Morgan Sanson

[Laughable Chimp]

44 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

The thing I like about Sanson is that he's a CM who doesn't mind receiving the ball when he's under pressure.  He's calm on the ball.  A lot of our midfielders treat the ball like a hot potato sometimes, so it's refreshing to see someone receive the ball on the half turn and pass it forwards. 

Yes, he did that bad back-pass, a lot of midfielders do it game to game, Dougie did 2 on Sunday, Emi Buendia passed the ball out of play under no pressure and his teammate was 15 yards away.  Mistakes happen, Morgan's happened to be punished, like Mings twice the other week.  For him then to be completely ostracised by Gerrard for it, he Morgan has shown he could play well (especially after his continual injuries the season he came under Smith), was moronic.  

When coupled with the fact that the guys playing in front of him were so out of form, it made NO sense for him not to be given further opportunities.  

Sanson came as a player who's team was expected to be near the top of the French League, has CL experience and played in a Europa League Cup final, losing to Atheltico Madrid - and being a central and integral part of it.

His CV is arguably stronger than McGinn, who came from Hibs to a team struggling to get out of the Championship. 

As fans we should be annoyed - especially in the circumstances - that we haven't had chance to see him more, especially when his match evidence suggests he's absolutely no worse than the players he's in competition with. 

Him being calm and composed on the ball is a complete myth. People seem to want to disregard that terrible pass in that man united game which is prime evidence for this for some reason  but his passing accuracy for us is no better than Mcginn’s this season.

if you look even further back to his ligue 1 days, he’s always had a poor passing accuracy rate. Because he’s not this ashley westwood type at all, he’s supposed to be an attacking mid, almost as a number 10. Not too different to what we have with Ramsey and Mcginn.

This narrative that he’s this super composed midfielder arose because people started viewing him as the solution to our midfield woes(which was keeping the ball), and started shoehorning his attributes to match that narrative.

[Rolta]

15 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Him being calm and composed on the ball is a complete myth. People seem to want to disregard that terrible pass in that man united game which is prime evidence for this for some reason  but his passing accuracy for us is no better than Mcginn’s this season.

if you look even further back to his ligue 1 days, he’s always had a poor passing accuracy rate. Because he’s not this ashley westwood type at all, he’s supposed to be an attacking mid, almost as a number 10. Not too different to what we have with Ramsey and Mcginn.

This narrative that he’s this super composed midfielder arose because people started viewing him as the solution to our midfield woes(which was keeping the ball), and started shoehorning his attributes to match that narrative.

I think people say these things because apart from that one pass against Man U he has genuinely appeared to be a good and calm player in the meagre opportinities he's had. Writing off a player for one bad pass is ludicrous. Everything else I've seen of him has looked pretty damn good to be fair, and it's a travesty that McGinn has played so many minutes in comparison.

[KentVillan]

32 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Him being calm and composed on the ball is a complete myth. People seem to want to disregard that terrible pass in that man united game which is prime evidence for this for some reason  but his passing accuracy for us is no better than Mcginn’s this season.

if you look even further back to his ligue 1 days, he’s always had a poor passing accuracy rate. Because he’s not this ashley westwood type at all, he’s supposed to be an attacking mid, almost as a number 10. Not too different to what we have with Ramsey and Mcginn.

This narrative that he’s this super composed midfielder arose because people started viewing him as the solution to our midfield woes(which was keeping the ball), and started shoehorning his attributes to match that narrative.

I disagree, and pass completion % doesn’t take into account other key things like:

- how quickly does he release the ball (ie does he keep the tempo going or does he slow the game and let oppo get set?)

- how good is he at receiving the ball under pressure and not losing it at that point?

- what is his range of passing?

- how progressive are his short / medium / long passes?

- is he picking the best option?

On most of these, I think Sanson is better than McGinn, although I agree there’s always been an element of “the grass is always greener” with him.

But he doesn’t do that thing McGinn does where he takes a couple of touches to get it under, lets two players press him, and then turns into a blind alley because he can only knock it off his left.

That’s why I think people describe him as a more calm and composed player. It’s not a myth.

[duke313]

39 minutes ago, Rolta said:

I think people say these things because apart from that one pass against Man U he has genuinely appeared to be a good and calm player in the meagre opportinities he's had. Writing off a player for one bad pass is ludicrous. Everything else I've seen of him has looked pretty damn good to be fair, and it's a travesty that McGinn has played so many minutes in comparison.

