Think someone slipped a shot of Vodka in his water - there was a 5 minute spell where he thought he was Ronaldinho and it was great to watch. Looked a bit hungover second half.
I did say I thought many had written him off too early, but I’ve said that about other players too who I wrote off too late.
It was mental. When he pulled off that slick little nutmeg in the centre circle, I think I laughed like a little girl for about 3 minutes. It was glorious, even if he passed it straight to their central defender after. I’ve never seen a player become so randomly inspired and up their game so many levels, with no rhyme or reason.
For about 20 epic first half minutes, yeah. Back to being a dud either side of that though and frankly didn't show up at all in the second half.
That's a stretch! You're talking about a long and unchallenged ball forward, two passes and half the pitch removed from the goal itself, which if it came to almost anyone other than Pedro was pretty much unplayable and would have resulted in safe Boro possession. Not many members of our squad can control a ball on their chest in the air while on the turn. Lucky Joao can.
You're right, on closer inspection his 60 yard inch perfect pick out of Joao's run that left their centre half scrambling had absolutely nothing to do with the goal itself
While it was an outstanding take from JP, it was still a very very good pass. Even if JP didn't back himself to bring it down first time, it was probably good enough to run onto.
I'm happy to concede I was harsh on him and he did in fact turn up for approximately 4 seconds in the second half by showing some good vision to set us off on the move that lead to the winner. Top work Edo!
I'm not going to pretend Kayembe is going to be a top class player, but I think used correctly he will be an excellent player for us. I don't think he's a natural holding midfielder, and I think he's had to hold back a lot of facets of his game to do a job for the side. He wasn't perfect last night, but those deft touches and his pirouette weren't some total fluke. He played his best football in Belgium as an advanced midfielder, and I reckon with Louza returning next month he'll have license to get forward like that more
He's been used as a defensive shield for much of his time here and he's been...OK, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but his best moments last night were when he was trying to drive forward a la Doucoure (who, lest we forget was a great box to box midfielder, but not good as a #10 for us in the relegation season!)
Maybe that disallowed goal against QPR has given him some confidence he previously lacked. He looked like an asset last night.
If you just made a highlights video of all the good things he does he look unbelievable. Wins the ball well, can anticipate interceptions quite effectively and when he's feeling confident can glide past people and look pretty classy. Unfortunately he still makes several basic errors per game but he's one of the more enjoyable things of this season so far for me.
I ******* hate watching him play. Every game it's the same 'he's going to play the simple ball into space, oh no he's checked back, he'll knock it into someone else now, nope he's turned again, now he's running around the ball to get it on his left foot, oh great he's passed it back to the centre back again'. Although having said that, at least we keep the ball that way. Today we had a rare break on with Asprilla demanding the ball in space on the left ahead of Kayembe who ignored him for ages then blasted it straight to their keeper from inside his own half. Happy days.
It's almost hard to believe how shyt he is at this level - obviously he was shyt a level above, but to seemingly be no better whatsoever playing against teams recently in League One with an annual budget of £50 and a Nandos black card is quite the feat. And, of course, as ever, we bought him halfway through a historically disastrous season in the Premier League, with the supposed aim of helping us survive. Words like 'risible', 'comedic', and 'laughable' just don't do the situation anywhere near justice at this point.
Hold on. I’ve been clearly told Kayembe is a “beast” at this level and not a transfer purely to lubricate Bayat? Where are these cowards now?
I genuinely think we’ll look back on that mad 10 minute spell a few games ago when he suddenly became prime Moussa Dembele, wriggling through challenges and striding into space that simply didn’t exist before he was able to bamboozle the opposition with a nifty turn and nutmeg, as probably the most bizarre thing that happened in this car crash of a season. Which is saying something. He’s absolute shyte.
Brain moves far, far too slow. Unbelievable someone thought he was what was needed in a dogfight. It’s even more baffling because it hurts Gino’s pockets not recruiting properly?? Weird!
It's abundantly clear he's just being used incorrectly. Namely, by coaches who keep putting him in the team.
He should be fifth or sixth choice. Hopefully with Louza and TDB now fit he'll be seeing a lot more of the bench.