27 | Matheus Nunes - 2023/24

Status
Not open for further replies.
He's seemed more confident in his little cameos lately, hopefully that is a sign of a player figuring it out.

Whether he makes it here or not, it's tough to judge a midfielder in their first season under Pep. Even Rodri, Gundo, Bernie, etc were the local boo boys at one point
 
He's seemed more confident in his little cameos lately, hopefully that is a sign of a player figuring it out.

Whether he makes it here or not, it's tough to judge a midfielder in their first season under Pep. Even Rodri, Gundo, Bernie, etc were the local boo boys at one point
Gundogan had 1,230 minutes in his injury-curtailed first season, Bernardo had 2,795, and Rodri had 3,709. Those three also had the excuses of coming to a new country and new league, but Nunes had already had a year at the Wolves. We should presumably, therefore, be expecting more. We all hope that he will find his feet and flourish, but with only two back-to-back league starts (and he was hooked at Molineux), he now seems to be reduced to substitute appearances when we have comfortable leads, which means it’s getting harder not to draw comparisons with Phillips.
 
Most likely because he's done the sum total of next to nowt in 1,238 of those minutes.

He looked average at Wolves. How anyone expects him to reach that level at City, I'll never know. He's out of his depth.

He was a rare panic buy unfortunately and I wouldn't be surprised to see Txiki on the phone to Mendes in the summer to get him moved on somehow.

I cannot see how he has a future here if we bring in Paqueta and another midfielder which we are strongly rumoured to do.

Rico has looked twice the footballer for me in his minutes.
 
I despair when I see criticism of a player who only just joined us. Grealish took a season to get used to the system, as many others. Give the lad a chance, it feels like any player that doesn’t reach top level in their first half a dozen games gets slated by people who have never played the game
Hear, hear.
 
I despair when I see criticism of a player who only just joined us. Grealish took a season to get used to the system, as many others. Give the lad a chance, it feels like any player that doesn’t reach top level in their first half a dozen games gets slated by people who have never played the game
Grealish played 2,730 minutes in his opening season and arguably carried greater pressure on account of both the price tag and the fact that he was our only significant signing, until Alvarez arrived. It’s not criticism to wonder why a player who cost £53 million has played so few minutes in a largely injury free season, nor is it criticism to wonder why Guardiola has favoured Rico Lewis over him in recent matches. After all, nobody seems to be able to identify Nunes’ strongest position, and unlike other players, say Delph/Zinchenko, he hasn‘t been able, so far, to carve out a new niche for himself.

Given what has happened with Phillips, it is perhaps understandable that people have raised questions about Nunes’ development. After all, the same defences were continually erected for Phillips (‘give him time’, ‘he needs to learn the system’, ‘we’ll see a different player in the second season’), yet with each passing game those appeared weaker and weaker until they crumbled and he was shipped to West Ham.

While I’m sure everyone here still wants Nunes to succeed, it shouldn’t stop us questioning.
 
He needs more playing time. But City obviously cannot provide him with enough time. If the situation continues, he will become the another Phillips. I think he should seek a loan in the summer of 2024 or transfer in the summer of 2025. This will benefit both him and the club.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.