₦airaland Forum

TheGoodJoe:
If you do not take Pele serious on Brendan Rodgers role in making Suarez a better player, take it from Suarez himself.


"Such a big part of my education is down to him and his management," he is quoted as saying by talkSPORT. "Of course he works to make the team stronger but he really works on a one-to-one level with the players.


"He will sit down with each player at the club, and work on where you can improve, where you can exploit opposition, he leaves nothing to chance. He is a very intelligent man. If the players at his next club listen to his words, they will become better players for sure."

The bolded highlights my expectation for Nacho and Ndidi. They need to pay attention and listen to the coaching genius.

For goodness sake every single coach does that, what is the achievement there

TheGoodJoe:
“There were offers from everywhere. Bayern were interested, all these clubs. But I came to Liverpool, I saw the facilities, I took some time out of my vacation to visit Melwood and speak with Brendan Rodgers,” Divock Origi said before signing for Liverpool.

“When I came in, everyone knew my name, they knew who I was and they were looking at a video of me even from the under-15s. They knew about my qualities and when I saw the values of the club – passing, pressing, fast players – I was like, ‘This is the place I want to go.'”

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/12/12/divock-origis-comments-about-brendan-rodgers-man-management-styl/


Only a genius can pay so much attention to details like Rodgers. His tactical understanding of tactics, movement and training is way above most top quality coaches. He is actually my second best coach after Guardiola.

I really really do not get the relevance of what you just posted. So other coaches do not watch players before they buy them? Then this shows that you have not met a proper scout ever in your life. I know a scout for Rayo and when this guy starts to monitor a particular player, he watches even his games from two-three years ago just to know even the redundant areas of his game that can be refined before he then presents it to the coach and a conclusion will be drawn. Before Origi came to Liverpool which other games had he played that could be watched if not the U15 games? Of course the scout did his work and Rogers was briefed about it, I don't understand how that is an achievement

TheGoodJoe:
Rodgers is a genius. Witb breath taking ideas and a deep understanding of the game. I have talked a lot about him and feel he is genuinely underrated.

He had a talented group of players at Liverpool but had a lot of work in making them click. A lot of people make that mistake. Having a good group of players is not a guarantee of good results but getting the best of them.

Leicester City is not a club that will go out splashing cash for quality players in every position. So Rodgers has a lot of work in getting the best from what he has.

So that was why he got embarrassed out of the champions league immediately Suarez left? Dude, Rogers is at best a tad above average, at best oh. Rafa Benitez for example is twice the coach Rogers will ever be. Forget long talk

TheGoodJoe:
I doubt. Rodgers already said the potential of the team is one of the reasons he took the job. There is a very huge potential in Nacho and I doubt getting rid of such potential suits his narrative.

jihday:
I hope so too, but Gana Gueye have been playing exactly the same role at Everton for almost 5 seasons now and he's still stuck there, nobody is even looking to buy him. those type of players are too good for the relegation threatened teams and not good enough for Championship chasing teams so they are always stuck with average teams

Absolutely precise

Meliforme:
So you believe that even with a good drilling and practise, he can't develop into a fine ball distributor? There is always room for any player to improve, brother. You know he was once a defender. Ndidi is meek and will learn.

There are things you can't learn in three years, no matter the drills. Finishing can be improved upon, tackling can be improved but bro, finding that pass is not something you can learn in a long time. If not everybody will develop the skills and start splitting defences. It is not something he can learn.

Icon4s:
They say Chukwueze is so good that he doesn't need to participate in the WYC. Ok o.

But me I just know that boy is not at the stage they are placing him.

He has just started playing professional Football and so he is still at the developmental stage. An U20 WC would have helped his development.

But if Rohr so wishes he plays in the AFCON instead, where he will spend most of the time on the bench, well, who am I?

