I'm pretty sure the coach is giving Duvan priority exactly because he needs to get him back up to his prior form if they want to be at their best. It's a bit unfair for Muriel but overall think it's better for the team if they can get Duvan up to speed quickly.
Meh not necessarily, Muriel is in better form for sure but Duvan is a very different style of player and gives the team a different dynamic. Duvan occupies defenders and stays central allowing Ilicic and Papu to be much more free and play off of Duvan, and its very clear that those 3 play really well together and are a perfect fit. Muriel is very good, but he didn't even start quite often when Duvan has been injured and usually it means that Ilicic is more central rather being able to roam all over the place more often. I like both the players, but I can understand doing everything to get Duvan up to speed while also see the value of his game within their team, Duvan is better at holding up and playing people into scoring positions in the box and you can see Atalanta constantly playing those quick one two's and utilizing that with Ilicic and Duvan being the main guys involved.
No but he needs game time to get back to his best and even not being at his best his movement and hold up play is still the much better profile for Atalanta. Muriel off the bench running at teams has been completely lethal for Atalanta, so its not a complete wash and I mean they pumped them 7-0 and had one of their best performance by far in an away game with Duvan starting so I'd say tactically it all worked really well.
Two assists today. But he is still way out of form, he was subbed out quite early. That worries me a bit. First it took 28 years to reach his peak and now after a few months out he is a shadow of what he was before injury. I know it's too early to say much, but he seems to be a player that has to be in his best physical shape and have his confidence high to be able to score. Will he bounce back?
I'm sure he'll be ok, he was out for a long time so it might just take some time to get back comfortable and in rhythm. If he keeps going like this for another month I'd probably start to worry, mentally and physically injuries are a bitch but getting chances to work back and having a coach who really trusts him his nice (even if unfortunately its at the cost of Muriel)
First assist by Duvan (header from corner) https://streamja.com/kVjb 2nd assist (pass from Duvan) https://streamja.com/ngjO
If he has 2 assist for Colombia would you guys bitch because he didn’t score? I’d be more than happy even if both those assist are to Medina but you’d all go insane and say medina was shit the rest of the game.
If Medina trolls me, I will gladly admit to eating my words about him. I want to be proven wrong when it comes to my doubts and criticisms
12 games in Serie A 7 goals and 5 assists, 2 games in Champions league and one goal. Considering 3 of those games were when he's been coming back from injury I'd say he's doing well but the real test will be this last half of the season with them in a top 4 battle with a champions league run a real possibility.
He was fantastic the year before too but so was Quagrialla so he got overshadowed a bit and not really used correctly.
if people is awarded that he isnt in good level........is because they watch the matches, and is beyond of his score or not........ he can play much better than he is playing and in this moment he isnt in his best shape and doenst have confidence. Watch matches instead of say how people should think about the performance of a player
Duvan gets a goal from a good run into the box and the deflected cross finds him for a tap in finish. Nothing special but good center forward movement and right place right time.
Did not watch but did see highlights. Something that will not be discussed or brought up in the statistics is how he always takes up space, makes subtle runs and always has the eyes of opposing defenders wondering what he is going to do next. If you look at the film of the second goal when he makes a slight run and his defender who is marking him follows him eagerly it opened up a nice lane for the winning shot to take place. It is stuff like that along with his powerful target play which makes me say even when he is not scoring he influences the offense better than most other strikers in the talent pool.
Yeah his movement terrorizes defenses because he can also pull out wide when needed which opens up space for Ilicic and Gomez. He's a really, really good all round player and we're lucky to have him. Big win for them, they can put some distance between them and Roma who are now in 4th and have struggled recently. 3rd may be in touching distance if they can keep getting results but the goal has to be get some leeway in 4th then focus on making a run in the champions league. The club is run so well and has a ton of money from selling players that they don't even use and a champions league run will really boost their bottom line.
Subbed of very soon in second part, his replacement palasic scored the goal. Still not in his best form....struggling in controlling and in passes...smalling was difficult for him
I don't think he was bad today really, just didn't get any service in great areas, but he did his usual movement of dropping and linking up play, to create space but didn't best Smalling and the other CB's who were better. Gasperini brought on another midfielder rather then Muriel so I don't think it was necessarily that the coach wasn't happy I think they wanted more bodies in midfield because Roma had a lot of creative minds gaining hold of the midfield and Palasic scored instantly.
So just checked the programming for today's Champions League games and all 4 available channels are showing the Tottenham match, why they do that is beyond me, it's super frustrating and annoying. If anyone has a link please post. thanks