🇧🇷 Willian

[meetdoscar 335]

Willian and hazard aren't too different for me except willian probably plays to his capacity and hazard is more proficient on goal but likes to dribble too much. Willian is a certain type of premoulded player with a certain kind of style and that's difficult to change, however his balance of dribbling and passing is really good which makes him a good option as a number 10. Hazard on the other hand doesn't have that balance, hazard is more of a dribbler that can also make great passes to create a chance but not frequent shot or long range passes like oscar, willian or fabregas can do to control midfield tempo, in other words hazard is not a distributor of passes which makes him understrength as midfielder in the No. 10 role but his drbbling makes him a winger in addition to his great passes which make him a playmaker from the wings, a bit like ronaldinho for barca. But for me oscar is our best option because he brings the best stability unfortunately he doesn't have the strength and energy of hazard or willian despite having more stability at no. 10 nor the vision of cesc despite being a better presser, runner and dribbler than cesc.

If costa scores regularly regardless of who supplies the final ball be it matic,luis, fabregas, oscar, hazard, willian or costa himself then all our Attacking midfielders will look very good and that is what I hope for rather than blaming one particular player or the other because it is a team sport and we defend poorly as team we will suffer regardless of who plays no. 5 or 6 like wise if we attack poorly as a team we will also suffer regardless of who is no. 10 and that is why mourinho went into the market to fix the team with fabregas, luis, and costa to give a different dimension to the team making it more proficient. Torres though stands out as an individual that restricts our lack of proficiency proven far before the arrival of oscar, willian or hazard, I hope costa is able to make himself available for passes and also finishes clinically our attacks unlike torres. There is more than enough creative players in the team.

[Barbara 15,149]

But I never called him dumb and I separated football brains from general brains.

I said he's a shallow thinker when I finally found the words. He doesn't think the whole thing it seems, but either way, he's very talented, but could catalyze his potential and results if he had a better end product. Whether is because he doesn't think enough, doesn't think at all or is football dumb we don't know, but fact remains his end product is precarious compared to talent.

@Shakez, Oscar is average smart imo. In Portuguese he's much more articulated and he could try a career after he retires either as a pundit or as a manager (despite being only 23 in a month) because he actually has nice ideas and talks in a very clear way. He isn't dumb at all and again I didn't call Willian dumb, I said he can't articulate things and repeat the same basic things over and over.

And I honestly don't get why you were so defensive. So it's okay to say a guy can't score, can't dribble, but it's not okay to say he can't think things through affecting his end product or that his interviews are an accumulation of nothing? Double standard much or what?

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

His work rate is something very few wingers can match. He's a hard working team player and I am glad we have him.

[Roquila 1,335]

I prefer Schurrle more than Willian to be honest.

[Shakez 755]

But I never called him dumb and I separated football brains from general brains.

I said he's a shallow thinker when I finally found the words. He doesn't think the whole thing it seems, but either way, he's very talented, but could catalyze his potential and results if he had a better end product. Whether is because he doesn't think enough, doesn't think at all or is football dumb we don't know, but fact remains his end product is precarious compared to talent.

@Shakez, Oscar is average smart imo. In Portuguese he's much more articulated and he could try a career after he retires either as a pundit or as a manager (despite being only 23 in a month) because he actually has nice ideas and talks in a very clear way. He isn't dumb at all and again I didn't call Willian dumb, I said he can't articulate things and repeat the same basic things over and over.

And I honestly don't get why you were so defensive. So it's okay to say a guy can't score, can't dribble, but it's not okay to say he can't think things through affecting his end product or that his interviews are an accumulation of nothing? Double standard much or what?

It's ok to say those things, but the part where you said we shouldn't expect much because of certain "things" rubs me in the wrong way. Im not expecting him to be overly clinical in front of goal, he lacks the killer instinct of A Schürrle/Costa. But he makes that up in other departments, (actual scoring is the only thing he must improve imo). Also what was said before by other members is that our AM's will look better now that we have a proper striker to convert those chances into actual goals. Willian is only behind Hazard in chances created with 65. To put it in perspective Oscar only has 48 and Schürrle 29.

With Hazard, Costa, Oscar, and Fabregas in the lineup our goalscoring ability should be more then adequate. Sorry, that i came across a bit too agressive but im pretty excited for the upcoming season and im quite certain Willian will improve alot now that he has a full season under his belt.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

His an average attackin player who was overpriced due to him being Brazilian. That is not to say he does not have his strengths,

[Barbara 15,149]

It's ok to say those things, but the part where you said we shouldn't expect much because of certain "things" rubs me in the wrong way. Im not expecting him to be overly clinical in front of goal, he lacks the killer instinct of A Schürrle/Costa. But he makes that up in other departments, (actual scoring is the only thing he must improve imo). Also what was said before by other members is that our AM's will look better now that we have a proper striker to convert those chances into actual goals. Willian is only behind Hazard in chances created with 65. To put it in perspective Oscar only has 48 and Schürrle 29.

With Hazard, Costa, Oscar, and Fabregas in the lineup our goalscoring ability should be more then adequate. Sorry, that i came across a bit too agressive but im pretty excited for the upcoming season and im quite certain Willian will improve alot now that he has a full season under his belt.

