The two seasons we won the CL and the league he seemed to be the preferred partner for VVD mainly for his pace covering but that horror knee injury has just done him in
Exactly. I mean I'm sorry for piling up on him the way I am considering he did look very good two times and those runs were halted by injuries, but the truth is he's just never got back near that form ever since the second injury. The sad thing is that he's still fast enough, but its the poor decision making and the out of sync defending that kills it for him (and us incidentally). You simply cant go out and put this level of performance in the knockout stage of the CL, at home, against RM and turn around and tell me you're world class.
I know Trent just makes everything worse for him on that right hand side, but come on. Trent isn't the reason you dont close down Vinicius about 3 times before he finally scores. Trent is not the reason you very naively foul Vinicius when you did not need to at all in an area you absolutely dont want to concede a free-kick in. Directly and heavily involved in 3 of the 5 goals we conceded tonight (and that's because I stopped after the 4th so I have no idea what happened on the 5th).
I know emotions run high right after a game, but the judgment I'm making of the player has basically been simmering in my mind for about a season and a half now. I made the same type of call about Jones earlier in the season and was told I'm being too harsh (and probably rightly so), but I think I'm right on both counts. Simply just not good enough both of them.
If a cleanup is indeed what is intended for this summer then I'd say one of him or Matip has to go. I dont say both because I think its hard to move both and replace them with quality enough options in one window all while solving our crisis in the midfield. Find a way to sell one and get someone like Gvardiol in. Matip is mentioned more because of the fact you can't expect him to stay fit more than anything else really because I think he forms a good partnership with VVD, in general.
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