You've used the key stats for an attacking midfielder to denigrate a deep lying playmaker. It's like berating a centre half for not making the same number of forwards runs as a fullback. What are their comparative numbers for passing accuracy or interceptions made or tackles won?
Tbf Bacuna played as a 6 on numerous occasions too.
Tbf Bacuna also got caught in possession doing too much and it leading to a goal as well. More than once in our relegation season.
His form isn’t great but our problems lie from Davies rigidity and a genuine lack of a 10.
All true but he could hit a ball cleanly keeping it on target which our current midfielders seem incapable of doing.
Next season a top priority is a midfielder that breaks through the lines and has a decent goal per game ratio. Quite difficult when you add height to the equation.
Yep I would like a tall athletic goal scoring midfielder that likes taking on and beating players.
Ultimately, if Davies doesn’t want those types of players then we won’t be signing them.
It that was the kind of midfielder he liked then we’d probably have them at the club now.
I fall within the 1% that doesn’t think he’s shit, but also doesn’t think he’s a top championship midfielder (like I imagine you do?)
Good tidy player. Does need to be braver though and add a few more goals and assists.
ClaptonAll true but he could hit a ball cleanly keeping it on target which our current midfielders seem incapable of doing.
Next season a top priority is a midfielder that breaks through the lines and has a decent goal per game ratio. Quite difficult when you add height to the equation.
Yep I would like a tall athletic goal scoring midfielder that likes taking on and beating players.
Same.
In Bacuna's case, I liked him but the best football we played in 23-24 featured Paik starting and Bacuna on the bench.
Mowbray had us playing attacking, possession football with this line up -
J Ruddy
Drameh Roberts Bielik Laird
Dozzell Paik
Miyoshi Roberts James
Stansfield
Abd Paik was a central part of it.
Does need to be braver though
So does Iwata, the amount he stops and passes sideways has earned him the nickname The Crab in our group haha.
I fully understand he's being told to be cautious.
Side question. When we that last time before Saturday that we started without either Paik or Iwata in central midfield?
I can accept it with Iwata, his technical ability is miles behind Paiks and Paiks average position is a good 10-15 yards further up the pitch
I do agree that’s what he’s being told to do though, so can’t blame him too much
Fat Buddha OBEPaik is our best player. By miles.
Klarer is our best player. Unless it's Ducksch.
I think we’re coming to realise that the majority of our players who looked very comfortable last season, are now finding out that they need to step up, just to compete.
Paik for me is an average Joe type of player who doesn’t really affect the game. Yes, he was a useful cog in the machine last year but now is when we need somebody more willing to take risks.
He certainly isn’t the only one who falls into this category. All of our players need to be braver and that goes for CD as well.
If you watch Cov going forward, they have 6 or 7 players hitting the box. We have 2 if we’re lucky.
Last season we scored an unusual amount of goals from outside the box, which obviously really helped us win games. Other than these goals we had trouble one teams up.
That was never going to be sustainable and now the worldies have ceased, of course we are still having the same issues.
In summary CD has to become braver and gets bodies in that bloody box!
Paik was one, if not the best player we had in the second half of our relegation season. We fully expected him to leave us when we went down . So I don't personally accept he is was simply an effective league 1 player. I feel that is the case with Keshi, Allsop and maybe Cochrane and the manager I guess felt that with May, TGH and Davies.
He should be dropped if his form isn't good or we just need to try a different solution but I don't buy all this about him not being a very good championship player.
GBBluePaik was one, if not the best player we had in the second half of our relegation season. We fully expected him to leave us when we went down . So I don't personally accept he is was simply an effective league 1 player. I feel that is the case with Keshi, Allsop and maybe Cochrane and the manager I guess felt that with May, TGH and Davies.
He should be dropped if his form isn't good or we just need to try a different solution but I don't buy all this about him not being a very good championship player.
I'm really not sure he was our best player, I remember him being distinctly average like this season tbh.