Alarm bells were ringing but I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt until their second goal yesterday. The ease with which Eze went passed him was simply not good enough. It’s not a one-off either, some of the ‘challenges’ he’s made for headers in the build up to goals we’ve conceded have been really weak and poor.
He obviously has some ability and in a better, stronger and more confident team I’m sure he would would contribute more. He’s clearly not what we need now but the problem is we have literally got nobody else to play in that position. Lundstram may come back in for the Newcastle game, so he may get dropped. Who knows. However, IMO fleck and Norwood have been more disappointing than Ampadu when you consider they are seasoned professionals who we know are capable of playing so much better than they currently are. He was a 19 year old kid when we signed him with a decent reputation but no premier league experience. We’re we expecting too much?
I’m afraid it was another poor signing that didn’t improve our starting 11. If the decision was to sign youthful promise in Ramsdale, Lowe, Bogle and Brewster then we should have used the loans better and tried to sign someone with some experience in the league, even if it involved paying higher wages or a loan fee. To sign Ampadu whilst leaving the other loan position unused is looking a very poor decision, albeit with the benefit of hindsight.