2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

He’s always been that one for me, I feel like the management and fans have no idea just how special he is.

He need minutes desperately, he can reach Caicedo’s level easily, not doing what Caicedo does, but with his passing and driving the attack forward, he is so good at it.

I pray the next manager will see it and make him a regular starter.

I'm with you. Would love to see him play out the season - I think he would quietly become a mainstay.

8 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

He’s always been that one for me, I feel like the management and fans have no idea just how special he is.

He need minutes desperately, he can reach Caicedo’s level easily, not doing what Caicedo does, but with his passing and driving the attack forward, he is so good at it.

I pray the next manager will see it and make him a regular starter.

He really did help change the game yesterday. So noticeable how he looks to play the ball forward at every opportunity. The likes of Badiashille and Chalobah were constantly passing backwards and sideways whereas Santo was making those great forward passes and completely opening things up for us. Surely if you're a coach and you know the player has that ability, you HAVE to play him?

4 minutes ago, Nibs said:

He really did help change the game yesterday. So noticeable how he looks to play the ball forward at every opportunity. The likes of Badiashille and Chalobah were constantly passing backwards and sideways whereas Santo was making those great forward passes and completely opening things up for us. Surely if you're a coach and you know the player has that ability, you HAVE to play him?

He also carried the ball forward several times too, he has an eye for spaces to run in to, something none of our other midfielders do.

Every time he does play It just makes a mockery of the clown choosing not to pick him, as it meant having to move Enzo and disrupt his stupid system, honestly the worst manager weve had in decades, his stubbornness and idiocy in not playing Santos has easily cost us 9 points plus this season.

Edited January 5Jan 5 by dkw

this is the player we were made to believe we were getting with Enzo. The progressive passes from deep when under pressure are incredible. Defensively he’s everywhere, can carry a ball. Him playing deep with Caicedo given license to roam and destroy is going to be a game changer. It has to be a 3 man midfield or Enzo needs to ride the bench, A. Santos is the future.

He needs to be beside Caicedo for all games he’s quality

His situation is similar to Acheampong for me. They've played too inconsistently to really gain any momentum in the team. Both have showed quality and both have shown rustiness. They both need more minutes to progress and have a proper impact. But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind with the right playing playing time and good coaching both are destined for the top.

Santos has looked good every time I've seen him. His minutes have been restricted because the ownership insist that Fernandez has to play. The club PR line (expertly spouted by Maresca) was that Santos was only in competition for starting spot with Caicedo, not Fernandez, despite Enzo absolutely sucking in a two man midfield.

Every manager we've had has struggled with where to shoehorn in Fernandez. They've all seen he doesn't work in the pivot, and hence he's played at #10 as a box crasher, just about the only position you can hide his weaknesses. Even then he spends most of his time hiding on the flanks (see his heat maps from any given game)

The recent dilemma is when Palmer is fit to resume at #10, where do you then play Enzo ? Hence he's been shunted back in the pivot. He has to play somewhere, as the owners (Eghbali) have decided they are building the club around him. It's a shame that the owners want to give Fernandez the starring free role instead of Palmer, or even Estevao, but hey ho this is what you get with VC people that know eff all about football. Certainly Santos comes a long way down their list of star players, and they've probably got him marked for sale rather than a key role in the team !

Terrific today :

• 91% pass accuracy

• 11 defensive contributions

• Won 6 out of 7 ground duels

• 5 interceptions

• 3 clearances

• 4 recoveries

And look at this for a positioning masterclass :

Fantastic player and perfect partner for Caicedo

He’s been great. I hope that we keep seeing Santos with Caicedo in the midfield. We just need to play Palmer as a 10 and Fernandez on the bench. And a new left winger, sell Garnacho, Gittens, Neto, and Mudryk.

Loved his performance today. Probably the only player playing with any positional discipline. Plays the DM role more naturally than Caicedo who's talents are more suited to a box to box role. If we can ever get Palmer back on the pitch again, I don't see any need to start Enzo.

12 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Loved his performance today. Probably the only player playing with any positional discipline. Plays the DM role more naturally than Caicedo who's talents are more suited to a box to box role. If we can ever get Palmer back on the pitch again, I don't see any need to start Enzo.

Me neither, the elephant in the room 😁

His lack of pace is the only negative thing I have to say on him.

He has everything thing else to nail down that position

27 minutes ago, RMH said:

He’s been great. I hope that we keep seeing Santos with Caicedo in the midfield. We just need to play Palmer as a 10 and Fernandez on the bench. And a new left winger, sell Garnacho, Gittens, Neto, and Mudryk.

Enzo > Cole this season. No contest.

1 minute ago, MyWord said:

Enzo > Cole this season. No contest.

One legged Cole > Enzo. To the point that Enzo is a liability and I’d rather see Estevao at 10 with Garnacho and Neto in both wings.

Edited January 25Jan 25 by RMH

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Terrific today :

• 91% pass accuracy

• 11 defensive contributions

• Won 6 out of 7 ground duels

• 5 interceptions

• 3 clearances

• 4 recoveries

And look at this for a positioning masterclass :

He was absolutely amazing today!!

2 minutes ago, RMH said:

One legged Cole > Enzo. To the point that Enzo is a liability and I’d rather see Estevao at 10 with Garnacho and Neto in both wings.

Palmer has been very disappointing every time I have seen him play this season. If it’s because of injury then that’s part of the problem with him.

Everything you'd want, and we need in a midfielder. Just want the minutes to continue and pretty sure they'll be talking about him as a leading PL midfielder in time.

44 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Loved his performance today. Probably the only player playing with any positional discipline. Plays the DM role more naturally than Caicedo whose talents are more suited to a box to box role. If we can ever get Palmer back on the pitch again, I don't see any need to start Enzo.

I’m against Palmer at CAM at this point.

Need a strong, proper box to box midfielder in the summer to take Enzo’s spot.

1 minute ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I’m against Palmer at CAM at this point.

Need a strong, proper box to box midfielder in the summer to take Enzo’s spot.

Is there a chance in the future where Estevao is the one playing through the middle?

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Is there a chance in the future where Estevao is the one playing through the middle?

I’m not a fan of it personally.

Want to go back to the days of having a strong midfield three.

Just now, Sconnie Blue said:

I’m not a fan of it personally.

Want to go back to the days of having a strong midfield three.

Problem with that we would need the new midfielder to pick up a decent amount of goals. Rely entirely on the front 3 is a bit of a risk.

6 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Problem with that we would need the new midfielder to pick up a decent amount of goals. Rely entirely on the front 3 is a bit of a risk.

True. I’d wager a lot of our problems end by simply having two midfielders that sit and can cover ground effectively.

Still, in big games and against thugs away from home I want a strong midfield three.

26 minutes ago, MyWord said:

Palmer has been very disappointing every time I have seen him play this season. If it’s because of injury then that’s part of the problem with him.

And Enzo has been a liability almost every time we’ve seen him on the pitch, and he’s not injured. Palmer is twice the player and he’s worth persevering with if he’s really injured (with these owners I am not sure what’s going on), while Enzo is worth selling on if he’s not happy to be on the bench. If Egbahli doesn’t want to sell his boy, let’s sell both of them.

19 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I’m against Palmer at CAM at this point.

Need a strong, proper box to box midfielder in the summer to take Enzo’s spot.

I’d rather see Palmer as a CAM than Enzo, and I don’t think that Palmer should be playing as a 10.