Some people on this forum, including me, think that we should keep him with the 1st team as he can help us and add some desire and pace to our game, and probably score some goalsSuperBlu said:He is developing well at Lille, so lets loan him for a 2nd season so he can develop more.
That deserves either a *sniff sniff* or you're an idiot who hasn't watched Lille this season.SuperBlu said:He is developing well at Lille, so lets loan him for a 2nd season so he can develop more.
BigOscar said:The reality is, any young player is going to only play 15-20 games at most in their first season as part of our main sqaud, so at some point you just have to take the plunge, rather than go with the logic that they would play more on loan. If you wait untill you think they will definitely play 30 games for us, you could be waiting a hell of a long time. I'm sure he'd learn a lot more about what it takes to be part of our team in 10-15 games for us than he would in 30 for Lille anyway, as the style of football is completely different.
Exactly, if he's here and getting the odd chance then that gives him the chance to break into the starting lineup and cement a place there, he can never do that while out on loan.supercity88 said:BigOscar said:The reality is, any young player is going to only play 15-20 games at most in their first season as part of our main sqaud, so at some point you just have to take the plunge, rather than go with the logic that they would play more on loan. If you wait untill you think they will definitely play 30 games for us, you could be waiting a hell of a long time. I'm sure he'd learn a lot more about what it takes to be part of our team in 10-15 games for us than he would in 30 for Lille anyway, as the style of football is completely different.
It's about the impact he will make, not the minutes. If the club look at him and think his pace and technique could be useful from the bench then keep him. It's a bit like Lampard - his experience and threat on goal were seen as worth giving him a contract. He's not started many but he has scored 7 goals for us. If Lopes was to come on and get an assist or score then he might force his way into the starting 11. As a club we rotate players a lot so I think he'd definitely get game time. From what I've seen of him recently he's gaining confidence again after his injuries and he would offer something different to what we have.
BigOscar said:Exactly, if he's here and getting the odd chance then that gives him the chance to break into the starting lineup and cement a place there, he can never do that while out on loan.supercity88 said:BigOscar said:The reality is, any young player is going to only play 15-20 games at most in their first season as part of our main sqaud, so at some point you just have to take the plunge, rather than go with the logic that they would play more on loan. If you wait untill you think they will definitely play 30 games for us, you could be waiting a hell of a long time. I'm sure he'd learn a lot more about what it takes to be part of our team in 10-15 games for us than he would in 30 for Lille anyway, as the style of football is completely different.
It's about the impact he will make, not the minutes. If the club look at him and think his pace and technique could be useful from the bench then keep him. It's a bit like Lampard - his experience and threat on goal were seen as worth giving him a contract. He's not started many but he has scored 7 goals for us. If Lopes was to come on and get an assist or score then he might force his way into the starting 11. As a club we rotate players a lot so I think he'd definitely get game time. From what I've seen of him recently he's gaining confidence again after his injuries and he would offer something different to what we have.
He's going to take some time adapting back to our way of playing though, as the job he's doing for Lille is vey different for what we'd want from him. For Lille, he is given a free role, but is expected to be the creator of everything. They tell him not to bother tracking back, not to worry about giving the ball away, just so long as he's trying to make something happen. As a result, he gives it away a fair bit, doesn't track back and tries to be incisive almost every time he gets it. For us he'll have a lot more creative support, so will have to get used to playing it safe more often, while also doing a lot more defensively.
It's been a good learning experience, especially with getting used to the physciality and how hard it is to find space at this level, but if he spent another year there then he'd just be getting further away from the player we want him to be imo