Willian

[Superblue 6,370]

3 hours ago, USATim said:

Best attacking player has been Pulisic. And it's not even close.

Which just highlights the problems this season, expecting a young player to come from a foreign country and hit the ground running. I really like Pulisic (I mentioned months ago that he looks to have that ability and hunger to attack the back post which I think could lead to big numbers for goals as he matures like Sterling, Mane, Salah, etc) but my biggest worry with him is his durability to stay fit because it's not just this season but previous years that he's missed weeks/months of the season with muscular injuries. That obviously has a massive effect if you're key attacking outlet can't be fully relied on because of fitness concerns. If he can stay fit I think he could become a real big player and rack up some big numbers for us in assists and goals but there's always that worry that niggling injuries will hinder him.

The other issue this highlights is Pulisic, currently, is still well off Hazard's level when he was here but the likes of Willian and Pedro haven't 'upped' their numbers either to compensate. As the season has wore on, Hazard's loss has been felt more and more in my opinion when trying to break teams down. He's not going to be directly replaced but I think in Pulisic, Mount and Hudson Odoi there's three young players still developing, and the purchase of Werner and Ziyech that we can spread the load out across our front line which will make us more threatening than just a reliance on one player which we've had the last few years.

Willian in my opinion could still be a solid, dependable squad player for another season or two. He's rarely injured, hasn't shown any decline physically and offers some experience to a young group. Similar to Giroud really. But his time as a first choice should definitely be coming to an end.

[communicate 2,703]

17 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Which just highlights the problems this season, expecting a young player to come from a foreign country and hit the ground running. I really like Pulisic (I mentioned months ago that he looks to have that ability and hunger to attack the back post which I think could lead to big numbers for goals as he matures like Sterling, Mane, Salah, etc) but my biggest worry with him is his durability to stay fit because it's not just this season but previous years that he's missed weeks/months of the season with muscular injuries. That obviously has a massive effect if you're key attacking outlet can't be fully relied on because of fitness concerns. If he can stay fit I think he could become a real big player and rack up some big numbers for us in assists and goals but there's always that worry that niggling injuries will hinder him.

The other issue this highlights is Pulisic, currently, is still well off Hazard's level when he was here but the likes of Willian and Pedro haven't 'upped' their numbers either to compensate. As the season has wore on, Hazard's loss has been felt more and more in my opinion when trying to break teams down. He's not going to be directly replaced but I think in Pulisic, Mount and Hudson Odoi there's three young players still developing, and the purchase of Werner and Ziyech that we can spread the load out across our front line which will make us more threatening than just a reliance on one player which we've had the last few years.

Willian in my opinion could still be a solid, dependable squad player for another season or two. He's rarely injured, hasn't shown any decline physically and offers some experience to a young group. Similar to Giroud really. But his time as a first choice should definitely be coming to an end.

Willian will not suddenly have better number, in final 3rd he is quite poor and more importantly he is right footed playing on the right. If you want your wide player to score and create , play him on the inverted side.

In term of Willian not being the 1st choice, it is up to the other player to grab his rw spot. Pedro can certainly do it but it looks like he is done with us. Pulisic was dreadful when he played on the right. CHO cannot stay healthy. I said it early in the season, i don't think we should renew Willian because we have CHO, but he need to show that he can replace him. 

 

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

10 minutes ago, communicate said:

Willian will not suddenly have better number, in final 3rd he is quite poor and more importantly he is right footed playing on the right. If you want your wide player to score and create , play him on the inverted side.

In term of Willian not being the 1st choice, it is up to the other player to grab his rw spot. Pedro can certainly do it but it looks like he is done with us. Pulisic was dreadful when he played on the right. CHO cannot stay healthy. I said it early in the season, i don't think we should renew Willian because we have CHO, but he need to show that he can replace him. 

 

For all the criticism of Willian over the years and this season too, the harsh reality is he has more goal involvements than all our other wide and attacking midfield players this season in the league. He’s currently on 8 PL Gs and 5 As. 

While they aren't fantastic numbers the closest is Pulisic with 7 Gs and 2 As. Hudson Odoi hasn’t really done much this season (1 G 4 As) although his recovery from a long term injury always meant he would need more time same with Ruben so not really taking them into account. In terms of goals or assists Mount hasnt done better than Willian (6 Gs 2 As) but again those stats of his paints a false image, he has 1 league G and 2 A in the whole of 2020 (13 or 14 games) so to be fair to Willian, who has been involved in 6 league Gs since the start of 2020, while that isn’t fantastic its a lot better than the majority of the others again. Take into consideration, Barkley hasnt got a PL goal this season either and only has got 3 assists. Pedro has 1 G and 1 A. Yes some haven't played as frequently but Mason and Willian have played a lot of games. Pulisic has started to be a regular more and the harsh reality is if we didnt have Ziyech and Werner coming in you could see why the club and coach would want Willian to stay because statistically he has more goal involvements than anybody bar Tammy this season.

