Nicolò Zaniolo

[Rich192]

He had two horrific injuries a few years ago, and just hasn't looked the same player since. It was definitely a gamble worth taking, as he genuinely was a very exciting player before those ACLs. It's still early days, and being played out of position hasn't helped, however at this moment in time, I wouldn't be looking to make the move permanent. There's still some way to go, of course, however he's looking now how he looked for the most part for Roma post injuries. I would love for Nico to get back to his pre-ACL self, however it's too much of a gamble for us given the cost of the transfer, and our apparently tight FFP. 

 

However, the big caveat to this is that I would love to see him on the right or in the Diaby role, and Europe is the time and place to do that. He's not a right sided player, so it's made it additionally difficult for him to find his feet. 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, avfc1982am said:

Very true. However, as mentioned in a previous post, if there was or is constructive criticisms of him I think that's fair enough, and debatable, but look back through the thread and in many instances that isn't the case. 

Your correct that fans also have experience, but does that mean people should just be dismissive of a player after approx 10 games, and considering all the factors that may actually have an impact on performances? Like playing out of position, being in a new Country, new culture. Not only that but having the embarrassment of being pulled out your national team recently and the possibility of your career imminently going tits up. Also considering for good measure, that you've recently spent a good portion of your career getting over major injuries, before then getting run out of your previous club where you'd been very successful, because the manager decided to turn you into a villain with the fans.

Aston Villa football club, and I include the fans in that, should be doing everything possible to help this young lad become the player Emery, Monchi and the club think he could become for us. As with all our players. Not throwing more shit the lads way after such a short period of time. Like I said constructive criticism is fair enough, it's not like he's playing brilliantly so debate as to why is only fair and I'm sure everyone would agree with that. What I don't think is fair is being dismissive of all the above to just post, "He's crap" or some other nonsense. It's only right that the response should be equally as dismissive.

 

I think you have a solid point.....but to say a player is just , " Crap" isn't very intelligent really, and certainly not engaging....its just a lazy, moody, line, usually after we have lost.

My take on it,  is this......I can only say, what I see, and I try to be respectful, even if it is constructive criticism and players form varies from game to game, so it can be premature to sign him/her off as " Crap"

However, Its the managers job, to get embroiled in all the reasons and mitigations a player is below par, its his job to see the development and work on the enhancements.....I remain a spectator, I just comment on what I see, and that view can change on the same player, from game to game.....they say fans are fickle, maybe because the games are.

What a player does in 12 months time, is not what I have signed up for, thats the managers territory......I just say what I see, on the day.

Thats not saying, when I watch a young player, learning his craft, I don't factor in his WIP....I do, but thats a part of attempting to make sense of what you see in a game.

I am not trying to be argumentative.....I just don't want to drag myself in to area's the manager has to deal with or make allowances for something, I'm most likely not privvy too.....I just want to watch the game and comment on what I saw....not what I might see in future.

A player, could be carrying an injury, or has had traumatic news just before a game....but we as fans are not expected to know that, so we shouldn't be criticised for saying what we see.

Having said all that....I never boo our players, I just clap, or stay silent....and I certainly would not, involve myself in any barracking.....We just don't know enough, about the players circumstances, for being below par....I just leave that bit to UE.

ps Having been close to a Villa player in the past...my opinion is, they all try hard, and want to win.

 

[allani]

5 hours ago, TRO said:

My concern with him is simply staying in possession.....now thats not asking much from an International player.

He loses the ball in the most tentative challenges.....not sure why?....but its surely not a good trait.

Jury is still out.

This is a valid point and a valid concern.  Also one that I think that @romavillan and I both mentioned when we were first linked.  At Roma (and I think at Gala as well) and for Italy, Zaniolo was definitely primarily tasked with getting the ball and driving at / past the last defender.  To this extent he was effectively playing a role where his job was get tackled or create a chance.  This is why his ball retention stats from his time in Roma weren't great.  They weren't expected to be - his "success" was measured more in the number of chances he created than on how well he kept the ball.

