Marvelous Nakamba

[Keyblade]

Need to keep him. You can't just bin everyone who isn't a starter off. He looked good coming off the bench and he's a good option for rotation and has room to improve.

[Thug]

Didn’t cost a lot, not likely to be on huge wages.

not the level we’ll be aiming for, but 1 more year as back up is the sensible thing to do.

[rodders0223]

Wouldn't get anywhere near 12m back for him. Not on huge wages and he fills out the squad  Complete nonsense to suggest we would get rid of him.

He might come good too. Had some decent games and had some good games, though there was a good few months where he was an absolute bomb scare.

I had hoped he would kick on this year.

[Tez500]

He's far more defensive than Luiz, and therefore could start alongside/instead of against the better teams. I'm hoping he is more settled this season and can hit the ground running.

[weedman]

8 minutes ago, Tez500 said:

He's far more defensive than Luiz, and therefore could start alongside/instead of against the better teams. I'm hoping he is more settled this season and can hit the ground running.

This, everyone talking about wanting Grealish in the middle means we would need a midfield 2 of Nakamba and Luiz. Luiz does the play making and Nakamba the tackling, both from deep to protect the defence. The only way you give Jack the freedom he needs in the middle is by having a Nakamba type next to Luiz in the middle 

[Gillz]

Its almost as if Villa fans are allergic to squad depth

[Mjvilla]

14 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Need to keep him. You can't just bin everyone who isn't a starter off. He looked good coming off the bench and he's a good option for rotation and has room to improve.

This. A like isn't enough.

[AvfcRigo82]

18 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Need to keep him. You can't just bin everyone who isn't a starter off. He looked good coming off the bench and he's a good option for rotation and has room to improve.

And besides, you can't just bin him off when his pal is about to sign for us!..

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

20 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

And besides, you can't just bin him off when his pal is about to sign for us!..

Jokes aside, we do seem to have a habit of targeting players who know someone in our squad.

By design or mere coincidence of leagues/teams we are targeting players from?

Didn't Nakamba and Engels know each other prior to coming as well?

The Brentford lads etc.

[El-Reacho]

I think there'll be a few surprises from the current squad in terms of players moving up a level in performance. Nakamba could be a good a good shout. His first few games for us were superb and then he went downhill. Maybe with more talent further up the pitch it will help him grow into his role.

[MrBlack]

Quote

While Nakamba has shown obstinate reluctance to surge forward, an analysis by Stew Burney on eplanalysis.com suggests that the 26-year-old Zimbabwean is among the best when it comes to his defensive side of the game.

“Nakamba made the most interceptions p90 of these Premier League rookies registering 1.87 p90. McLean and Rodri both posted similar numbers at 1.26 and 1.11 interceptions p90,” said Burney in a comparison of the top rookie defensive midfielders in the league.

 

“Marvelous Nakamba is second only to Wilfred Ndidi (of Leicester City) when it comes to tackles in the defensive third and second only to Oriol Romeu when it comes to tackles in the middle third. “Whilst his tackle success rate is the lowest amongst his position-mates, he certainly puts himself about in across both the defensive and midfield third.

A similar story emerges when analysing Nakamba and Douglas Luiz. Nakamba showed a willingness to apply pressure across the field which is highlighted by a combined 22.6 pressures p90 across the midfield and defensive thirds and an impressive 34.3% success rate, the highest amongst his position mates

Quotes from the standard, in turn quoting a eplanalysis article.  

He needs to get better at tackling, but if he does that, he becomes one of the best destroyer type defensive midfielders in the league.

Against certain teams we'll need to play two defensive midfielders if were going with a 4-3-3 variant,  and if he can get more consistent support from Luiz to take the ball off him they could make a brilliant pairing.

Definitely worth giving another season, or we risk an idrissa gueye style situation where he goes elsewhere and delivers a league title.  May well not make the step up,  or having a ready made alternative for this season for him to learn from could be brilliant, but no point selling even if we do sign someone until next year. 

 

[Zatman]

29 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Jokes aside, we do seem to have a habit of targeting players who know someone in our squad.

