He's only had 5 shots in the league, so a bit early to say he can't finish. If his shot yesterday had gone in off the post, instead of out, he'd be overperforming his xG this season :)as a positive I can see skill, a burst of speed, can take man on etc. On the negative, slows down play, poor defensively losing possession far too easily, can't finish.
I'm hoping this is first season "getting used to Pep tactics". I reckon playing midfield for Pep is the hardest position on the pitch. Compared to defenders and strikers, it always seems to take longer for a midfielder to bed down
Yes !!!!Really ????
And when he got up he wasn't up to chasing back for the ball, he's got an awful lot of improvement to make to get anything like a regular spot in the side.
We've seen this before though 12 months leaning the system or another Phillips?
99% of the time I can tell you within 5 minutes if a player is any good mate.
The only one I’ve been wrong on is Rodri but in my defence it did take him a good 2 seasons to get it, which is highly unusual.
Can’t get my head round how some people need “a season” to assess a player.
He’s bobbins.
As with nearly all Pep signings.Next season the time to judge him In my opinion
The comparison with Phillips are just about understandable. He didn't pan out , contrary to some of the experts on here who stated all he needed was a season with Pep. As you say, there's no guarantees with any transfer and Nunes is no different. Really hope he becomes a top player here but he's way off the standard required at the moment.There are no guarantees with transfers. I fear Nunes will go the same way as Phillips. We missed our top midfield targets last season and we got this wrong. It happens.
I see talent in sporadic bursts but nothing that tells me this guy will earn Pep's trust. Contrast his season with Kova's Josko's and Jeremy's. He is miles below what they have shown (and they still have a way to go) and yesterday he looked devoid of all confidence.
Are you referring to grealish by any chance? The same grealish who played an integral role in the treble, and who pep continually trusts in big games... and youre comparing his performances to Nunes?! They are on completely different levels.I could say the same about other players on a regular basis…one of whom cost twice that much!
He was asked to play much deeper today, alongside Kova and even picking the ball up as the last man. That’s not his preferred game, but he did a job.
He had two slips today, which cost us, and hit the post after a good run in deep. He got 90 minutes under his belt and he did himself no harm with the manager.
We’ll see, but I say you’re wrong about him.
If he ends up staying, and I’m not entirely convinced he will, then it may be that he needs to be converted into the kind of player Delph/Zinchenko became, but on the right. Otherwise, I’m not sure we can afford to retain such a player to sit on the bench for another season.
If you think we’ve struck gold spending over 50 million to warm our bench, then we’ll beg to differ. Our success is built on a playing system where everyone understands his role and can follow it. We don’t therefore need players who bring something different.Why not?
His attitude isn't anywhere near bad like Cancelo's..
It's much harder to find a player willing to sit on the bench and fill in than it is to find a starter. I think we may have finally hit gold in that he knows hes lucky to be here and and Pep trusts him to improve and will give him a run out in some games, and his salary isn't extremely high either.
Brings something totally different to the rest of the team when he is on.. adds another dimension to the team.
Absolutely correct mate.The club should employ you then of it takes 5 mins.
Would've saved the club plenty of money if they had you to tell them who they shouldn't sign within 5 minutes.
Did we watch the same game? I thought he was our best midfielder in the first half. One of two players on the pitch capable of turning into traffic with the ball on his feet. Think he'll kick on easily for us next year especially if/when bernardo goes.Not going to pile on, but even now I don’t see what he offers us.
One thing I saw was he was able to spot and make gundo-esque late runs into the box. Sneaking through and creating overloads in the oppositions box was part of what helped Haaland score so much last season. Defenders had no choice but to leave him alone at crucial moments.I think anybody with any semblance of football recognition can see there is a good player there.
Under Phillips 1st season, there was hope he could turn it around in his 2nd season, but watching him in his 1st season it was still difficult to find positives. The hope was that he was coming back from an injury, so we needed to wait.
In Nunes 1st season, you can immediately see all the good qualities he has:
- Ball Carrying Ability and Dribbling to glide past players
- Decent eye for a creative pass, especially good at crossing
- Fairly tall and fast for his frame
What he needs to improve (and some of these he has improved already):
- Positioning (The Pep Factor), knowing where to be and when to pass, literally every player Pep buys has to go through this at some point as it's the most different thing to them.
In the last game I saw HUGE improvements in Nunes for this, he wasn't making blind runs, he had patience, held position, moved when he needed to.
- Strength on the ball and Challenging, he needs to be braver, and stronger in these situations, I think this is something that with coaching, time and more maturity can improve, because physically, he has the attribute to be good at this, it's just a mental barrier he has to get beyond.
In the last game we saw the downside of him being too weak and flimsy on the ball as he gave away the goal, he should be able to receive that pass, know there is someone on him, and shield it properly.
- Lowest on my list, he doesn't seem to have a great shot on him, this is probably the least likely to get better, I think most players usually just "have it", and rarely truly get much better at this. This is one I don't mind if he is slightly below average at.
With All This Said
I think his ultimate future is as a box to box CM (Gundogan role) to be in build up, and push up higher in transition.
But should probably get minutes also on the wings, simple to get minutes and use to the system.