Player Watch: Bryan Gil

[Japhet]

VAR wasnt focusing on anything. It was down due to a technical issue

We demand a replay!

 

[olithfc]

He did OK when you consider this was his first PL game in over a year and his first real game of any kind this season. Of course his confidence is not gonna be super big, which is so important for a creative player. Jury's still out overall, and I imagine with hopefully Bissouma and Sarr back for City, he'll be back on the bench.

From the way I could see it on TV, I thought Ange would get annoyed with the backpasses happening quite a lot. May have seemed different in person

 

[GetKaned]

I'd understood at the time that the issue was getting the feed back to the refereeing team at the ground so, again, we have the ridiculous situation where the VAR officials have seen a clear and obvious error but aren't able to get the message to the referee. I'll be interested to hear what Howard Webb has to say about it in due course but, at the very least, Spurs are due an acknowledgement/apology.

We wont get anything because we aren't an annoying bunch who wont ever stop moaning about it

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I disagree. Johnson v Chelsea was a 30 minute cameo so can’t really be compared. Yes he looked good against Arsenal in spells, but my issue with him is whilst he has obvious talent, right now I would expect more workrate from him, I would also expect better decision making. I thought both were very poor yesterday so maybe that skewed my judgement. Solomon v Burnley, maybe, although I still think Gil for me was instrumental to probably some our best play of the season yesterday. I was impressed.

Fair each to their own mate

 

[gavspur]

Like the boy.
Willing and able
quick and positive mostly.
Takes the knocks
and was intrinsic in the move
down the left that set up Son
for an offside goal.
Would like to see him make it
but don't think he will.
Too lightweight, literally
Useful squad player maybe.

That’s a crap song.

 

[bubble07]

Probably more effective than richarlison on the left with link up play

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Probably more effective than richarlison on the left with link up play

Very different players.

 

[Kingellesar]

Needs to take on his man a bit more, especially in the box, with his quick feet, he could really cause defenders issues and get us some penal....

Nevermind, we don't get those. But he could still cause a lot of full backs problems.

 

[bubble07]

Very different players.

very true but also play in the same position so have to be comparable somewhat

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

very true but also play in the same position so have to be comparable somewhat

True mate.

 

[C1w8]

Silva has about 7 years on him though. I think we're yet to see the intelligence he will develop. Having him play with first team players on his wavelength will help. Same as with GLC.

Of course his experience helps but players developing to the level of Silva are very, very rare, and most do not hit that level at any point in their career having played consistently at the top level for over a decade.

I'm not sure how we can extrapolate Gils development potential all the way to that level because they might have a similar stature/move in a similar fashion.

 

[tooey]

Where have the comparisons with Silva come from? Because he's small!? He's nowhere near Silva. He can't pick the right pass and seems to massively underhit everything.

 

[bubble07]

Where have the comparisons with Silva come from? Because he's small!? He's nowhere near Silva. He can't pick the right pass and seems to massively underhit everything.

He reminds me more of jose dominguez

 

[thecook]

Where have the comparisons with Silva come from? Because he's small!? He's nowhere near Silva. He can't pick the right pass and seems to massively underhit everything.

It was David Silva previously before Bernado Silva. No idea where people get these ideas from.

 

[mil1lion]

Where have the comparisons with Silva come from? Because he's small!? He's nowhere near Silva. He can't pick the right pass and seems to massively underhit everything.

It's possible to compare the characteristics of a player without suggesting they're on the same level. Conte initially compared him to Silva and I can see similarities. He has that low centre of gravity and close ball control. He does good work when he comes inside and picks up little pockets. I just don't think he has the pace and athleticism to command the wing in this league. Given our fullbacks don't double up much with them as they play infield. He's still very raw so we can only predict the type of player he may become. It may suit him more to play as a 10 in this system though with a player on the overlap for him to thread balls through too.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

I really like Gil and had some high hopes for him but he can’t play in the wide roles for us. He simply doesn’t have the physicality and by that I don’t mean brute strength. I mean explosiveness and core strength. That’s not going to change.

Just can’t agree with people saying he was good against Villa. He was our weakest starting player imo and saw a lot of the ball which a better player would have done more with.

