5 games in, what do you all make of Iago Aspas? I had high hopes for him going in to the season, but he's been very subdued thus far. Without going too cliché, he does look a bit lightweight. You can see effort is right in his play, he always looks for the clever little flicks but hasn't really been able to have any influence on a game so far. Too early to judge any newcomer or just not good enough?
Where was he playing against Soton - as the number 10 or on the wing? I can forgive him for his poor display against Swansea because he was in the middle and it's not his best position.
He was anonymous, but he seemed to switch back and forth with Sturridge between up front and on the right.
far from the hustling ball hunting forward I was lead to believe he was, give him time of course but don't look anything special to me tbh.
it is and it's not. It is quite patently obvious he is not that good. there's no point in making out he'll ever bee all that. However i think there's a huge scope to improve form what i'd call "totally out of his depth" to a contributing squad player. He will only ever be a contributing squad player and not a first team choice if we are going in the right direction but right now the english game is blowing him away. I'd suggest he concentrates on just a few key simple things to get into the games before his confidence is shot completely. he needs to get out in front of defenders, take the ball in and draw fouls or get set pieces for us. if he plays go wide right and act like a player who can defend that sort of stuff. i'd hoped he'd try to be a kuy figure but where he's playing under rodgers puts him squarely in a suarez role and he's just plain anonymous
Looks like the new Borini at the moment unfortunately. Way off the pace of the English game. Isn't doing the simple things well enough....must improve or he'll sink like a stone.
He will get more time to prove himself but I said when we signed him he was not good enough and I still think that.
I wasn't convinced in pre-season but that was more because they were friendly games and we've seen the likes of Voronin and Pacheco look like world beaters in these games! However, there is a difference between those games and now, he was playing upfront and occasionally went on the right whereas he's now he's being asked to be the no.10
re above... i worte KUY figure. In case anyon thought that meant key, no i mean a kuyt like figure. someone to work hard and make a suprisingly high contribution given their limitations. Assaidi mark 2 aint a bad call.... right now i would be that harsh. bornin mark ii is probably not harsh enough given that borini on occasion actually contributed something. Right now he's somewhere between.... oh i dunno... antonio nunez and assaidi for me... Do the simple things IMO, get out of that no 10 slot and get wide right and run the channel v small full backs and just get some free kicks even. anything bar have the ball come right back after its played to you.... and by right back i mean in the opposition's possession.
Some of his movement and his first touch is good, for me he is simply not strong enough or used to the faster pace of the game, he'll get better in time.
I think Aspas is slightly better than Sean Dundee, the worst player I have seen pull on a LFC shirt. I would love to be proved wrong, but suspect Aspas will be "loaned out" in the Summer if not in January.
Aspas and Alberto were a combined £15million. That's money we simply don't have to gamble. Chelsea can afford to do that at a whim but not us. And besides, it's gutting that we could have got Eriksen instead but for some reason didn't fancy it
Are people seriously writing Aspas and Alberto off already? I guess that makes them Kuyt and Lucas mkII
For God's sake! "We could have got himm - or him - or even him!!!!" Will you give over? For one reason or another we didn't and neither you nor I will ever know exactly why that was. So let's be positive about those players we do have and work with them to make them the best that they can possibly be! Childish carping is not going to get us anywhere!.
It's a valid point though Dave. Had we gone for Eriksen early in the summer we'd have had a good chance of getting him. Instead we figured spending £15 mill on two average players was wiser. I don't understand the logic. As with the purchases of Allen and Borini last season (a waste of £26 bloody million) I just don't see what value they are adding to the squad relative to the prices we are paying. It might seem harsh but it's a brutal business and as a club we don't seem to learn...you simply can't polish a turd.
It's a difficult situation where we want to show patience but don't have the time to give it if we are to challenge for trophies. We have to let players bed in and support them as best we can, from what I've seen both Alberto and Aspas are good players and a lot better than some of the crap we've had in recent years have faith fellas and back our lads.
Crazy ain't it? Five games have been played and people are slagging them both off already. Give them both a chance FFS.
Way too early to judge.. Downing, played in Premiership all his life, yet was ****e for us! These lad's have just moved to a new country, way of life, team, league and we expect to be world beaters in minutes? Apart from his goal, I bet Bale will take a while to get up to speed at RM. Alberto is for the long term and if Aspas gets a decent amount of games, I expect/would like to see him improve towards Feb/March.
