Willian

[Laugh1ngMan 393]

Willian undeniably lacks a killer instinct, and he's not going to develop one anytime soon (unfortunately) even IF he is played through the centre. Having said this, however, I find it rather strange that you appear to think that there is no genuine potential for improvement in his attacking performances if he's played in his natural positions. If he's playing through the centre or on the left (being a right-footer) he will have more opportunity to take shots from good positions, more opportunity to play quick passes, more opportunity to dribble infield etc.. Basically, he can be more involved in the play than he currently tends to be whilst also being given the chance to play his game in a way that should come more naturally to him. No doubt he will continue to make (more than) his fair share of poor decisions when in the final third, but he will also be in positions to allow the good decisions/key actions he IS capable of making to pay off in a meaningful way much more frequently.

Look at De Bruyne's time with us; Mourinho insisted upon playing him out of position on the right, wasn't impressed by his performances there, benched him (pissing the player off), and then sold him. Now De Bruyne is playing in his natural CAM position at Wolfsburg and is putting in magnificent performances for them on a consistent basis. Willian will almost certainly NOT play as well as De Bruyne is currently doing at Wolfsburg in the no.10 role, but he could end up being an 'in-house' improvement over Oscar in that position for us; until he's given a run of games there, we can't know. It's ridiculous to pass judgment upon players who have rarely been given a chance to prove their full worth (or lack thereof) in their proper position(s).

Your claim that Willian isn't actually any good defensively really doesn't hold up either; defending is about far more than merely making tackles, particularly when the player in question is an attacking player. Whilst he may not be great at tackling, Willian is excellent at pressing from the front, tracking off-the-ball runs of opponents, and blocking passing lanes. He often does an enormous amount of defensive work for the team on the right side of the pitch, and the fact that it is still so vulnerable despite his efforts says far more about Ivanovic's current defensive inadequacies than it does about Willian's.

I'm not denying he would get some more opportunities in the middle but he won't take nearly enough, it's just not in his nature which should be pretty clear after almost 2 season of very little end product with us and in his previous seasons at shaktar. He seems to have the potential but it is not coming out and probably never will

KDB performs better on the right than in the centre for the national team and he didn't have the same opportunities as Willian. Also there would be no discussion that he would produce more than Willain even if he was playing on the right.

And i really feel Willian is overrated defensively, he has high work rate but that is about it. There are numerous times where i see him mess up by not tracking runs etc. (like for the Danny Rose goal in the Tottenham game). And his higher work rate doesn't seem to have any substantial impact in stopping opponents from terrorrizing that side. I don't blame him for that or anything since that shouldn't be his main duty, but it has to stop being an excuse for why he plays there since it's not working anyway and the problems lie with other players

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

I am done with this 30 million fraud of a player, how the f does he keep starting every week?? His absolute shit going forward we did not pay 32 million for an extra rightback ffs. Seriously he needs to go in the summer I cant stand another season of Willian. Dont tell me you cant balance defence and attack, look at Robben and Ribery good going forward and defending too.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,733]

I am done with this 30 million fraud of a player, how the f does he keep starting every week?? His absolute shit going forward we did not pay 32 million for an extra rightback ffs. Seriously he needs to go in the summer I cant stand another season of Willian. Dont tell me you cant balance defence and attack, look at Robben and Ribery good going forward and defending too.

Yes we did.

[LAB 1,030]

Cool as you like

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Good assist yesterday.

[bethos1 802]

He had a run of 3-4 good games, now he's back to the same old Willian. Atm this is by far my least favourite player, I'm no fan of Ramires as well but atleast he does something useful most of the times.

[Jase 43,479]

Thank god he made that early pass for Remy to score yesterday. Could have easily taken the ball to the byline and crossed it straight to a Hull player.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Thank god he made that early pass for Remy to score yesterday. Could have easily taken the ball to the byline and crossed it straight to a Hull player.

I was shocked he didn't do his trademark move lol

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

He had a run of 3-4 good games, now he's back to the same old Willian. Atm this is by far my least favourite player, I'm no fan of Ramires as well but atleast he does something useful most of the times.

"Atm this is by far my least favourite player, I'm no fan of Ramires as well but atleast he does something useful most of the times."

I'm with you mate. Antithesis of what exciting footballer should be about. Completely devoid of any excitement, this player. Mechanical man without even passion and character, Azpilicueta for example also is mechanical but has passion about him at least.

[DanishBlue 426]

Willian with a Nice assist! Our players are playing great for Brazil

[DanishBlue 426]

And another assist from a corner by Willian

[Jase 43,479]

Willian has assisted only 3 Premier League goals in 28 matches this season.

He has managed 2 in one game against France.

[Jase 43,479]

And another assist from a corner by Willian

AND HE ACTUALLY BEAT THE FIRST MAN WITH THE CORNER!! :rant:

[zolayes 14,489]

AND what does that suggest????

[nyikolajevics 2,420]

Willian has assisted only 3 Premier League goals in 28 matches this season.

He has managed 2 in one game against France.

Not only he assisted twice but also plays very well.

Mourinho kills his vibe.. He was such a good player at Shakhtar and he's still got it.

[Joker10 946]

AND what does that suggest????

Don't play a player that Likes to to cut in on his strong foot at a position where he can't do that.

[zolayes 14,489]

thanks that explains EVERYTHING .. why we play a RB at LB and a CB at RB .. in the old days Rt footers played on the right and Left footers played on the left .

It seemed to worked well

[WNDS 502]

How about that then? In a game in which Willian didn't have to play as auxiliary RB and defer to Ivan (or in this case Danilo) on every occasion, he was able to produce a great performance against a side of real quality. People can argue that Willian's problems in attack are 'nothing' to do with Mourinho's tactics/instructions and everything to do with the player's own deficiencies, but the way in which he has been playing (and producing) for Brazil under Dunga provides a strong argument to the contrary as the sample size begins to grow larger.