Could have been only the second player after Glauber Berti to leave City with a 100% PL record if it hadn't been for some of those pesky substitute appearances :(He still has that record that every PL game he's started ( 9 games ) we've won.
Give over. He came on against West Ham at 4-0 and then came on for 6 minutes against Palace at 2-0. It is crazy to suggest Pep signed him thinking he would be good for 30 mins when winning 4-0 in a cup and 6 mins when winning 2-0 in the same cup almost a month later. Nolito was very much part of the squad rotation at the beginning of the season, now he isnt. I don't even know how anyone could argue this.
Give over what? Pulling you up for exaggerating? The type of sub appearances he made are what a squad player is generally used for.
Riddle me this mate, if Pep has written him off then why not put Garcia in the CL squad and remove Nolito?
No, give over for suggesting that Nolitos current role in the team is exactly how Pep envisaged it when buying him. I have not looked at the stats but I imagine that Nolito has played the equivalent of no more than 1 or 2 full games over the past 2 months. That is not normal for a new signing who is fit, especially when you take into account that over that time we have suffered with injuries and suspensions. Something isnt right, I know it and you also know it but for some reason, you are arguing for argues sake.
As for the CL squad selection I imagine it comes down to experience, neither are likely to play but if push came to shove and Pep had to throw one of them into a match, I expect he would choose the experience of Nolito 9 times out of 10.
I never said it's exactly how Pep envisaged it, I don't know where you're getting that from.
It's been 5 Prem games over the last month, 2 of which he was named as a sub. The way you're talking it's as if his career here is over.
You were throwing stats at me (hes played 23 times) without any form of context. The majority of those appearances were at the beginning of the season when he was rotating in and out of the squad. He would play a game, miss a game, come on as sub next game, start the game after etc. He was 100% a squad player. Over the past couple of months he has barely played. There must be a huge gulf between minutes played at the start of the season and minutes he is getting now, so what is the reasoning behind this? He is either playing ok but struggling to displace players who are better than him or his form has fallen off a cliff and the manager no longer sees him as being as important as he was just a few months ago. Either way the future doesn't look overly bright for Nolito does it?
It's been one month. He played in 3 from 6 in December, started two of them.
Ive just checked his stats (as I am sure you have). In the 10 games since Nov 26th v Burnley, Nolito has played 90 minutes just once and that was in a dead rubber against Celtic. I dont need to tell you the "quality" of the team we put out that evening. Apart from that he totals 198 minutes of football over the 9 other games we have played. To put that into context the 1st 10 games of the season saw him complete 643 minutes and that included him being subbed for Willy in Barca when Bravo was red-carded. That is a huge drop in game-time for a player who has been fit to play.
And coincides with Sané's upturn in form.
My bone of contention was you declaring him as a bad buy as if he is finished here, that's all mate, I think you're jumping the gun.
You can't dissect performance like that. Everything counts. I thought his ability to pop up for goals were unmatched early on.He did ok at the start. I think him popping up in the right place at the right time a few times masked his overall contribution which in my opinion was distinctly average. I don't see him having any future at the club, he is struggling for game time now and I don't see it getting any easier for him. Whether or not he goes down as a bad buy will probably be determined by how much we get for him, if we get most of our money back then you could argue he did a job. If however we let him go for next to nothing, as we have done with others in the past he will be considered a poor purchase.