Anthony Elanga

[Pilko]

3 minutes ago, Tonalis Bookie said:

 

To negate Elanga and Gordon to you sit in a low block. Teams are doing that and they look ineffective because of it. If teams were opening up and Elanga had all day to run in behind and it was as simple as rolling the ball across the box both he and we would look fantastic.

 

As much as Elanga's flaws are being highlighted our inability to play a different way is. He suits a style of play we arent being allowed to play at the moment. How we turn that around i dont know but i hope Eddie does.

 

This is all well and good if us facing low blocks all the time was a new innovation from opponents, but it's not. We all diagnosed about 2 years ago watching Miggy toiling away that we needed some more technical ability in that position and "we" (Eddie/the club, delete as appropriate) decided to spend a large amount on someone who doesn't possess the skill levels in favour of yet more pace.

[80]

It's grim that our new bumper signing is already a last throw of the dice substitute and it seemingly didn't feel to anyone - me, the fans, Eddie or Elanga himself - that he could come on and make the difference. 

 

I retain faith, but there's clearly a long road to travel.

[Lotus]

Tbf, as someone said (apologies for forgetting who) he did put in a cross for Osula that should’ve been a goal. 
Everything else was way below standard. 
 

I still believe EH will help him rediscover his Forest form but I did think we’d see flashes by now.

[Ronaldo]

We’ll never see the Elanga at Forest as they played a style almost polar opposite to ours. 
 

Honestly, I don’t think he’s a ‘bad’ player. He’s just looked horribly unsuited to us and having Trippier behind him for the most part hasn’t helped. If there’s any hope for him it rests on him linking well with Livramento, certainly not his lamb to the slaughter shitshow appearance today - I almost felt for him a bit. Forget about him thriving against low block though. We were told that by the Man U lot when first linked in August ‘24.

[Gola]

He'll come good, sure of it. Might take a season, but he'll be class. Disappointing he hasn't started well etc, but let's back him. If he's still shit in two seasons then we can get rid.

[gbandit]

9 hours ago, Weezertron said:

I'm starting to think he's not it. He can't be happy with how it's gone so far.

 

I was buoyed by his interviews when he signed. Seemed smart, driven and a hard worker. 

Those qualities will ensure he succeeds, especially with Howe’s coaching. Just going to take time. Which is extremely frustrating given the cost and the desperate need we’ve had to improve RW technically to improve our play in possession 

[Wallsendmag]

Still early days of course and I hope my opinion is completely different by the end of the season, but in this day and age of PSR and tight financial restrictions dropping £150m on him, Wissa and Ramsey isn't looking like great business.

 

Still hopefully Ramsey can put his injury problems behind him and ease the workload on Joelinton but I'm still not sure Elanga was really the type of player we needed and we'll possibly not see Wissa until 2026 if he goes off to AFCON. Certainly not a fit and firing version of him anyway.

[The College Dropout]

7 hours ago, Ronaldo said:

We’ll never see the Elanga at Forest as they played a style almost polar opposite to ours. 
 

Honestly, I don’t think he’s a ‘bad’ player. He’s just looked horribly unsuited to us and having Trippier behind him for the most part hasn’t helped. If there’s any hope for him it rests on him linking well with Livramento, certainly not his lamb to the slaughter shitshow appearance today - I almost felt for him a bit. Forget about him thriving against low block though. We were told that by the Man U lot when first linked in August ‘24.

Think I disagree. The problem is that he is looking like a very limited PL footballer. We hope Howe will be able to make him effective. But his limitation will be his ability. 
 

The touch, short passes, his control it’s looking super bad. 

[Wallsendmag]

He just wasn't really what we needed. We've got a so called speed mechant on the other wing and he's stunk the place out for a long time now, with the very rare good game thrown in. Where we've struggled most in an attacking sense, and everyone on here seen it so can only assume Howe has as well, is how to get past the low block. Ironically West Ham did it to us at SJP last season. That's when you need a more intricate player. Someone more technical and with the vision to unlock this type of tactic. Elanga is the polar opposite to that.

[jackyboy]

He said that Howe is the best coach he's ever played under and feels that with the changes Eddie has made in the way he plays that he can feel himself improving already.

[Cf]

This one for me is filed under "give it time, nervous, should at least be able to sell for what we paid if needed". 

 

Hard to escape the feeling we're trying to put a square peg into a round hole here.

 

Of all our aimless crosses into the box yesterday though Elanga is the one who found Osula who should have done better with the chance. 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Pilko said:

 

This is all well and good if us facing low blocks all the time was a new innovation from opponents, but it's not. We all diagnosed about 2 years ago watching Miggy toiling away that we needed some more technical ability in that position and "we" (Eddie/the club, delete as appropriate) decided to spend a large amount on someone who doesn't possess the skill levels in favour of yet more pace.

 

spot on

[Big Geordie]

Sometimes new players take a while to settle in before they start performing their best. I'm old enough to remember Gary Speed getting pelters when he first joined from Everton - and what a crucial signing he ended up- being part of SBR's team. 

