Wilfred Ndidi

[RyCleary]

36 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

He doesn't start in what i'd consider the best XI but he's still a useful member of our team.

 

He's 27.

And I have a bridge to sell you

[SecretPro]

44 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

He doesn't start in what i'd consider the best XI but he's still a useful member of our team.

 

He's 27.

[volpeazzurro]

22 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

Used to have players in his pocket, now he just try’s to squeeze into their arseholes 

 

Wilf's just completed the new FA Prostate awareness course.

[NewquayFox]

Oh feck, I thought we had sold him to the Saudi League when I saw his name pop up… 

[The Doctor]

why is it, when Tielemans started to slow having played ~460 senior games by 26, no one started to make claims of him actually being significantly older, but when wilf is starting to slow having played ~420 senior games by 27, everyone pretends he's in his 40s?

[FoxInTheBirstallBox]

6 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

why is it, when Tielemans started to slow having played ~460 senior games by 26, no one started to make claims of him actually being significantly older, but when wilf is starting to slow having played ~420 senior games by 27, everyone pretends he's in his 40s?

Because there was an actual investigation by the Nigerian fa into his (and others) ages when they played for the under 21s. Or do you want people to say "because he's african"? 

[The Doctor]

33 minutes ago, FoxInTheBirstallBox said:

Because there was an actual investigation by the Nigerian fa into his (and others) ages when they played for the under 21s. Or do you want people to say "because he's african"? 

because it very much is the latter. Age verification tests are not particularly reliable. there's a ongoing issue where African players en masse keep failing them, there were plans under the Tory government to use them on refugee children due to the fearmongering which was vocally rejected by the RCPCH because the x-ray age verification tests look at skeletal development and cannot properly account for people being late/early developers, let alone the impact of things like ethnicity, socioeconomic status (and the knock on effects of that such as nutrition). 

[Bert]

53 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

why is it, when Tielemans started to slow having played ~460 senior games by 26, no one started to make claims of him actually being significantly older, but when wilf is starting to slow having played ~420 senior games by 27, everyone pretends he's in his 40s?

Did you see Tielemans on Saturday? Had his best game at The KP in 3 years. 

[The Doctor]

2 hours ago, Bert said:

Did you see Tielemans on Saturday? Had his best game at The KP in 3 years. 

I did yes, not sure that means that people actually claimed he was secretly older than he was when he was flagging for us, rather than it being a fatigue issue or anything else.

[ClaphamFox]

8 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

I did yes, not sure that means that people actually claimed he was secretly older than he was when he was flagging for us, rather than it being a fatigue issue or anything else.

Tielemans was never excluded from participating in a youth tournament because he failed an age verification test. If he had been, people would have asked the same questions about him as they have done about Ndidi.

 

I agree with you that these age verification results should be treated with caution, for all the reasons you describe. But I think it's important to be clear that people aren't picking on Wilf because he's African - it's very specifically because he failed that test AND in recent years he seems to have undergone a significant physical decline. If he hadn't failed that test, I don't think there would be any speculation about whether he's secretly older than his stated age.

 

I prefer not to discuss the age thing because I don't have the answer and, like you, I don't fully trust the test results. But I have seen with my own eyes how Ndidi has declined in recent years and on that basis I don't think he should be in our starting 11 at present.  It could just be that the sheer amount of football he's played and the cumulative impact of the injures he's sustained have taken their toll on his body. If he somehow manages to recover the form he showed in 2017-21, we'll all be thrilled. I really hope he does it. 

 

 

[It'sblueupnorth]

4 hours ago, The Doctor said:

why is it, when Tielemans started to slow having played ~460 senior games by 26, no one started to make claims of him actually being significantly older, but when wilf is starting to slow having played ~420 senior games by 27, everyone pretends he's in his 40s?

Because tielemans didn’t ‘fail’ an age verification mri scan

[glenny_fox]

4 hours ago, The Doctor said:

why is it, when Tielemans started to slow having played ~460 senior games by 26, no one started to make claims of him actually being significantly older, but when wilf is starting to slow having played ~420 senior games by 27, everyone pretends he's in his 40s?

Three Nigerian players disqualified for age cheating at the start of the competition massively embarrassing the country even though they will face Ivory Coast in the final on Saturday.

Amiesimaka, a member of the defunct Green Eagles squad that won the 1980 Nations Cup in Nigeria, said that the disqualification was because of NFF’s inability to desist from cheating at age grade competitions.

“It is a national embarrassment to have three of our players disqualified at the championship,’’ Amesimaka, a former Attorney General of Rivers, said. Wilfred Ndidi, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Emmanuel Asadu, were banned from the championship for failing the Magnetic Resonnance Imaging (MIR) test, as a result of age falsification.

[Long Eaton Fox]

I think the problem with Wilf is that he cannot play with his back to goal. His control is poor and he cannot produce progressive passes. I though he pressed well v villa and when he moved back in the second half I thought he improved. He is not good enough to play further forward though. I think Skipp is his replacement and one of El Khannouss or Buonanotte will support the no. 9. Edouard will play increasing amounts of games replacing Vardy more often that not. Oh and Mavididi has to start. 

[StriderHiryu]

 

 

Insane performance from WIlf today. You can be creative by winning the ball back high up the pitch!