I agree with the thoughts that he will improve with more game time but he will not suit that left wing role imo, he just doesn’t have the burst of speed or physicality to consistently take people on in wide areas.

He would be better off cutting in from the right but the issue is we need a 2 way dribbler comfortable going both ways with explosiveness which he isn’t.

There were numerous times in the Villa match where he had opportunities to take them apart and exploit them but he just wasn’t physically capable of doing it and that will never change regardless of coaching imo. It’s a physical and playstyle limitation rather than a coaching one.

When I say physical I don’t mean he has to be a brute but even small players like Aaron Lennon had excellent core strength, balance and a lightning burst of acceleration which made them dangerous in the PL. You’ve got to at least have either that little burst or the core strength at a minimum and he has neither.

He suits playing in more of a rotational attacking 3 behind the striker where he constantly floats about, rather than in a wide role.

 

[The Scarecrow]

We demand a replay!

In all seriousness, though, kick off should've been delayed until the problem was fixed. You either play with VAR or you don't, and if you do it has to work at all times.

 

[HildoSpur]

I really like Gil and had some high hopes for him but he can’t play in the wide roles for us. He simply doesn’t have the physicality and by that I don’t mean brute strength. I mean explosiveness and core strength. That’s not going to change.

Just can’t agree with people saying he was good against Villa. He was our weakest starting player imo and saw a lot of the ball which a better player would have done more with.

I agree with the thoughts that he will improve with more game time but he will not suit that left wing role imo, he just doesn’t have the burst of speed or physicality to consistently take people on in wide areas.

He would be better off cutting in from the right but the issue is we need a 2 way dribbler comfortable going both ways with explosiveness which he isn’t.

There were numerous times in the Villa match where he had opportunities to take them apart and exploit them but he just wasn’t physically capable of doing it and that will never change regardless of coaching imo. It’s a physical and playstyle limitation rather than a coaching one.

When I say physical I don’t mean he has to be a brute but even small players like Aaron Lennon had excellent core strength, balance and a lightning burst of acceleration which made them dangerous in the PL. You’ve got to at least have either that little burst or the core strength at a minimum and he has neither.

He suits playing in more of a rotational attacking 3 behind the striker where he constantly floats about, rather than in a wide role.

I actually think Gil did quite well overall - certainly a more meaningful performance than Johnston had and you have to remember this was his first start in a very long time. He got into good positions and was always an option out on the left and he got quite a lot of the ball. I think he lacks a bit of confidence to take on his man on the outside so this leads to him cutting inside most of the time which isn't always the best option but honestly I think under the circumstances he did pretty well.

 

[Farmdog]

I actually think Gil did quite well overall - certainly a more meaningful performance than Johnston had and you have to remember this was his first start in a very long time. He got into good positions and was always an option out on the left and he got quite a lot of the ball. I think he lacks a bit of confidence to take on his man on the outside so this leads to him cutting inside most of the time which isn't always the best option but honestly I think under the circumstances he did pretty well.

I agree. Regarding the “explosiveness” comment previously, the lad lacks confidence that only comes from a run of games. I hope he gets more opportunities because technically he is a class act and the familiarity of the rhythm of games and players around him will only make him gain the confidence to push himself like Kulu eventually did.

 

[kremlyn]

I think he's played his way into the team, in fact I think he may prove to be our best option on the lw.

Our left side, seemingly regardless of personel, is the side we build attack through. Our right side is the one we counterattack through.

Almost every passage of play found Gil on the left, Udogie moved up as an 8. Once Villa came over to meet that threat, we switched right and pinged balls through to Johnson or Kulu via Porro.

To me it looked like the plan and the fact it was repeated consistently throughout the game, and Ange didn't change it, suggests it worked as planned and he was happy with it and the way Gil played.

Yes, he's lightweight but he's very disciplined, very comfortable in posession and capable of playing both cute 1-2s to create overloads and making sensible decisions to pass backwards to circulate the play without losing the ball.

We are a posession team whiich we all love, he is a posession player, he's better at it in that position than anyone else in the squad. For me, for the way we play, he's the best option.