I meant that if he doesn't start thinking where he wants go with things we can't expect much from him. It affects his end product because the guy is ridiculously talented, he makes nice plays, but it seems he doesn't know what to do with the ball after a certain point into the play. It's frustrating. He could be so much better, but I believe he will improve either way because he'll be more confident in the league, José praises him a lot (and there's a lot to praise, he's talented and has some flair on him, others on his place would try nonsense dribbles all the time and compromise the team's stability), as TOPTB said he's spared a lot of criticism by basically everyone, so I think he'll settle more.

But he needs football brilliance. He doesn't know how to shine, he doesn't know how to add that final touch that could make him move from being a nice player to have to an immense player to have. Hazard has it coming out from his pores. Willian needs it.

Also I said I didn't know if he was only limited in the field or also outside because he seems to struggle to talk things through. It could be a limitation he has, but still it doesn't have nothing to do with being dumb. There are many kinds of intelligences, at least nine and he - just like every being in the world - will excel in some more than in others, but the one thing he's missing could take him to a whole new level. I just linked that maybe the fact that he clearly can't offer a nice interview (despite showing he knows the language fairly well - Portuguese - and learning English well, I'm talking about depth) maybe he can't deep his thoughts in general, in whatever sphere of his life. Or maybe this is a lot of BS. Fact remains, he gives crappy interviews (which I couldn't care less to be honest, it was just a fact to support a theory, I'm not here to watch our players give cute or insightful interviews) and his lack of brilliance detracts his football a lot.

I think all this confusion started because I used a metaphor saying he wasn't the brightest kid in the class, I meant it very lightly, not literally, just as a language expression. I'm not calling him dumb, I'm saying he's not bright and sometimes not even clever about what to do with the ball. Not being either thing in interviews is just a fact I used to support my idea of how he doesn't think things through before executing them. He starts well, you think he'll make something genial, but then he resets the process and does nothing with the ball. Of course, many times he does the right thing, but he isn't risky, he isn't bold, he isn't brilliant. Which is shame given his talent. If he was a bit more of those things we'd have two Hazards in the team... which isn't to be taken lightly as well. If it was easy to have the whole package every other team would have a Hazard in their squad, if not a few.

I apologize to everyone if the way I wrote it made it look like I was calling him dumb or stupid. I'm calling him limited because of lack of geniality, brilliance or cleverness when he has everything else (there's mediocre between brilliant and poor or stupid). His technique is only second to Hazard (when it comes to dribbles because in a few other things I think Willian is our most technical player), he just needs to have some insights.

He has pace, amazing work-rate, and he works his ass in the pitch. In those fateful matches we showed no interest or clutch, Willian was the one that tried his best in everyone of them. A few of our players seemed to approach small sides in a careless way, but Willian was one of the few that seemed to approach all matches the same way.

[Madmax 9,219]

I have a feeling that the presence of Willian and Oscar will allow us to get away with playing Cesc in the pivot against most sides. While Fabregas isn't completely useless defensively, the awareness and enterprise of the two Brazilians will encourage him to play the initiator while adding insurance to the less glamourous of his duties.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

His statistics have been poor throughout his career though.

I actually never seen his assists statistics in Shaktar. I see he scored 7-8 goals in every season there, but nothing about assists.

[The only place to be 11,313]

The new Shaun Wright-Philips?

[Skau13 21]

Willian is way, way better on the ball then SWP. Shocking comparison

[The Skipper 20,609]

The new Shaun Wright-Philips?

Way too early to start making comparisons like that.

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

The new Shaun Wright-Philips?

could very well be. He'd be starting behind schurrle in my team

[stroey 2,525]

The new Shaun Wright-Philips?

What a joke, Willian=Schurrle>Oscar, Moses, Salah

[The only place to be 11,313]

The comparison isn't about what they're like on the ball, but about what they produce for the money we spent on them.

Willian cost roughly the same amount Robinho cost Man City.

He was about £5 million more than Mata.

That transfer is one of the weirdest, most bizarre transfers in recent memory.

[Styles 9,790]

It's crazy how bad Willian's reputation has gotten over the summer, through no fault of his own. He went from being solid if unspectacular to Shaun Wright-Phillips.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Its not a coincidence that our best match of the season was without Willian, 6-0 against Arsenal

[Madmax 9,219]

I'd say our best game of the season was 1-0 at City, but okay ...

[Styles 9,790]

I'd say our best game of the season was 1-0 at City, but okay ...

We played Liverpool off the park in the 2-1 at home win and Willian was brilliant. It's one of the hardest working performances I've ever seen from a player. Beating Arsenal 6-0 was nowhere near our best performance of the season, they gave up early.

[Rambo 1,729]

I'd say our best game of the season was 1-0 at City, but okay ...

Without question. I can't see him lose his place in the starting lineup unless his form drops dramatically. His work rate is superb up front and miles better than Schurrle and SWP technically although he does need to work on his finishing and be more aggressive on goal. I prefer him in the #10 role but can't see Jose taking him off the wing. A trio of Hazard, Willian and Shirley would be fun to watch.