2018/19 Gylfi Sigurdsson

[Big Fat Sam]

£57m for essentially Schneiderlin with a cool sounding name.

Tbf Schneiderlin is a pretty nice name. Better than McCarthy or Smith or something like that.

 

[Saint Domingo]

I don't know what you expect - the key pass metric suggests 1-2 key passes per match occurs.

For Everton, the only other player that makes more key passes per 90 minutes that has played at least 20 matches is Lucas Digne with 2.12 (Sigurdsson does 1.88 KP/90): https://understat.com/team/Everton/2018

I expect a 40 million pound midfielder to help us control possession, I expect him to help us (as part of his midfield unit) dominate games, I expect him when we don’t have the ball to be effective in winning it back, I expect him when we’re under the cosh to help wrestle the initiative away from the opposition and back to us, I expect him to make the difference in big games and take responsibility when the chips are down, I expect him to impact the game not just when we are on top but also when the team isn’t playing great.

That’s what I expect for 45 million and a tactical system designed specifically for him. I don’t expect a player who can barely keep up with the pace of the league when we don’t have the ball. I don’t expect a player who can only impact the game if we are absolutely dominant, I don’t expect a player who struggles to retain possession (due to his lack of pace) and struggles to get it back of the opposition, I don’t expect a player to offer absolutely nothing offensively unless the team is on top, I don’t expect him to go awol for games at a time, I don’t expect him to regularly miss penalties.

For 45 million I want a Mesut Ozil, a David Silva, a Bernardo Silva, a Coutinho, I’d even take a Juan Mata. To end up with a bloke though who might be able to get a key pass or shot away only if the conditions are absolutely perfect and we’re well on top or he’s completely redundant is not what I’d expect for a 45 mill footballer.

 

[EvertonFury19]

I expect a 40 million pound midfielder to help us control possession, I expect him to help us (as part of his midfield unit) dominate games, I expect him when we don’t have the ball to be effective in winning it back, I expect him when we’re under the cosh to help wrestle the initiative away from the opposition and back to us, I expect him to make the difference in big games and take responsibility when the chips are down, I expect him to impact the game not just when we are on top but also when the team isn’t playing great.

That’s what I expect for 45 million and a tactical system designed specifically for him. I don’t expect a player who can barely keep up with the pace of the league when we don’t have the ball. I don’t expect a player who can only impact the game if we are absolutely dominant, I don’t expect a player who struggles to retain possession (due to his lack of pace) and struggles to get it back of the opposition, I don’t expect a player to offer absolutely nothing offensively unless the team is on top, I don’t expect him to go awol for games at a time, I don’t expect him to regularly miss penalties.

For 45 million I want a Mesut Ozil, a David Silva, a Bernardo Silva, a Coutinho, I’d even take a Juan Mata. To end up with a bloke though who might be able to get a key pass or shot away only if the conditions are absolutely perfect and we’re well on top or he’s completely redundant is not what I’d expect for a 45 mill footballer.

You have some fair criticisms of Gylfi's play (namely his lack of pace, his inconsistency on penalties). But good luck getting an Ozil, either Silva, Coutinho for 45 million. You do know Ozil is having a crap season for Arsenal, both Silvas are better, and Coutinho went for 160 million+?

 

[Saint Domingo]

You have some fair criticisms of Gylfi's play (namely his lack of pace, his inconsistency on penalties). But good luck getting an Ozil, either Silva, Coutinho for 45 million. You do know Ozil is having a crap season for Arsenal, both Silvas are better, and Coutinho went for 160 million+?

City got Bernardo Silva for similarish money from Monaco if I remember correctly. Eriksen wasn’t anywhere near this level of money even accounting for inflation when Spurs got him. Bleh Liverpool were looking at a similar fee for Fekir who is playing CL football and a World Cup winner. I think City only paid 5 mill more to get De Bruyne back from Wolfsburg.

The deal just wasn’t value for money whatever way anyone looks at it. If he was a 15 mill player then I could accept some of the arguments about him but would still have maintained he’s not good enough for where we want to be. As he cost so much though he had to go down as one of the biggest wastes of money in our history.

 

[Steve Wigan]

But you're not confusing what you believe his job should be (your original point) with what his obvious instructions were. In short, you can't criticise his lack of ball winning if he's been told by the manager to block the passing lane into a particular player.

I would imagine that it wasn't the only tactic either and Silva deployed a few things which we didn't do properly, as he alluded to in his post-match comments
The question remains though as to whether Gylfi did better or not in the second half? Probably better but i'd imagine the point of stopping the passing into Jorginho was so that we could press other players on the Chelsea team which no-one first half did because we were far too deep. Second half, everything seemed to work much better. What was the reason for that? Did the tactic involving Gylfi contribute?

Despite what our resident Journalist says, looking at a Jorginho's passing accuracy won't tell you how successful Gylfi was nor will looking at his passes in isolation for this game.

Instead, we'd have to look at Jorginho's number of average passes in a half / full game across the season. We can therefore confirm his anticipated contribution in a game and see whether it stacks up against his first half / second half / full game contribution on Sunday. If his number of touches was less than his average, with some sort of threshold for likely game by game deviation, we could confirm whether Gylfi did actually do his job or not.

If that's done and Jorginho was just as influential as he always is in both halves individually and across the whole game, we can point criticism at Gylfi.

Until then, it's lazy analysis / agenda.

