ADegenerate
Well-Known Member
It's relative to personal expectation. I 'discovered' this kid in 2014 playing for the Brazil U23 or U20's and pretty much instantaneously had a strong feeling that he'd be the next neymar. Not that level, just slightly below it so I started keeping my eye on him to see how long it would be before Real or Barca got him. I ended up watching a handful of games at Palmeiras and knew he would be an instant hit when Brazil called him up. It was fun keeping tabs on him to see his if his progression played out like I thought it could and each step of the way he completely matched expectations. He tore it up in Brazil, got his call up, took his first opportunities perfectly, lead Brazil to their first olympic gold, got linked to the biggest clubs, got the big move, was an instant success bagging goals left and right when he arrived and fulfilled the hype every time. I never even considered it a possibility that he would think of coming to City so the kid is something of a dream signing for me personally.
The eye test is referring to following the kid before he was linked to big clubs and believing he had the talent to be the best striker in the world. Based on my expectations for his career arch and potential he's not as far along as I expected him to be as of right now. That's excessive expectation but that's the standard I feel he's fit to be placed in. Most noticeably in terms of finishing. His finishing is perfectly fine for where he is at right now in his progression like I mentioned and the data proves that to be 100% factual. That scoring rate of a goal every 100 minutes and one every 110 minutes can't be made up by Gabby missing the chances that people love to call him out for. That happens for every player in football. The extra 10% edge Kun has can only be made up by scoring goals where viewers are left a little bit baffled at how they pulled that off. It's obviously reserved for the top players in football.
Scoring goals isn't a problem for any player that plays in a guardiola system. Anyone moderately talented enough will score pretty close to the same rate. That goes for Nolito, Sane, Mahrez, Iheanacho, and Gabby as they all score near that same rate. There's two exceptions..Raz and Kun who have that 10% boost I mentioned because they are literally the top, top, shelf. Best two or three in the world if not the very top. If Raz can make that leap then Gabby absolutely can too. It needs to start trending that way towards the end of this season and/or the beginning of the next one. If it doesn't then the next great young player will be given that chance to come have a go. Perhaps the Leipzig kid Haaland is built for it...he also happens to be a massive blue.
I'm not prognosticating either or saying he'll be sold. That's just the way it should work at the top clubs in world football. I still believe he can do it but it's fully up to him to make that happen. All we can do is wait and see how it plays out. I've been in the kids corner from the very get go so you won't find many rooting for him more or more excited for that leap to happen.