[Albion] Mats Wieffer SINGS on 5 year contract

[El Turi]

He was ok last night but always looks clumsy on the ball and his passing is pretty poor.

 

[Perry Milkins]

He's also contributed right? He scored a winning goal against the champions

Agreed. The point I was making was issues around how each player comes across intangibly as opposed to efforts in a game.

 

[JBizzle]

The match day thread amused me as there was one nob on there insisting he should be nowhere near the first team. Well he hasn't pulled up any trees but was ok last night. And he was 100 times better than O'Riley, who picked up where he left off in the second half of the Southampton game and continued to be invisible.

For me, the difference between the two players is that Weiffer's high profile shite pass v Wolves led to an equaliser whereas O'Riley gets treated with kid gloves on here because he was crocked by a Crawley clogger.

This is where I'm at with it. Weiffer and O'Riley both came in with big reputations, from inferior leagues and with big price tags. Neither are settled and neither have really found their feet because both have had quite serious injuries since arriving. They will disappear in games and they will have better performances, but I suspect we won't see the best from either until post-Christmas.

Weiffer wasn't the problem in the team last night. Neither was O'Riley. We were set up all wrong from the start and put on the back foot by yet another gift from Verbruggen.

 

[Weststander]

He's also contributed right? He scored a winning goal against the champions

Wieffer was signed as one of the FH pivots. Whilst the itk football watchers here said O'Riley played just behind the striker.

 

[kevo]

He was ok last night but always looks clumsy on the ball and his passing is pretty poor.

He just gets knocked off the ball so easily and struggles with the speed of the game. He always seems to need more time than he has. He made one great interception last night, but generally speaking he's a liability. I don't really know what was going through Fab's head starting with him. Maybe to give him the experience he needs to step up?

 

[METALMICKY]

I think also that O Riley has presented himself well in his interviews whereas for some reason Weiffer seems less engaging and perhaps a bit morose.

My thoughts entirely and I like the determination with which ORiley got back fit ahead of schedule. As other people have expressed the progress report on Wieffer is still distinctly ' Meh ' but ridiculously too early to write off.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Thought he looked really tidy, good crisp passing, some brilliant tackles. There’s a player in there.

 

[Perry Milkins]

My thoughts entirely and I like the determination with which ORiley got back fit ahead of schedule. As other people have expressed the progress report on Wieffer is still distinctly ' Meh ' but ridiculously too early to write off.

It's far too early to write off either of them.

Last season we had the same assessment of Baleba and we now see the player he is but he was also off the pace yesterday.

 

[Machiavelli]

But is he having a noticeably positive impact on the team? That was my original question. At no point did I say he was our worst player last night - as you say, there were a few who could stake that claim.

Perhaps my expectations of him are too high, but I thought he would be far more physically dominant than he is, far more comfortable receiving the ball in tight spaces, on the half turn or when under pressure than he is, and far more creative in possession than he is.

At the moment he is just very meh and it feels like the game just passes him by.

Yes, he is having a positive impact although I wouldn't go as far as saying it's noticeable, as he has qualities distinct to all our other CMs. I think your expectations of him are too high, and would say that physicality is fine and he's pretty good at receiving in tight spaces and creativity on a par for a DCM (see, for instance, our goals against Everton). The game really doesn't pass him by, that's never the case for any DCM.

I'm not saying that he'll turn in to a standout player, and the fact that he is slow has also shown up as being ponderous on occasions -- which is what he really needs to eliminate and might be what's informing your view on tight spaces/half turn. He just needs to get up to speed with the pace of the PL and, again, he'll never become a quick player, it's about adapting his skillset to its pace and intensity. There are plenty of PL players that don't have pace but thrive. Which is another way of saying: give him more time.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Underwhelming signing

 

[Machiavelli]

This is where I'm at with it. Weiffer and O'Riley both came in with big reputations, from inferior leagues and with big price tags. Neither are settled and neither have really found their feet because both have had quite serious injuries since arriving. They will disappear in games and they will have better performances, but I suspect we won't see the best from either until post-Christmas.

Weiffer wasn't the problem in the team last night. Neither was O'Riley. We were set up all wrong from the start and put on the back foot by yet another gift from Verbruggen.

This was going so well until your very last point. Last night was as giftiest as they get, but share us some recent other examples.

 

[JBizzle]

This was going so well until your very last point. Last night was as giftiest as they get, but share us some recent other examples.