Spot on. Gylfi is one of the best players in the Prem WITHOUT the ball. Watch his positional nous wnen the ball is not near him. As you say, he blocks the important channels,which is a critical part of a successful tactic.

 

[mkrudden]

I expect a 40 million pound midfielder to help us control possession, I expect him to help us (as part of his midfield unit) dominate games, I expect him when we don’t have the ball to be effective in winning it back, I expect him when we’re under the cosh to help wrestle the initiative away from the opposition and back to us, I expect him to make the difference in big games and take responsibility when the chips are down, I expect him to impact the game not just when we are on top but also when the team isn’t playing great.

That’s what I expect for 45 million and a tactical system designed specifically for him. I don’t expect a player who can barely keep up with the pace of the league when we don’t have the ball. I don’t expect a player who can only impact the game if we are absolutely dominant, I don’t expect a player who struggles to retain possession (due to his lack of pace) and struggles to get it back of the opposition, I don’t expect a player to offer absolutely nothing offensively unless the team is on top, I don’t expect him to go awol for games at a time, I don’t expect him to regularly miss penalties.

For 45 million I want a Mesut Ozil, a David Silva, a Bernardo Silva, a Coutinho, I’d even take a Juan Mata. To end up with a bloke though who might be able to get a key pass or shot away only if the conditions are absolutely perfect and we’re well on top or he’s completely redundant is not what I’d expect for a 45 mill footballer.

City got Bernardo Silva for similarish money from Monaco if I remember correctly. Eriksen wasn’t anywhere near this level of money even accounting for inflation when Spurs got him. Bleh Liverpool were looking at a similar fee for Fekir who is playing CL football and a World Cup winner. I think City only paid 5 mill more to get De Bruyne back from Wolfsburg.

The deal just wasn’t value for money whatever way anyone looks at it. If he was a 15 mill player then I could accept some of the arguments about him but would still have maintained he’s not good enough for where we want to be. As he cost so much though he had to go down as one of the biggest wastes of money in our history.

So much lunacy in two posts SD. So, so much.

 

[Walken]

Spot on. Gylfi is one of the best players in the Prem WITHOUT the ball. Watch his positional nous wnen the ball is not near him. As you say, he blocks the important channels,which is a critical part of a successful tactic.

He understands the pressing game really well, no question there, like most this season he has had good games and suffered in the post derby slump. I thought at the goodison derby he actually played like a leader and grew into the game at Chelsea. He can't build a move like Gomes (who has some really weird detractors) but I'm happy to have him in the team. We are still finding balance after the horror of koeman then fat sam, but siggy can definitely be a part of the next stage, I'm not sure he will ever be an integral midfielder in terms of tempo but he's a good player

 

[blueconverse]

City got Bernardo Silva for similarish money from Monaco if I remember correctly. Eriksen wasn’t anywhere near this level of money even accounting for inflation when Spurs got him. Bleh Liverpool were looking at a similar fee for Fekir who is playing CL football and a World Cup winner. I think City only paid 5 mill more to get De Bruyne back from Wolfsburg.

The deal just wasn’t value for money whatever way anyone looks at it. If he was a 15 mill player then I could accept some of the arguments about him but would still have maintained he’s not good enough for where we want to be. As he cost so much though he had to go down as one of the biggest wastes of money in our history.

A 15 mill player is not getting double figures from midfield you madman

 

[Saint Domingo]

So much lunacy in two posts SD. So, so much.

He drives me to it. Or rather he aimlessly ambles me to it.

 

[Saint Domingo]

A 15 mill player is not getting double figures from midfield you madman

Let’s call it right though, Siggurdson is barely playing in midfield for us. He spends most of his time upfront trying to get on the end of things. He’s like a very slow second striker who has boosted his tally with pens.

 

[Goat]

Same amount of goals as :
Lukaku, who costs his team 90m
Lacazette who cost his team 50m
Jamie Vardy
Raul Jiminez

1 less than Eden Hazard

But still his doubters doubt.

VIKING

 

[Saint Domingo]

Same amount of goals as :
Lukaku, who costs his team 90m
Lacazette who cost his team 50m
Jamie Vardy
Raul Jiminez

1 less than Eden Hazard

But still his doubters doubt.

VIKING

Ask any of those clubs if they’d swap their players for Siggurdson? Ask any matchgoer if they’d swap Siggurdson for any of those players. I bet the responses both ways would be almost 100% against having Siggurdson in the team.

 

[MikeH72]

Same amount of goals as :
Lukaku, who costs his team 90m
Lacazette who cost his team 50m
Jamie Vardy
Raul Jiminez

1 less than Eden Hazard

But still his doubters doubt.

VIKING

Real Madrid should bin their Hazard plans and get Sigurdsson for a quarter of the price.

 

[COYBL25]

Ask any of those clubs if they’d swap their players for Siggurdson? Ask any matchgoer if they’d swap Siggurdson for any of those players. I bet the responses both ways would be almost 100% against having Siggurdson in the team.

I wouldn’t like Vardy tbh, as we’ve already got Pickford to fill the bellend role.

 

[d34noj]

You have some fair criticisms of Gylfi's play (namely his lack of pace, his inconsistency on penalties). But good luck getting an Ozil, either Silva, Coutinho for 45 million. You do know Ozil is having a crap season for Arsenal, both Silvas are better, and Coutinho went for 160 million+?

Not even close to that figure. The amount they are guaranteed without add ons is about half that.