 

I would like to see him paired with either El Khanouss or Buonanotte like the shape Enzo used last season, but fair play to Wilf, he was brilliant today, and I think we ended up losing because he was withdrawn and replaced with someone that was nowhere near as good at doing the job he was doing, which in this case was Choudhury. I think El Khanouss should have come on instead!

 

 

Edited Saturday at 17:13 by StriderHiryu

[Richmondfox]

12 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Insane performance from WIlf today. You can be creative by winning the ball back high up the pitch!

 

I would like to see him paired with either El Khanouss or Buonanotte like the shape Enzo used last season, but fair play to Wilf, he was brilliant today, and I think we ended up losing because he was withdrawn and replaced with someone that was nowhere near as good at doing the job he was doing, which in this case was Choudhury. I think El Khanouss should have come on instead!

 

 

I’m not a fan of Ndidi in this role but he did have a better game today for 60 mins. Once tired he starts watching players run by instead of attempting to press and makes simple mistakes.  He does seem to react better to chaos than slick, crafted passages of play. 

 

Cooper isn’t brave/smart enough to do anything progressive like adding energy at 60 mins.  Taking him and Ayew off at 60 mins for Fatawu & El Khanouss/Buonanotte would’ve lifted the team and left 3 subs to shut up shop later on if needed. 

 

 

[Paninistickers]

I've said this time and again, but the disrespect towards Wilf from this Board is insane. 

 

Few will admit it, but it's largely to do with his gait. As he isn't built like messi or Maradona, and is all arms and legs, ergo he must be useless. 

 

There are times of clumsiness, of course. He's not a natural 20 or 8 by any stretch. Clumsiness that's exaggerated by his 'look'. But the lack of understanding and respect of Wilf's game, his fitness and his football intelligence is, to me, astounding. 

 

 

[Salieri]

Had a great game today, tired as the game went on but best performance for some time. I was impressed by the aggression and intensity throughout the team, something we’ve been severely lacking. 

[Kierzz]

Brilliant game by Wilf.

 

Looked back to his best today but also possibly even better than under Rodgers. He improved his game in the final third souch under Enzo and that showed today on top of a brilliant defensive and pressing performance.

[coolhandfox]

3 assists in 4 games.

 

 

[wardyfox86]

If it was El Khannouss starting yesterday and getting 2 assists, he would have had 6 new pages on his thread full of glowing reviews.

 

If Cooper is insistant on this "set up to not lose" approach to 90% of games, then Ndidi getting goal contributions in his defensive CAM position will be vital in that being successful.

[Collymore]

Trouble with Wilf he either looks like an alien beamed down with absolute out of this world physicality, touch, creativity, speed and technique to someone picked off the street 30 mins before kickoff who hasn't played the game before. 

 

Never anything in-between. 

 

You can usually tell after 15 mins which you're going to get. 

 

 

[StriderHiryu]

Playing Ndidi high up the pitch means he can be an offensive disruptor when Premier League teams try to play out from the back.

 

I am working on my post match analysis video now and Ndidi is so impressive. Dominating both aerially and on the ground. However, the thing that stands out to me the most is that after winning the ball back, his use of the ball has improved a lot, and he is making things happen. Here's that chance for Jordan Ayew early in the game that he almost single handedly creates.

 

 

In this sequence you see that iniitally he blocks off Adam Wharton, whereas Winks pushes up from deep to pounce on Doucoure to pressure him into passing backwards. As we started making subs and retreating, we stopped doing this, which handed the initiative to Palace in the final third of the game.

 

[5waller5]

17 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

 

 

Interesting that they have 2/2 successful dribbles?? I saw him pick the ball up, put his head down and run with it (turned to my mate and said “he’s going to run straight into 3 players)… he miraculously skinned two of them and then ran into the third. Maybe I saw it wrong, but he definitely had the ball whilst dribbling then lost it

[foxile5]

On 03/09/2024 at 07:20, The Doctor said:

because it very much is the latter. Age verification tests are not particularly reliable. there's a ongoing issue where African players en masse keep failing them, there were plans under the Tory government to use them on refugee children due to the fearmongering which was vocally rejected by the RCPCH because the x-ray age verification tests look at skeletal development and cannot properly account for people being late/early developers, let alone the impact of things like ethnicity, socioeconomic status (and the knock on effects of that such as nutrition). 

In this case, though, he was tested because they didn't look like they were they young. To and they were found not to be that young. 

 

Occham's Razor - why reach for a race related grandstand when the answer is in plain sight. This isn't mass recital prejudice - there are much more clear and obvious social examples of that - this is because African record keeping isn't we reliable as ours and there have been historic issues in players playing in the wrong age.

[st albans fox]

Enzo saw that he was a huge advantage higher up the pitch in forcing turnovers which meant our wingers got possession before the defence could double up on them.  With him and KDH as 8’s we had pressing machines in the opposition half. 
 

I understand why cooper is picking him - at the. very least he offers security aerial defending set plays.  My issue is that in the PL, you really need to make the most of those turnovers and he’s technically not good enough. (With consistency). His assists yesterday were first class - especially for mavs where most players would have attempted to score. 

 

I wasn’t one of those who couldn’t see how good he would be in enzo’s system this time last year. I’m hoping that he can do the same this season but at this level I think coupler should be finding a system where the three midfielders he clearly prefers can play and also space for one of facundo/el kanous behind a striker.  That may mean the wingers don’t play.