wish to cut it, 64% passing accuracy seems reasonable grounds for concern. One mitigating factor could be if the team sets up to defend deep and focus on long-balls on the counter, but it's not always the case that it should cut passing accuracy so severely. There'd also then be question marks as to whether players used to hoofing can adapt to higher levels where keeping the ball tends to be more essential. Pickering's passing accuracy even relative to his Crewe team-mates does seem a fair bit lower than the other players I mentioned earlier relative to theirs as well.
Maybe because it's 4 games in and therefore not much of a sample size? Looking at TAA and Pickerings stats last season (although Pickering played 400 more mins): Passes made (accuracy) TAA: 2499 (74.1%) Pickering: 2312 (77.9) Long Passes (accuracy) TAA: 481 (53.8%) Pickering: 381 (45.4%) Through Passes (accuracy) TAA: 95 (37.9%) Pickering: 55 (21.8%) Crosses (accuracy) TAA: 257 (30%) Pickering: 140 (35%) Passes to final 3rd (accuracy) TAA: 446 (59.4%) Pickering: 334 (60.2%) Passes to penalty area (accuracy) TAA: 306 (39.5%) Pickering: 188 (50%) Forward Passes (accuracy) TAA: 848 (64.3%) Pickering: 917 (66.7%) Backward passes (accuracy) TAA: 340 (92.9%) Pickering: 285 (96.5%) So pretty similar numbers in most regards, just long passing down on TAA (no real surprise there as TAA switches the ball a LOT and is crazily good at it) and through pass numbers not great, but other than that the percentages are really close.
haha, can't say I've ever seen him play so am firmly on the fence here - although I've seen a lot of pro Pickering propaganda from various sources on twitter who rate him very highly!
Doubtful, seen plenty of goals like that against Prem keepers over the years. Pickering’s overlapping run, then cut inside, followed by his control and finish with his weaker foot, is what we are crying out for on the left. That followed up with all the stats I provided you above, tells you that the kid has something about him. Stop resisting and join us.
His stats are very impressive and he seems to be repeating those numbers again this season in a higher league. I posted some of them above if you haven’t seen them yet. At 21, he’s trending in the right direction. If he continues, he will be the most sort out LB next summer for championship and bottom table Prem teams. I’m more than confident in the prediction. If I’m wrong I will eat humble pie, but Watford should be smart and get him now. P.s at least one of those accounts on Twitter is mine. Although I haven’t tweeted about him in a while.
Perhaps, but I was arguing against Marko's claim that: Pickering was "starting off in League 1 where he left off in League 2" - so all those League 2 stats aren't so relevant except demonstrating that so far his passing has been worse than it was last season. One might expect some things to become more difficult for players as they move up divisions and perhaps get less time on the ball etc.
