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2022/23 Dwight McNeil

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I would suggest you don’t have eyes if you can’t see what he offered tonight. No coincidence why Patterson was able to have such a good game with McNeil in front of him, on Leeds’ dominant side no less. He can still improve in front of goal but he still doesn’t have anything to aim at or pass to in terms of a striker.

He’s also still young in his own right, he’ll grow into this team with Maupay and Dom to play off of in future. Think he’ll eventually end up as a 10 but his hard work clearly makes things easier for other players.
 


I like to look at whoscored.com after watching the game. You have to take it with a grain of salt. Usually the numbers will track what I just watched. Sometimes they're off, which could be because the model is dumb, because the underlying numbers don't reflect the reality of what happened, or in a few cases because the numbers show something which may have escaped notice.

I was surprised by this:

1661916848226.webp


The Everton numbers track with the eye test, except Gray is much lower that I would have thought and there's no way I would have called McNeil MOTM.

But the numbers are interesting. McNeil had 5 dribbles, second only to Gordon; a team high 10 attempted tackles; 3 interceptions, tied for team lead with Myko; 4 blocks (Patterson had 8, no one else more than 3). So he put in a Gana-like shift. He took care of the ball. Other than the ball to Iwobi that led to Iwobi feeding Gordon for his goal, he didn't do much offensively, but without doing much that would make the highlights he was excellent in defensive actions from the forward slot. That was touted as one of his strengths when we got him.

I was impressed that we took it right to Leeds from the start with the aggressive press and beat them at their own game in the first half. Our forwards were the big contributors and it looks like McNeil especially. I think it bodes well for when we have actual striker(s) for him to target.
 
Gray's number of 5.9 is much lower than the eye test would have it, because 1) the model probably gives him no credit for the waved-off goal; 2) his 12 completed passes were by far the team low; 3) his 14 losses of possession was nearly 3x the next highest (Gordon/McN with 5); 4) he did not come close to leading any positive categories.

Again, the whole enterprise is a little suspect, but the eye test did not have McNeil as the best player on the pitch and Gray as the worst and the numbers here do support the ratings, at least somewhat.
 
….his manager and teammates will be delighted with him tonight, put in a proper shift and cut out numerous crosses. For the first time, signs of a partnership with Patterson.

Liked him on Saturday & liked him even more tonight. Could be a decent signing.
Partnership been. The operative word. He will get better offensively, still finding his feet as are a lot of new players. We look organised but the playing side will come with getting used to team mates and coaching.
 

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