Ziyech and Werners arrival cannot come soon enough. They will allow the likes of Mason and Callum to maybe grow into the team a bit more without being overly depended on to they find their consistency. Losing Willian is what it is but if he hadnt stayed to the end of this season we would be struggling a bit more imo. I mean his goals maybe were pens or dodgy FKs or whatever but they are goals and we have lacked those in those wider and central areas this season. Obviously stats dont paint the full picture but in terms of productivity it shows that he has done more than certain others we have in the squad.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Anytime it seems like hes our best performer, the team doesnt play well overall

[communicate 2,703]

5 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

For all the criticism of Willian over the years and this season too, the harsh reality is he has more goal involvements than all our other wide and attacking midfield players this season in the league. He’s currently on 8 PL Gs and 5 As. 

While they aren't fantastic numbers the closest is Pulisic with 7 Gs and 2 As. Hudson Odoi hasn’t really done much this season (1 G 4 As) although his recovery from a long term injury always meant he would need more time same with Ruben so not really taking them into account. In terms of goals or assists Mount hasnt done better than Willian (6 Gs 2 As) but again those stats of his paints a false image, he has 1 league G and 2 A in the whole of 2020 (13 or 14 games) so to be fair to Willian, who has been involved in 6 league Gs since the start of 2020, while that isn’t fantastic its a lot better than the majority of the others again. Take into consideration, Barkley hasnt got a PL goal this season either and only has got 3 assists. Pedro has 1 G and 1 A. Yes some haven't played as frequently but Mason and Willian have played a lot of games. Pulisic has started to be a regular more and the harsh reality is if we didnt have Ziyech and Werner coming in you could see why the club and coach would want Willian to stay because statistically he has more goal involvements than anybody bar Tammy this season.

Ziyech and Werners arrival cannot come soon enough. They will allow the likes of Mason and Callum to maybe grow into the team a bit more without being overly depended on to they find their consistency. Losing Willian is what it is but if he hadnt stayed to the end of this season we would be struggling a bit more imo. I mean his goals maybe were pens or dodgy FKs or whatever but they are goals and we have lacked those in those wider and central areas this season. Obviously stats dont paint the full picture but in terms of productivity it shows that he has done more than certain others we have in the squad.

For me number wise with Willian is a bonus. In a perfect world, I want my winger to score and create goals but if he can't he need to provide other stuff and Willian is pretty good at that. 

[communicate 2,703]

6 minutes ago, kellzfresh said:

Anytime it seems like hes our best performer, the team doesnt play well overall

If Willian is the best performer in the game, your team is in trouble. He is a functional player. We need our attacker= LW, ST and AM to bring number for us. 

[communicate 2,703]

12 minutes ago, Mana said:

Well said. Willian shouldn't be our MotM at all unless he is so outstanding and the opposition are terrified of Willian. 

vs. West Ham he wasn't outstanding. He's not MotM, that's Pulisic. He was useless for the majority of the game!

Scoring a pen and a freekick doesn't change that.

Not useless, people love Pulisic, deservedly so, but if you watched puli playing on the right early in the season, you will never say Willian is useless. 

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[MoroccanBlue 5,302]

Still think Edu at Arsenal is persuading him on joining. 

[Superblue 6,370]

I struggle to see either Arsenal or Spurs prepared to offer him 3 years on big wages.

I still think he'll end up signing a new contract for 2 more years.

[Jase 43,479]

Lampard on Willian's contract talks...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/frank-lampard-refuses-rule-out-22297335

“I haven’t given up hope on it.

"The club is still in discussions with him. We want him to stay at the club. But I also appreciate the fact that this contract for Willian is a big deal for him because of his age and where he’s at.

"I’ve been there before myself and I respect that.

“But the way he’s playing at the minute shows his worth to the squad and the group and it’s something that I hope we can get to.”

[NikkiCFC 7,953]

4 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I struggle to see either Arsenal or Spurs prepared to offer him 3 years on big wages.

I still think he'll end up signing a new contract for 2 more years.

 

[shrenshah 186]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Please let him go...he is just playing for contract

Next year again will go dud..always been the case with willian..whenever there are talks of him to leave he starts perfirming...sick of seeing him in the team inspite of him scoring recently

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

King Willian is about to be PAID

[BXL70 396]

We need experienced players - not a team with most of the players below 24 years old. Willian is of them. Give him another 1 or 2 years contract.

[Alabama 1,992]

We will Havertz and bin Willian...

With William in the team we ain't going anywhere ambition wise...

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

21 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Still think Edu at Arsenal is persuading him on joining. 

I would love that. Arsenal are building the utlimate team of dregs, which I am very supportive of. Willian would be an absolute diamond in that. Imagine him and Cedric Soares defending against all those pacy epl lws.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

He was not so good today, but I love his penalties

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