England’s Anthony Gordon

[arnonel]

All our best moments came from him in the first half

 

Not sure what game others were watching 

[AJ9]

Don’t read the match thread lads. People were absolutely shitting on him after 35 mins. Ridiculous behaviour from our “fans”

[ExiledGeordie]

3 minutes ago, AJ9 said:

Don’t read the match thread lads. People were absolutely shitting on him after 35 mins. Ridiculous behaviour from our “fans”

Yeah it’s completely ridiculous 

[KaKa]

6 hours ago, loki679 said:

 

You're a right condescending prick at times.  People are allowed to have their own opinions you know.

 

Yes, just as condescending as you are about the player, right?

 

And by the way I'm entitled to my opinion on your post too, if I think your opinion is daft, so stop being a cry baby about it.

[Dokko]

All the official extended 1st half highlights were through him for us. Looks mint tbf 

[loki679]

1 minute ago, KaKa said:

 

Yes, just as condescending as you are about the player, right?

 

And by the way I'm entitled to my opinion on your post too, if I think your opinion is daft, so stop being a cry baby about it.

 

Aye, fuck off Knaka

[KaKa]

6 hours ago, Conjo said:

 

Not that I disagree with the sentiment that he needs to be given time to settle in the squad, but generally speaking (looking past outliers like Joelinton) 22 years of age in football today is not an age you consider someone for the future. It's an age where a player should be able to make an immediate impact (especially if it's for a high fee) in the first team. If Gordon starts performing well soon, it'll more likely be more down to him getting used to the club, system, players etc rather than having improved as a football player mentally, technically and physically since we signed him.

 

He did well against Southampton when he was playing on the left, but fell out of the game completely when he switched sides with Murphy which is probably why he ended up getting subbed as Isak was taking the left side.

 

 

 

 

He's been here a few months and has hardly played as the team is currently flying

 

This is all incredibly strange man.

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, loki679 said:

 

Aye, fuck off Knaka

 

[KaKa]

10 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

I said ‘people have suggested’ not that ‘people know’.  
 

I saw a fair bit of him at Everton didn’t rate him as a player. I think Olise has 40m talent potentially. I think Lavia does. I just don’t see it with Gordon. 
 

Nobody’s buying Joelinton for more than the 40m we paid. And we played Joelinton in the wrong position for years. We are playing Gordon in his best positions.  I’d rather we continued buying the likes of Bruno G for 40m than Gordon’s, wouldn’t you?

 

I’ve never rated the lad. He’s lucky he’s come into a great team because his performances largely don’t matter. I think he’s a great impact sub at the moment. He’ll score a goal sooner or later against tiring legs and hopefully he kicks on from there and proves me wrong.  But like I’ve said - I’ve never thought the lad has serious ability as a winger or wide forward. Maybe he’ll convert to a 8 or 9 or something and be mega at that. Maybe. 

 

Again, he has only recently joined and has hardly had a run of games.

 

There have been far more expensive players that took longer to get up to speed.

 

I would understand more if the guy had at least been here a season and had been playing regularly.

 

Anyway, we'll see soon enough. Think he's got a lot of very useful attributes and he'll start showing more soon enough, especially working with the bunch we have in charge.

[Ste]

Fully trust Howe and his teams judgement. Though it is possible to still question and criticise, I find some, not all, of the reaction to Gordon a bit OTT. He hasn’t came in and hit the ground running, but I see him as a project. We’ve paid for the potential, I don’t believe he has had a good environment in which to learn his trade previously, he will now be given every opportunity to realise his full potential. 

[loki679]

3 minutes ago, Ste said:

Fully trust Howe and his teams judgement. Though it is possible to still question and criticise, I find some, not all, of the reaction to Gordon a bit OTT. He hasn’t came in and hit the ground running, but I see him as a project. We’ve paid for the potential, I don’t believe he has had a good environment in which to learn his trade previously, he will now be given every opportunity to realise his full potential. 

 

That's the difference really, I just don't see that much potential there, especially not at his age. 

 

Happy to be proven wrong of course but I'm not sure I will be. 

[GeordieDazzler]

He’ll be fine, has all the ingredients there and still very young. He seems desperate for a moment and contribution to the team, it will come he just needs to trust the process. 

[Civetty]

I disagree with the ones thinking he was our best player in the first half. I don't think he was bad but it felt like he should had scored the goal where he was one and one and rather looking for options than finishing himself. Maybe its lack of confidence and trying too hard, but it felt sometimes he had tunnel vision towards the goal, but that's me being overly critical. Either way, I feel Isaks showing in the 2nd half hopefully will grow him rather than him falling in to negative thoughts.

[Interpolic]

Thank god Kaka is around to regulate discussion around here, don't know where we'd be without him. 

[ExiledGeordie]

33 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Again, he has only recently joined and has hardly had a run of games.

 

There have been far more expensive players that took longer to get up to speed.

 

I would understand more if the guy had at least been here a season and had been playing regularly.

 

Anyway, we'll see soon enough. Think he's got a lot of very useful attributes and he'll start showing more soon enough, especially working with the bunch we have in charge.

He needs a full pre season with Howe imo 

[astraguy]

Did Howe say why he replaced him and not Murphy? I wanted Wilson on but for Murphy rather then Gordon,he was flying down the left 

[Rich]

6 minutes ago, astraguy said:

Did Howe say why he replaced him and not Murphy? I wanted Wilson on but for Murphy rather then Gordon,he was flying down the left 

Nothing specific other than “someone needed to be sacrificed”. Because the intention was to move Isak left, it could only really be Gordon with how Murphy has played on the right of late.

