So how much would you sell this slide tackle merchant with seemingly barely any other redeeming qualities for then? I have asked that question before and one guy said he’d want back what you paid (£50m), others said between £25m and £30m. Sounds a lot for a slide tackler to me so maybe he isn’t quite as dreadful as some are making out?
Here’s the thing, I watched AWB a lot at Palace. The guy was very raw and at times you could hear Andros Townsend coaching him through games…where to be, when to overlap…but he was full of potential. At that point I am not surprised he was at the top of a list of 800 RBs putting in the kind of performances he was in his debut season, he shut elite wingers down every week to the point where teams just gave up and attacked the other side in the end. He started like that for you as well, I remember all the praise clearly….spider emojis all over twitter etc. etc. Your coaches just haven’t developed him well enough IMO and he’s never really had a competent winger to work with in all of his time at Utd. Playing him at wing-back was absolutely ludicrous and seems to have knocked his confidence as well. It not working out for him at Utd feeks like an inevitability now, shame really.
Still, thanks for the new academy.
to start, I think the sum we paid for him was way too much for a defender with one season under his belt. But nothing to do about that and I do not think he is worth that much now anyway.
i agree that probably coaches haven’t developed him well. Last season, he was very good defensively. I remember him shutting Sterling down on every occasion, his tackles were almost perfect. The coaching staff failed to build on that. He has actually regressed defensively and he still seems to lack the creativity (if not the basic skills) to go forward. The rotation up front at right wing didn’t help also. He never built any connection with a winger (like for instance neville-beckham, evra-ronaldo).
However, a bad carpenter always blames his tools. We don’t want that. He has to reflect on what he’s done wrong as well. A major issue with him is his attitude on the pitch especially this season. He seems to be indifferent, very casual, sloppy and sometimes I really feel he doesn’t know where he is - he lacks this sense of awareness which is a major problem to have for a defender.
he never really played as a proper wingback. Although we’ve gone with such formations under Ole, his role was largely defensive given the way the team was set up (not his fault and I think he’ll be a terrible wing back anyway).
it’s an important season for him. If he doesn’t prove himself, given Dalot’s form especially if he improves defensively, AWB will find himself outside the starting 11 soon.