17 Dec 2021 10:34:49
I thought Traore played his best game this season, slowed things down and looked for the pass. Defence was great again, Neves pass was pure delight Romains finish was beautifully taken. No Silva what are peoples opinion on him? Sell him or loan him or keep him?


1.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 12:16:52
Traore was great and unlucky not to have got at least one assist. I'd like to see more of Silva. He did well at the end of the game to get the ball and shift it on to Podence to move it up the pitch. If Podence had played the ball back to him then Silva had a clear line at goal as well, although game management taking it to the corner was the better option to see out the win. Silva got a few goals last season and got in positions for a lot of chances.

He's a year older and bulked up a bit. Going purely on statistics (goals/assists) none of the current forwards are setting the world alight so it would be hard for him to be any worse. There's a good player in there, but he needs minutes on the pitch now to prove it.


2.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 13:36:29
I would love to see Silva become the player we all hoped for! He has to prove to Bruno on the training pitch that he can be trusted to follow the game plan.

If he doesn't do that Bruno isn't going to trust him in matches. Its that simple prove it and do it and hell get a chance.

With the problems we've had if Bruno thought he could do it I'm sure he would play him!


3.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 13:48:24
Traore and Podence each side of Jiminez is way forward I think.


4.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 14:58:47
Neto can't come back soon enough. Plus Jonny, we'll be ok.


5.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 14:59:38
Agreed Rated!


6.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 16:57:06
Excellent q Man of War!
To be fair it is hard to be objective and fair as we haven't really seen him play, (and nor has anyone else except Lage in training) for several months now and he has allegedly been working v hard on his shortcomings over the past 6 months. So all comments have to be based on where he was last season. This was sadly woefully inadequate for the Premier League. I am basing this upon his lack of speed/mobility/strength, the impact this and possibly his nerves/lack of confidence had on his touch - which under any sort of pressure collapsed and his truly awful finishing - the goal against WH excluded. Offset by his excellent positional play - he was in the right place to miss a bucket load of chances - but he was there!.
Looking at the options.
1 He is unsaleable. We simply couldn't afford to take the hit it would require to shift him and given that no one in their right mind is going to give him even a small fraction of the contract he is on we would have to pay him a kings ransom to leave any way. That is not something we can afford to do so at the moment we probably simply have to accept the " death of a thousand cuts" and paydown his contract/fee for another couple of years or so.
2 Loan him out - he probably can only go back to Portugal and as BB has pointed out that destroys the entire rationale of him coming here? In the lower leagues here he would be eaten alive by big physical defenders out to make a name for themelves and it is unlikely he would be protected by English refs!
3 The only viable option we therefore have is to keep him and hope that he can develop to the extent that either we want to play him or option 1 becomes viable.

What a disaster and a wholly avoidable one because anyone who with any clue about the game who watched him play - and I put this on record after his first handful of games over here - should have been able to see that he is slow, weak and has a v poor touch under pressure meaning that, at the moment, he is not good enough to play proffesional football in England!
But we have been over that a thousand times so .


7.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 19:10:15
Ah but Jeff thinks he's brilliant that's why he bought him I seem to remember him saying!


8.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 19:14:32
Future, it's hard to know what to do about the disaster that is Fabio Silva. Go for the least worst option I guess. If Bruno had been in place I'm sure we would never have signed Silva. Is Silva Jeff's secret lovechild or something?


9.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 19:48:07
I agree TFIOG,I don't think we can afford to get rid of him now.
I think somewhere in there there is a decent player, but he has a shed load of work to prove himself.
Personally I think he's not going to make it at the golden palace.


10.) 17 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 21:30:25
I am not adding anything.
I think you all know my feelings on this fiascoe.


11.) 18 Dec 2021
17 Dec 2021 22:54:58
If and its a big if he started knocking in the chances he gets then he would be worth every penny of the fee paid as he does have a phenomenal knack of being in the right place at the right time.
I assume that skill (or the fact that as a consequence he did score heavily in junior football) is what Shi or whoever recommended him to Shi hung their hat on?
However as that is, at the moment, all he offers he is a super luxury player that we simply can't carry. Some of you don't want to carry Traore, (who also doesn't score), and who is also a "cream on the cake" player but who is currently a million miles better than Silva.
How we and he ever discovers if he can knock the chances in though I don't know because when is he going to play?
He needs to play for a team that is dominating, (a la Man City), and can afford him to basically do v little but score.
That isn't us and I can't honestly see City rushing to take him and give him the time to find out.
I fear that he isn't going to get a career here and will have to go back to Portugal to play.
Maybe he will bloom and we will bitterly regret our actions - but I don't think so!


12.) 18 Dec 2021
18 Dec 2021 11:00:57
Go back to square one and let him get some game time with the U23's whilst training with the first team squad and being available on the bench if needed. The lad is still only around 20 and with the current kmife edge results that we are experiencing it seems to me that most games are neither won or lost with anything from 1 to 45 min left to play making it very difficult to give the lad game time.


13.) 18 Dec 2021
18 Dec 2021 12:54:30
Arddunby - good points!
Quite what the U23 will make of it I don't know as he will earning more than the rest of the side (and probably the bench) put together!


14.) 18 Dec 2021
18 Dec 2021 17:00:08
TFIOG very true! However hopefully he won't have to play to many games to get some confidence back. Didn't he play a game in the Papa Johns a few months back and score twice. The priority must be to develop the lad as a footballer. I do get the strange nature of it all and it would need to be carefully managed obviously.