It’s just odd. It’s like he does all the right stuff, then when he’s advanced he gets all ‘Pellegrino’ and the other players sense that too.
Indeed I think plenty of his actual weaknesses are among the most likely to improve with experience in general, so they're not massively concerning. Just think his ceiling hasn't looked much higher than 'decent'. Glad I'm not completely crazy.
Completely agree and was going to write something similar. The usual adage about Youth players, is that they play without fear, but I swear Valery seemed like he was almost physically shaking against Man Utd. He has improved a lot since then, but you can still see the lack of confidence. It’s frustrating because he has the skill and turn of pace to get forward, but seems reluctant to put crosses in, even if it’s just to an area.
I agree too but I understand the decision, if we think this medium Dane guy is going to happen. It was the right time for Cedric to go (I guess we had given the green light for a while). Ultimately we don't know yet if Valery will be good, go supernova or never develop. For now I don't think our plan is to try and get all our attacking through Valery and Targett, but if it is that's not gonna work.
I think a lot of you are watching Valery with your eyes closed, and I'm willing to bet time will prove me right. You could pick any relatively inexperienced player and focus on his shortcomings; I see enormous potential, although I agree he is raw. He was up against Zaha last night and acquitted himself well; it's hardly a major negative that it was his defensive responsibilities that pre-occupied him. Plenty of people were predicting that Zaha would tie him in knots, that didn't happen (though he could have got tighter for the goal, maybe. Maybe). I guess we'll see.
It was an excellent tackle. Bednarek sold himself horribly (out of character for him), and Valery did fantastic to cover. But I don't see many people suggesting that the issues are with Valery defensively.
There's a real difference between RB and RWB, and JWP's goal is a good indicator there. It's not just the crossing; Valery has to learn to be an outright attacker when the ball is on the other flank, because there are few things more lethal than a wingback (or fullback in general, but it's less risky as a WB) who arrives late in the box, because absolutely no one is paying attention to them. I like his future, but he has a long way to go in this specific role.
He's a right back. Yet people are focussing on his supposed shortcomings at the other end of the pitch (I'm not really seeing that anyway). If Michael Obafemi gets a run of games, will be judged primarily on his defending?
I agree JWP was excellent in that position. But by the time he moved there, we were chasing the game, and Palace were content to sit deep, so you can't really compare his performance to Valery's.
JWP still lacks attributes for the position as well, namely his ability to commit forward and then recover back. Valery's got the right attributes, but he's miles away from having the mindset or tactical understanding; I like his chances to get there, but he's not a good starter at the position right now.
Well unless he plays he won't get better, so I have to disagree with your last sentence. I don't know what his mindset is (except to say he looks like a ferocious competitor), but his tactical awareness will improve with game time. FB or WB are extremely demanding and specialist positions, I have no problem with a young man who excels at one aspect of the role while developing in another. Arguably he is the opposite of Matty Targett in terms of what be offers.
It’s because he’s being asked to play RWB not RB. He and Targett are a big part of our attacking play, and attacking is almost as important as defending as a WB. The lads got potential, but has a lot to learn as you would expect from a youngster just coming into the team, and to be fair to him WBs not an easy role to play. Not having a go at the lad as I like him as I think the vast majoroty do.
That they're very demanding positions is part of the issue here, absolutely. I have no problem with developing him in that role, but that doesn't mean that it's rational to have just one player for the position, particularly given that he has only played the full 90 in four of his nine starts.
If we continue to play a midfield three consisting of three of PEH, JWP, Romeu and Lemina (I'm absolutely not criticising that btw; it's by some distance our strongest area of the pitch - but none of them are, say, Eriksen or Coutinho), I'd argue that attacking from our WBs is even more important than defending. But both, ultimately, are very important. Hence why I was attracted by the likes of Moses and Antonio - and why I was fine with letting Can't-Cross-Cedric go - even though they're hardly the best of the best when it comes to defending.
All I would say about Valery is he is only 18yo for goodness sake and played half a dozen or so matchs. It’s a bit quick to write him off as useless Keeps abusing Targett and McCarthy and leave the lad alone
Ffs, state of this. Nobody is abusing him, just saying that as of right now he isn’t at the level needed in an attacking sense to play one of the most important positions in Hassenhuttls system
I very much hope you're right mate! And I don't find it an impossible notion. As I was saying, or trying to anyway, when I kicked off this conversation - I don't think his shortcomings are anything particularly troublesome and not trying to focus on them (though I somewhat agree with what others are saying that the current system if anything lays the focus on them itself, not his fault though), he's done a fine job for his first outings. I just haven't seen that 'enormous potential' bit yet and was curious how alone I was. If anything I was hoping I'd be roundly told I'm a fool and he's destined for great things. I'll happily take the former if we get to see the latter!
I'm sort of 50/50 with Valery. I actually think he looks very sound defensively, and for his age playing in the PL that is a huge achievement. Going forward though he looks nervous/confused/not very good/rabbit in headlights and for a modern day fullback attacking is just as important as defending especially if we are talking about him becoming a really top one. That should hopefully improve in time with games and experience but I can't call that as of now as I really haven't seen anything that makes me think he will become good at the attacking side of the game. So right now I am going to sit on the fence and say I have no idea how good he will become
Agree with this. I guess the point is that no-one ever finds out how good he will become if we keep him in u-23’s for too long. Need to keep testing these sort of players at the highest level that they’re not incompetent at, and hope that lessons are learned, and the potential gets fully unlocked over time to give us an even better player.
