Originally Posted by RichmondBlue:
“I'm not saying Willian is up there with the likes of Marco Reus as a winger, but there again Willian is not an orthodox winger. As a midfield player I think there's a lot to his game. He covers a lot of ground, breaks up attacks, and his little surging runs often take a couple of opponents out of the game. His link-up play with Hazard and Oscar is usually excellent, and in the second half of last season he was one of our best players.
Judging him solely as a winger, there are many better out there. But as an all-round player he's already seen off alternatives like Schurrle, Salah and probably Caudrado.
Before writing him off, you have to be sure his replacement will offer us more over an entire season.”
You can't fault his work ethic, agreed, but he's supposed to be attacking the opponents goal, not running towards hs own for most of the time! It's like watching Groundhog Day. He gets the ball wide, he thinks about running to the byline, thinks better of it, doesn't want to take the risk, turns around and starts running towards his own goal, before passing it backwards. Does he think he's playing rugby?! D'oh! Sorry, not good enough as an attacking player, and we need a player that can do some of the things that Hazard can do.. Having said that, there's not many out there to be fair, and Cuadrado was supposed to be one of them.