closed Chelsea 1-0 Swansea

[Fulham Broadway 16,855]

38 minutes ago, Stats said:

Thought Willian was brilliant before he was substituted yesterday. Ran the show and hope he keeps his place on Saturday.

Spot on Stats, gave the game dynamism along with kante

[Jase 43,479]

Even Carabao are mocking Sanches.

[The Skipper 20,593]

On 30/11/2017 at 8:23 AM, OhForAGreavsie said:

Thanks Skipper. 

Its not often that I find my point of view so different to yours.

I wonder if you share my take that those voting for awards are not always particularly diligent in the way they approach the task. There would be an awful lot of football to watch in order to fully validate the vote they cast. Whether or not anyone actually watches all that football is doubtful but it can’t be doubted that these ‘voted’ awards are very susceptible to hype, profile and ‘flavour of the monthism.

I can’t, and won’t, attempt to dismiss Sanches’s Golden Boy award because I didn’t do the due diligence either. I did watch the Euros however and posted at the time to offer the opinion that his displays there were being overrated. Someone has to win Young Player of The Tournament but the fact it was Sanches reflected his being a part of the Portugal squad, and having been expensively signed by Bayern earlier that summer, as much as it did his actual displays.

Sometimes a player underperforms because he’s at the wrong club, at the wrong time and sometimes it’s because he’s not up to it. If this player is as good as he was initially assessed to be, then I’ve failed to spot it. Let’s hope for the young man’s sake that I am in error. 

I do agree that certain awards are a bit of a joke due to voting processes but the Golden Boy awards aren’t too bad. If you look at how the Golden Boy is picked and who picks it, and if we look at the last few winners - Mbappé, Sanches, Martial, Sterling, Pogba, Isco, Götze - they have a pretty good track record when it comes down to it so I do appreciate it with a lot more credence. 

I do agree on your assessment on him being YPOT in the Euros was more to do with him being part of the winning team, but he did play with a maturity way beyond his age. I must also say it probably had some influence in nudging him ahead of Rashford for the award, but I don’t think it was a huge factor. 

Renato shot off too early to Munich. Sort of same problem someone like Hojbjerg had. He didn’t get much game time whatsoever, and after all the hype and awards the spot light is on you, mistakes are highlighted even more and that can easily knock an 18 year old’s confidence. He should’ve stayed in Portugal, less spot light, way more time to refine his game etc. 

He already has some very interesting talents - his press resistance is great for example, and he has great technique and great stamina - he’s a tailor made modern B2B midfielder. At Swansea however the quality of his team mates aren’t too great. Even Tammy is having the same problem imo. 

He was genuinely misplacing the easiest passes on Wednesday, felt sorry for him. Clement did well to take him off to protect him. People forget the guy just turned 20 2/3 months ago.