Hi everyone, I don't see much live premier league these days (only the highlights on MOTD), but I was wondering how Leroy Fer is doing at Norwich and the BPL. In Holland there is a discussion going on if he is the one that should replace Kevin Strootman (Got badly injured at AS Roma) as our box-to-box player. Do you guys think he is up to it? Could it work with Nigel de Jong and Sneijder? I remember him to be a talented young player, but you never know how they develop when they go abroad.
In a generally poor season for us, he arguably has been one of our better players. He is clearly a talented player, and at 24 still has potential. However, in my opinion, he is still finding his feet in the Premier League, and has 'gone missing' a few times during games. Furthermore, Roma are my 'second team' and I can say this much: he is not as good as Strootman (I'd say he probably has about 66-75% of Strootman's ability, and he is nowhere near as consistent). I agree though, they are both similar players, and I could see Fer as suitable backup for Strootman in the national side in the coming years.
He's better with better players around him, when he can play box to box picking up the ball and driving forward with players ahead of him, we've struggled with injuries in midfield this season which has lead to him being used in several positions where he is less effective such as as an attacking mid or at one point on the left. Generally I think he was excellent when we had the players to compliment him in the middle however side then they were injured and now they're back Fer himself is out. I would hope that he is one of the players our team will be built around in the next couple of years. If he does go to Brazil Van Gaal will need to make sure he's used properly or he could get a bit lost. He will however work incredibly hard in what ever position he's asked to play.
I see, maybe we could still have him as a good squad player. Strootman wasn't a player we could miss in Brasil, so we are going to have to settle for less. No matter what. Nigel de Jong is probably going to do some extra dirty work when Van Gaal is going for a little more creativity. I hope not! Leroy Fer, De Guzman or (when fit) Van Ginkel.
Forgive my pedantry here Thurnby, but it can be argued that if he had not scored any of his league goals, we would have got the same amount of points from the games he scored in. EDIT: poorly worded, but I think you get the gist of what I mean.
We are extremely lucky to have a Holland international in our side, let`s hope RVW improves dramatically..