We will trust in the coach's decision at the end of the day. But I personally believe every good player should go to the U20 WC when they are below 20. I mean that is the career push right there. Then like you aptly pointed out, he is definitely nowhere near where most of the guy's are placing him. Sha him na new toy now, it is normal for Nigerians. Hopefully he doesn't go the way of old toys sometime soon and keeps on working hard to actually come good eventually. Villarreal definitely won't get relegated so I would have wanted him to stay, hopefully the deal his agents ate holding out for won't be to Turkey or even to a worse league like Portugal.

Odunayaw:
Works for goose

doesn't work for gander


wonders!

OK this is ridiculously funny

tbaba1234:
Samuel Chukwueze is not struggling.

He has easily been one of Villarreal better players this season. His sitting on the bench had nothing to do with form but with the dire situation, the team finds itself..

The coach has decided that he needs the experienced players to dig them out. That means less opportunities for youngsters.

Chukwueze has already overachieved this season. We need to be patient.

How has he overachieved? How many goals and assists this season?

Curtisaxel7:
Fanatics na dem full here I swear. Once they decide to fall in love with a player, they will do anything for him. They don't mind dodging the truth, telling blatant lies and half-truths, cooking up nonexistent stats and running down another player for his sake.

No matter how bad his game is, nobody dares utter a word in criticism.

We saw it with Iheanacho, now it's Chukwueze's turn.

Never belonged to the hype train but in Chukwueze's case I think he at least deserves a break. At that age players almost always have consistency issues, granted he is no Robben or Messi or anything but don't say he has flopped because of a few games. It is his first professional season, let us see what he brings to the table next season then we can decide. As at this season just get used to fluctuating returns, although it seems this coach has no patience and/or confidence in him as I believe that he should have trusted him a little bit more but the real analysis should start next season.

My main problem is with people that think that because of him players like VicMo and Simon Moses should be dropped from the Afcon squad, that kind talk sha is very annoying

Earthquake2:
Puel is trying to turn him into a ball distributor but all to no avail

It is just not in his skillset. I thought I was the ibly that noticed this, Puel has been playing him further up the pitch to improve these things but it has just not clicked. The sooner we come to terms with the fact that he is a poor man's Kante the better for us all.

edi287:
Puel mostly plays "negative football" against the big sides and let's be honest - the results justify it most of the time.
We've had Vardy complain that they don't play as direct as before but he has adjusted. What excuse do we have for a talent like Nacho then?
We were all calling him "alien kid" here and now we're saying he needs the a world class midfield to thrive?
It's either his allround game was overrated from the start or he isn't capable of adapting to change.
We've been through the position issue and Leicester have played him as an out and out striker and a support striker so that's not an excuse anymore.

Cc theGoodJoe. My thoughts summed up in one comment

TheGoodJoe:
Rory Delap.

Exactly. Thanks

TheGoodJoe:
Thanks for that. As you can see, he ain't looking for Silva and De Bruyne kind.

He didn't spend loads of money like you said. He didn't spend at all, he used what he had. I do not like his style of play at all and I am not defending it at all, but put Mikel in the same role as Besic and then place someone like Silva or even Mata ahead of Mikel and he will get more than 100passes even if the coach is Pulis. Midfielders getting a high number of passes per 90minutes is down to their midfield partners, if they are ball players better for you.

TheGoodJoe:
Why not give Vardy the ten minutes and give Nacho the twenty, let Nacho lead the line and let me see if Vardy will dominate more.

Simple, if Nacho missed those chances, you would have criticised him but now you are here trying to defend another for something you would have criticised Nacho negatively.

Is that not bias? No matter the excuse. By the way, Nacho's clinical stats is on record.

Brother, Iheanacho played for 22 minutes against Tottenham, I am not sure what your point is then.

Barnes is not a striker, I will definitely criticise a striker for missing easy chances like that more than I would a midfielder. Besides I did criticise him for those misses, or do you expect me to be writing it all over the thread? Is he a Nigerian? What then is my business with him? While watching the game I severely criticised him and when I argued about it with Basco I still pointed that Barnes was the reason why Leicester didn't at least get a draw. But at the end of the day he did his job perfectly as a LM and we can excuse him as he is not a striker. If Iheanaho misses those chances as a striker then that is different boss.

So where are the stats to back it up??

