I don’t think this match is an indictment of him as a player and like others have said the reactions are neck-breaking.
We can’t one week call him the greatest thing that’s come through the academy and a guaranteed starter for years, then the next call him useless and we should get rid.
End of the day he’s a youth prospect and they ALWAYS have erratic consistency. Some weeks he’ll look amazing, other weeks he’ll make mistakes galore. It doesn’t matter how good they are; it’s the nature of young players breaking through. See Ronaldo, and more recently De Ligt.
And bad performances can define young players like him, after the initial hype he has a dose of reality of the level required in the league and now he needs the strength of character to accept that and continue to develop and not to just capitulate. He is playing at levels higher than what he has spent his career at, coming through academy’s there’s a steady gradual raise and then when you hit the first team it’s a massive step.
Williams is not the best thing since sliced bread. Nor is he a useless cretin. He’s an exciting youth prospect until further notice and we as fans should realise that and not expect the world. Back him and see him develop, if he continues to step up great, if he falls short then we sell him and move on.
We can still criticise him, talk about his performances, praise him, whatever. But we need to do so with some sensibility and a dose of reality.