[The Prophet]

It is pretty interesting that a lot of our domestic signings have come at a premium, but have required some form of bed in period (Gordon, Barnes, Hall, Elanga). Whereas almost all of our foreign signings have hit the ground running.

 

You probably need a blend of the two, which we have to be fair.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, Cf said:

This one for me is filed under "give it time, nervous, should at least be able to sell for what we paid if needed". 

 

Hard to escape the feeling we're trying to put a square peg into a round hole here.

 

Of all our aimless crosses into the box yesterday though Elanga is the one who found Osula who should have done better with the chance. 

Agreed other than we’d get our money back on him - no-one is paying £55m for the lad atm

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, Big Geordie said:

Sometimes new players take a while to settle in before they start performing their best. I'm old enough to remember Gary Speed getting pelters when he first joined from Everton - and what a crucial signing he ended up- being part of SBR's team. 

Speed was bloody awful for a long time - playing wide left didn’t help of course.  He was never worth what we paid at the time - Dalglish was a clown with money.  

[HaydnNUFC]

I really want it click for him as he seems like a brilliant lad and it still can. But for a £55m signing to be benched in November just speaks volumes. I think it’s an indictment on our recruitment more than it is Elanga himself; he was apparently one of our few top choices that we ended up getting. Tried to get him last summer also. But he doesn’t have the technical ability and incision on the ball to unlock teams for us and create chances which this squad is fucking crying out for.

 

If we have been trying to evolve the play style into being more comfortable on the ball then his profile wasn’t what we needed. And that’s not his fault. Perhaps Howe feels like he can mould him into what we need but when we sorely lack creativity outside of our wingers and our wingers are out of form he isn’t afforded that time.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2025 by HaydnNUFC

[The College Dropout]

People are over emphasising the low block thing imo.

 

It's just ability and quality. He struggles to show quality. His delivery is more miss than hit. And 1v1 against a fullback, he's poor. Doesn't find good passes. This is just footballing ability.

[Geogaddi]

8 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

People are over emphasising the low block thing imo.

 

It's just ability and quality. He struggles to show quality. His delivery is more miss than hit. And 1v1 against a fullback, he's poor. Doesn't find good passes. This is just footballing ability.

This is the problem , technically he is awful he can't pass a ball and a lot of his crossing is just as bad . Not sure you can really coach the basics like that into a footballer if they don't already have them at this point .
 

He excels when he has loads of open space to run into which we rarely ever get now so I don't really see how he will ever really show more than he currently has for us .

 

 

Edited November 3, 2025 by Geogaddi

[TRon]

9 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

People are over emphasising the low block thing imo.

 

It's just ability and quality. He struggles to show quality. His delivery is more miss than hit. And 1v1 against a fullback, he's poor. Doesn't find good passes. This is just footballing ability.

 

 

Howe obviously put more stock in the attributes he does have though. Which would be pace and I suppose a very aggressive attacking intent. 

 

Not sure how useful that is against a low block though, but that is Howe's call. If he wanted him in so badly, he must think he will suit our style of play. 

[Adam P]

Aye Elanga was the wrong signing because despite qualifying for the champions league and attacking domestic cups, we are going to play all our games against a low block. Was obvious when Barcelona came to SJP and parked the bus. To really progress this year, we should have signed a creative genius for 50m. 

 

Also technical skills like crossing the ball are very different depending on whether the opposition player is pressuring you from a defensive strategy or from an attacking strategy. Hence why you can ignore his crosses and passes from last season as evidence of his technical abilities.

 

 

[Kanj]

He’s showing none of the aggression in attack that he showed at Forest last season, low or high line ignored. Hes very timid in just about everything he’s doing. Afraid of making mistakes if you will. 

[Adam P]

He did for the goal against Fulham. However, fully agree, his confidence is not there yet. 

[The College Dropout]

58 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

Howe obviously put more stock in the attributes he does have though. Which would be pace and I suppose a very aggressive attacking intent. 

 

Not sure how useful that is against a low block though, but that is Howe's call. If he wanted him in so badly, he must think he will suit our style of play. 

We can't sign players with such low technical base though. Not for this money. His touch, passing, dribbling is considerably worse than Gordon and Barnes from what we've seen.

 

He looks by far the worst of all the wingers signed by clubs looking to push.

 

We've signed lads for £8m with pace and aggressive attacking intent.

 

Again to much emphasis on a low block. His a poor first touch, short pass, vision, delivery, finish from what we've seen so far.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2025 by The College Dropout

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Geogaddi said:

This is the problem , technically he is awful he can't pass a ball and a lot of his crossing is just as bad . Not sure you can really coach the basics like that into a footballer if they don't already have them at this point .
 

He excels when he has loads of open space to run into which we rarely ever get now so I don't really see how he will ever really show more than he currently has for us .

 

 

 

I hope it's confidence. He did one 6 yard pass to Tonali, shanked it shin height to him. I just can't with him.