TheGoodJoe:
Pulis spent loads at Stoke. Not Manchester City money but money to land good players. If I remember right, Arnautovic and Bojan played for him at Stoke. I did not see him play a possession based attacking system then.

Bojan and Arnautovic played under Mark Hughes. Pulis was already gone then. Pulis played with Crouch and that long throw guy, name starts with D and then Shawcross.

TheGoodJoe:
I said Mikel can play above that performance. What you are writing there agrees with me. Writing Silva and De Bruyne means a coach aligning his philosophy in a possessive offensive way. Which Puel is not. So he is not going out looking for players like David Silva and De Bruyne.

Finito.

Na so, he will pick up such quality players from Middlesbrough's academy abi? No be if you get money you go buy those players?

TheGoodJoe:
If Nacho missed those clear chances, you would have criticised him all over the thread. That is a fact. I did not say if Suarez or any one. I said Iheanacho.

You might pretend but you know it. Barnes was atrocious.

Barnes and Madison did not play for ten minutes. I have said it before. Play multiple games in an offensive system. I will want Nacho judged in that. Not ten minutes or less in a game. That is biased criticism.

If he missed the chances at least we will have something to talk about. We will then start saying that his sharpness will return with game time. Even if I were to criticise him for missing those chances it would be because I want to laugh at you all who said he is the most clinical striker in modern day football, but at the back of my mind I would knwo that it is at least an improvement, he is getting into those goalscoring chances and he will start scoring. This one he did absolutely nothing for over 20minutes and not 10minutes.

And finally you don't need 100minutes to get into a good goalscoring opositon, you just need a few seconds as was demonstrated by Vardy after he came on as well.

TheGoodJoe:
Puel is not that type of coach to set his team up that way. When Guardiola was at Barca B, his team still setup to play fluid possessive attacking football. You are making it look like if Pulis will over night want his players playing that way.

I just pointed out that Mikel is still playing below his capability. You can blame the players, but the system is also guilty.

I am just glad Mikel is doing well there but I am pointing out that he can perform way better.

If you have ever played as a midfielder with guys who do not want the ball at their feet but ahead of them you will understand. Who was he supposed to be exchanging passes with? Besic who kept on running around then he will drop the ball at Mikel's feet and then run around some more? Or Saville? Who was naturally uncomfortable at SM? Put De Bruyne and Silva into that team, Pulis may still favour his conservative approach but with these two players who want the ball played to their feet, Mikel will get over 100 passes

TheGoodJoe:
He was awful. If Nacho played that way, you would have been criticising him all over the thread.

I said Nacho did not have enough time to draw the criticism you are aiming at him. It was about ten minutes or below and the game was almost wrapped.

Barnes played the whole game and was atrocious in front of goal.

Finito.

He was atrocious in front of goal no doubt at all, but his performance as LMF(removing the missed chances) was absolutely brilliant, or at least decent. Have you ever seen me saying Iheanacho has only scored one goal? Those are not even the things that matter to me excessively, Suarez misses open nets like every other Sunday, my problem is how well you lead the line, how well you get into goalscoring opportunities or how well you create them for others. Iheanacho doesn't get into goalscoring opportunities, does not create for others and does not score, how is that down to the system while other players (strikers and even midfielders like Madison and Barnes) are getting into goalscoring opportunities.

TheGoodJoe:
Vardy is leading the line, he is supposed to get more chances. No one got more chances than Vardy in those minutes he was on. If Nacho came in before Vardy and he led the line, he would have gotten those chances too.

You can not expect Nacho to do more than he did in that game. He worked hard. However, I want to see Nacho, play in an offensive system for at least five games before judging. Not coming in for ten minutes or less and expecting Messi. The criticism does not hold.

By the way, Barnes was terrible in that match.

Barnes was not exactly terrible. He missed chances I know but he put in a good defensive shift to cover for Tielemans. However that is just me finding the positives here but even that his performance I would take it over that of Iheanacho.

