Sabre wrote:I've got to be honest here, I've been extremely underwhelmed by him sofar. He has contributed practically nothing in miost of the games he has played (with the obvious exception of the winner in the dying seconds of the home game with Haifa) and what's more, at times looks absolutely clueless.
Having said all of that...(deep breath here), though he did very little yesterday save for one excellent cross with his wrong foot for Kuyt to miss the header, I just got the notion, the feeling, a glimpse perhaps of a fleeting flash of something gold. Maybe it was the way he puut his head back and showed he has some pace (though clearly he is not the absolute flying machine some led us expect), maybe it's the fact that though he screwed it a mile wide he was prepared to hit it with his wrong foot, and cross also. Maybe it was the way he moved to anticipate a pass (though for one reverse ball from Gerrard in the first half he was half asleep), I just don't know.
On a desperate day though, the admittedly extremely fleeting glimpses of a little sometyhing to come from Gonzales was just about the only positive I can think of.
He didn't play a good game. I was quite surprised that after being out of the starting eleven as of late, he was given the chance to play in the battle of Old Trafford.
He did a little more than a cross, he provoked a couple of corners which in my book is something I appreciate and it's much better than a goal kick.
He failed miserably in one of his strong points, the long range efforts. He failed to hit the ball well quite embarrasingly, but I know that's not a standard of his play and that was an accident, probably due to him being nervous.
There was 5 or 6 misunderstandings between him and some mates, the mate left the ball behind him after he started a run, and things like that.
So not a good game, but nice to see that Rafa counts on him. If he didn't he wouldn't have put him against Man Utd.
A very good point Sabre, i was surprised that he started this game also, he looks a bit short on confidence and Old Trafford was always going to be a battle and a game where we were often without the ball.
The only reason i can see is that Rafa thought he would be ideal to break quickly, but at this point he is not making the correct decisions when he is in posession and looks like he needs to be alot more composed.