Then how can you really judge?(not having a go btw)) I watch a hell of alot of La Liga and have to say he is a great player. Yes he is not world class(atm) mainly due to him being inconsistent. Most of this is due to his personal life. If for around $10m we buy him and Pochettino manages to sort out his personal problems he will be a major upgrade on what we have. Even Banega as he is now is a upgrade on what we have.
Oh I believe he will be a step up. He is better than Gaston without a doubt. I'm just not sure about strengthening in the centre of midfield yet again when I feel we have players that could yet shine if given time. JWP and Gaston are the two examples I'm thinking of, who will still keep getting better and better. Surely signing Banega will hamper their chance of first team football. I suppose I'm just not thinking ambitiously enough.
But every time this season that he played out wide he was even less effective than he was in the centre. In fact probably the only game that Gaston has justified his price tag was the Villa game where he played (if memory serves) at number 10. I'm a big believer that players should play in their natural position. Look at the Ox at arsenal, there is no way they are getting the best out of him forcing him to play out wide.
Sorry, i hate that too, i was just using it as a turn of phrase. You could also read it as "Played well enough to justify a spot in the starting 11"
I don't think that's right. I think there were plenty of occasions where he was poor in the centre too. I don't think he did enough last season to hold down that AMC position, but if Pochettino reckons he can still fit Gaston into the side then I'm all for it. I believe his game is pretty similar wherever he plays in that 3 behind the striker.
He did quite well on the right a couple of times, looked dangerous cutting inside on his left foot. I'm expecting better from him in general next season though.
I'm not sure that Banega will be better than Gaston. But this is in large part due to me thinking Gaston will take a big step up this year. Just a hunch. I do think Banega's being overhyped when people are calling him world class and stuff like that. And it's not like I just want to pee on everyone's parade or that I think Banega stinks. I just hate the thing where people get all excited and say Player X is the best in the world when they sign, and then Player X plays a bad game and everyone else immediately trashes him "I thought he was supposed to be World Class!" But it happens every time, inevitably. It's human nature. I should just let it go. I like Banega at the rumored price. If he gets some consistency it's an absolute heist, and if he remains like he was at Valencia it's still not bad. I also think Rodriguez improved a lot last year, and it wasn't just because he was put in the middle. He got better at playing the outside forward as well. I think a lot of it had to do with MP coming in and playing the high line and shoring up the defense. Early in the year I think Rodriguez was forced to track back too much, almost playing more like a wide midfielder than an Henri-esque striker. It wasn't playing wide that bothered him so much as having to play defense and play deep. I think he likes to run behind the line or at get the ball in a position where he's running right at the defender. Not bringing the ball up. I feel like Lambert on the outside was a bit of a waste. He really played that position more like a withdrawn forward only oddly, on one side of the pitch. He was playing diagonal balls and through balls from there, which was effective but weird. He didn't do a lot of crossing or cutting inside. I think it might be interesting if instead of switching with Rodriguez next year, Lambert switches with Ramirez/Banega. It seemed to me like Ramirez often made some nice, clever runs forward but then there was no AMC to pass it to him. If Lambert drops back to that slot, he'll find him.
I get the impression that everyone expects us to play the same 11 players each week! We won't specially they way MP likes to play the game and we need plenty of top quality players to rotate in midfield
Competition is always a great way to enhance performance provided the off field management keeps everyone happy. Another midfielder of any persuasion is therefore not a bad thing. I would also add that we were very, very lucky with injuries last year.
Only serious injury that damaged us was Cork being out for a month at the start of the season. I wouldn't say we we're terribly unlucky, just the usual knock here and there.
