He provided no cover whatsoever in the 1st half when yiadom and azeez were tearing us apart down their right hand side.
I think we have to cut Styles some slack from a defensive point of view considering he hasn't played there all season, came on unexpectedly on 21 minutes and generally to me looked a real threat going forward.
He was excellent going forwards while playing in his proper position. Needs to rediscover his defensive discipline but if Cadden is absent he’s an easy pick there.
The funny thing is, when Styles had a run at lwb under Big Val, everyone was crying out for him to play in centre mid. Funny old game.
Were they? Not me, he was great at LWB under Val. Absolutely his natural position. A few rumours of PL clubs sniffing round, as I recall.
Wingback is his best position apart from odd game under struber he's never looked very good in center midfield imo. Sometimes I'd take the interest with a pinch of salt as its often agent's trying to drum up interest. And under val didn't we scrap the style because in the summer we had zero interest in any players.
His greatest defensive work was in that Forest game towards the end of the season when he chased down a forward who was clean through, robbed him with a brilliant tackle and then set up our injury time winner for Schmidt
Thought Styles looked decent going forward but was really weak defensively. Nothing will change my mind that he’s not exactly busting a gut in our cause and wants away in January.
For me he needs to move on. We have him on a long contract, but I don't feel his heart is in it, week in & out. Very little chance we'll get anywhere near the release clause. He is ineffective most of the time. I'd love him to be the star player in the team, but he's just not performed for us.
You may be right. The point I was making though was that Styles proved that he could make a difficult, clean tackle. What I recall of Saturday’s game though was that he stood off too much instead of getting stuck in. Maybe his mind is on his next move now though
The reading commentary team were saying he stood off too much as you say.. but really good going forward
I think we all know he’s not a natural defender and I’m sure he’s not interested in possibly injuring himself this month. He’s one of those players good at looking good while not actually contributing much. Well, not this season anyway
There's no way Styles was Interested in making any kind of tackle on Saturday (anywhere on the field)
