No, no, no. Willock was vital to our run last season, when he stopped scoring, Howe transitioned him into a hard working midfielder. Willock needs to be in our first team, rather than Uncle Fester playing wonderful 60 yard passes off the field.
Willock is a hard working midfielder, but he doesn't offer much than just that, hard work. He can't score for ****, he can't create anything. At least Shelvey can pass a ball. The good thing about getting Shelvey back is he can play where Bruno is now, and allow Bruno to get himself forward. Which is what happened last season during our better run, and Bruno scored 5 crucial goals. Bruno is good at CDM, but i think he's wasted in that position, especially when we're clearly lacking creativity in those areas.
His two yard passes behind him or his 60 yard passes that 99% of the time either go out of play or finds an opposition player
I disagree, I think he can distribute the ball well and I think he adds more to our game sometimes than Willock. One of willocks promising signs was his ability to get into scoring positions and grab goals, but this season his finishing has been absolutely disgraceful. He's had better chances than anyone and missed sitters. If Willock isn't scoring, then he's kind of just an engine and that's i. Shelvey can at least allow Bruno to go forward, and distribute the ball well enough to make him often more effective than willock
Like we were crying out for a RW in the Summer, so were we crying out for a real defensive midfielder (Rodri type). For me, I think Bruno is wasted there and I think we should be trying to fashion whatever we can out of Longstaff in that area. Against the lesser teams where we can control possession, then I think we bring Shelvey in. But Bruno should stay as an '8' to get forward and pick passes. The more I look at this forum and the discussions, the more I wonder wtf Howe is doing. Burn over Botman? Wasting Bruno at CDM? Relying on bad players just to stick to a formation, instead of evolving the system to suit the squad?
I know you can't rely purely on stats, but I found this interesting article on our attacking effectiveness: ASM has touched the ball in the opposition box 26 times so far this season. He's scored one, created two and was also fouled for the free kick that Trippier scored v Man City. Joelinton and Willock have both touched the ball in the box more times (27 and 29 respecitvely) yet have one assist between the two of them. Almiron has touched the ball an astonishing 46 times in the opposition box and scored once with zero assists. He has more touches than any other player outside of the 'big 6'. So basically Joelinton, Willock and Almiron have less contribution to the team than ASM despite having had the ball 102 times compared to ASM's 26! That's mental. What's worse is I'd bet good money you'd find these stats for Almiron repeatedly over the course of his time here. Yet we're still expecting him to suddenly change. I'm not sure we've ever had a player with worse decision making than Miggy. Desperately need to upgrade.
Those stats are designed to big up ASM - the other 2 assist were in the City game as well, so apart from that and the Wolves goal he hasnt been involved in anything. And let's not bring Joelinton and Willock into this, as they're midfielders and have a different role, plus both contributed far more than ASM last season. Almirion needs support to get his confidence back, and I can't help thinking the world wouldn't be so harsh on him right now if everyone wasn't analysing him as a result of that Grealish twat. That said though, he isn't the future of the club, and I see him going after this season, and probably being phased out by a Jan transfer.
