Diame

[Zippity]

He's a strange one.

On the one hand, in possession he's ponderous at best and generally clumsy. He got caught napping on the ball a lot yesterday and conceded possession too easily. I've seen him come in for a bit of stick and can totally understand where people are coming from in that respect.

But...there's no-one else in the team who does the dirty stuff like he does (well, Ritchie sort of does ). He breaks up play and disrupts the opposition's rhythm. He;s not the force he once was but showed in that run last season how good he can still be; if we lost him I think we'd struggle to replace the things he does.


Thoughts.

[Jammy89]

Agreed.

I don't rate him and yet i was looking at the stats for what he does, nobody else comes close.

I think if we lost him we'd lose a key bit of the way Rafa wants us to play, in a strange way.

We need an upgraded version of him but i think the type of player he is fits how Rafa has play.

[nufcwelsh93]

He's a strange one.

On the one hand, in possession he's ponderous at best and generally clumsy. He got caught napping on the ball a lot yesterday and conceded possession too easily. I've seen him come in for a bit of stick and can totally understand where people are coming from in that respect.

But...there's no-one else in the team who does the dirty stuff like he does (well, Ritchie sort of does ). He breaks up play and disrupts the opposition's rhythm. He;s not the force he once was but showed in that run last season how good he can still be; if we lost him I think we'd struggle to replace the things he does.


Thoughts.

agreed Zip, i think if his acceleration gets him out of trouble a lot of the time, he is quick off the mark allows him to recover.

Hes not the best at the position, but hes the best we have in that position and plays a ***** role in the team i think.

Man, i miss the days of Tiote in form (RIP)

[Zippity]

Aye, he was the boy, like.

Then the moron that is Pardew moved him further forward and ruined him.

[toonlegend]

he is definitely an enigma... unbelievably clumsy - then shows off some sublime ball skills

[ex_pat_magpie]

he is definitely an enigma... unbelievably clumsy - then shows off some sublime ball skills

I wonder if he just needs specialised individual coaching.

[Davearmy]

He loses the ball way too often for me and his passing is gash not to mention he gives needless free kicks away constantly in dangerous positions and has cost us points this season.

I wouldn't play him again.

[waalsendmick]

He is not good enough, but he is the only player we have that play the CDM role (as the kids call it these days).

The same as Perez, he finished last season strongly, so as a result, does not get replaced.

[HughieG]

Perez also scores goals occasionally which, up until our most recent match, no one else did. I think it's fair enough that Rafa has largely stuck by him.

Diamé - if he was a little faster I think he would be really good in the CDM role. I don't rate him highly, but I fear that Ki and Shelvey next to each other would leave some open spaces for the opposition.

[trinitoon]

The man sometimes puts in monster shifts doing unglamorous work. For me, he just needs to offload the ball faster with simpler passes. People around him maybe need to show for passes when he does have the ball. He's very dodgy going forward but we don't need him to do that.