We're playing him in a deeper role and in a system where retaining possession is pretty fundamental - you only have to look at how poor and uncomfortable Dougie, McGinn, Ramsey, Konsa, etc, etc were at retaining possession under previous regimes and how now they seem much more in control of the ball than they were.  I also think that switching sides means that Zaniolo has gone from having players trying to tackle him on the left (his stronger foot) but now they are generally tackling him from the right.  On top of that in Europe the defenders job is more about jockeying a player into making a mistake.  So this (and the general pace of the game) is probably something he is still getting used to.  I think he's also been surprised by the number of tackles from behind that are fair game in the UK (if you get the ball first) so he needs to adjust for that too.  The final point is that I actually think he got fouled several times against Forest (and Luton) and got nothing awarded to him - yet as soon as he did the same in return he got pinged by the ref.

Anyway, I think what I am trying to say is that ball retention is not something that he's been expected to do in the past - it's been more about taking on and beating the last man.  If you get tacked 5 or 6 times that doesn't matter as long as the 6th or 7th time you create a more threatening situation.  He's probably hitting something like that ratio for us.  But he's playing deeper and there are more times now where we'd be more interested in him recycling the ball rather than trying to beat one or two players.  It's a different ask.  (I think this also plays into the footballing brain discussion - in the past he's definitely been asked to be head down and try and beat people.  Whereas now we want him to be a bit more look up and choose the right moments to try that and the right moments to just lay the ball off to someone else.)

It will be interesting to see how / if he can adapt to those things.  But he's being asked to play a very different role - it's a bit like asking McGinn to play as a left winger.  I'm not sure what the exact conditions are on the loan / transfer deal (i.e. how many games he has to play to force the transfer).  And despite the fact that he was one of my favourite players when he broke through at Roma - I'm still not decided either way.  If we can get him back to the confident player he was and he adapts to the speed of PL then he'll do very well, if not then he's not really a 7 out of 10 player.  I think I said when we were first linked that he'll either be a brilliant signing or a meh one - but unlikely to just be decent / good.  I'm hoping that between now and whatever number of performances are required to trigger the permanent deal we get the answer.

Oh actually my last point was going to be that he's definitely a player that wants to be loved and one who thrives with confidence.  I do think that once he gets a couple of goals / assists / really good performances in then we'll see a leap in his general performance levels.  He's coming from a pretty low point in his career (injuries, fall out with Roma, the current betting scandal, etc) so the sooner he can get all of that behind him the better for us and for him.  There have been flashes - but probably not enough so far.  Fingers crossed.

[allani]

2 hours ago, Rich192 said:

He had two horrific injuries a few years ago, and just hasn't looked the same player since. It was definitely a gamble worth taking, as he genuinely was a very exciting player before those ACLs. It's still early days, and being played out of position hasn't helped, however at this moment in time, I wouldn't be looking to make the move permanent. There's still some way to go, of course, however he's looking now how he looked for the most part for Roma post injuries. I would love for Nico to get back to his pre-ACL self, however it's too much of a gamble for us given the cost of the transfer, and our apparently tight FFP. 

 

However, the big caveat to this is that I would love to see him on the right or in the Diaby role, and Europe is the time and place to do that. He's not a right sided player, so it's made it additionally difficult for him to find his feet. 

He did have quite a few superb performances for Roma post-injury.  But the other thing to bear in mind with that is the Mourinho played in a different way and so Zaniolo didn't have quite the same freedom as he did under (I think - but probably need to double-check my timelines) Di Francesco.  Then of course the fall-out with Mourinho caused a massive backlash that was (largely in my opinion) unwarranted.

However, I agree with most of your post.  He's playing a very different role and it will take him time to adjust - but there's also the point that we can only afford so much time.  That said so far there are a lot more players who've improved under Emery (even if it has taken a while) than have stayed the same or regressed.  So I do hope that we're only a couple of good performances away from seeing a revived and confident Zaniolo - because if that happens he can be absolutely brilliant (but a little frustrating at the same time!).

Edited November 8, 2023 by allani

[TRO]

5 minutes ago, allani said:

This is a valid point and a valid concern.  Also one that I think that @romavillan and I both mentioned when we were first linked.  At Roma (and I think at Gala as well) and for Italy, Zaniolo was definitely primarily tasked with getting the ball and driving at / past the last defender.  To this extent he was effectively playing a role where his job was get tackled or create a chance.  This is why his ball retention stats from his time in Roma weren't great.  They weren't expected to be - his "success" was measured more in the number of chances he created than on how well he kept the ball.

