Player Jean II Makoun

[NicoIsTheWord]

I remember the Carling cup game last season he played in, Hereford I think it was, Makoun and Ireland were untouchable in the middle of the park. But yea I know it was only Hereford but he is a decent player, hope he does get a chance this season. Prove the doubters wrong

To be fair he was picked against Hereford and performed poorly before being sent out on loan.

He was terrible in that game, really really bad.

Bit of a difference of opinion on how he performed against Hereford. For what it's worth my recollection is he was pretty lifeless in that game.The Express and Star seemed to agree

Jean Makoun did little to suggest he is worth keeping

Maybe Ireland just carried him then :? I thought he had a decent game. Maybe not then haha

[FamousHolteUnion]

Everybody was shit vs Hereford from what I remember. Whilst we're on the subject of judging him based on one game. He was class vs Man Utd.

Essien was relatively poor in the prem for 6 months.

All of our players have been shit for 2 years.

It's been ages since we signed somebody from abroad.

Can we not just give him a chance? If he's shit this season/pre-season then fine get rid. But he probably hasnt even trained with the team in almost 12 months and a lot of people are writing him off.

[Mantis]

Everybody was shit vs Hereford from what I remember. Whilst we're on the subject of judging him based on one game. He was class vs Man Utd.

Essien was relatively poor in the prem for 6 months.

All of our players have been shit for 2 years.

It's been ages since we signed somebody from abroad.

Can we not just give him a chance? If he's shit this season/pre-season then fine get rid. But he probably hasnt even trained with the team in almost 12 months and a lot of people are writing him off.

Agreed. We can't just go writing off players after a few games.

[DelboyVilla]

Last chance saloon for JIIM IMO.

I think a lot will depend on whether he wants to make a go of it here in the Premiership or whether as I suspect he has already given up and is resigned to returning to France or some other inferior league.

[AVFCforever1991]

Sure he has got the determination to be a good player for us, and PL will give him a chance.. Its simple if he doesnt perform well and isn't showing anything then he will be sold, I think this goes for most of the players.

[GENTLEMAN]

Last chance saloon for JIIM IMO.

I think a lot will depend on whether he wants to make a go of it here in the Premiership or whether as I suspect he has already given up and is resigned to returning to France or some other inferior league.

Why do you suspect that my friend?

[srsmithusa]

I'll call it now. Many on here should rightfully come back in 6 months and say "hands up, I was wrong, he's a wonderful player for us. Delighted that he proved me wrong."

Whether any do or not is, of course, a matter of personal principle (and whether I'm right about what he'll do here in the first few months next season).

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Whenever i saw him, i always thought he was one of our better players.Ure away, Nooocastle at home, Fulham at home.Nice pass on him, a bit too clever for some of the players around him sometimes.Alongside a Capoue kind of player would be very good imho.

[deeps]

All will depend on his desire to play in the PL (which if you see his twitter is what he wants) and also how hard he works during pre season. He should never of been loaned for Jenas to come in IMO.

[Moorski]

PL may well give him a go albeit it he will fail, I hope I am wrong tbh.

[Mantis]

All will depend on his desire to play in the PL (which if you see his twitter is what he wants) and also how hard he works during pre season. He should never of been loaned for Jenas to come in IMO.

Would've come in very handy last season, and we'd also know by now whether he was good enough or not.

[ozvillafan]

All will depend on his desire to play in the PL (which if you see his twitter is what he wants) and also how hard he works during pre season. He should never of been loaned for Jenas to come in IMO.

Would've come in very handy last season, and we'd also know by now whether he was good enough or not.

Nope.

He'd have gotten head cramps watching the ball constantly sail over his head from the back.

Not the right player for the kind of tactics we employed last season. Lambert, on the other hand, should be able to get good use out of him.

[quizme]

I like Makoun, but I dont think he wants to be here. I expect him to be sold for 2-3 million euros to a french side.

[Mantis]

All will depend on his desire to play in the PL (which if you see his twitter is what he wants) and also how hard he works during pre season. He should never of been loaned for Jenas to come in IMO.

Would've come in very handy last season, and we'd also know by now whether he was good enough or not.

Nope.

