The rise and rise of Angelo Ogbonna has been a major feature of recent weeks after some of the indifferent form we had seen earlier in the season from the Italian.
Like most of the players he’s improving quickly and a manager and backroom staff who really know what they are doing.
Since his £8 million arrival there have been very obvious question marks over Oggy but now he’s set to give the manager a pleasant headache as Fabian Balbuena prepares to return from injury.
The Paraguayan is unlikely to walk straight back into the team against Cardiff anyway on Saturday but when he is ready to start the boss has a tough decision to make given the understanding Oggy and Diop have formed.
This is the sort of situation we want to see throughout the team of course and one that is demonstrated by Manu Lanzini’s return and the improvement in Ryan Fredericks.
Earlier talk of Ogbonna leaving is now not even a whisper as he starts to show the form demanded by the manager.
And after the match against Newcastle he told www.whufc.com: ““At the beginning of the season I didn’t play many games, so maybe I was a little bit stiff, it’s normal. You need time and I think it’s good for me [to have a run of games] and if I can help the team I’m happy.
“The way we work in the week helps us [on matchday]. We have to concentrate and be focused and we need to maintain the balance on the pitch when we attack and when we defend.”
Ogbonna was also pleased for Manuel Lanzini after he successfully came through his first start of the campaign after recovering from a serious knee injury.
He added: “Players like Manu, like Nasri, like Snodgrass, we need that kind of player when you’re struggling maybe and you need to keep the ball. You need that quality to keep the rhythm of the team and I’m really happy for Manu because he had a bad injury and has come back.
“He is a humble person and everyone expected that reaction from him because he is a good talent.”
I am very impressed with Oggie’s attitude. He lost his place and got his head down and didnt winge to the press
Now he is putting in good performances
As matty53 said we need a squad not just 11 players and certainly we need three good centre halves
As pelly said when he came to us ” i am building a squad ” starting to look pretty good to me
and as i see it all good pros with the odd doubtfull one
Pretty obvious to me he’ll play balbuena and ogbonna against Cardiff in order to rest diop, who has played pretty much every minute.