How to solve a problem like Moose

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Akinbiyi

Akinbiyi

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Looked fabulous early season. Phenomenal at times. Raw pace, raw talent, aggression, finishing ability and exactly what we needed. Since December for whatever reason he just hasn’t looked at it.

He just looked like he couldn’t be arsed yesterday and in recent games. Really disappointing.

Could be fitness related but if you don’t look after yourself then what do you expect? He can’t do 90 minutes and we’re in March. That in itself is embarrassing.

Hope he can find his form again because he really gives us a different dimension when going forward.
 



I think the fact that since City match we've played team that sit in so haven't been able to use him in a way that suits his attributes (high up the pitch on the shoulder of a defender with space to run at) could have a baring on his performances as well, I don't remember him getting a decent opportunity to open his legs last night.
This isn't a Mousse love in, his decision making and first touch was poor last night but I think the talk of his head & work rate is possible leaning towards scapegoating.
 
Perhaps the bereavement has hit him harder than expected? Can take some time to get yourself out of a slump and if you're not right mentally, it will show physically - or perhaps I'm making excuses for him.

I trust the gaffer to do what's necessary for both the player and the club, but I'm certainly not writing him off after what is undoubtedly a rough period in the lads life.
 
SwitchBLADE Smiles said:
Perhaps the bereavement has hit him harder than expected? Can take some time to get yourself out of a slump and if you're not right mentally, it will show physically - or perhaps I'm making excuses for him.

I trust the gaffer to do what's necessary for both the player and the club, but I'm certainly not writing him off after what is undoubtedly a rough period in the lads life.
Click to expand...
Bereavements, I think. There was more than one. It’s a fair point.
 
He’s a stocky lad naturally, but he looks like he’s clapped a bit of weight on recently as well. Looks un fit and a bit over weight to me. Needs to get his head down and get some weight off and get himself fit. Not sure if it’s attitude related / diet or something else but he looks miles off the fitness of the rest of the squad.

wont be good for avoiding injuries and if you’re a bit heavy and unfit your touch suffers as well as you’re not as sharp.

edit - he might not be eating right after his bereavements / training as hard
 
Akinbiyi said:
Looked fabulous early season. Phenomenal at times. Raw pace, raw talent, aggression, finishing ability and exactly what we needed. Since December for whatever reason he just hasn’t looked at it.

He just looked like he couldn’t be arsed yesterday and in recent games. Really disappointing.

Could be fitness related but if you don’t look after yourself then what do you expect? He can’t do 90 minutes and we’re in March. That in itself is embarrassing.

Hope he can find his form again because he really gives us a different dimension when going forward.
Click to expand...
He reminds me of a Red Setter dog my bruv used to have. He paid a fortune for it, it came from a long lineage of Crufts winners. It would go in cycles of being at peak condition with bright eyes, shiny coat and wet nose, to looking jaded and mangy. It never won owt and eventually he had to have it put down.

:oops:
 
ben1987 said:
He’s a stocky lad naturally, but he looks like he’s clapped a bit of weight on recently as well. Looks un fit and a bit over weight to me. Needs to get his head down and get some weight off and get himself fit. Not sure if it’s attitude related / diet or something else but he looks miles off the fitness of the rest of the squad.

wont be good for avoiding injuries and if you’re a bit heavy and unfit your touch suffers as well as you’re not as sharp.

edit - he might not be eating right after his bereavements / training as hard
Click to expand...
That’ll be the Maccies
 
I think his development stalled at Bournemouth, he hardly played for them. He’s playing catch up and it’s not unusual for young players to suffer dips in form. I’m guessing this season has been the most demanding he’s ever had. Add to that a couple of bereavements and moving to a new city, it’s always likely to be difficult for him.

We could really do with him getting back to his early season form. But it’s not a disaster if he doesn’t. He’s been important in keeping us up so we’ve had our money’s worth from him. Hopefully, we’ll see more from him.
 
He needs to sort himself out sharpish or he'll waste his career.

He has a great chance playing for us under our management (although I'm not convinced they're always perfect for him).

Given his physical profile he might never be a 90 minute player but there's no doubt he should be capable of more than fucking 60 in March.

He's had no injuries yet has only gone backwards with his fitness since November. He ran for 85 minutes at Spurs, FFS.

It has to stem from his mind. Is he not ambitious enough? Is he unhappy in Sheffield? Bereavement effect? Complacency?

All this said, he could still easily be on 10 goals now despite his form dipping. Fine lines. One or two go in and it could trigger him again.

I just want to see the aggression and hunger he showed earlier in the season. Then everything else will follow.
 