We're playing him in a deeper role and in a system where retaining possession is pretty fundamental - you only have to look at how poor and uncomfortable Dougie, McGinn, Ramsey, Konsa, etc, etc were at retaining possession under previous regimes and how now they seem much more in control of the ball than they were.  I also think that switching sides means that Zaniolo has gone from having players trying to tackle him on the left (his stronger foot) but now they are generally tackling him from the right.  On top of that in Europe the defenders job is more about jockeying a player into making a mistake.  So this (and the general pace of the game) is probably something he is still getting used to.  I think he's also been surprised by the number of tackles from behind that are fair game in the UK (if you get the ball first) so he needs to adjust for that too.  The final point is that I actually think he got fouled several times against Forest (and Luton) and got nothing awarded to him - yet as soon as he did the same in return he got pinged by the ref.

Anyway, I think what I am trying to say is that ball retention is not something that he's been expected to do in the past - it's been more about taking on and beating the last man.  If you get tacked 5 or 6 times that doesn't matter as long as the 6th or 7th time you create a more threatening situation.  He's probably hitting something like that ratio for us.  But he's playing deeper and there are more times now where we'd be more interested in him recycling the ball rather than trying to beat one or two players.  It's a different ask.  (I think this also plays into the footballing brain discussion - in the past he's definitely been asked to be head down and try and beat people.  Whereas now we want him to be a bit more look up and choose the right moments to try that and the right moments to just lay the ball off to someone else.)

It will be interesting to see how / if he can adapt to those things.  But he's being asked to play a very different role - it's a bit like asking McGinn to play as a left winger.  I'm not sure what the exact conditions are on the loan / transfer deal (i.e. how many games he has to play to force the transfer).  And despite the fact that he was one of my favourite players when he broke through at Roma - I'm still not decided either way.  If we can get him back to the confident player he was and he adapts to the speed of PL then he'll do very well, if not then he's not really a 7 out of 10 player.  I think I said when we were first linked that he'll either be a brilliant signing or a meh one - but unlikely to just be decent / good.  I'm hoping that between now and whatever number of performances are required to trigger the permanent deal we get the answer.

Oh actually my last point was going to be that he's definitely a player that wants to be loved and one who thrives with confidence.  I do think that once he gets a couple of goals / assists / really good performances in then we'll see a leap in his general performance levels.  He's coming from a pretty low point in his career (injuries, fall out with Roma, the current betting scandal, etc) so the sooner he can get all of that behind him the better for us and for him.  There have been flashes - but probably not enough so far.  Fingers crossed.

All those mitigations, have valid rationale attached to them, but I purposely kept my concern brief for a reason.

I don't want to sound too simplistic...but if you haven't got the ball, its debateable what you can do with it.

Sorties breakdown, and collegues get frustrated, when a player loses the ball too much....Nicky seems to be losing it more, than when he first arrived...maybe thats just my take.

It may depend on what role you are given to play, but keeping the ball in the loop, is a pretty important thing to do....Jack G is an example of a player, for all his sins, keeps the ball, rarely gives it away, cheaply, sure he has his downsides, but ball retention, is important to the overall strategy of a team...he has players who move off the ball with intelligence and regularity too, which helps enormously.......but Nicky has to be better.

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

I honestly think if he can grab a goal ASAP, then he will go mental and we will see the real Zaniolo. 

He hasnt been a goalscorer in his entire career so far.

[allani]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

All those mitigations, have valid rationale attached to them, but I purposely kept my concern brief for a reason.

I don't want to sound too simplistic...but if you haven't got the ball, its debateable what you can do with it.

Sorties breakdown, and collegues get frustrated, when a player loses the ball too much....Nicky seems to be losing it more, than when he first arrived...maybe thats just my take.

It may depend on what role you are given to play, but keeping the ball in the loop, is a pretty important thing to do....Jack G is an example of a player, for all his sins, keeps the ball, rarely gives it away, cheaply, sure he has his downsides, but ball retention, is important to the overall strategy of a team...he has players who move off the ball with intelligence and regularity too, which helps enormously.......but Nicky has to be better.

