Slaven Bilic reckons Dimitri Payet is quite the equal of Mezut Ozil and at a fraction of the price.
At £10.75 million, David Sullivan has dubbed him “the best player I’ve signed in the last 25 years” and the manager has now added: ““I like Ozil, of course I do. Every football fan or manager or player, anybody who loves football, would have to love Ozil for the way he plays. The skill. It is natural.
“But I rate Dimitri at that level with Ozil. I mean definitely, definitely. All day long. They are just brilliant players.
Payet had created more chances than any other player in the Premier League and it’s hardly a cojncidence the Irons have struggled to win games during Payet’s injury lay-off
Slav said: “Payet went off the radar only because he got injured. But I saw the statistics. I think Payet is, after Ozil, No.2 in terms of creating chances or the amount of crosses he makes. He misses four or five games, yet is still No.2”
“The players in no time recognise that he is that guy. Off the pitch, he is very professional, they all like him, he socialises with them.
“He has everything – presence and responsibility. Whether it is going well or not, he always wants the ball. Every time he has the ball, at least he will try to switch sides, with the long ball. He makes the other players around him much better. He creates space for them by beating players.
“When opponents try to double or triple-up on him, he ends up creating space for our other midfielders.
“Whether you are talking about set-pieces or the last third of the pitch, his passes, shots, crosses or direct assists are there. He looks for his team-mates all the time. And, to be fair, he tracks back a lot — he works for us on the pitch.
“It took him no time at all to get that confidence from the team.”
Without the injury he would be number 1 and we would be in at he top 5
Slav has a big decision today,I would leave him on the bench and start with
Antonio,Carroll and Lanzini up top
Kouyate,Oniang and Noble in front of the defence ( yes Noble but last chance )
Tomkins,Collins,Ogbonna and Reid at left back,
Payet,Jenkinson,Song,Zarate and Oxford with a keeper on the bench,
No rush to push Payet he can have half a game and make an impact
The top 3 did enough to keep their places and should be repaid,
Noble needs to hit some real form or we will need a new captain,
Zarate needs to show he is a team player and work harder or Bye Bye
I predict Mr Lawerson a 2-1 home victory because the form book shows that we are strong at the back better up front and you should take your job more seriously and get over that you can’t predict a Liverpool defeat ( Sado )
I think slav is just being modest when he says payet and ozil are on the same level , payet has the creativity of ozil beating him for chances created plus he also has a much higher workrate and leads by example .ozil tends to go missing in games and doesnt seem to have that fire in his belly like payet has …