LurkerBladeS2 said:
I think the fact that since City match we've played team that sit in so haven't been able to use him in a way that suits his attributes (high up the pitch on the shoulder of a defender with space to run at) could have a baring on his performances as well, I don't remember him getting a decent opportunity to open his legs last night.
This isn't a Mousse love in, his decision making and first touch was poor last night but I think the talk of his head & work rate is possible leaning towards scapegoating.
Click to expand...

Agree with all of this - there's a lot of assumptions being made about his mentality when in reality we either have no idea, or it's just plain unfair.

It's a bit of a perfect storm in that he started at an unsustainably fantastic rate for us and has now dropped off and isn't getting as many minutes. He scored from his first five shots on target - there was no way that was going to continue. When you think back to some of his goals, they were pretty improbable - the volley at West Ham, the long-range shot against Man Utd - he was like the opposite of McGoldrick who was consistently getting into great positions but couldn't find the net: everything Mousset touched went in.

FWIW I think he's done pretty well off the bench since Christmas. He set up what should have been a winner against Watford (Foster produced a miracle save off Fleck). He had one VAR'd out at Man City, had a one-on-one saved vs West Ham. Set up the winner against Bournemouth. He was ineffective against Liverpool away and City at home but so was everyone else. If you're into nerdy stats like me, he still has by far the highest Expected Assists per 90 minutes out of the entire team (0.32, next highest is Sharp with 0.23) along with the second highest Expected Goals per 90 after McGoldrick (0.43 to 0.48).

Throw in the fact that he's been dealing with some bereavements, and that we seem to go weeks between games at the minute, it does feel like he's hardly done anything for ages, but I think he's been fine - he just looks less of a star than he did to begin with. I'm vary wary about retrofitting a narrative that he doesn't try hard, or his head's not right, or he's lazy, etc, just because he hasn't scored for a bit and didn't play well last night.

He was crap last night, mind.
 
Cerberus Blade said:
He reminds me of a Red Setter dog my bruv used to have. He paid a fortune for it, it came from a long lineage of Crufts winners. It would go in cycles of being at peak condition with bright eyes, shiny coat and wet nose, to looking jaded and mangy. It never won owt and eventually he had to have it put down.

:oops:
Click to expand...
🤔
 



Seems a really nice kid but you can't help but question professionalism
 
Seems like a bit of a space cadet to me, McBurnie is pretty dumb and does some stupid things, however Mousset is either very laid back or should change his nickname to 'bungalow'.
 
Akinbiyi said:
Looked fabulous early season. Phenomenal at times. Raw pace, raw talent, aggression, finishing ability and exactly what we needed. Since December for whatever reason he just hasn’t looked at it.

He just looked like he couldn’t be arsed yesterday and in recent games. Really disappointing.

Could be fitness related but if you don’t look after yourself then what do you expect? He can’t do 90 minutes and we’re in March. That in itself is embarrassing.

Hope he can find his form again because he really gives us a different dimension when going forward.
Click to expand...

He's not a target man. Last night their defence sat deep so it was harder for him to get in behind and a lot of his success comes when teams are pressing us and we get chances on the break.

Last night i felt he was also isolated between the two centre halves and with Didsy dropping deep (very deep at times) to look for the ball that wasn't coming through midfield, it meant Mousse was up top on his own and thats not his game. If it was a normal PL game, you'd pick McBurnie to sit in that role and work his arse off.

I think in games like this on, you almost want three strikers, Didsy could sit in the 10 role, with perhaps Billy and Mousse playing up top and splitting the centre halves.
 
I think the problem with last night was he wasn't the right striker for the match but Wilder felt the need to play him for rotation purposes.

He'll come back good again when we are on the back foot at Old Trafford, Tottenham and Chelsea at home. Until then it's not been
 
Although I appreciate Cristiano Ronaldo is on a totally different level, his attitude to fitness, diet, not drinking needs to be shown to players who may waver shall we say. Love the Moose but I would hate it if he never reached his full potential. Plenty of time to scoff, drink etc after a successful career played with the right attitude.
 
I don't think there is any one answer to what is going on with Moose. The last few weeks have been pretty stop start for us as a team in general & him not being first name on the team sheet recently has affected him more than most. I think he was being greedy last night because he wanted to make a mark & force his way back in, even if he did go about it the wrong way. He also looks like a confidence player & at the moment his is low. With the exception of last nights game though whenever he comes on he stimulates great excitement in the crowd & you expect things to happen, he is a conundrum no doubt but when on it he is class & I hope we can continue to develop him in the right way.
 
Give the lad a break. He looked great against palace a couple of games ago
 



The obvious thing to do would be to issue an ultimatum, get fit and work hard or your going on loan to Port vale. Give him his own training regime doing ten times the work of everyone else untill he can complete 90 minutes of football.

However our fitness team are top class, and the staff know his personal circumstances more than any of us so I can only presume they are already doing what's best and fair (which probably isn't what I said above)
 
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