Player Watch: Victor Wanyama

[yusrisafri]

Never thought I'd say this, but dier is no longer guaranteed a starting berth.

Last season, no one was more important than dier. Undroppable. Now he needs to fight for thay place. Wanyama has been superb

 

[Shadydan]

Recruitment policy top notch once again.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

Never thought I'd say this, but dier is no longer guaranteed a starting berth.

Last season, no one was more important than dier. Undroppable. Now he needs to fight for thay place. Wanyama has been superb

Alderweireld. Dembélé. Kane.

 

[Shadydan]

Recruitment policy top notch once again.

And just to add to this, you can bet your life that if we had signed Zaha his levels would have increased rapidly and he'd be back in the England reckoning in no time.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Oh drat!
I now fear that in our next game, he's going to score an own goal, break one of our players leg in an over enthusiastic race to clear the ball first and then get sent off after a fight with Lamela on who will be the taker of the next penalty that's awarded to us.

I'm pretty sure you're describing an actual Kyle Walker game from about 2 years ago there.

 

[RichieS]

Alderweireld. Dembélé. Kane.

Our entire system revolved around Dier last season.

 

[Shadydan]

Think everyone had/has an important role to play, saying that our team was totally dependant on one player is totally wide off the mark.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Think everyone had/has an important role to play, saying that our team was totally dependant on one player is totally wide off the mark.

and totally against Poch's coaching ethos

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

Our entire system revolved around Dier last season.

He was less important than Toby, Dembele and Kane. I'm quite surprised someone would say otherwise, especially in the case of the two Belgians.

 

[Spurrific]

Jeeeeeez I think you deserve to be falcon punched in the nutsack for that one personally.

Would you like to give administering said Falcon Punch a go? I am primed for a dust up if you are up for it

 

[Flashspur]

It's a fair cop, I deserve it. Wanyama has been superb.

Didn't want Wanyama because I feared he was either being signed as back up (A remit I thought someone like Lesniak might be able to fill) or to be played in the type of double pivoting tractors in treacle with Dier we saw in the first few games, when I wanted us to move forward with a more progressive footballing CM alongside a holder in Poch's rigidly adhered to 4231.

To many the ideas of breaking the Dier/Dembele pairing was utter sacrilege. And for that reason the idea of Wanyama just didn't inspire me, because I wanted it broken but with a more progressive, ambitious and footballing option, not another robust automaton with risk aversion wired in as standard.

From his first game though he's impressed me, and to be fair to me, from the first game I've said he did and that I think he'd be the player I'd keep in, as his qualities would allow us to play a more progressive "footballing type" with him.

Lesniak... WTF

 

[edson]

 

[DJS]

Would you like to give administering said Falcon Punch a go? I am primed for a dust up if you are up for it

 

[yido_number1]

Wasn't sure about Wanyama when we first signed him, but kept quiet to watch him properly first. At Soton I thought he looked a bit fat and technically poor. Been really positively surprised with how athletic and mobile he is for a big guy. His distribution is simple but generally decent and so far he's been a great signing.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

This guy is an absolute monster

 

[HildoSpur]

He has been absolutely superb so far - much better than I realised he was tbh. Turns out these so called football scouts might actually be onto something.

 

[Pimp_Spur]

He was a beast last night ......tackles, interceptions, simple passes, broke up play and was in the right place in the second half when we under pressure.......mom for me last night

 

[dagraham]

You know a player is doing well when they go down injured, the camera pans away and and you panic, desperately thinking "please, please get up".

Like Toby, Kane and even Ali to an extent, Wanyama is becoming important right now.

 

[Kiedis]

Immense season thus far.

 

[bubble07]

Our player of the season so far