Popular Post Keyblade Posted November 10, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted November 10, 2023 11 hours ago, HolteExile said: From an era we'd all much rather forget. In dark periods you sometimes have standout players who raise themselves above the ineptness around them. Vlaar isn't in that category. His contemporaries: Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Jores Okore, Matt Lowton, Eric Lichaj etc. He absolutely was above the ineptness around him. Him, Benteke and Delph were a class above the rest of the squad. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 5 hours ago, MaVilla said: he left us, believing he was too good for us. he was pretty good while he was here, but the way he left, actually saying in interviews that he thought at the time we werent good enough and didnt want to be here any more. gets no brownie points from me. Mm we werent good enough. We got relegated the next season with 17 points. He might have had a point 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 We weren't good when he left, but the following season when we accumulated seventeen points we pretty much had a completely different team to the one that Vlaar played that summer Benteke, Delph, Weimann, and Lowton, Vlaar, Bent, Stevens, Cole, and Senderos all departed and Cissokho, Bennett, and Gary Gardner went out on loan, and we replaced them with Ayew, Amavi, Adama, Veretout, Gueye, Gestede, Sinclair, Lescott, Crespo, Llori, Bunn, and Richards, it's easy to look at those signing with 2023 eyes, but at the time most of them were seen as good signings, there was actually quite a positive mood amongst the fans. I made some bad predictions myself - 'Lets just watch Gestede and Ayew do their thing'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 What a thread that is, all the positivity that we had a great window. Tom Fox, Richards, Scott Sinclair. Lescott a B+ signing Think will wash my eyes out with bleach after reading it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 That was a really good interview with Vlaar. Always liked him as a player but his time here was marred by injuries and at a time when we were circling the pan of relegation. Thought he spoke really well about the club and didn’t appear false in any way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 He was bang average. Such a frustrating time. Some were blinded by the young and hungry project. Lowton was going to play for England. Vlaar was heading to a big club, Westwood dictated midfield play, Bowery was an undiscovered gem. No, young and hungry just meant cheap, shit and no other proper teams wanted them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 1 hour ago, DCJonah said: He was bang average. Such a frustrating time. Some were blinded by the young and hungry project. Lowton was going to play for England. Vlaar was heading to a big club, Westwood dictated midfield play, Bowery was an undiscovered gem. No, young and hungry just meant cheap, shit and no other proper teams wanted them. In fairness Lowton might have got caps under Southgate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, DCJonah said: He was bang average. Such a frustrating time. Some were blinded by the young and hungry project. Lowton was going to play for England. Vlaar was heading to a big club, Westwood dictated midfield play, Bowery was an undiscovered gem. No, young and hungry just meant cheap, shit and no other proper teams wanted them. He really wasn't average. Once again, his big issue was injuries, not ability. I just worked it out and in the three seasons he was here he missed almost a third of it through injury. Edited November 10, 2023 by Mantis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 I feel like we're splitting hairs over what "average" is. By Premier League standards, he was absolutely an average defender. His ability at that time would be absolutely nowhere near our current squad. But, equally, for where we were at the time he was probably our best defender. That's not his fault - nor, particularly, the clubs fault. Just the cycle of football whereby sometimes a team is good and sometimes they're bad. For us, he played during the time when we were in the latter category. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 32 minutes ago, bobzy said: I feel like we're splitting hairs over what "average" is. By Premier League standards, he was absolutely an average defender. His ability at that time would be absolutely nowhere near our current squad. But, equally, for where we were at the time he was probably our best defender. That's not his fault - nor, particularly, the clubs fault. Just the cycle of football whereby sometimes a team is good and sometimes they're bad. For us, he played during the time when we were in the latter category. Hard to tell as he was under a hopeless manager with some poor players around him. I think pau would have looked poor in that team for those reasons alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 I'd say he was above average. I mean, we were a below average team at the time and the awful awful relegation season after Vlaar, Benteke and Delph left showed that we were essentially a team of poor players being carried by a few decent ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 I think he'd be on par with a Lenglet at least. He started a WC semifinal against Mesdi's Argentina while he played for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 (edited) He was a solid mid table defender. The kind of player you’d see at Nottingham Forest or Crystal Palace or something. Edited November 10, 2023 by LondonLax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 11 hours ago, Keyblade said: His contemporaries: Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Jores Okore, Matt Lowton, Eric Lichaj etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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