the elephant in the room.

[pillred]

yes it's probably a bit soon to be saying it, but my opinion is, ducking already, and I hope more than you can ever know, I am wrong, famara diedeou looks the biggest waste of money I have ever seen, I am 61 and I reckon I'm faster over 10 yards than he is, disappointed does not even begin to cover it.

[exAtyeoMax]

5 minutes ago, pillred said:

yes it's probably a bit soon to be saying it, but my opinion is, ducking already, and I hope more than you can ever know, I am wrong, famara diedeou looks the biggest waste of money I have ever seen, I am 61 and I reckon I'm faster over 10 yards than he is, disappointed does not even begin to cover it.

I think he was out of position a fair few times tonight. Baker was gesturing for him to move over to the left of the goal for a free kick, he didn't make it in time.

[GJS]

Not giving him any settling in time then?

[pillred]

2 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

I think he was out of position a fair few times tonight. Baker was gesturing for him to move over to the left of the goal for a free kick, he didn't make it in time.

exactly, he didn't make it in time, people say he will need time to adjust, he is being asked to do his job, how different can it be, the French game is the same as ours as far as I know.

[exAtyeoMax]

2 minutes ago, pillred said:

exactly, he didn't make it in time, people say he will need time to adjust, he is being asked to do his job, how different can it be, the French game is the same as ours as far as I know.

I guess JK took a while to work on his positioning, he was offside many a time. I'm sure FD will come good

[pongo88]

Unfortunately @pillred I think you're right.  Admittedly he hasn't had any decent service, but lack of pace, and ball control is obvious. He might turn out to be like Matt Smith who was "awful" but then became good, but I'm not hopeful.  He looks like a player who has come from a non league team and City just decided to take a £50K punt. He may improve, and I hope he does, but £5m is a lot of money for City to pay. I don't believe he would be in the team if he hadn't cost so much money.  He'd be another "one for the future" player sent out on loan to a league one / two club.

[pillred]

6 minutes ago, GJS said:

Not giving him any settling in time then?

for 5.3 million I would expect him to be able to adapt a bit quicker than he has. but that is the problem quicker, that will be his undoing unfortunately.

[Son of Fred]

12 minutes ago, pillred said:

yes it's probably a bit soon to be saying it, but my opinion is, ducking already, and I hope more than you can ever know, I am wrong, famara diedeou looks the biggest waste of money I have ever seen, I am 61 and I reckon I'm faster over 10 yards than he is, disappointed does not even begin to cover it.

Let's hope were wrong.looks so far out of his depth its unreal.....not bad in the air but that's it-5 million quid and someone somewhere is pissing ' emselves laughing..scouting must be seriously scrutinized.

Shocking.

[pillred]

1 minute ago, Robert the bruce said:

Let's hope were wrong.looks so far out of his depth its unreal.....not bad in the air but that's it-5 million quid and someone somewhere is pissing ' emselves laughing..scouting must be seriously scrutinized.

Shocking.

Robert,, you like me are probably hoping we are both wrong, but, two wrongs don't usually make a right do they!!

[numbeast]

Write him off at your peril. The English game is more physical than the continental leagues. Millwall were very physical  and Villa had experience in their centre halves. Granted pace isn't great but I'm sure we haven't seen the best of the lad yet.

[pillred]

8 minutes ago, numbeast said:

Write him off at your peril. The English game is more physical than the continental leagues. Millwall were very physical  and Villa had experience in their centre halves. Granted pace isn't great but I'm sure we haven't seen the best of the lad yet.

as I said in my post really hope I am wrong, the signs are not good though, hope you are right.

[MC RISK77]

I thought he did ok last night held the ball up well and brought others into the game, against an experienced villa back line...didn't think he should have been brought off

[swanker]

Agree with some of the concerns but thought he improved as the game went on. Was surprised when he went off, he was starting to do the things you expect from him. 

[Between heaven and hell]

As said last week he needs better service into him.

Cannot understand how that Brownhill keeps getting a game that. 

[Phileas Fogg]

Felt he was better than what lots are saying on this thread. He does so much donkey work that goes unnoticed, their defence won't have enjoyed playing against him. Lots of nice layoffs and hold up play.

He's always going to be judged harshly and compared to Kodjia/Abraham which doesn't help.

[ColeCiderRed]

Pace is not his strongest attribute and I'm not sure pace is something that can be improved. You either have it or don't. His ball control and first touch can be improved upon tho. But last night, for me, it was what he did off the ball. Bringing others in and disrupting the backline of a very strong Villa defence. It is still early days, but 5m is a lot of money for us to have spent I agree.

[ColeCiderRed]

8 minutes ago, Between heaven and hell said:

As said last week he needs better service into him.

Cannot understand how that Brownhill keeps getting a game that. 

I thought he did OK last night to be fair. The foul and booking on the half way line when Villa were about to break was important. Not condoning that style of play but sometimes putting a foot in is required.