I mainly agree.  But it does depend on the style of play that the team adopts.  Roma and Italy both tended to want to defend deeper and then hit teams on the break - in this regard the ability of your attackers to retain possession is less important than the ability to beat players and create chances.  Zaniolo was playing in a more advanced role and his instructions were to try and get into the box and get shots away.  Retaining the ball wasn't the key.  It was fine if he lost the ball a few times as long as the next time he beat his man and got a shot away.  Colleagues get less frustrated because they tend to be much deeper and so if he lost the ball they weren't all out of position and having to run back to recover possession.

Emery has got us playing a very different way - and ball retention is much more important to the way we play.  We're now happy to pass the ball around 30 or 40 times to create that bit of space that we can then try and exploit.  It's a different way of playing the same game.

I think it's taking a while to adjust and I also think that sometimes he's slightly unsure as to whether to attack the defender or do something different - and in the meantime that momentary indecision is enough for someone to make a tackle.  When he's back playing more on instinct (and his instinct is more in tune with the rest of the team) then it should be a different matter.

It's almost the reverse of Dougie.  Luiz was trying to play the way he is now before but couldn't because the rest of the team were doing something different - so it sometimes looked like Doug was slow, indecisive and giving the ball away a lot.  Now that the rest of the team are playing on his wavelength he looks like a completely different player because the rest of the team are more in tune with his instincts and looking for space / passes where he always wanted them to be.

[allani]

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He hasnt been a goalscorer in his entire career so far.

True - but I think in both of his first two seasons at Roma he was responsible for the highest number of goals scored after a shot by a player in Serie A (i.e. Zaniolo wouldn't always score but Roma scored an awful lot of goals from rebounds / blocks / general confusion in the box after one of his shots).

[UpTheVilla26]

6 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He hasnt been a goalscorer in his entire career so far.

I don't mean as in goal scoring, but you can see how deperate he is to bag one. 

Once he has, I think he will settle down a bit more and won't be trying to force things so much, which is what he looks like he's doing at the moment. 

Hopefully he can ping in a 25 yard screamer over the next couple of games. 

[Zatman]

3 minutes ago, allani said:

True - but I think in both of his first two seasons at Roma he was responsible for the highest number of goals scored after a shot by a player in Serie A (i.e. Zaniolo wouldn't always score but Roma scored an awful lot of goals from rebounds / blocks / general confusion in the box after one of his shots).

Maybe but he needs to learn to pass the ball. So far his vision has been dreadful

 

[TRO]

25 minutes ago, allani said:

I mainly agree.  But it does depend on the style of play that the team adopts.  Roma and Italy both tended to want to defend deeper and then hit teams on the break - in this regard the ability of your attackers to retain possession is less important than the ability to beat players and create chances.  Zaniolo was playing in a more advanced role and his instructions were to try and get into the box and get shots away.  Retaining the ball wasn't the key.  It was fine if he lost the ball a few times as long as the next time he beat his man and got a shot away.  Colleagues get less frustrated because they tend to be much deeper and so if he lost the ball they weren't all out of position and having to run back to recover possession.

Emery has got us playing a very different way - and ball retention is much more important to the way we play.  We're now happy to pass the ball around 30 or 40 times to create that bit of space that we can then try and exploit.  It's a different way of playing the same game.

I think it's taking a while to adjust and I also think that sometimes he's slightly unsure as to whether to attack the defender or do something different - and in the meantime that momentary indecision is enough for someone to make a tackle.  When he's back playing more on instinct (and his instinct is more in tune with the rest of the team) then it should be a different matter.

It's almost the reverse of Dougie.  Luiz was trying to play the way he is now before but couldn't because the rest of the team were doing something different - so it sometimes looked like Doug was slow, indecisive and giving the ball away a lot.  Now that the rest of the team are playing on his wavelength he looks like a completely different player because the rest of the team are more in tune with his instincts and looking for space / passes where he always wanted them to be.

I think we may be going from one extreme to the other....I am not seeing the possession based game,  as a factor, in this.....He simply loses the ball at key moments, I don't quite get, why a style of play, has such an affect on a fundamental part of football..its probably one of the first introductions to football...its arguably a feature, that most dads pick up on a sunday, watching the kids, the ones who the ball sticks to, stand out.......for me, everything starts, from that point, of keeping the ball....it was the first thing, I spotted, when I first saw, Gareth Barry.....it was the same, with Gary Shaw, was precious with the ball, and was hard to dispossess....I think its a massive attribute to have.

