- Mar 18, 2005
- 34,495
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I don't agree that he is lazy. It's a tag a lot of playmakers often get left with.He has several red flags:
1. Extremely injury prone
2. He is quite lazy and coasts through games. Doesn't fit the mould of super high pressing and hard working player.
3. His open play creativity isn't actually standout. A significant chunk of his xA comes from set pieces which creates this illusion that he's super creative. His open play goal creating actions (gca) is 0.36 (69th percentile), shot creating actions (sca) 2.76 (62nd percentile) compared to:
De Bruyne sca 4.27 (99th percentile), gca 0.84 (99th percentile)
Odegaard sca 3.66 (99th percentile), gca 0.43 (97th percentile)
4. His early and middle build up play isn't amazing and he isn't significantly press resistant.
For the money he would cost, we should look elsewhere especially as I really don't think he suits Ange's pressing and hard working system.
For those saying he will go to Newcastle, I'm not sure they will go for him. They are prioritising a move for Szoboszlai in that position instead and he's a far superior player.
He really stepped up this season.