Well, in 33 appearances for us he has 5 mistakes leading to goals for a start, 3 of which are this season. I'm assuming those aren't made up by Opta.

Don't get me wrong, I love him and he's a brilliant keeper, but I still think he needs to sort out that element of his game. If his name was Steele or Sanchez, this site would be a binfire.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Made more passes than any other midfielder last night. Think his main issue is that he's not especially glamorous at anything

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Yes, he is having a positive impact although I wouldn't go as far as saying it's noticeable, as he has qualities distinct to all our other CMs. I think your expectations of him are too high, and would say that physicality is fine and he's pretty good at receiving in tight spaces and creativity on a par for a DCM (see, for instance, our goals against Everton). The game really doesn't pass him by, that's never the case for any DCM.

I'm not saying that he'll turn in to a standout player, and the fact that he is slow has also shown up as being ponderous on occasions -- which is what he really needs to eliminate and might be what's informing your view on tight spaces/half turn. He just needs to get up to speed with the pace of the PL and, again, he'll never become a quick player, it's about adapting his skillset to its pace and intensity. There are plenty of PL players that don't have pace but thrive. Which is another way of saying: give him more time.

Spot on.
His strength is (Wolves apart) is that he sits and maintains shape, whist the Baleb’s and Ayari’s push on more when in possession.

We absolutely need this type of player, whether longer term Wieffer is that player who knows, but early days still.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

This is where I'm at with it. Weiffer and O'Riley both came in with big reputations, from inferior leagues and with big price tags. Neither are settled and neither have really found their feet because both have had quite serious injuries since arriving. They will disappear in games and they will have better performances, but I suspect we won't see the best from either until post-Christmas.

Weiffer wasn't the problem in the team last night. Neither was O'Riley. We were set up all wrong from the start and put on the back foot by yet another gift from Verbruggen.

Verbruggen wasn’t helped by Igor playing him on to his weaker foot, so he couldn’t play the pass first time. Down to Bart, but Igor has to do better.

Not sure about ‘yet another gift’, you’ll have to remind me….

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Why should our £30m midfielder dominate his area of the pitch when every week he is up against other £30m(++) midfielders? Iwobi cost £22m himself.

The price tag has no bearing, Groß cost £3m and was our best player in the PL era, and one of our best of all time. Locadia was £15m and one of our worst signings in the Amex era.

Everyone has good and great players, his fee was simply the mechanism to bring him into the squad - in terms of value we won’t win them all but we are massively in credit.

I think he did okay today and was actually one of our better performers on the night, in that he did his job fairly solidly.

These are a good points

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Yes, he is having a positive impact although I wouldn't go as far as saying it's noticeable, as he has qualities distinct to all our other CMs. I think your expectations of him are too high, and would say that physicality is fine and he's pretty good at receiving in tight spaces and creativity on a par for a DCM (see, for instance, our goals against Everton). The game really doesn't pass him by, that's never the case for any DCM.

I'm not saying that he'll turn in to a standout player, and the fact that he is slow has also shown up as being ponderous on occasions -- which is what he really needs to eliminate and might be what's informing your view on tight spaces/half turn. He just needs to get up to speed with the pace of the PL and, again, he'll never become a quick player, it's about adapting his skillset to its pace and intensity. There are plenty of PL players that don't have pace but thrive. Which is another way of saying: give him more time.

We’ll have to agree to disagree as I’m surprised you think he’s good at receiving the ball in tight spaces. He never looks like he particularly wants to receive it on the half turn when we’re building up in our third. He also gets nudged off the ball too easily.

The game can certainly pass a DCM by if they’re not involved in build-up, setting the tempo of play, winning the majority of their duels or intercepting play (something which I think he has been decent at).

You’re right to point out that he is going to have to adapt his style to compensate for his lack of pace. A very hard task unfortunately. Not every slow midfielder can do what Pascal Gross did.

 

[Weststander]

Made more passes than any other midfielder last night. Think his main issue is that he's not especially glamorous at anything

Until you see him dancing in a sequin dress.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Goal apart, Baleba was poor.

All 3 of the main midfield players were poor.

But only one of the scored the equaliser.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Made more passes than any other midfielder last night. Think his main issue is that he's not especially glamorous at anything

It doesn’t help that it takes him 5 minutes to make each of those passes, and he struggles most to make them when under any pressure.

Honestly, I hope he improves. But people are kidding themselves if they think last night was some fantastic turning point. He was, at best, bang average (although that’s better than many of our players last night).