But Evra and Vidic were “playing”. Can’t learn sod all about your team mates and the Premier League if you’re picking splinters out your backside.
Okay so here’s a question, how long does this continue, this lad sat on the bench, before YOU start to get suspicious about his potential suitability to the league? The answer will be different for everyone of course, but we’re 1/4 of the way through the season and we’ve barely seen him.
What we have seen hasn’t been great but you can certainly overlook that because he isn’t getting the minutes to make the mistakes that all young players make.
Is the manager seeing something in training that we aren’t? More to the point, how long before Kean argues this wasn’t the opportunity of regular minutes that he was sold.
He’s not some kid that needs wrapping in cotton wool, he’s still learning sure but he’s a grown man and if he wants to be one of the best players in the world as we believe he has the ambitions and talent to do so, then the best players in the world are getting minutes in their teens and early 20s. At all levels. The best are doing it in the league, europe and internationally in their teens and early 20s.
Minutes is what he came here for, what he came here over all those other top clubs in europe. He’s not getting them, why not? That’s a fair question from all sides, I’d say.
One that we, and Kean, has every right to ask. I certainly hope he is. If top strikers are sat on the bench watching the team struggle, they are banging the managers door down for an opportunity.
No, my logic isn’t “they play for a top team, therefore they are a top player”. My logic is “they are playing regularly for a top team at 19 years of age, so they can’t be THAT bad a player”
Two very different points, and the second wouldn’t apply to Henderson.
Practically all of the players I’ve mentioned have moved from their home countries before the age of 20 and are playing regularly. Irrespective of their quality, which is entirely subjective and up for debate, these young lads are getting regular minutes for some of the best teams in Europe.
So the point stands, if they are poor young players (which I disagree with in most of those cases, but we’ll forget that for now) and we all acknowledge they are playing regularly at the highest level at the likes of Madrid, Barca, Dortmund, Milan, Juve, Lyon etc but also several u20 players playing regularly at midtable teams such as West Ham, Sociedad, Wolves, Watford, Marseille, Villareal etc and we have one of the very best young strikers in europe, why on earth is he not getting a kick?
You say it like it’s an impossibility for an under 20 player to move countries and adapt (or be given the platform to do so!). Modern Footballers are so accustomed to travel nowadays. And remember, we’re not actually excusing the fact that he’s playing and playing badly here - which would be better. A starting point. Then perhaps the argument about adaptation and “give him time” would hold more water as we’d have something to base it off.
He’s not even getting a kick and our attack has been shocking, why?
Who’s making things up? Rice, TAA and Pulisic didn’t just start playing this season lad. They’ve got 2-3 seasons under their belt in some cases. So they are in exactly the same bracket as Kean is/was. No difference.
Their quality, whatever you think of them, isn’t really the argument here. It’s about the minutes he’s been afforded that Kean isn’t. I think Rice is a decent young player, improving in a decent West Ham team. I don’t think he’s going to be a world beater, nor do I fall into the trap of thinking anyone who isn’t Iniesta is garbage as many do on here, but he’ll be a decent Premier League midfielder. Either way, the point still stands, he’s getting minutes and has been for a long while.
Are AWB and Rice NOT getting regular minutes for their clubs and have been for over 12 months?
That’s the very point i’m making. Nothing to do with quality, which ultimately boils down to a matter of opinion anyway.
