The reinvention of Ayoze Perez

The lad has come on leaps and bounds thanks to Rafa.

 

He has a ton of confidence atm. The goal was great but the flick on to Ritchie was even better.

 

He was a bit up and down last season, but it was obvious he was class from the moment he came here, that back heal against West Brom in his first season was just sexual.

 

Picked up the baton In place of Kennedy getting doubled-up on brilliantly.
I'll say it once, I'll say it again, you don't score goals like he has for us without having immense talent. Confidence is everything with this lad and he's covered in the **** right now.

 

Always liked Perez. Intelligent player with quick feet. Just need to bulk him up by about 10kg in the close season so he has a bit more presence up front.

 

Done really well of late. Most fans wanted him out a while back. The thing I like is his energy. He keeps us on the front foot in terms of winning the ball back. He closes down well. He is definitely suited to the way we play, particularly since we made the tactical changes in January.

 

I absolutely did, I was screaming for him to be dropped! Then it clicked around Xmas, he defended so well from the front it made a lot more sense. Rafa gets massive credit on this one.

 

As soon as Rafa sorted out what was going wrong at home, Perez and Shelvey became much better players. They were being badly affected by our lack of a co-ordinated approach. Once we got set patterns of play in place, those two stepped up. Diame picked up too, but his growth is about more than just tactics. Although it was nonsense playing him as a No.10 as we did previously, the Lascelles incident seemed to have a massive impact on his workrate. I know getting physical is frowned upon. Sometimes though, blokes do respond to someone calling them out, and then sorting it out the old fashioned way. Happens a lot in rugby training.

The sprinkle of a good keeper, a great left sided player has clearly helped too - Rafa and those above deserve credit for that. So double credit to Rafa for tactical change and delivering the right players to the squad. He pinpointed the exact areas what he needed, and they delivered his top choices. It is easy to say "well we all knew we needed a keeper, a winger and a striker". We did but Rafa was not distracted from that pursuit. How many times have we got to a window and every Arsenal fan has known they need a holding midfielder and centre half, only for Wenger to buy another 5ft 2in attacking midfielder?

I'd imagine Perez could progress again alongside Slimani. Saying that, Gayle has taken a bit of stick, but I thought he did well on Sunday to be honest. He got into some great areas and the equaliser came from him laying the ball wide. I mean he couldn't hit a barn door from 5 yards but...

 

22lbs in two months... Tha **** you lot eating up there?

 

Needs loved. Not hated

 

I'm starting to believe he really is as stupid as he sounds tbh.

 

Rooney used to do it every Summer.

 

Which bit was stupid? All I've done is praise Rafa. I can't believe you are turning on Rafa. Its fans like you who don't help the team.

 

Lots of fish. We have an endless supply from Pouchy!

 

3 goals in his last 3 games worth 7 points on their own shows he has the ability. Pretty much got us a quarter of the seasons target on his own recently.

Howay Ayo