By design or mere coincidence of leagues/teams we are targeting players from?

Didn't Nakamba and Engels know each other prior to coming as well?

The Brentford lads etc.

Nakamba and Wesley played together at Brugge

[Keyblade]

36 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Jokes aside, we do seem to have a habit of targeting players who know someone in our squad.

By design or mere coincidence of leagues/teams we are targeting players from?

Didn't Nakamba and Engels know each other prior to coming as well?

The Brentford lads etc.

Deano said last year that it was a deliberate strategy to help with the settling of all the new signings. 

[pete101]

Definitely like to see him get another season, if we are going to make comparisons with Gueye, think he had a better 1st season than Gueye .

In Gueye's first season he made foul after foul and got us in a lot of trouble

[Zatman]

2 minutes ago, pete101 said:

Definitely like to see him get another season, if we are going to make comparisons with Gueye, think he had a better 1st season than Gueye .

In Gueye's first season he made foul after foul and got us in a lot of trouble

I think any midfielder covering that "defence" was going to commit a lot of fouls

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Jokes aside, we do seem to have a habit of targeting players who know someone in our squad.

By design or mere coincidence of leagues/teams we are targeting players from?

Didn't Nakamba and Engels know each other prior to coming as well?

The Brentford lads etc.

True,  Also if there is anything to the link with this Juventus thing that @KMitchmentions then I guess Mings and Federico Bernardeschi are part of the same agency and from what I understand the latter may arrive in the PL this season.

Apparantly he wants to play at a "Premier League club which has an iconic stadium and rich in history."

Until we await him to arrive at Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool, we're the only team left that fit that criteria he mentions.

I know that's a 4+4 = 15 mentality on my part.

I guess you could also say Mings and King played at Bournmouth together.

Edit:  I dare say Lansbury and Cash will know each other from their days at Forest.

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by AvfcRigo82

[Skruff]

1 hour ago, MrBlack said:

Quotes from the standard, in turn quoting a eplanalysis article.  

He needs to get better at tackling, but if he does that, he becomes one of the best destroyer type defensive midfielders in the league.

Against certain teams we'll need to play two defensive midfielders if were going with a 4-3-3 variant,  and if he can get more consistent support from Luiz to take the ball off him they could make a brilliant pairing.

Definitely worth giving another season, or we risk an idrissa gueye style situation where he goes elsewhere and delivers a league title.  May well not make the step up,  or having a ready made alternative for this season for him to learn from could be brilliant, but no point selling even if we do sign someone until next year. 

 

I think he'll be a cracking player given another season. Good to see there's statistics backing it up. Theres still a few things needing ironing out, but he'll get there once he's adapted. 

Would be interesting to see a midfield with Nakamba and Luiz as a destroyer/deep lying playmaker role, with Luiz pushing forward when it's suited, dictating play. Coupled with McGinn doing his box to box  thing. 

[icouldtelltheworld]

I think there's the makings of a useful player in Marvellous - as others has said he's a good option to have against teams where we're likely to have our backs against the wall. I think he needs to just focus on the simple things, disrupt play and make the short pass to another midfielder. He struggles when tries to overplay it by running with the ball or making a longer pass

[MrBlack]

2 minutes ago, Skruff said:

I think he'll be a cracking player given another season. Good to see there's statistics backing it up. Theres still a few things needing ironing out, but he'll get there once he's adapted. 

Would be interesting to see a midfield with Nakamba and Luiz as a destroyer/deep lying playmaker role, with Luiz pushing forward when it's suited, dictating play. Coupled with McGinn doing his box to box  thing. 

I think your last paragraph was the vision last year  but lack of experience and a poor run of results meant it had to be abandoned.

Nakamba needed to release the baller quicker/ better after winning it, and Luiz was never that close to him for it to be easy enough for him. Nakamba also needs to make more of his tackles work, so many times he will slide in and just poke the ball to the same player. They are fixable challenges, and I can see it working very well if thoae challenges are fixed.

[The Fun Factory]

I think it was difficult for him in the early part of the season as Luiz had not really settled into his role so he spent a lot of time covering for him defensively. Next season he might do better.