 

Thought it was the right call at the time and it was fully vindicated in the second half.

[Geordie Ahmed]

Not sure I agree with those saying he was by far the bets player in the first half, you don't be by far the best and get taken off at half time (he ended the half on the right so Murphy could have been taken off if Gordon was that good)

 

I thought he did okay in moments and should have scored/assisted with the chances he had 

 

Overall I'd say he's been okay, nothing special but anyone writing him off is being very hasty, Howe has barely worked with him so only fair to give him that opportunity. We often see with Pep/City how players (especially attacking players) don't start to play at their best until the second season and I don't see this being any different

 

If this time next year Gordon is as he is now then I'd be concerned

[arnonel]

Howe said our best moments came from him. Decision to replace him was purely tactical. 

[Conjo]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

He's been here a few months and has hardly played as the team is currently flying

 

This is all incredibly strange man.

 

As I said, unless I've tricked myself in the way I worded it in the post you quoted, he needs to be given time to settle into a new club with new team mates, new coaches, new system, new culture etc etc. 

 

I don't think his age is something we should use to argue that he was never supposed to do better from the start though. 22 is not young in world of football, and in terms of experience he has played a lot at this level for someone his age. This is his fourth season of playing PL football.

[Guest]

Don't think his decision making was bad either, just needed better finishing. He was 6 inches away from having 2 goals. 

[Geordie Ahmed]

24 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

As I said, unless I've tricked myself in the way I worded it in the post you quoted, he needs to be given time to settle into a new club with new team mates, new coaches, new system, new culture etc etc. 

 

I don't think his age is something we should use to argue that he was never supposed to do better from the start though. 22 is not young in world of football, and in terms of experience he has played a lot at this level for someone his age. This is his fourth season of playing PL football.

 

Admittedly I've not followed the discussion from the start so might have missed something but Grealish was 26 when he joined City, he was underwhelming in his first season and it's only now that he's started to really play well and at the level he was expected to 

 

In comparison 21 is nothing and Gordon's experience has mostly been battling relegation so not a positive experience 

[Conjo]

2 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

There's some players like Billingham who are pretty much the full package from 17, but there's plenty players who don't really hit their stride until their early to mid 20s.

 

I mean Callum Wilson and Keiran Trippier weren't setting the world alight at 22. Harrison Ashby hasn't even played any football and he's 21.

 

Off the top of my head so this might not be fully accurate, but for rest of the England squad I think you have plenty examples of players fulfilling their potential beyond their early 20s; Harry Kane, James Maddison, Ivan Toney, Jamie Vardy, Tammy Abraham, Jarrod Bowen, Kalvin Phillips, Jack Grealish.

 

Even the greatest centre mid ever, Declan Rice, has improved immeasurably over the past couple of years (he's now 24) with talk of him still to find a new gear with his contributions in the final 3rd.

 

Players start out at different levels, but at that age Wilson and Trippier sure made the best out of where they were at.

Wilson was Coventrys top scorer and player of the season when he was 21/22, which earned him a transfer to B'mouth where he scored 2 goals in his debut and ended up their top scorer. He got promotion with B'mouth in his first season when he was 22/23 and scored a hattrick in his third PL game. 

Trippier at 22 had played three full seasons in the Championship, then got promoted with Burnley and did well in his first season in the PL which earned him a move to Tottenham at 24, but didn't get much playing time first two seasons because of Kyle Walker.

 

Kane had his breakthrough season at Spurs at 21 when he scored 21 goals in 34 matches.

Maddison joined Leicester at 21 after scoring 14 goals in 44 games for Norwich in the Championship. He was an instant hit at Leicester.

Abraham earned a spot in the Chelsea side at 21 scoring 15 goals in 34 matches after a fantastic season on loan at Villa.

Bowen got a move to West Ham January 2020 after turning 23 on 20th of December 2019 following 2.5 good seasons in a poor (Steve Bruce led) Hull side. He's actually a bit (hopefully) similar to Gordon in that he didn't light up the world the season he joined West Ham as far as I can remember (and stats indicate so too), but the following first full season he did well and has been a regular starter at West Ham since the day he joined them. Hopefully something Gordon replicates.

Phillips had his break through season for Leeds at 21 in 2016 and was a regular starter for them from then until his move to Man City.

Grealish at 21 had two seasons of PL football behind him and was regarded as one of the best talents in England. The following season he did enough at Villa to have Spurs come in for him with a bid that Villa rejected.

Toney had a difficult start because he was unfortunate enough to join us.  He exceeded expectations at every level from League 1 to championship to now PL after leaving us. I assume he had to go to a League 1 club as that was the level he had been loaned out to and done ok while under contract at Newcastle.

 

The only outliers I see is Vardy and Toney (who had to overcome the odds of being a young player at Newcastle).

 

 

[dcmk]

I like him, had a mixed game yesterday and can understand why he was pulled at half time as it wasn't really happening for him yesterday.

 

Think we will see the best of him next season, he is tall, two really good feet and electric pace.  What worries me the most is his attitude.

[Guest]

It could easily have been Murphy that went off, must have been a 50-50 decision, he was awful.