I would have happily traded him for Haaland a few months ago (perhaps still would) but he’s really impressed me how he’s starting to step it up. Do you think the whole number 9 thing was a mental block for him? Seemed to go off the boil when he lost the number, though we also had the soul suckers manage us too
I do think the number issue was something on his mind at first. If I remember correctly, he did start José's first 3 league games in a row, but was poor and understandably dropped.
After that initial dropping from the 1st team I think he was fine and over it. The problem then was that it seemed José had already lost complete faith in him. I said before about him starting 3 games in a row and, correct me if I'm wrong, but there was only one other time he started 3+ in a row (I believe it was 4) so he never had any chance of building some form.
That second run in the team where he played 4 I think was around the time we signed Alexis. In the first 3 games, he was probably our best player in the playing off the left, and in the 4th he was moved to the right to accommodate the newly signed Alexis on the left where he was poor because he's always poor on the right, and José never gave him a run again.
Whenever he's played under a manager that's trusted him (van Gaal & Ole), he's usually performed well for us.