Agreed he was a bright light today. He will now get plenty of minutes with that display. Shame Manaj can't finish. Vision of passing was a joy to watch.
What a player this kid is going to be! Maturity beyond his years and a wand of a left foot! Will create a lot of goals, may finally be the creative spark we've lacked in midfield since Mr Abdi!
If we get some runners off him, especially strikers that can finish, then he's going to be very effective for us this season. His vision and awareness is incredible, the through balls he played today were instant so he clearly has a good idea of what is going on around him.
Says a lot about him that he was trusted to start 2 pretty tough away championship games at Birmingham and Preston. I'd imagine the urge to go safe with Gosling and protect the young fella would have been an easy one for Edwards, but it speaks volumes about his ability if Edwards was confident enough to pick him both times believing he can handle it. He was a bit quiet today, but still could have had 2 assists if Manaj and had taken both chances put on a plate for him by Yaser.
The second is very difficult but still a chance. He definitely grew into the game, demands the ball and orchestrates players around him. What's not to like and only 18.
I noticed he got in some good positions around the edge of penalty area when we were pegging them back but wasnt picked out, we all know he has the ability for a few long range curlers. Best 18 year old to pull on the shirt I can remember.
If you look at how disgusting our bench was yesterday I think it says more about the paucity of talent we have right now.
I would say it looked weak with few options esp up front. I wouldn't say it looked "disgusting", like a Steve Cooper for example.
Looked a talent at Birmingham but was often tightly marked which impacted his game and took up some dodgy positions at times, but yesterday he looked the real deal. Some fantastic passes which showed incredible vision, eager to see what delights he can serve up for us this season!
I can't remember the ages of Barnes and Callaghan when they were introduced but they certainly had me dribbling with excitement. So far Asprilla is definitely on track to match those two.
Similar story in the first half at Preston where he could get in the game primarily because the midfield 2 weren’t passing to him . Second half RE switched him to wide of a 3 which ironically freed him to drop deeper to pick the ball up and make the diags
There was one moment where the ball was fizzed into his feet when he was marked, he laid it off first time to Kayembe and spun around his man into space. Any decent passer would've played it straight back to him (simple five yard pass) and he would've been bearing down on the back four. Instead Kayembe took his customary several touches then floated a ball straight out for a goal kick with none of our players anywhere near it.
From the scouting vidz that Reids kindly uploaded for us, he loves that ball into his feet which returns on the outside of his boot as he peels past the marker and into space for the return ball. It worked well with Gaspar for the goal v Birmingham, primarily because Gaspar is on his level intelligence wise. Kayembe probably not. He also loves a no look pass . That chipped ball to Munai had a no look on it even though there was need . Pure class and pure filth.
8 key passes in about 240 minutes of football so far. He's got great vision, not every through ball came off today but he sees them every time.
Real find for us, no doubt about it. I doubt we'll get to watch him for more than 2 years, but at least it should be good watching!
One thing I noticed against Birmingham + MK is he loves a long ball out to the left-hand side of the pitch (below is from the MK game) Checked back to his time in Colombia and that's something he used to do regularly as well. No other comments to add, just thought it was interesting.
Well maybe we can leave the switches of play from right to left to him, rather than watching Kayembe take several touches and very carefully line up another ball that sails over Sema's head for a throw in...
Inexperienced contribution last night. However even not playing well he was always looking to get involved. Great through ball for Joao in the second half
What a talent he is. Always looking for the ball and to be positive. He will have better games certainly but he's learning every time and it's exciting to watch him.
We already have Kayembe who is very one-footed, can we conclude from this that in Asprilla we also have a player who is somehow one-eyed?!
Not quite ready imo. There’s a player in there but he’s not affecting games right now. I’d start next week as we finished today - with Davis and Bayo as a pair and Pedro in behind.
Yeah maybe. I think he’s making some poor decisions as well. Maybe as a result of his frustration at losing out physically!