[Albion] Mahmoud Dahoud (Loaned to VfB Stuttgart 31/01/24)

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

There isn’t a player in our team that wouldn’t benefit from us having a true defensive midfielder. It’s a large and glaringly obvious hole. Baleba isn’t it, he’s a good player but he’s more box to box than DM.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

excellent point - there was a thread at some point that summer suggesting we should sell MacAllister

I remember one guest talking quite strongly about this on Albion Roar.

 

[Clive Walker]

Think he was an 8 vs Ajax if memory serves me. Other than that he’s been poor.

 

[Napper]

Dahoud has shown moments of class which is a positive but largely looks weak and soft as anything . It’s not really working with this guy at the moment .

Getting to stage when see his name on team sheet that it’s disappointing

 

[Acker79]

Earlier this season I was struggling to see much positivitiy in him, but he gradually started to show signs, then had a couple of good games, the second of which was good until he got sent off.

He didn't have his best game yesterday, but I'm hopeful he will start to improve as he gets back into the groove.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Cheap option that hasn't worked.

 

[Littlemo]

I don’t think Dahoud has looked all that good so far but to be fair to him, he hasn’t had a great chance yet to get up to speed with the league and the style of play. He’s not played all that many games, definitely far too early to write him off. The worry for him will be getting the games he needs, seems to be behind Gross, Gilmour, now maybe Baleba in those positions.

 

[the wanderbus]

He hasn’t got up to speed in the premier league yet and I don’t think he ever will. It’s clearly too fast and too physical.

 

[timbha]

He hasn’t got up to speed in the premier league yet and I don’t think he ever will. It’s clearly too fast and too physical.

He’s ok when we are on top. Showboating.

Plays like Dean Wilkins

 

[A1X]

There isn’t a player in our team that wouldn’t benefit from us having a true defensive midfielder. It’s a large and glaringly obvious hole. Baleba isn’t it, he’s a good player but he’s more box to box than DM.

This. We’ve clearly sold Caicedo “out of sequence” (we’d have been planning to lose him next summer). This is one of the risks with our strategy if one of our talents progresses hugely and quickly (coupled with greedy leeching agents), we could find ourselves short in a key area. Hopefully lessons for the club, as we now (IMHO) need to find a first team ready DM in January, along with a fullback, in a window when we traditionally don’t do much business.

 

[Springal]

This. We’ve clearly sold Caicedo “out of sequence” (we’d have been planning to lose him next summer). This is one of the risks with our strategy if one of our talents progresses hugely and quickly (coupled with greedy leeching agents), we could find ourselves short in a key area. Hopefully lessons for the club, as we now (IMHO) need to find a first team ready DM in January, along with a fullback, in a window when we traditionally don’t do much business.

Perhaps but don’t we always a short list for key staff / players at all times ? And Caicedo leaving was no secret for months really.

Club dropped the ball on that IMO

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Baleba's 19, very inexperienced and in a new league. I'd say he's doing well. The fee was high but we're investing in potential.

I'd say he's doing pretty well so far.

View attachment 171017

(all stats per 90 in the PL this season)

Jesus, what a fantastic post.

 

[Mustafa II]

Think Dahoud will come good. He has the quality.

Feel he would benefit from a decent run of games though, which he hasn't had yet (partly his own fault).

 

[peterward]

He shows glimpses of real quality but also doesn't seem capable of doing the simple things at times. Not giving up on him yet but the performance today didn't exactly do much to atone for costing us two points against Sheff U. Hopefully he'll come good eventually.

He was virtually anonymous. Our Midfield non existent. Was a lot better with more control when Gilmour came on

 

[Stat Brother]

He was virtually anonymous. Our Midfield non existent. Was a lot better with more control when Gilmour came on

with Mitoma, Igor and Hinshlewood.

 

[peterward]

Baleba's 19, very inexperienced and in a new league. I'd say he's doing well. The fee was high but we're investing in potential.

I'd say he's doing pretty well so far.

View attachment 171017

(all stats per 90 in the PL this season)

Interesting. But watching games as played rather than by stats. I don't think anyone would seriously argue that Baleba is currently a better player for us than Caicedo was?

The one benchmark I keep thinking back to is Biss in his first season (young age, from French League 1), he too was similarly raw with inconsistent performances, flashes of something special but also not quite at it consistently.

We all know how pivotal and improved Biss became with time, patience and games.

I'm really hopeful in 19yo Baleba we will have another Bissouma. Next season will be his year, this season is about finding his feet.

Potential is evident

 

[sagaman]

Think Mo played well at Ajax but most games is pretty anonymous. Real shame he didn’t grab his chance yesterday as we need to utilise our squad.

Might have been better if Baleba had played in midfield as the semi sweeper role didn’t work. With Lallana having an off day our midfield was nonexistent in the first half.

Our signings including Milner give de Zerbi a real challenge following our two star departures from midfield last season

 

[Kosh]

Think Dahoud will come good. He has the quality.

Feel he would benefit from a decent run of games though, which he hasn't had yet (partly his own fault).

Does he though? Maybe as a kind of play making AMC, but defensively he’s woeful… so expecting him to run the midfield with industry and tenacity in the tackle is the dictionary definition of a folly… yet, Roberto seems to be of another opinion… in short he reminds me of lazy Davy, who needed a ball winning ball breaker or two behind him to look the part…

Sadly we sold both of our PL level and genuine DMC/MCs over the summer and recruited an inexperienced box to box flyer who is somewhere between early Biss and errrmmm himself, something we don’t really know much about ourselves right now… Roberto doesn’t seem to either, which is a slight concern.

Back to Mo… he’s not pulling up trees, he’s not doing enough, he’s not making telling contributions… it’s a case of he should be better than he is… so why isn’t he ? He’s not 21, he’s played at a high level… for me, he’s not being used correctly but I doubt he will be unless we fix the deeper midfield areas and fast.

 

[Bakero]

Interesting. But watching games as played rather than by stats. I don't think anyone would seriously argue that Baleba is currently a better player for us than Caicedo was?

The one benchmark I keep thinking back to is Biss in his first season (young age, from French League 1), he too was similarly raw with inconsistent performances, flashes of something special but also not quite at it consistently.

We all know how pivotal and improved Biss became with time, patience and games.

I'm really hopeful in 19yo Baleba we will have another Bissouma. Next season will be his year, this season is about finding his feet.

Potential is evident

Of course he's not currently a better player than Caicedo was for us. But the fact is he's outperforming Chelsea's Caicedo on a range of metrics already, which bodes well.

His numbers actually stand up quite well against those of peak Brighton Caicedo too.

(Edited to fix typo)

 

[London Irish]

Does he though? Maybe as a kind of play making AMC, but defensively he’s woeful… so expecting him to run the midfield with industry and tenacity in the tackle is the dictionary definition of a folly… yet, Roberto seems to be of another opinion… in short he reminds me of lazy Davy, who needed a ball winning ball breaker or two behind him to look the part…

Sadly we sold both of our PL level and genuine DMC/MCs over the summer and recruited an inexperienced box to box flyer who is somewhere between early Biss and errrmmm himself, something we don’t really know much about ourselves right now… Roberto doesn’t seem to either, which is a slight concern.

Back to Mo… he’s not pulling up trees, he’s not doing enough, he’s not making telling contributions… it’s a case of he should be better than he is… so why isn’t he ? He’s not 21, he’s played at a high level… for me, he’s not being used correctly but I doubt he will be unless we fix the deeper midfield areas and fast.

Except he did make telling contributions in the Everton and Ajax games so writing him off completely is just the standard NSC poster overreaction