Manuel Pellegrini was quick to draw positive attention to two often maligned players – Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez – following the victory over Newport County last night.
Both have been regularly criticised by fans since arriving at the London Stadium but the manager was keen to give them credit for the displays against the League Two club.
Wilshere’s goal and occasional waltz past defenders was impressive in the second half but he can look forward to much tougher opposition from here on in.
We have learned the hard way not to get too carried away be performances in these games and despite County’s unbeaten record of 17 this in none the less a game in which the pair should have made some sort of impression.
The manager often plays a cute game in these circumstances by talking up the two players who have taken stick as a means of building their confidence and perhaps pointing out that he was correct in signing them.
Wilshere did have a good second half and Sanchez looked better than he has done in the past but both still need to show it at the highest level before anybody gets too excited.
Speaking at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/august/27-august/pellegrini-wilshere-and-sanchez-were-key-newport-victory “I am happy because we got a good result, we qualified for the next round, we didn’t concede any goals and we scored two goal.
“The first 45 minutes, I think we had some problems in defending because we played against new style with so many crosses and second balls. But in the second half we improved a lot with the ball.
“They had one opportunity at the end but that came from a mistake so I was happy with the second 45 minutes.”
“Jack, I think that he played very well, scoring a goal and dominating the midfield area. This is what we expect from him because he is an experienced player and he knows how to do it and, on a good day, he makes it very difficult for the other team to recover the ball.
“Also, with Carlos Sanchez, I think that he also played a very good game, and Felipe Anderson was also a positive for us.”
Wilshire was only ok, he scored the 1st goal by making up for his mistake in the 1st place which was one of a number of times he gave the ball away in the 1st half. IMO Anderson was MOTM, Roberto & Sanchez had reasonable games & Diop had a shocker & almost scored an own goal.
Agreed. Wilshire was absolutely abysmal first half until he scored. The irony was not lost on anyone that he should profit from yet another awful misplaced passed. Yes, Anderson misplaces passes too but he’s usually trying a much technically harder pass. Trying to place a through ball, open up play. Wilshire was messing up 10 yard passes to a static man.
Sanchez is a liability in the side IMO ..he gets caught on the ball so often and looks lost..having said that he improved slightly in the 2nd half but is a long way of premier league quality IMO
I sometimes think that we have the most critical fans in the world. We won last night against tricky opponents away from home with a decent TEAM performance and yet hardly a player has escaped criticism from the Twitteratl. Not all of our team can be perfect all of the time, we should cut them some slack and get behind them.
I only managed to watch the last 30 minutes – we had a short spell including the second goal where the difference in class showed and we should have got a third goal
I thought that Zaba looked very good – now I am not sure whether he will be able to play on Saturday – Pelle does not seem to want him to play twice in a week. Sanchez seemed good with some clever turns and at least Declan is now well rested for Saturday.
Personally i would have bought Isaac Hayden rather than Fornals – but since we bought Fornals we will need to make do with Sanchez as cover – since he will not be a starter in most games I think he is fine for the job that he has to do
Antonio being out for a long while is however a real worry as he brings something different to our other wide men / attacking midfielders. I am yet to be impressed by Yarmolenko but maybe he will prove me wrong vs Norwich
Wilshere was great pre-season and actually pretty good first half against Man City but I thought he was average to poor last night, like most of the players to be fair, I think only Anderson impressed me.
I agree Sanchez had a decent game but he still gave the ball away a couple of times in that area between the halfway line and the penalty area. He does it every game without fail and against the best teams, we’ll be punished again and again. I actually think his link up play is very good, but his defensive shielding capabilities are questionable!
Sanchez and Wiltshire did ok, nothing more really. I have to say wilshere first half gave the ball away every time and was very poor. Some of wilshere’s passing first half was awful. I don’t think anybody played particularly well if honest. Shame about Antonio being injured.
Good old ‘Phil’ Anderson is the dynamo that makes the difference IMO. Gutted about losing Antonio but while we have Phil and Snoddy frightening back lines I reckon we’re a force. I thought Jack did well going forward with nifty footwork, but Nobes has the edge in defence and spotting good passes forward. Can’t see anything special about Sanchez.