By the way wasn't Gray the one leading the line when Barnes got that brilliant opportunity to score? So once it is Iheanacho he must be leading the line before we can judge him? The same layere we have said is the next best AMF and SS in our team??

TheGoodJoe:
Newport and Blackburn is not Manchester City. Mikel had a good game but the system of Pulis will not let Mikel perform close to his capability. 63 touches and below 60 attempted passes is too low for a midfielder who was making more passes than Paul Scholes and Xabi Alonso.

Players are pulling 100 passes and above in games for us to flip for below 60. Good for Mikel but it is way below his capability. This is due to Pulis system.

Does Middleborough have the same quality of players that Man City has? If you watch that game you'd know that the other three players in that midfield four on the day are carpenters, nothing more. How do you expect them to be forming passing triangles with Mikel? Make Pulis the manager of City and give him the same quality players and Mikel will be making 100 passes for him every weekend.

TheGoodJoe:
Leicester City created chances but Nacho was not on the field for most of the game. So why are you using that to judge Nacho. At the time Nacho came on to the best of my knowledge the game was already dead with Jamie Vardy still leading the line.

Ah? Iheanacho came on when the game was still finely poised at 2-1, Leicester were hammering away at Tottenham's defence. Iheanacho came on to form a double strike force with Vardy while Perreria was allowed total freedom on the right flank to keep on whipping in crosses. They created chances, enough chances after Iheanacho came on, then Son scored in added time and the game was gone

TheGoodJoe:
I do not need the highlights. I remember the game. However, Gray started as a forward. The idea was good and the system was okay. However, Vardy was dropped and Puel opted for Gray.

I was okay with it, but not blown away. If Leicester City plays that way consistently with Nacho playing upfront and the chances coming, I can understand.

But Heck, we had the chances coming to people who wasted the chances.

Nacho was there for some feww minutes, it is impossible to use those few minutes to grade his performance.

OK thank God you agree that the performance was brilliant at least, unlike Basco.

Now to the point, Vardy played barely 10mins more than Iheanacho and still got three good chances, granted he missed two(minus the penalty), coming on around 70minutes with 20minutes to go is not a few minutes, it is enough to grade your performance. If Iheanacho had made decent runs in that game he would have gotten decent chances to score. Someone once told me that being a striker is not just about how clinical you are, that's how many goals you score compared to your xG, but it also depends on the magnitude of your xG which shows that your movement is top notch. (xG means expected goals which is the number of good chances you get per game). Iheanacho did not have a single xG in a game where his team created close to 7 chances after he came on, as a striker that means your positioning is off, totally off

TheGoodJoe:
63 touches is decent but far below Mikel's capability. Mikel should be hitting at least 90 passes and above. I doubt he made up to 50. Good he is doing well but the system is not close to bringing the best of Mikel.

Even in a possessive team like Wolves, if you meet a better team like Man City then Reuben Nerves who occupies a similar role to Mikel will definitely not touch the ball more than 70times if he will even get up to half of that. In that game yesterday Blackburn were the favourites, David Prutron in fact predicted a 2-0 win for Blackburn, when they were reduced to 10men they turned up the steamer and played out their hearts, how was Mikel supposed to get 100 touches Refer to their game against Newport County and tell me how many touches Mikel had.

Pulis is otherwise a conservative manager, but since Mikel made his debut I think his team have been favouring a more possessive brand of football. I have watched two of their games so I know

TheGoodJoe:
I remember watching the game. That was the game Vardy came as a sub and Nacho came in later. One of the recent games. The game he left out Ndidi and later Mendy injured and Ndidi started.

Thank you very much. So I reckon no point posting the highlights right? OK tell me that in that game Leicester did not create enough chances? Heck, they created more chances than ManU did against Tottenham the only problem is that they were not clinical. Iheanacho came on and never for once got into a goalscoring opportunity, he was always out on the edge of the box doing what I totally did not know, at some point Perreria who was creating everything down the right totally started ignoring Iheanacho and I doubt he touched the ball more than 5 times. Forget the system, that was a totally horrific display, and considering that that was in all honesty one of his better performances I think we should stop blaming the system or his teammates or the coach

TheGoodJoe:
I did not remember the game you are talking about, if I watched it. However, I have repeatedly watched Nacho at Leicester City and I have seen the negativity the game style brings to Nacho.

