General Chat • In Hindsight
Was never keen on selling Vieira and felt he was the player with the most potential in the squad. Bielsa wasnt keen on selling him either and while Vieira has struggled for game time in Italy (6 starts and 6 sub apps) he is being eased in to Italian football due to the difference between the Championship and Serie A, he is very well thought of at Sampdoria.
Additionally his stats when he has started are superior to Phillips in a number of waysagainst better teams (AC Milan and Roma included), higher pass accuracy, higher long pass accuracy (very little between passes attempted) more tackles, interceptions and clearances.
Really feel Vieira would have made every bit the improvement Phillips has and probably more.
Additionally as Bielsa has said Phillips is our only natural defensive midfielder (after being converted by Bielsa), Vieira was a natural dm and would have given us more flexibility.
Was always a fan of Ekuban, bless his heart if he could have found a goalscoring touch then he would have been perfect. Pace, power, great work rate, good link play, he had everything Bielsa would like but his finishing was poor, cant help but wonder if Bielsa could have helped him?
He seems to have found some form in Turkey to, 20 games (minutes played taken into account) 8 goals 2 assists.
Now an international with Ghana where he scored on his debut.
Given our own striking issues and the fact we only have 2 strikers should we have kept Caleb?
Finally Jay Roy Grot, he took dogs abuse last season and clearly was under to much pressure.
But still only 21 and given our own issues on the wing could he have been useful?
6ft4, powerful, pacey, he had a decent touch to and was able to beat a man, very raw but he had lots of things we lack.
Seems to have found some form back in Holland, 3 goals in his last 3 games (all sub games) 6 goals and 1 assist in total, considering he has only played 18 games worth of minutes thats decent.
So should we have kept these 3 in hindsight? Did Bielsa maybe get Grot and Ekuban wrong?