Vargas has given his all, literally his all and probably his best performances in his career vs. Kosovo ans Slovenia in the WC qualifiers with his NT Switzerland.
I think with some players that clearly don’t have the physical and mental capacity to perform well or decently often, it is about prioritisation.
In this specific case, Vargas heavily prioritized his NT, which I’m not against if it happens from time to time, in principle.
However, I think we really need players who can give the best for the club, with all due respect for anything else in their career.
Didn’t lose respect for Vargas because of this, but here’s the thing:
He’s injured now and not sure how many games he’ll miss, but if he will be fully ready for the Swiss NT and prioritizes that before the club, which is struggling, he’s dead to me.
I get the Swiss NT ambitions to reach the WC… but fucking hell, we pay his salary and we are seriously risking Segunda this season.
Vargas needs to wake up and get his priorities straight. Give him a golden medal for these two matches with the Swiss NT, 6 points all good. Now it’s time to shift the focus, especially physical focus in the club. No excuses.
And he’s not even fucking pure Swiss. Cut the crap Vargas!
2 other things, very important if we want to survive this season.
Azpi played a good first half and a terrible second. The will and passion were there, but his body said otherwise. Can’t compete with mother nature.
He’s not for the full 90 mins, obviously. So the coach has to figure something out and accomodate accordingly.
Second thing and the most important one is that we don’t have a professional and a reliable goalie between the posts. Nyland is extremely liable, extremely hit or miss and sadly a lot more MISS lately with piss poor performances. Shameful even. He doesn’t resemble a professional goalkeeper at times, amateur sunday league at best.
Bring on Vlacho and rest the amateur goalie a bit.
The goal Nyland conceded vs Moldova with his NT, the only chance Moldova had… is fucking scandalous.
I think it’s rare to find any players who won’t give their everything for the NT. It doesn’t matter if the club pays their salary. Either you get players who’s nations are overloaded with talent (ie. France, or Spain), or a nation that has no chance at qualifying. Otherwise you’re better off with a Segunda team.
I tend to be more forgiving of a goalkeeper who’s defence is piss poor. Prime Casillas wouldn’t do shit with a Carmona-Gudelj-Salas-Pedrosa backline in front of him.
What irks me the most about Nyland is that he NEVER comes out for the ball when the other team’s on a break. Some plays could easily be stopped dead if he only rushed out his goal or held a better advanced position. Either he doesn’t have the legs or he’s scared of a clash with the attacker.
But i think Almeyda will make a change soon enough. I was glad when he took #6 off, cause it hasn’t been working with him for a long time. Little by little, and the deserving players will get their chance to play.
Re #6, I am not yet convinced Almeyda is done with Gudelj, but given how weak the bench was the first few matches, I can’t blame him for drawing on Gudelj. We’ll see if Gudelj ends up back where he belongs as a helpful sub when the bench is weak, and/or the schema is a bit out of sorts and you need someone who can multiple positions and not entirely suck. Not to say he doesn’t suck in many occasions, he’s just not 100% suck.
I’d cut Gudelj some slack, guy was brought in to see off games and be a cult icon, injuries and terrible transfer strategy forced him to start in the midfield, central defence and even score goals.
Now that Mendy is up and running, the main rotation for central midfield should be him, Agoume, Sow and Jordan(!) with Gudelj coming on for 10-15 minutes. Would have liked to get one of Magassa or Amrabat but you can’t win them all. If Gudelj stays on a salary-friendly contract he could well hang up his boots here, not bad for someone who won two Europa Leagues.
