The NBC Sports Channel is gearing up for the start of the Prem season as it takes over US rights for coverage. This evening they showed a program on the Prem clubs - a weekly magazine type show. One of the spots featured Neil Taylor, where they asked him a series of questions in 90 seconds. One of them was: "who is the most skillful player in the club". To which he paused for a moment then said "Wayne Routledge". Surprised? Another question was: "who is the most under rated". To which he replied without hesitation, "Leon Britton".
Not too surprised, does seem to have the touch and plenty of tricks. Got competition in Pozuelo now though. I feel Routledge's flaw is the length of time he takes making up his mind whether he's going to beat his man, pass or shoot. In the first leg against Malmo, in the last quarter of the game, we were playing lovely one and two touch football when Routledge received it on the edge of the box. De Guzman had made an excellently timed run into the box and was standing virtually on the penalty spot in as much space as it is possible to get in the box.....he needed to slide it in to De Guzman and he would have scored, a simple quick 5-10 yard pass....he feinted, he feinted again, and again, knocked it to the side of the defender who was near him and shot miles over the bar.... Laudrup went mental on the bench (anyone else see this on TV replays?), Laudrup gestured that he just needed to move it quick....which is what I shout when he's faffing on the ball increasingly, "BLOODY USE IT!" ...but then as Norway always says, for the money we have spent these players are going to have flaws....and Routledge's positive attributes far outweigh the negative.
It would be interesting to have a camera on ML the whole game then be able to split screen that view with the game on the field. He must be boiling with frustration at points during the game.
Routs has the tricks but I agree with Terrorwit, the guy takes ages to decide what he's going to do. Also he tends to run up the left until he comes across the fullback, stop, turn, feint and generally lose the ball. He keeps running into cul-de-sacs but being Right footed I suppose it's more likely to happen out wide on the left. Not to be all negative he can play but if he just laid the ball off quicker and stopped getting turned by the fullback he could become a VERY good player.
routledge is a fantastic player that we are lucky to have and will shine again this season again, leon is a legend and like all legends they finally start to lose their cutting edge and its no surprise that leon is losing his. Its not a concern anymore as we have enough midfielders anyway...
