Even when opponents play deep, a common counter against us these days is to thump it high and long to chasing forwards, in the hope that an attacking midfielder can collect the knock down from us and give them the numerical advantage. Apart from Nunes, we don’t have one midfielder who is fast enough to get back and help cover in such circumstances, so I still think that as the season unfolds, it’ll be about recognising where we can use him most effectively in games.There's 2 players in this lad against a team that parks the bus and and plays 2 banks of 4 ,I wouldn't even name him as a sub .
Against a football team with space he's excellent and he will do a job very well.
Said to my mate yesterday when he came on he will be good today as it was an open game .
Think Pep doesn't trust him in tight spaces, but when he has open space around him it minimises his weaknesses (first touch, decision making) and emphasises his biggest strength (carrying the ball forward at pace).
He made a lot of his starts last season in the Champions League, where there's always more space.
Let's not carried away here. This is the first time in a year here that he's done anything noteworthy. He did well yesterday sure but hes not going to be a regular starter for us. A good 20 mins in 12 months is not a massive fuck off as you so eloquently put it to anyone. His transfer fee was the same as Haalands. He needs to be producing regularly. In fairness first time I've seen him not bottle a 50/50 since he arrived. That is progress.Buzzing for him. Excellent cameo and a massive fuck off to the many, many fools that have already written him off before he's even had a chance.
Not many in the squad could go past 2 like he did before the pass for the goal, he has unique attributes that can help us a lot.
2 noteworthy things from that cameo for me, firstly how delighted everybody on the pitch seemed to be for Nunes when the 3rd went in, shows he's well liked and the players could see he needed that to start to feel like he belongs, Nunes himself was noticeably more settled once he made that goal too.
Secondly, the fact Pep's bringing him on with 20 minutes left in a game that was in the balance away from home shows he's got the managers trust. Plenty of people suggesting the writing was on the wall when stones came on against ipswich, I repeatedly fought back against that suggestion saying it was simply about getting minutes into legs of somebody who had yet to feature and wasn't worth reading that deeply into at that stage of the season.
Hope this cameo instills confidence and we see much more of him, I've always said there's a player in there.