Positives- Workrate, showed cotmitment the who'll time on the pitch. Few good touches. Passing always being a strong point for him I don't remember to much going astray. Showed his capability in tight areas with his one touch instinct this is something the u21s of the last few seasons do very well, Greenwood and Gooch always team well with Honeyman and they've got a great knack of creating chances in tight crowded areas in and around the box. Glad he showed this on the pitch with a couple of close range cheeky 1-2s Negatives- Looked lost in the first half hour, brushed off the ball far too easy. His positional sense on and off the ball was my biggest concern. Always a bit behind play, off the ball meant his energy was always spent chasing play instead of being placed to press the ball/space. On the ball, also behind the pace of play, ment he was overlooked for passes which should have been on had he been better position. Verdict- Potentially a very good player. Any better than we have available now? No way, nowhere near. We need players back from injury and some brought in. Honeyman's only senior football has been semi pro with Gateshead. Needs to go out on loan, maybe league one as he doesn't look championship ready to me. Get him playing senior football more his level and playing regularly as his development is very much at risk due to the state of the current senior squad. Your Positives, Negatives and Summery?
Tried to be as balanced and objective as possible while remaining honest. Nothing from that which tells me Honeyman should be starting before any of our seniors except for maybe Januzaj cause he's a lazy ****. Roker report gave him a 7 rating There was nobody on that pitch anywhere near a 7 yesterday.
The main thing for me is that he wasn't crap, hell of a tough situation for a young player to deal with so I'm glad he did ok and showed promise.
My worry is could and probably would be developing rapidly playing week in week out at more his level. He's 22 now, he needs senior football every week.
He was very enthusiastic and put himself about. He looked very raw, though, and doesn't look ready for Premier league football, yet.
Good post Bri. Positives He's got desire and lots of energy and is technically sound. According to the stats he was our best midfield player yesterday. He stopped a dangerous breakaway by chasing back and taking out one of their players with a crucial tackle (got booked though). Negatives He is fairly small and lightweight in comparison to West Brom midfielders and lacks strength on the ball. He should have been loaned out to a league club by this stage of his development. Summary I thought he had a fairly solid debut in a team totally lacking in confidence. I don't think he looked out of place yesterday, he did have a nervy start but grew into the game. I would happily play him instead of Januzaj or Larsson. After 1 appearance he currently sits in 10th highest position for the squawka stats scoring system - and that's for the season so far!
I thought Honeyman did well considering it was his first start. It made me laugh when he tackled Rondon
Just for some context, he's only 2 months younger than Ndong, he isn't a kid anymore. Didn't see the game so can't comment on his performance but the fact he's only played 9 games at senior level for Gateshead suggests he won't be much more than a lower league player.
Yeah he'd have been better off playing in the lower leagues earlier on. Not sure we can expect too much.
Work rate was excellent. Lost the ball a few times, but won it straight back on a couple of occasions. I was impressed, overall, and if nothing else he is prepared to give it 100%. If that rubs off on some of the other twats in the starting XI that's as a good a reason for picking him as I can think of.
He'll need to bloom late to carve out an upper tier footballing career. We're not helping by restricting more loan time.
I just don't understand why his only senior football has been with Gateshead up the road. Surely he'd have been better going to L1/2 club when he was younger. Fact is that he's only ever played in the academy and u21/23's league against similar kids, he's probably about 3 years behind where he should be IMO.
Players get sent to their level mate. He went to Gateshead cause that's where he was at. He should have gone back out but Big Sam wanted all the u21s together and training with the first team, he's not the only one who's missed out on loan time recently. He's so physically weak on the ball I bet that's been the main issue with him. All lot of youth are like that. Bags of talent but physically inept.