He'd have gotten head cramps watching the ball constantly sail over his head from the back.

Not the right player for the kind of tactics we employed last season. Lambert, on the other hand, should be able to get good use out of him.

Fair point!

[Keyblade]

Still could've used an experienced midfielder last season, regardless of tactics. Also, for the last 2/3 of the season,"He" was trying to play a more passing game. He was just too incompetent and unqualified to properly implement it. It was clear he was only doing so to appease the fans because he would've kept Makoun had he originally intended to play in that style.

[jonno_2004]

Everybody was shit vs Hereford from what I remember. Whilst we're on the subject of judging him based on one game. He was class vs Man Utd.

Essien was relatively poor in the prem for 6 months.

All of our players have been shit for 2 years.

It's been ages since we signed somebody from abroad.

Can we not just give him a chance? If he's shit this season/pre-season then fine get rid. But he probably hasnt even trained with the team in almost 12 months and a lot of people are writing him off.

Haha you're quite right. I forgot all mentioning of the Man U game is banned but Hereford is perfectly fine!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

I like Makoun, but I dont think he wants to be here. I expect him to be sold for 2-3 million euros to a french side.

I'd rather they paid us in pounds sterling.

I only saw him a couple of times for 90 minutes. I think he only played seven for us in total? One of the games I saw him in against Manchester United he was absolutely superb. If we could get him to perform to 80% of his capacity, if that is his capacity, every week we would have one hell of a player on our hands.

Unless he wants out I see no reason why Lambert wouldn't want to give him a shot.

[Villaboy69]

It depends on your definition of class.

If it's completing umpteen short passes in your own half then yes he was class against Man U.

If it's completing umpteen passes with attacking intent and purpose I'd say he was not. My opinion from the games he played for us are the latter

[dont_do_it_doug.]

It depends on your definition of class.

If it's completing umpteen short passes in your own half then yes he was class against Man U.

If it's completing umpteen passes with attacking intent and purpose I'd say he was not. My opinion from the games he played for us are the latter

That Xavi's shit then isn't he.

I saw the pitch data from that game as well, you're wrong.

[omariqy]

You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t been following Premier League games up with Statshacks for a little while. There are numerous reasons for that which I won’t bore you with, but I have still been glancing at the numbers and I have to bring Jean Makoun’s passing statistics from Old Trafford last night to your attention.

I don’t always single individual players out and I don’t keep records, but I do look them over and it’s rare to see any one Aston Villa player connect more than 50 passes in a game. Some players will achieve high 40′s here and there, occasionally mid-50′s, I think James Milner was the highest I ever saw with a game in the low 60′s one time.

Have a look at Jean Makoun’s passing map on the right. That’s 85 complete passes out of 94 attempted, a 90% completion rate. During the 75 minutes Stiliyan Petrov was on the pitch, Makoun completed 73 passes to Stan’s 42.

I should give Petrov some credit, he still managed to complete the same number of passes as Utd’s player with the highest number; Nani also completed 42 passes during the game, although his passes, one in particular, were a lot more significant in Utd’s game.

Makoun achieved these numbers mostly through his speed of passing, frequently moving the ball on with his first touch, but rarely holding the ball for more than a second or two before passing it on to a team mate. But almost always a useful pass and often a clever pass to someone in space.

His movement off the ball allowed him to receive the ball in space, his awareness of what’s going on around him and general reading of the game facilitated the quick one and two touch game. When the players around him are closer to his wavelength, special things are going to happen.

On this occasion, arguably because Wayne Rooney finally found his shooting boots, we didn’t come away from Old Trafford with anything, but it’s not insignificant that Villa held 56% of the possession and a 57% share of the completed passes (CPS%) in the game.

As we always remind ourselves here at AVC, there is only one statistic that truly matters, but to go to Old Trafford and hold the majority share of a couple key metrics has to be encouraging, whatever the result. With a little more composure and potency in the final third of the pitch, this side will be deadly.

With Makoun behind the attacking players, pulling the strings, I can’t imagine it’ll be too much longer before it all starts clicking into place. If he strikes up a strong partnership with Fabian Delph and/or Michael Bradley… well, I’ll leave it there before I get carried away