[LOANED OUT] Nordin Amrabat

candy from a baby

 

Frustrating player admittedly but he did track back well which his replacement will need to do (Bristol City was a good example of not doing this). Certainly looked far too often for the killer pass rather than move the ball quickly and did fail to find the net. That said, outside Capoue, it wasn't like any of our other non strikers were prolific last season. Even Capoue was mainly down to a hot streak early on.

 

It's a complete myth that he was good at keeping possession, both this season and last he was near the bottom of our squad's pass success stats and near the top of the dispossessed and unsuccessful control stats. What he would do is give the illusion of keeping the ball by getting involved in needless battles with multiple defenders when he could have played a simple pass.

Similar thing for his work rate, he put a shift in most games but a lot of it was because his footballing brain was too slow to see other options so he found himself battling away with defenders when better players would have moved the ball on.

Nice guy, tried his best, blah blah blah but a frustrating and limited footballer to watch. Our games should flow much better without him causing play to stop through constant fouling, being caught offside and his love of a handball.

 

Both of them though?

 

How about using his often superior pace to actually run on into space and commit an opponent to tackling him? At least then he'd be playing the percentages. Or how about relieving the pressure on the lumbering strike force and just spanking the ball into the net himself? That might have helped.

 

Good luck Nordin, if only other players last season showed the commitment you did we might have finished higher but we also might have kept Mazarri so pleased they didn't. Decent player but to be honest but I think supporters these days are just not satisfied with hard workers despite every team needing one even just to come off the bench to protect a lead. Be interesting what people would think of Doyley if he came to the club now who was basically sh1t but because he was here for ages and worked hard people loved him.

 

In fact if all of our players just spanked the ball into the net we could do away with wingers completely.
Not much point taking on a FB and risking losing the ball in the situation I was describing where there was no options or movement ahead which was our biggest option last year. This year would have been very different and he MIGHT have thrived. Certainly started well last week.

 

Thank you for your efforts, Nordin, and the best of luck at Leganes!

Amrabat was not good enough for us though, and I'm glad the club have seen sense by offloading him and not Success. The latter is far more of a threat on the wing.

 

It might have helped if the forwards actually created a bit if space for themselves too, instead of standing 40 yards away with his arms in the air, whilst surrounded by bigger defenders. Then shouting and moaning that Amrabat didn't find him with a pinpoint cross.

 

Whether we agree with the decision or not (I do btw), we can't change it. It's out of our hands. Nothing we can control. Might as well just go out and enjoy the sunshine instead

 

Let people enjoy their myths. Nordin Amrabat was our best player for 6 games last season, kept us up, held onto the ball well, neat and tidy etc.

All that is fine. We know the truth. Three assists.

He tried hard but just wasn't that good. Not his fault.

 

Great move for both parties, best of luck to him.]

Guess you lot will need a new boo boy now?

 

Legend

 

Gray is setting into that role quite nicely

 

It's no secret I liked him so of course I'm disappointed that he's gone. Was never the same player after his injury, and as I've said before - the video evidence of that is easy to find for those that want to dispute it. However - if Carrillo turns out to be the real deal, then as is the way with football - we'll quickly forget about Nordin (and for the sake of the team, I hope this turns out to be the case). I assume though that if Carillo struggles, then it'll be a case of Richarlison swapping wings and Success coming in, as they did against Bristol City? I would have preferred to have had Amrabat as a backup, but maybe he wasn't happy with that?

When all is said and done, as long as the team improve then I'm not fussed who's on the wing.

 

Hi Pob.

I just found it a bit unfair seeing a comparison of the two based on three weeks of Richarlison v one and a half seasons and three weeks of Amrabat.

And also disagreeing very strongly with the last sentence...

He has shown that he can be easily good enough, and was a very exciting prospect when attacking the box, and playing in balls that led to assists. Whether he could regain that form, and he was showing signs that he possibly could, I cannot say for sure, and fair enough if Marco feels there are other players he would rather have in the squad, but to dismiss him so casually is, I believe, unfair. If people don't remember him in good form, it says more about their attention to the games than it does Amrabat's ability.

I am not challenging your opinion, rather your casual dismissal of a damned decent player who, like most of the team, had a lacklustre spell under a barking lunatic at the end of last season.

 

He was on International duty last night were coincidentally he played against Molla Wague's Mali. Morocco won 6-0...Wague played 90 mins. Hence why neither played against Millwall.

However we dress it up, GD is right. He was decent last season to begin with, got injured and tailed off. His assists/goals record makes for terrible reading but no one is questioning his effort. I'd say the fact that he's gone to one of the smallest sides in La Liga, who have a stadium that holds 11,000 speaks volumes. Seems to me he wanted to go back to Spain regardless of what side he played for and we weren't going to stand in his way.

 

I'm pretty sure a poster on here claimed Amrabat could play for a top six club and was worth £25 million. That was definitely my favourite take on his early season form last year.

 

QSF turned out to be an appalling judge of player

 

I don't know. He worked out Iturbe pretty quickly. Maybe he didn't see the the eyes of the others?

 

Had the club left Amrabat out of the list and then the loan didn't happen, I imagine it would be much harder to put him in

This way round they apply to replace him with a far more legitimate case

 

I accept it could bore the pants off of others and I'm perfectly happy if you decline to answer but here goes...when exactly were those games? I remember a spell in maybe October/November time where he seemed much closer to the required standard and a couple of games around christmas where he seemed to be thriving. And that's it.

 

My post was tongue and cheek mate. Not meant in a serious way at all.

