Eliasson

[Silvio Dante]

There’s a thread on this in the transfer forum, but to reiterate:

- Talk of NE being “the one who got away” or a £10m player is for the birds. If he was that good, he wouldn’t have transferred for £2m to AEK and would have had bigger clubs going in for him. (And yes, AEK are a big club in some respects. But they’re not a big club in the “European” classification and the Greek league is not strong. There have been graphs posted here which showed league relative strength and Greek isn’t high)

- Even if you disbelieve that graph, he’s gone to a club in a league 15th in UEFAs coefficients (see https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2022). That league is below (amongst others) Serbia and Scotland and AEK finished fifth. He’s not gone to a giant here.

- The moves he’s had (to a relegated French team and then to a large club in a poor league) show that football in general has that opinion. If he was a great untapped talent, at 26, he would be going to a better league or a better club

- The reason he’s not a £10m player is because positionally he’s poor. He made more tackles than most other players purely because he had to as his positioning was so bad

- That’s not to say he was poor here - his crossing was phenomenal. But he added zilch else. And positionally he disrupted us as Hunt had to get pulled to cover. We were a better team without him in it - people like him as he was exciting, but no top championship side would have him as a starter (see above)

With NE, I often think of how we got him. LJ wanted a player statistically similar to Knockeart. And Knockeart performed very well in a team that could make up for his deficiencies outside of crossing. As soon as that team wasn’t good enough (promoted) or the team wasn’t the same system (Forest, Fulham), he was totally ineffective and got dispatched quickly. If we accept NE is a “worse Knockeart”, then it’s not a stretch to suggest that his level is below. Lower champ, poor European league, French L2. And that’s due to his limitations which are totally evident.

[Dr Balls]

15 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

There’s a thread on this in the transfer forum, but to reiterate:

- Talk of NE being “the one who got away” or a £10m player is for the birds. If he was that good, he wouldn’t have transferred for £2m to AEK and would have had bigger clubs going in for him. (And yes, AEK are a big club in some respects. But they’re not a big club in the “European” classification and the Greek league is not strong. There have been graphs posted here which showed league relative strength and Greek isn’t high)

- Even if you disbelieve that graph, he’s gone to a club in a league 15th in UEFAs coefficients (see https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2022). That league is below (amongst others) Serbia and Scotland and AEK finished fifth. He’s not gone to a giant here.

- The moves he’s had (to a relegated French team and then to a large club in a poor league) show that football in general has that opinion. If he was a great untapped talent, at 26, he would be going to a better league or a better club

- The reason he’s not a £10m player is because positionally he’s poor. He made more tackles than most other players purely because he had to as his positioning was so bad

- That’s not to say he was poor here - his crossing was phenomenal. But he added zilch else. And positionally he disrupted us as Hunt had to get pulled to cover. We were a better team without him in it - people like him as he was exciting, but no top championship side would have him as a starter (see above)

With NE, I often think of how we got him. LJ wanted a player statistically similar to Knockeart. And Knockeart performed very well in a team that could make up for his deficiencies outside of crossing. As soon as that team wasn’t good enough (promoted) or the team wasn’t the same system (Forest, Fulham), he was totally ineffective and got dispatched quickly. If we accept NE is a “worse Knockeart”, then it’s not a stretch to suggest that his level is below. Lower champ, poor European league, French L2. And that’s due to his limitations which are totally evident.

However in terms of our Swedish imports NE was still more successful than Engvall…

[Bar BS3]

46 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

30 games, 4 goals 3 assists. Not bad in a relegated team it's in the link you quoted 

That is bad in a relegated team & if it's over 30 appearances,  then probably played a fair part in being one of the reasons that they were relegated. 

[Davefevs]

36 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

There’s a thread on this in the transfer forum, but to reiterate:

- Talk of NE being “the one who got away” or a £10m player is for the birds. If he was that good, he wouldn’t have transferred for £2m to AEK and would have had bigger clubs going in for him. (And yes, AEK are a big club in some respects. But they’re not a big club in the “European” classification and the Greek league is not strong. There have been graphs posted here which showed league relative strength and Greek isn’t high)

- Even if you disbelieve that graph, he’s gone to a club in a league 15th in UEFAs coefficients (see https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2022). That league is below (amongst others) Serbia and Scotland and AEK finished fifth. He’s not gone to a giant here.

- The moves he’s had (to a relegated French team and then to a large club in a poor league) show that football in general has that opinion. If he was a great untapped talent, at 26, he would be going to a better league or a better club

- The reason he’s not a £10m player is because positionally he’s poor. He made more tackles than most other players purely because he had to as his positioning was so bad

- That’s not to say he was poor here - his crossing was phenomenal. But he added zilch else. And positionally he disrupted us as Hunt had to get pulled to cover. We were a better team without him in it - people like him as he was exciting, but no top championship side would have him as a starter (see above)

With NE, I often think of how we got him. LJ wanted a player statistically similar to Knockeart. And Knockeart performed very well in a team that could make up for his deficiencies outside of crossing. As soon as that team wasn’t good enough (promoted) or the team wasn’t the same system (Forest, Fulham), he was totally ineffective and got dispatched quickly. If we accept NE is a “worse Knockeart”, then it’s not a stretch to suggest that his level is below. Lower champ, poor European league, French L2. And that’s due to his limitations which are totally evident.

That is so like what I’d have written it’s untrue!

[jambodinho]

Sunday September 11th, AEK Athens vs Panathinaikos. Eliasson vs Hörður Magnússon. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

@Silvio Dante

Hunt a right back covers an LW for one?

Well maybe.

