Making excuses for him is pretty pointless as he's never been good enough. As an attacking midfielder he's too one footed, not creative and not much of a dribbler. He's way too limited to ever be a sustained success in the PL, regardless of who the manager is.
He's got decent pace and workrate, but that's nowhere near enough. Seems a really decent bloke, and I really wanted him to succeed when he joined, but he's sadly never going to make it here.
Hope he can get a decent move to Spain or something in the summer.