Scratchy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:48 pm
He is though. He's started this season well and I hope he can keep it up, but he's very limited technically. It's been evident even when he was in excellent form in previous seasons. In physicality and the mental side of the game he is top notch, which more or less makes up for his technical deficiencies.
But to CNR's point above, what you define as physical others could define as technical.
Winning a header isn't just physical.
Arriving in the box at the right time isn't physical.
We also see polarisation of aspects of players games based on stats. Downes and Lanzini = good passers because their completion % is high, but Soucek, Bowen etc aren't because they hover around the late 70s.
I've seen Lanzini complete four 1 2s in a row around the edge of the 18 yard box with the ball ending up going five yards backwards. 100% completion, 0% threat.
Downes and Rice played pat-a-cake with the ball plenty of times in the last match. Some of that is fine, but too much kills the flow.
We all know Soucek's limitations like we know Lanzini's and Rice's. We'll learn Downes' in a few more games.
The question is how those limitations can be compensated elsewhere to reduce their impact or how the other strengths those players bring compensate for deficiencies elsewhere.
We need to get away from binary comparisons of players and think more about the overall balance of the team.