Willian

[WNDS 502]

Never heard of 'forced own goals' assists. Half-assist is a new one as well. Football is becoming more and more complex.

Would Dani Alves using his body to keep the Roma defender from clearing Messi's chip constitute as a quarter-assist?

Forced an own-goal = forced an opposition error, which is what happened in both cases. UEFA and PL official statistics count these as being assists, whereas Opta don't.

'Half-assist' is just a term I made-up to try to save myself from having to type out more words . Against West Ham, Cahill scored from Willian's corner, but Zouma apparently got the slightest of touches on the ball before it was fired into the net; Zouma got an official 'assist' for doing nothing more than getting in Cahill's way, whilst it was the delivery from the corner that actually set the goal up.

[Billy. 2,739]

This is why Willian keeps scoring free kicks he got he magic wellies on!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfHpqvE6_6o

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Willian only has 1 assist actually - the one against Aston Villa. Didn't get the one yesterday because Cahill's initial shot was saved by the keeper before he slotted in the rebound. It only counts as an official assist if the final pass directly leads to the recipient scoring a goal, which wasn't the case against Maccabi Tel-Aviv since the keeper was the last person to touch the ball before Cahill scored.

Wow. We must be pretty desperate to count those as assists...

You said yourself that an assist is if the final pass directly leads to the recipient scoring a goal. His pass led to an own goal. Hence the assist. Otherwise, what was the point in Kalou crossing the ball right onto Riise's head?

[Jase 43,479]

You said yourself that an assist is if the final pass directly leads to the recipient scoring a goal. His pass led to an own goal. Hence the assist. Otherwise, what was the point in Kalou crossing the ball right onto Riise's head?

That only works in the fantasy leagues. Officially, it doesn't and that Opta definition clearly only refers to players setting up his/her team-mates to score, not the opposition players.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

That only works in the fantasy leagues. Officially, it doesn't and that Opta definition clearly only refers to players setting up his/her team-mates to score, not the opposition players.

Fuck Opta. Bunch of statistics Nazis.

[Johnnyeye 7,405]

Willian is on Champions League team of the week again, also a mention for Cahill: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2310396.html#uefa+champions+league+team+weekCongrats to both.

also, Willian´s free kick in contention for goal of the week again, 2 matchdays running, he´s on fire : http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/goal-of-the-week/index.html, many great goals to choose from, but Willian has got my vote again. Anyway, Messi is leading the poll by a land slide, typical Messi bandwagon at his fullest, his goal was good no doubt, but not better than Willian´s at least, Suarez´s volley was much better than Messi´s goal, the one Messi scored against Bayern last season was clearly much better, it´s simply because it´s Messi, all wet their pants when he scores, still yet to score against us tough lol Cheers

[Rmpr 8,977]

I will say something quite unpopular. Willian being our best player this year says more about the current state of our squad than it says about Willian. Sorry, but its the truth...

[Simon1991 225]

On the contrary, I think it's a quite popular opinion

[Mechromancer 262]

Yeah, but we can also say that he improved, right? He never received too much love in this forum.

[stroey 2,525]

[zolayes 14,489]

JUST AMAZING

[Rmpr 8,977]

Yeah, but we can also say that he improved, right? He never received too much love in this forum.

Yes he has and he is indeed a good player, but even then he wouldnt start on most top teams...

Bayern would not trade Douglas Costa, Muller nor Robben for Willian. So wouldnt Barça, PSG, City, Real, etc.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Glad he Heard me and scored that FK...

[WNDS 502]

I will say something quite unpopular. Willian being our best player this year says more about the current state of our squad than it says about Willian. Sorry, but its the truth...

Yes he has and he is indeed a good player, but even then he wouldnt start on most top teams...

Bayern would not trade Douglas Costa, Muller nor Robben for Willian. So wouldnt Barça, PSG, City, Real, etc.

And yet he's not looked at all out of place alongside Neymar or Douglas Costa for Brazil; he's been more consistent than the former, and slightly outperformed the latter (so far), whilst also being one of the NT's most influential players outright in the process.

This is in addition to him currently being our most in-form player, as he has been for most of the season up to this point. How else are we supposed to judge him? The 'only' context we have is his level of performance for club and country.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Yes he has and he is indeed a good player, but even then he wouldnt start on most top teams...

Bayern would not trade Douglas Costa, Muller nor Robben for Willian. So wouldnt Barça, PSG, City, Real, etc.

He'd have a role at City or PSG for sure IMO.

[Rmpr 8,977]

He'd have a role at City or PSG for sure IMO.

Maybe PSG, I will give you that.

Definitely not City though. They have Silva, KdB and Sterling ahead of him and while you could argue he can play better than Sterling, having 2 midfielders who like to slow the pace of the game is not exactly a good gaming plan. So, between the two, the Spanish is clearly better.

But that was not the point of my argument. What I was trying to show is that if our best player would have trouble making the starting eleven of most top clubs, what does it say about our squad?

[El P. 1,354]

I will say something quite unpopular. Willian being our best player this year says more about the current state of our squad than it says about Willian. Sorry, but its the truth...

It says about both. It's not so easy to be WAY better performer than Begović and Azpilicueta who are decent.

[stroey 2,525]

Willian's consistency and versatility are his strongest points, he will always give you at least a 7 no matter who we play: City, United, Arsenal, Atletico, PSG or Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich, Maccabi.

At City he will start over Sterling. You can say he won't start over xx player or xx player, but it isn't that simple. You play in a different team with different tactics, a different role and different team mates.

Even Robben would struggle to replace one of MSN but that doesn't mean Neymar or Suarez is better than him.