Truly can't understand why your being so unforgiving on the lad, started v Huddersfield in the BSM trophy 8th October made the bench thereafter at Blackpool, came on as a sub v Shrewsbury, started v Doncaster BSM, Made the bench v Port Vale, bench v Rotherham, played 88 mins yesterday. Tell me how you expect an non match fit player to be starting over Connell or Phillips, a fit John Russell has had to wait for a run of games. In the early part of the thread you stated you were worried about the signing and spoke about runners going past him in his 2 "rare" appearences, seems like you'd also started forming an opinion early on that your still keen to defend
I’m not unforgiving of the lad. I just don’t buy that it takes players so long to get fit. In his cameos in the cups I didn’t think he looked fit enough but looked decent on the ball. It’s not just him. It’s across football. They’re professional athletes. I was a big fan of Herbie Kane when he was with us but I thought it was poor on his part when I heard Michael Duff say he was unfit when he joined them. It’s a view I have that professional footballers, especially experienced ones shouldn’t need months to get up to speed.
That's a very much one size fits all attitude, the games moved on from the days of just cracking the whip style coaching, neither of us are privy and if there were other factors whatsoever. As DC says he's a great lad and being working very hard https://x.com/BarnsleyFC/status/1857848457655910641?s=19
To be honest, he'd played barely any first team football in 4 months and had just been sent off for the U21s. He had been on loan to 340 clubs in his short career and it had all the hallmarks of a poor signing. Just because he's played well at the weekend doesn't now mean he's the Second Coming. He's still not in our best eleven (IMO) and has a lot of work to do to keep improving - fingers crossed he continues to do so.
Don't think anyone has said he is the 2nd coming just not to write him off yet. Looks like he can play abit and it will be January soon I'm sure clubs will be looking at luca connell and Phillips and the lad from spurs hasnt been very impressive so could get more games in the new year. lads on a 3 year deal so to write him off like some have is abit stupid.
Lad had a great game Saturday, starting to look up to speed. He's here for at least 3 years (unless poached), hopefully see plenty more games at that level of performance from him.
I think Clarkes gave him the same coaching and time as he has with Gent.Theres a wrong time and a right time to introduce a player to the fold and on both players Clarkes judgment seems spot on. Both players were classed as not good enough by some but behind the scenes both players were getting ready to make a positive impact for the team.
"Gave the ball away once from a really poor pass iirc" To his credit he then went and won the ball back immediately. As debuts go I thought he was excellent, a level above everything else on the pitch. Always looking to move the ball forward. Different range of passing. I was particularly impressed by the fact that he didn't keep reverting to that long cross field pass just because he'd been successful a couple of times, but only seemed to use it when it was on. A lot of players would have over used it given the first successes. Don't think the jury is out on his ability anymore, only thing we need to know now is his attitude, which was excellent in this match. He won't be playing at this level for long if he continues to perform like this.
Nwakali was, by some distance, above every other player on that pitch. Not just a bit, but levels above. We have a serious asset on our hands if we play our cards right with him. Clarke has, in my opinion, a very nice headache. How can Nwakali possibly be dropped back to the bench for the next game? He's just won a deserved POTM, then you have Russell who is playing his best football in a reds shirt, and Phillips who is just that....Phillips. I can see DKD being dropped to make way for Nwakali.
