I sincerely hope that we aren’t seeing a situation here whereas a manager has been told to try and avoid playing a player. I really hope that’s not the case.
Every time I’ve seen Tyrique George play as a 9, the same thing has happened; he’s completely ghosted and it’s been like playing with 10 men. So why would they keep playing him there? Does Enzo Maresca truly think he’s a better option than Marc Guiu, an actual 9?
If that is the case then I have two MAJOR issues with that. If you believe that then you should be nowhere near football let alone a head coach of a Premier League team. And who scouted and signed Guiu if he’s not a better 9 than WINGER, Tyrique George?
This is not me having a go at George. He has a good finish on him and has come up with a couple of important goals for us lately. But he’s a winger, NOT a 9 and to be honest although I think he’s an OK player, I don’t overly rate him. He doesn’t hold the ball up, his pressing isn’t even that intense, he barely even gets on the ball when he’s playing as a 9, and he doesn’t make runs in behind. So what is the point? One thing that is clear is that he’s MUCH better as a winger.
And on top of that, he’s a player they tried to sell in the summer and would have sold. He wanted to go, he was waiting to go, and he was left hugely disappointed that he didn’t go. Yet here we are, starting him as a 9 in massive games in the Champions League rather than use an actual 9 who we recalled from what I believe could have ended up actually being a good loan at Sunderland. Now he is just bench warming, not playing, not developing, and being a wasted talent. Young players need to play to continue developing. It’s absolute chaos and madness.
Perhaps the more realistic reason is that if Guiu plays a single minute for Chelsea then he cannot go out on loan in January when we are expected to have a fully fit Liam Delap back in the squad regularly again. Players cannot play for three teams in one season due to the rules. Maybe Maresca has been told to only use Guiu in the case of an emergency. If that is the case, bloody hell…. I prefer not to speak.
I am speculating here of course, it’s important to say that. This is an opinion article and not being written based on anything I’ve heard. But to me, it doesn’t look good.
And what must Guiu be thinking right now? This is a teenager being treated like a tool. Once again, major question marks over how we treat players and also, perhaps most importantly, Guiu might actually be able to help us when we are short, fatigued, and injured!