I pointed this out before he even joined the team. So what is happening now is not new to me.

Play Nacho in an offensive side that creates multiple chances. Not telling me of Nacho taking up positions in a game.

How many good chances do they create in a game. Even Leicester City fans have been critical of Puel's system.

No need to go far. Look at the performances of Manchester United players under Solskjaer and Mourinho. You will see a large gap in their plays.

Look at Pogba then and now. Tell me you do not see the effect in their game.

Again, 63 touches is way below Mikel's capability.

The game I am talking about is the recent 3-1 loss. Chances were created for people who got into the right positions, who made the right runs. Even Ndidi of all people actually got a nice chance in the first half from which the penalty was awarded because instead of pulling the trigger after a combo with that Barnes guy(or whatever his name is from the U23) he passed to Madison I believe who was then fouled. A system that creates chances even for the DMF is not a bad system. I will post the highlights right away then I expect your opinion afterwards.

TheGoodJoe:
Your start is so off. Vardy suits the long ball system. Nacho did not grow or play such system so expecting the same result from two different kinds of players is not true.

Against Tottenham Leicester absolutely did not play a single long ball. All their chances came from brilliant combinations. I will get a YouTube video of the highlights from that game then I will post it.

elyte89:
@ boss TheGoodJoe....react to dis concise "phrase" by sir Mickeal2

TheGoodJoe:
I already explained earlier that it is easier for Defensive midfielders to succeed in a negative system but it is detrimental to forwards. A good example is the Kudos going the way of Ndidi. Mikel might be doing well at Middlesbrough but he is not still operating close to his potential.

Mikel was at one time holding the best record in the EPL with respect of passing. In the game against Blackburn, Mikel had 63 touches. The current EPL passing record is at 181 by Fernandinho and Jorginho.

Mikel can do way better in a more possessive system. Just like Nacho will do far better than a negative system of Leicester City.

Let me first of all . How very very predictable. Let's now get to the point.

I hope you watched Leicester outplay Tottenham? Vardy came into the game and got three chances to score, you keep on telling us that Iheanacho has the movement but the right pass is never there but he came onto that pitch and not for once did I see him make any meaningful movement to take up a nice position, in a game that was boased totally by Leicester in the last 30-20 mins Ihanacho did not get into a goalscoring opportunity even once. That movement talk was totally inexistent, and the worst part is that that was literally one of his best games this season. I would like to know your opinion on that match if you watched it. If you didn't I will send you a link then afterwards I want your unbiased opinion.

Then what makes you think Mikel would have been better in a more possessive system? First of all you will ask which position did Mikel play in that game and then you will see that 63 touches is absolutely decent. Having watched the game he was more of a CMF pushing into the AMF role frequently, you do not expect him to touch the ball the same number of times someone like....Besic touched the ball, this guys had the time to interchange passes with the defenders and the GK. Again if you actually watched that match then you'd know that Mikel was totally maximised in that CMF role.

tbaba1234:
What do you want him to do? To be sad and frowning.

Dancing does not mean, he is not trying to improve.

The things some of us pinpoint are really shocking. I mean dancing in the locker room is now a bad thing? So if the team wins but you didn't have a good performance you will start crying in the dressing room? That's totally wrong.

Curtisaxel7:
I wonder oh. The truth is always painful but we must say it. What did I say there that is a lie?. Has Iheanacho lived up to his hype or not?. Is his buccal cavity always hanging agape or not? . Is he a perennial misfit at his club or not?. Have his fanboys here blamed the tactics and formation and approach of his coaches for his miserable plight or not?.

If the answer to all these questions is "yes", what then is my crime?.

I do not think you should be attacking his physical features, saying his mouth is always open is not criticism, I mean he didn't create himself did he? That is definitely below the belt and should be condemned. Let us to try to stay within football and his performances on the pitch.

However everything else you said is sadly true.