I believe in any style of football, at some point, you have to be able to stay on the ball, to make your mark....that doesn't mean hogging it, it means staying with it, when an opponent wants it, more times than not.

I don't doubt Nico  has some issues to work on....I was just giving my penny worth, of what I am seeing, right now.

Ps I am dead keen to see him make it.....I like big players with presence, who can lean on opponents, to gain advantage....but as I have said, he has an issue for me, and its not just goal scoring.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by TRO

[allani]

Just now, Zatman said:

Maybe but he needs to learn to pass the ball. So far his vision has been dreadful

 

As per my posts above - his instructions in his formative years were to take players on and get shots away.  We're asking him to play in a different position and in a different way.  I don't know whether he'll work it out but if we wanted a cute passer of the ball to play on the left and keep hold of the ball - then Zaniolo was never the signing to slot straight into that position (for a start he'd never played in that position before signing for us).

[Zatman]

3 minutes ago, allani said:

As per my posts above - his instructions in his formative years were to take players on and get shots away.  We're asking him to play in a different position and in a different way.  I don't know whether he'll work it out but if we wanted a cute passer of the ball to play on the left and keep hold of the ball - then Zaniolo was never the signing to slot straight into that position (for a start he'd never played in that position before signing for us).

Nobody is asking him to change his game completely but has been more than one occasion he has took a pointless shot when has been others on in better positions

[TRO]

1 minute ago, allani said:

As per my posts above - his instructions in his formative years were to take players on and get shots away.  We're asking him to play in a different position and in a different way.  I don't know whether he'll work it out but if we wanted a cute passer of the ball to play on the left and keep hold of the ball - then Zaniolo was never the signing to slot straight into that position (for a start he'd never played in that position before signing for us).

At the fear, of missing something....to do what you are suggesting, surely he has to be able to stay on the ball, until such time he get his shot away.....On Sunday, he was constantly being relieved of it, with the slightest of challenges.

[allani]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

I think we may be going from one extreme to the other....I am not seeing the possession based game,  as a factor, in this.....He simply loses the ball at key moments, I don't quite get, why a style of play, has such an affect on a fundamental part of football..its probably one of the first introductions to football...its arguably a feature, that most dads pick up on a sunday, watching the kids, the ones who the ball sticks to, stand out.......for me, everything starts, from that point, of keeping the ball....it was the first thing, I spotted, when I first saw, Gareth Barry.....it was the same, with Gary Shaw, was precious with the ball, and was hard to dispossess....I think its a massive attribute to have.

I believe in any style of football, at some point, you have to be able to stay on the ball, to make your mark....that doesn't mean hogging it, it means staying with it, when an opponent wants it, more times than not.

I don't doubt Nico  has some issues to work on....I was just giving my penny worth, of what I am seeing, right now.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you.  But Di Francesca for example had a different view.  He had Zaniolo playing in a more advanced role with the instruction to try and create chances.  If he lost the ball it didn't matter - because he knew that eventually he'd beat two men and create a situation from which Roma would score.  When you've been encouraged to play a very direct role then the priorities change.  His ball retention stats in his first spell at Roma were not great but he was considered one of the great hopes of Italian football.

At the moment we are asking him to do something different.

PS - On your Barry / Shaw point - I saw Jlloyd Samuel's first match on loan for Gillingham (lived in Kent and so watched them a lot - including the Play-Off Final against Man City).  I remember saying to the guys around me that Samuel was highly thought of by lots of Villa fans and that he could be something special.  Within about 20 minutes the guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said he'd not seen a young kid have that amount of confidence on the ball for a long time.  One of those great "I told you he'd be a bit special" moments!

[allani]

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Nobody is asking him to change his game completely but has been more than one occasion he has took a pointless shot when has been others on in better positions

He's not the only player guilty of that (Ollie was notoriously bad in that regard - certainly up until this season).  I think he's just desparate to get a goal / assist and get up and running at Villa.  He knows how big an opportunity this is for him and how it is probably the pivotal moment for the rest of his career.  If this works out then he's got a great chance of playing in European competitions in a team (or teams) at the top end of the table in a strong league and of getting back into the Italian team.  If it doesn't work out then he's got a hell of a task to get a similar opportunity.