[Between heaven and hell]

2 minutes ago, ColeCiderRed said:

I thought he did OK last night to be fair. The foul and booking on the half way line when Villa were about to break was important. Not condoning that style of play but sometimes putting a foot in is required.

Agreed about foul, but offers very little going forward.

[mozo]

Could just be confidence. Look at Bobby now.

[ColeCiderRed]

21 minutes ago, Between heaven and hell said:

Agreed about foul, but offers very little going forward.

Not sure I agree whole heartedly. Scored a very good goal at Brentford and his Brighton goal last season shows he has something. 

[DT The Optimist]

It's a good debate to have about FD. 

I said same thing to guy I was sitting with that on 'current showing' no way is this fella a £5m plus striker.  Compare him to TA or JK before, light years apart.  

Perhaps we were spoilt with these two.  He is certainly not a 'Bas Savage' but his playing style reminds me more of Wayne Allison . I am uncomfortable that the club have spent such a huge chunk on FD.

 

Can a 5m striker be a work in progress. Has he given any opposition a difficult game to date 

[Ashtonwurzel]

50 minutes ago, Between heaven and hell said:

As said last week he needs better service into him.

Cannot understand how that Brownhill keeps getting a game that. 

Brownhill is our best player and will be playing in the premier league within 2 years - IMO

[Wolf Island]

He isn't yet excelling, but he had a decent game last night and better than against Watford or Brentford. He will need a bit of time to adjust to the pace of the game, you can see him try flicks or take extra touches which might be fine in France but just won't work here. Also he's clearly a unit but needs to do some physical conditioning work which I'm sure the fitness team have covered. So in summary does he seem like £5.3m worth of player right now no, but ask me again in a couple of months and hopefully the answer will be different.

[cheshire_red]

Certainly looks several million overpriced so far. cost ten times more than Queens paid for Smith

[old_eastender]

1 minute ago, Ser Davos Ciderworth said:

He isn't yet excelling, but he had a decent game last night and better than against Watford or Brentford. He will need a bit of time to adjust to the pace of the game, you can see him try flicks or take extra touches which might be fine in France but just won't work here. Also he's clearly a unit but needs to do some physical conditioning work which I'm sure the fitness team have covered. So in summary does he seem like £5.3m worth of player right now no, but ask me again in a couple of months and hopefully the answer will be different.

Agree... battled and held the ball up well taking the pressure off us when needed last night, I thought was better second half and as a team we lost our way when he was subbed for the ineffective Woodrow. His lack of pace from a standing start is unexpected though.

I'd say the true "elephant in the room" is that although both Pack & Smith are tidy, with those two in CM we are never going to create much. 

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

Give him a chance.  He was playing against a pretty good defence last night and he caused them a few problems.  He'll get more space in other games.

[red84]

1 hour ago, Between heaven and hell said:

As said last week he needs better service into him.

Cannot understand how that Brownhill keeps getting a game that. 

Wow just wow. 

[Northern Cider Ed]

7 minutes ago, Ashtonwurzel said:

Brownhill is our best player and will be playing in the premier league within 2 years - IMO

I agree, he's being played out of position also. Think he will permanently be moved to cm shortly once eliasson is up to speed.

I also think we will see the best of fammy once this happens and quite like what I have seen from him so far as he needs quality crosses to attack like his goal v Barnsley 

[Phileas Fogg]

31 minutes ago, DT The Optimist said:

It's a good debate to have about FD. 

I said same thing to guy I was sitting with that on 'current showing' no way is this fella a £5m plus striker.  Compare him to TA or JK before, light years apart.  

Kodjia had only scored one more goal than Diedhiou has after 5 league games. If I remember correctly, he was making lots of basic errors to begin with - plenty of offsides and was pretty greedy on the ball.

Also worth noting that at Diedhiou's age, Kodjia was just about to have his breakthrough season at Angers whereas Diedhiou has far more experience at a better standard. 

Quote

Perhaps we were spoilt with these two.  He is certainly not a 'Bas Savage' but his playing style reminds me more of Wayne Allison . I am uncomfortable that the club have spent such a huge chunk on FD.

Agreed - he's that sort of player and totally different to JK or TA. I believe he has really helped Reid and I'm sure Bobby would attest to that.

It is a big price tag though so I can understand why he's being critiqued pretty harshly.

Quote

Can a 5m striker be a work in progress. Has he given any opposition a difficult game to date 

Yes he can, he's only 24 so has years to improve. He will definitely get physically stronger and adjust to the English game.

I feel last night he gave Terry, Samba and Chester plenty to think about. He was against an experienced and canny defence and held his own in my opinion.

[Euan BCFC]

Not that he cost anything, but Woodrow looks pretty crap too. Our only good striker is Booby, who just wouldn't be able to cope up top on his own. So, unfortunately, unless we sign a new Forward in the next week, I think we're screwed