Personally though I thought he was worth keeping as a squad player, especially with the amount of injuries we seem to suffer from. Not only that, with the international break Carrillo is all the way in S.A and plays again for Peru on Tuesday. He then has to get back which probably won't be until Thursday. So he will probably only be able to do a light training session on Friday. I just don't see him being ready for Saturday, but I could be wrong. Success sounds like he has bucked his ideas up, getting 2 goals yesterday against Millwall would have done him the world of good. So if Carrillo isn't match fit, I guess we might see Success. Hopefully Success will learn to track back as good as Amrabat and not Femenia exposed.

 

Yep. It was me that said I wouldn't be surprised if there was top six interest in him, particularly that he would be a good fit for Spuds, and, if he maintained his form to the end of the season (my post was made, I think, in early December, and I said the January window was too soon to expect him to get noticed) that he could go for a big fee - don't remember saying 25 million, but maybe.

At the time, he was not just playing well for us, but starting to get positive rsviews from the pundits, who were finally recognising that there was a lack of quality in the box.

Still stand by the post. If he had continued in the same form without the injuries, I believe we would have got big offers for him, and he would have been our highest profile player outside tbe club. Didn't work out though.

I did speculate near the end of the season that even then I would not have been entirely surprised if Liverpool came in for him, as I felt the way they dealt with him in the home game suggested he had impressed them in the away game. I know I go on about it (I thoroughly recommend people watch his highlight video from the game), but, silly as it seems, if they hadn't put 6 past us, everyone would have been going on about Amrabat - it may have been there I mentioned people talking about a £25m player.

I stand by that post absolutely, and glad you gave me the oportunity to go back to it and put it in context.

 

I have named them previously enough times, and linked to the oft mentioned Amrabat youtube highlights on a number of occassions. Certainly he was more influencial in more games than Pereyra where they played together; anyone who says different leaves themselves open to some pretty scathing peer review.

Pretty sure if you failed to look at them then you are going to waste my time yet again so I will decline.

If you are genuinely interested, search for Nordin Amrabat highlights on Youtube and have a watch of the games in the first half of last season, particularly the thrashing we received v Liverpool. Don't worry, it doesn't show their goals. I'm sure you'll come away saying 'yeah but this' and 'yeah but that', but yeah.

Your post here just shows that you have not engaged in the discussions, and just depended on an impression that you have little inclination to change. You are not alone.

All those things have been repeatedly posted, so rather than asking for them to be posted again, by this point of the argument, I would be expecting you to be telling me you've seen them and still think he's poop.

 

Okay, I just did. It returns various videos of him at everywhere else but Watford, some generic game highlights (which I'm not going to wade through looking for his best bits) and humorously his 'first goal for Watford' which of course was on FIFA 17 because it never happened in real life. I couldn't actually find a decent compilation of his time here.

My impression of him would have been very easy to change - I'm really not that hard to please as a fan. Score some goals, set up some others, stop fouling your man every 10 minutes...you know, the usual stuff attackers are judged on.

Anyway, he's gone. I'd be amazed if he's ever seen in a Watford shirt outside of a pre-season again. I'd have rather he was kept in the squad but as a third choice wing back option but I don't think that's a go to formation for Silva.

 

The first 2 minutes of that Liverpool video the Bat attempts 2 dribbles and immediately gets dispossessed, has a weak shot straight at the keeper and then puts his foot into a Liverpool player's stomach.

If this is the centrepiece of his defence I think Nordin is in a pickle here. His last hope is your whoscored rankings.

 

If you are genuinely interested in this as a discussion, try this search within YouTube:

Nordin Amrabat vs 2017

Edit: Again, just to say, I have no issue if you don't rate him, I've had issues with him myself, but if you say he was poop early last season, whether you like him or not, you are devaluing your opinion, becausd he clearly was playing well.

 

See Jumbo. You are just looking at what you think proves your argument.

What happens after he gets dispossessed the first time? He chases back and successfully breaks down the Liverpool attack with a clean tackle. What about when he breaks down another Liverpool attack and brings the ball out into midfield? That came in between the two dispossessions you mention.

Your comments say more about you than Amrabat. I take it he was decent in the rest of the video seeing as you don't mention that.

All you are doing is underlining my point with an exclaimation mark and a signed confession to your guilt.

 

I didn't watch the rest as the first 2 minutes was so underwhelming. Nordin is an average player no more no less. I have nothing against him.

I get that you've made yourself look foolish with your 25 million/top 6 claims but I'd let it slip quietly away if I were you. I know you like to think of yourself as an enlightened football analyst - this isn't an argument that helps the image and credibility you seek in my opinion.

 

I think the 'Should we have sold Amrabat after he was Ballon D'or material in early 2016?' argument will go down in the history books alongside 'Was Steven Berghuis the new Ruud Gullit?' and 'Just who is Miguel Pinho?'

 

No further questions, your Honour.

 

Do you really think, if I felt foolish about what I had said, I would have replied to identify myself as the poster as soon as someone mentioned the comments without naming me? Again, says more about you than it does about me that you say things in the way you do.

You think I appear foolish, but as I recall having thought about it, the actual comment was, if he had played like that (as in the Liverpool game that you have no wish to review) for Spuds, people would have been talking about him as a £25million player. So yes, I said £25million, but the circumstances, I believe, completely justified the comment.

If you thought the video would have proven your point any more than the blinkered comments you made about the first two minutes, then you would be telling us all about it now. So we can assume you are in denial about the rest of the video. Well, we don't even have to assume it, you openly admit it.

 

I stand by that completely. 100%.

If you wanted anyone to think about what I had to say, you would have put it in context.

If you wanted anyone to think about what you have to say, you'd talk sense.