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2022-23 Performances

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Grew into the game, a few errors earlier on that could have been costly, good learning experience for him. Needs a competitive loan and a real run of games.
 
El Jefe said:
He's only redeeming quality is that he's a powerful runner with the ball and can progress the ball.

If people were unimpressed with AWB's positional defending, this lad here is much worse. Someone needs to make a video of the number of times he lost his man or gave him too much space to put a ball in.

His short passing wasn't any better. Easy to see why failed on loan at Bournemouth.
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Yeah agreed on the positioning today. Not that Laird was horrible but both him and Chong were so poor positionally today, made it very easy for Rayo to get out when we pushed up as a team. It's actually made me appreciate what we've seen of the Dalot-Sancho pairing a lot more, both have taken very well to what EtH seemingly wants.
 
He grew into the game and made a couple of good runs towards the end but he looked fairly ordinary for the rest of the time.

I think another loan is probably the right decision for now. Reassess this time next year.
 
People need to realize he hasn't played as a right-back for a while which is probably one of the reasons we didn't see him a lot at Bournemouth.
 
CM10 said:
He grew into the game and made a couple of good runs towards the end but he looked fairly ordinary for the rest of the time.

I think another loan is probably the right decision for now. Reassess this time next year.
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Absolutely. Needs a full season of games.
 
El Jefe said:
He's only redeeming quality is that he's a powerful runner with the ball and can progress the ball.

If people were unimpressed with AWB's positional defending, this lad here is much worse. Someone needs to make a video of the number of times he lost his man or gave him too much space to put a ball in.

His short passing wasn't any better. Easy to see why failed on loan at Bournemouth.
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Fair criticisms. I think people are content to overlook defensive shortcomings for an attack minded full back though, especially a young lad - positioning and defensive nous can be worked on. Too early to write him off. AWB on the other hand is a defensive full back who can't defend.
 
Takes too long on the ball. Doesn't really seem to go 100%. Looks like he takes situations way to easy, almost getting caught a couple of times when being closed down.
Haven't been impressed by him during this pre-season.
 
Good game from him, he looked a lot better than the older fullback on the other side.
 
Solid 90 minutes for him, looked a lot better once he started opening up and contributing to attacks more, he played it too safe in the first half when he and Varane just kept exchanging passes on that side allowing the opposition to box them in. I imagine the decision to loan him or not probably ties into AWBs future as we'll need some cover for Dalot.
 
Abraxas said:
To me he has looked okay. No more, no less. But that's probably good enough to be backup at the moment.
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He fell asleep for their goal. Beyond that he made a few great recoveries and overlapped nicely with Chong (who, I think, played very well, did all he was asked, just had a very poor final touch on a few occasions).
 
georgipep said:
He fell asleep for their goal. Beyond that he made a few great recoveries and overlapped nicely with Chong (who, I think, played very well, did all he was asked, just had a very poor final touch on a few occasions).
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Chong did ok on build-up except for his terrible final balls.

I think Laird’s generally looks more conservative after all of those injuries so he can look quite passive sometimes.
 
Said it so many times but he needs to be kept and be in the first team squad, thought he was very good today.

If he was to be sent on loan, Watford is the worst place, we should learn from the Garner loan.
 
khoazany said:
Chong did ok on build-up except for his terrible final balls.

I think Laird’s generally looks more conservative after all of those injuries so he can look quite passive sometimes.
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He was caught ball-watching a few times, otherwise can't really fault Laird too much, he defended ok.

Chong had terrible final ball delivery but otherwise did the basics perfectly well.
 
First half wasn't great, but 2nd he really got going.

He seems to have a great engine as he was flying in the 2nd half.
 
I felt like his positioning was totally random, but he was playing with Chong and Varane didn't make it easy for him either, so yeah would be good to see him with first team to make a judgment. As average as Dalot is, I don't think Laird is threatening him but we still need a backup if AWB is leaving.
 
Decent performance overall! He isn't half as quick as I've been told though.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He’s had a good game. Done his prospects no harm. Some really important defensive contributions and looks like he can run all day. Constantly trying to overlap.The knee jerk toxicity in the player performance threads today is grim. A good reminder why they needed to be locked on a normal matchday.
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Like you in the McTominay thread.
 
He needs to play regularly in a back 4 - hopefully that’s the formation Watford play. I’m still convinced he has the tools to be a very good RB. I think the plan is to loan him out, sell AWB and sign a RB. With Chelsea supposedly getting Dumphries it’ll be interesting to see who we have lined up.
 
khoazany said:
Chong did ok on build-up except for his terrible final balls.

I think Laird’s generally looks more conservative after all of those injuries so he can look quite passive sometimes.
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I honestly don't think Laird's the same player he was before his injuries in general, he was breath taking at times when he was younger but I've not seen that from him for a long time. I still think he's got PL as his ceiling but once upon a time I thought his ceiling was starter at United level.
 
Sell AWB and keep Laird as he has had his loan period and now he can play in Cup games and Europa as his next progression.
 
To the people saying we should keep him, EtH has had all preseason to assess him. He is clearly being loaned out because he's not ready. Yesterday's match was further evidence to support that. I have to stress again how bad he was positionally, it was schoolboy stuff.

My guess is we will be in the market for a RB as AWB doesn't seem to be in ten Hag's plans.
 
I thought he started badly and as the match wore on, he improve. Varane didn't do him any favour by putting him in a difficult position. If ever Dalot can't play, I will start him over AWB. I think he needs games to build his confidence. Once he got it, I can see us selling Dalot and AWB.
 
Would have prefer a loan move to a premier league side. Need to insert a clause that Watford must play him when ever fit. Otherwise, move him back as our backup RB.
 
Don’t Watford play with a back 5 also? Game time is the most important thing after all but him having 2 seasons where he’s mostly only played as a wingback isn’t the most ideal scenario.
 
We must be getting a right back in because I can’t see AWB being used by ETH.

 
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