Player Watch: Gareth Bale - Retires

[RikkiRocket]

Lol...give him time.

After international break we'll see more.

Are wales playing

 

[TheTanguy]

He will be fine around Christmas.

 

[wrd]

Well this thread certainly turned.....

Yeah he's had two starts in a competition we can afford to take risks in to get his match fitness up, of course people have turned

 

[Lumiere]

He was fine, it was the players around him that were the problem. He deserves to be playing with Son and Kane.

 

[dagraham]

Have to wonder whether he’s playing within himself physically as he’s wary of getting injured again, but we have to also bear in mind he’s basically been semi retired for about a year.

Guess time will tell.

Also have to bear in mind he’s used to playing with better players in terms of retaining the ball and getting the team up the pitch and presenting the forward players with more frequent opportunities in the final third. He’s not going to be that player that transforms a team from defence to attack in 5 seconds anymore.

 

[cjbyid]

He'll be fine. More minutes under his belt is all that matters.

Needs more games. Doesn't matter howhow good he is, he isn't gonna waltz into the team and bang them in, has to learn a new system different players etc.

 

[Matrix]

Waiting for the "Cancel the loan!" comments

After his next start for sure.

Add " Zidane was right" to that as well.

 

[Rosco1984]

Looks to me like a man who doesn't fully trust his body. Once you've had a few injuries and been on the sidelines for an extended period that can happen. Looks to me that he's conscious of doing too much too early and breaking down. TBH he found a lot of good positions tonight and showed some nice touches but a lot of that goes unnoticed as when he found those positions Dele ignored him it was very strange he would try anything to get out of passing to Bale.

 

[spurs mental]

Hes played with the plebs twice now. Need to give him a go with Kane and Son I think, as good a time as any this Sunday, even if it's only an hour.

 

[rez9000]

He also needs to perform in those minutes, though. He was lazy today and made no real attempt to support Vinicius. Granted Bergwijn was equally bad but we can’t say “player X doesn’t start because he’s poor” then start Bale because he needs minutes.

I don't know about that last bit, old chap. If we're talking about comparing an unknown young player with one who has, in the past, been considered amongst the best in the world, is it really unreasonable to apply differing standards?

 

[RikkiRocket]

Looks to me like a man who doesn't fully trust his body. Once you've had a few injuries and been on the sidelines for an extended period that can happen. Looks to me that he's conscious of doing too much too early and breaking down. TBH he found a lot of good positions tonight and showed some nice touches but a lot of that goes unnoticed as when he found those positions Dele ignored him it was very strange he would try anything to get out of passing to Bale.

Yeah. He looks Tentative, that’s the word. As for Deli ignoring him (allegedly) that’s weird and another nail in Delis spurs coffin lid.

 

[rez9000]

Yeah. He looks Tentative, that’s the word. As for Deli ignoring him (allegedly) that’s weird and another nail in Delis spurs coffin lid.

It's almost incomprehensible to me that he'd refuse to pass to Bale. If it's really the case, that's beyond the pale.

 

[fortworthspur]

definitely lost a bit of pace. he's got the technical ability to still make a difference but its up to him to figure out how.

 

[mano-obe]

Still early days, once hes fully fit and confident we will see the best of him. He was poor last night, but so were most of the team!!

 

[JCRD]

He was awful but I also think he needs to play in a settled team rather than in a team where nine changes made us loo like a bunch of strangers and a bunch of disorganised strangers at that. Not ideal for him but I also think he needs to up it a bit... he tends to be out of position or a bit deep in most cases and certainly on the peripheral of games...

 

[spids]

My main concern is he does not really do anything aggressively, and that is key for a WF in the way Jose wants us to play. The WFs need to press aggressively when we don't have the ball, and they need to run aggressively when we counter, they need to cover a lot of ground. I know he is not match fit and nowhere near 100% yet, but I get the impression that he will not be playing the same way Son, Bergwijn and Moura do as WFs which is concerning for team shape. Last night, with both him and Dele sauntering around we looked very poor. If Bale is not fully fit yet then he needs to do the 100% effort thing for 45 minutes and then come off as a spent force, rather than try and eek out more minutes with half the effort.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Can we please not pass judgments until we've seen him start in the league with our best starting line-up?

 

[nailsy]

My main concern is he does not really do anything aggressively, and that is key for a WF in the way Jose wants us to play. The WFs need to press aggressively when we don't have the ball, and they need to run aggressively when we counter, they need to cover a lot of ground. I know he is not match fit and nowhere near 100% yet, but I get the impression that he will not be playing the same way Son, Bergwijn and Moura do as WFs which is concerning for team shape. Last night, with both him and Dele sauntering around we looked very poor. If Bale is not fully fit yet then he needs to do the 100% effort thing for 45 minutes and then come off as a spent force, rather than try and eek out more minutes with half the effort.

I get what you're saying as it did look like he was playing well within himself, but he has to do whatever the manager and fitness team tells him to do at this stage. They might want him to play against Brighton in a few days so possibly didn't want him to overdo it against Antwerp.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

so possibly didn't want him to overdo it against Antwerp.

Further to that point, if I were a football superstar I wouldn't have been able to overdo it within yesterday's collective failure.

 

[Mungo63]

He needs to start games and step now, he’s been wrapped in cotton wool long enough. Potentially he’s a match winner he has to prove he has the hunger