You cite two random examples in Nottingham Forest who collapsed out of the playoffs that year. Fulham who perhaps went up despite Parker as opposed to because of him. I guess the Knockaert connection.

Brentford? I think he could have fitted there, possession- 4-3-3. 3rd highest assists in 2019-20 at this level. Nothing of course to do with our fairly woeful tactics at times in 2019-20.

I actually think a number of signings in that era who stalled or failed would have done alright there...and a number of those they signed, would have bombed here.

I think we could have had Norgaard and Jensen and some others and we would not have seen the best of them here. Still playing at PL level doing fine.

Clearly with a back 3, Eliasson becomes redundant but...producing 10 assists and above in a Championship season is really quite rare over a 7 year period.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Mr Popodopolous

[Garland-sweden]

9 hours ago, Bar BS3 said:

If you discount all the ones he hit the first defender,  until he finally got a decent one in. 

Way too erratic for our level. 

Great went it went right,  but was generally a liability for the rest of the team. 

Exciting type of player to watch,  but not one that many managers will want to have to fit into their team. 

One must be the manager of AEK Athen.

[Garland-sweden]

3 hours ago, Bar BS3 said:

How did he get on after that initial move to French L1...? 

I could be wrong, but didn't they get relegated,  with him contributing nothing,  whilst at that level..? 

I'm sure he didn't do well there when he first moved & was shocked at his lack of impact there. 

Nimes was in second division when They signed Elasson. Now AEK Athen one of the best Clubs in Greece. Probably have Eliasson done well in Nimes.

[Bar BS3]

6 minutes ago, Garland-sweden said:

Nimes was in second division when They signed Elasson. Now AEK Athen one of the best Clubs in Greece. Probably have Eliasson done well in Nimes.

Greece is very similar to Scotland. 

It has 3,  maybe 4 clubs of any note. 

As a competitive league,  its a joke. 

Big club,  within Greece - yes - but only in the way that Scotland has a couple of big clubs in an utterly uncompetitive league,  outside the top few sides & then anyone playing for them will find it a doddle to win silverwear by acyually only needing to finish top of a 2/3 team mini league,  because the rest are only there to make up the numbers and are a joke. 

 

Nice move for NE,  but there's no way the Greek league is comparative to the Championship,  in general standard. 

[Garland-sweden]

8 hours ago, Rossi the Robin said:

Very good at Judo apparently 

Not sure he was good enough defensively for the Championship 

LJ send him to Judo training, after that he won often more the ball one against one situations. Eliasson is a winger and better then COD in every inch of the field. LJ and Holden did not think so, they played COD week after week, only God knows why.  COD is in Cardiff and Eliasson in AEK Athen, one of the best Clubs in Greece. Offcause Eliasson wanted away from Bristol City, LJ and Holden did not believe in him.

[Davefevs]

4 minutes ago, Garland-sweden said:

LJ send him to Judo training, after that he won often more the ball one against one situations. Eliasson is a winger and better then COD in every inch of the field. LJ and Holden did not think so, they played COD week after week, only God knows why.  COD is in Cardiff and Eliasson in AEK Athen, one of the best Clubs in Greece. Offcause Eliasson wanted away from Bristol City, LJ and Holden did not believe in him.

In fairness to Holden, he switched to a back three and then Eliasson left.  He played a couple of friendlies as one of the attacking-eights.

[Silvio Dante]

40 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

@Silvio Dante

Hunt a right back covers an LW for one?

Well maybe.

You cite two random examples in Nottingham Forest who collapsed out of the playoffs that year. Fulham who perhaps went up despite Parker as opposed to because of him. I guess the Knockaert connection.

Brentford? I think he could have fitted there, possession- 4-3-3. 3rd highest assists in 2019-20 at this level. Nothing of course to do with our fairly woeful tactics at times in 2019-20.

I actually think a number of signings in that era who stalled or failed would have done alright there...and a number of those they signed, would have bombed here.

I think we could have had Norgaard and Jensen and some others and we would not have seen the best of them here. Still playing at PL level doing fine.

Clearly with a back 3, Eliasson becomes redundant but...producing 10 assists and above in a Championship season is really quite rare over a 7 year period.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. He may have done ok at Brentford, but Brentford didn’t sign him so that’s totally irrelevant. Brentford players may have done well or badly here but we didn’t sign them so that’s also irrelevant - all of that is total conjecture.
 

Opposed to that…

The Fulham and Forest examples are because AK went there and failed there as the system wasn’t set to him.

NE played right side in front of Hunt often.

However, ignoring all that, the bottom line is this. Despite the assists, he’s gone to worse leagues and his value is the same as when we signed him. That says to me the general opinion in the game is he’s not as good as some say he is - and the assist stats mask some very big weaknesses.

I’m not saying he was terrible, but the rose tinted “he was a £10m player” or “the one that got away” is well wide of the mark considering the evidence to the contrary 

[redysteadygo]

5 hours ago, grifty said:

So I guess Scott didn't get a proper assist for Conways goal. Or Naismiths free kick V Cardiff?

Yep, proper assist from Scott. Should have made it clear that I inferred a centre from the touch line rarely had any quality of dissecting  a defence to present a player with gilt edged chance. 

[Red-Robbo]

I thought he was pretty nifty - one of the fastest players we've had here for a long time - but as others have said, he'd not fit into a 2022 City squad. 

No need to denigrate the chap, or big him up for that matter, he had weaknesses in his game, but he was younger then and it's pure speculation to wonder whether they'd have been addressed had he stayed here and played for Pearson, or if we'd have released him in the 2021 great clear-out.