I think that's why I agree with the post before - once he gets a goal, I think it will take a lot of pressure (a lot of it from within himself) off and he'll relax and play more instinctively and we'll see a big jump in his performances.  As you said that probably doesn't mean that he'll start banging goals in for fun but I do think we'll see a more confident and decisive player.  But I think he'll always be slightly guilty of giving the ball away a bit cheaply at times and of not always spotting a simple pass.  But those things will be a little less important (if still a bit frustrating) if he's creating chances that we are sticking away.

[allani]

30 minutes ago, TRO said:

At the fear, of missing something....to do what you are suggesting, surely he has to be able to stay on the ball, until such time he get his shot away.....On Sunday, he was constantly being relieved of it, with the slightest of challenges.

Not really because his first or second touch would take him beyond and away from the last defender.  It's harder to lose possession when you've left the defender 2 yards behind you.   At Roma he was playing much further forward and so really only had the players in front of him to worry about.  I think most of the times he's losing the ball for us is when he's got the defender in front of him and then the midfielder comes back at him and tackles him.  At Roma he was generally much further away from the second line of defence.  In Italy players were generally coming in to tackle him from in front of him and to his left (his strongest foot) whereas where he is playing at the moment the tackles are mainly coming from the right and from behind.  As he gets more used to that I think / hope that he'll become better and smarter at protecting the ball.  I always thought at Roma that his upper body strength and ability to hold people off was pretty good (a bit Gazzaesque in that regard).  I think he's shown that here when he's had players right on his back and he's been able to turn them and get away from the corner flag area - but he's definitely looked "weaker" in open play - almost like he's not been expecting the challenge to come in.    

Edited November 8, 2023 by allani

[maqroll]

4 hours ago, Rich192 said:

He had two horrific injuries a few years ago, and just hasn't looked the same player since. It was definitely a gamble worth taking, as he genuinely was a very exciting player before those ACLs. It's still early days, and being played out of position hasn't helped, however at this moment in time, I wouldn't be looking to make the move permanent. There's still some way to go, of course, however he's looking now how he looked for the most part for Roma post injuries. I would love for Nico to get back to his pre-ACL self, however it's too much of a gamble for us given the cost of the transfer, and our apparently tight FFP. 

 

However, the big caveat to this is that I would love to see him on the right or in the Diaby role, and Europe is the time and place to do that. He's not a right sided player, so it's made it additionally difficult for him to find his feet. 

ISWYDT

[romavillan]

He's not found even his best post injury form and is way off some of his pre-injury performances when he first came through. He's being asked to play on the left though and deeper then he normally would. So he's going to have to learn what Emery wants down that side, I personally don't understand it apart from Ramsey being out injured. When Bailey comes on he never gets put on the left in that role and Zaniolo would be much more at home playing in the role Bailey is asked to play.

That said a lot of the stick he's getting is a bit much. Not sure what people are seeing if they think he has a bad touch. He's been guilty of trying a bit too hard and being a bit selfish but he's also done a lot of good work. We've not seen him at his best for whatever reason but that doesn't mean we won't ever either.

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, romavillan said:

He's not found even his best post injury form and is way off some of his pre-injury performances when he first came through. He's being asked to play on the left though and deeper then he normally would. So he's going to have to learn what Emery wants down that side, I personally don't understand it apart from Ramsey being out injured. When Bailey comes on he never gets put on the left in that role and Zaniolo would be much more at home playing in the role Bailey is asked to play.

That said a lot of the stick he's getting is a bit much. Not sure what people are seeing if they think he has a bad touch. He's been guilty of trying a bit too hard and being a bit selfish but he's also done a lot of good work. We've not seen him at his best for whatever reason but that doesn't mean we won't ever either.

Agree

I'm not sure if my expectation and excitement of him has died down but I'm seeing him as a 1 year loan to plug a gap while JJ and Buendia are injured

We're not going to try him on the right because he's got no future there

And in that context he's fine, he's doing OK, he's an indication of how far we've come

I don't think he'll be here next year, I don't think he'll end this year starting for us, he's nothing to worry about, more hope that JJ gets fit and this guy will be a good back up, he's doing his job here