Absolutely mental.  How many bad passes has McGinn made?

[Tom13]

[duke313]

1 minute ago, Tom13 said:

Sanson Kamara pivot 

[BOF]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

Gerrard really was willing to die on that hill

And thankfully he did.

[sidcow]

On 07/11/2022 at 10:50, Stevo985 said:

He's somewhat of a cult hero, but he's not a legend.

He was a below average right back.

But as seems to be the theme amongst football fans, not being good enough for anyone to want you meaning you stick around for ages makes you a legend, rather than actually being a good player

See, you're wrong. 

Merely being a good player is not the stuff legends are made of.  In fact I would say it's a fairly minor part of what makes a legend. Guts, determination, treating the club with respect, winning fans around after a difficult start, staying a long while and scoring one of the greatest goals ever against local rivals........ That's the stuff legends are made of, not being good at kicking a spherical object about. 

[DJBOB]

I think Sanson can play in the pivot and maybe in the Buendia role if injured or against certain teams. Midfielders will be asked to play a lot of different roles under Unai and I think Morgan can finally breakthrough here for at least a few games.

[The_Steve]

Great comments from Unai, can’t wait to see more of our beautiful dynamic Sanson in action 

[AVFCDAN]

21 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Sanson Kamara pivot 

For some reason that excites me and feels like something different to what we've seen the last 3 years. Progression through midfield has been a problem of ours for years.

[PieFacE]

I find it interesting that people have such strong opinions of Sanson. I genuinely have no idea how good he is. He's barely kicked a ball for us and I think it's far more likely he's not quite up to it rather than both Smith and Gerrard just didn't like French people or whatever. Would be odd if he was as good as what we currently have given his little playing time. 

[romavillan]

7 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

I find it interesting that people have such strong opinions of Sanson. I genuinely have no idea how good he is. He's barely kicked a ball for us and I think it's far more likely he's not quite up to it rather than both Smith and Gerrard just didn't like French people or whatever. Would be odd if he was as good as what we currently have given his little playing time. 

Had Smith stayed on he'd have featured, god only knows what Gerrard's problem was with him. Every time he's played he's looked decent, that's why people have kept going on about him I reckon. The fact he's only had a few chances, looked like he's done ok when he's been given one and then just got totally ignored by Gerrard. That after being one of the best players in a poor pre-season. People want to see him get a run of games to see what he's about as in the glimpses we've had he's mostly looked a player.

[sne]

I did watch Sanson quite a few times for Marseille and liked what I saw, although not saying he was world class. Was at the same time I got really impressed with Kamara even though he was a talent more than a finished article at the time. No doubt what so ever that Sanson can offer us more than McGinn has. McGinn has his bright sides too of course. 

[duke313]

Interesting from the Preece article in the BM:

"During the ballwork, John McGinn and Marvelous Nakamba - in yellow bibs - were up against French duo Boubacar Kamara and Morgan Sanson in the midfield battle"

So, we are either going to see McGinn and Nakamba in the pivot or Sanson and Kamara. Let's hope it's the latter.

[VillaParkAvenue]

2 hours ago, Rolta said:

I think people say these things because apart from that one pass against Man U he has genuinely appeared to be a good and calm player in the meagre opportinities he's had. Writing off a player for one bad pass is ludicrous. Everything else I've seen of him has looked pretty damn good to be fair, and it's a travesty that McGinn has played so many minutes in comparison.

He gave the ball away twice in that Man U game, the first time he played it directly to Elanga our Emi saved the shot. He was shaky overall in that game, giving away silly free kicks etc.

In other games he's looked a whole lot better.

[NoelVilla]

That pass is being talked about too much. It's not the best pass from Digne to him either. And there is a bigger mistake made by our goalie for the first goal.

 

[Kingman]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

But no clean slate for Fred?

[Rolta]

1 minute ago, Kingman said:

But no clean slate for Fred?

I don't think he's registered.

[Tom13]

1 minute ago, Kingman said:

But no clean slate for Fred?

Who said there's not? And if there is, you still have to prove you're good enough. Emery isn't exactly going to have a grudge against him is he?