[Albionic]

Defence apart we only have Livermore who can "mix" it. Harper tends to go around barging into people and therefore conceding lots of fouls, Romaine and Krov are more skill based than physicality biased.

I'm not going to include Barry and Brunty for obvoius reasons

[baggiejohn]

Imagine,you are the manager,you pick a goalie for obvious reasons,you pick someone you hope will score goals one or two who hopefully will make it difficult for the opposition to score a midfielder to cover box to box and score a few goals so why would you pick a player who regularly gets booked yet doesn't tackle has only made one assist and only scored one goal in a season because lets face it he is taking the place of another player who could do one of the aforementioned tasks.
When you look at these cold facts would you pick him if his name wasn't Sawyers but just a member of your squad?

Who would you pick to replace Sawyers?

player stats

[Hull Baggie]

Who would you pick to replace Sawyers?

player stats

What those stats say to me is that we need another decent CM as an option off the bench.

Fox sports don't seem to know much about us though. Harper is listed as a forward and they have Austin as scoring only 1 penalty when he's scored at least 3 (sheff wed home and away and Preston away). Someone at Foxsports needs to be better at compiling stats

[frazzle]

One of our best players. Joy to watch. Always offers himself and finds an unexpected pass to move up the pitch. Often gets the ball in difficult positions and is strong and protecting the ball with his body or some neat footwork. Always seems to know where the rest of the team are. For me he’s the kind of midfielder I’ve wanted to see with us for years. Some like the busy box to box type, for me I’ve always loved the class footballers who can make a team tick and have great skill, accuracy and vision.

He’s not brilliant defensively and he’s not a goal scorer, but he’s excellent in his position and for the role he is asked to do.

Big fan and I think he could look even better on the ball in the premier league. I just hope he gets the chance to show it.

[frazzle]

Imagine,you are the manager,you pick a goalie for obvious reasons,you pick someone you hope will score goals one or two who hopefully will make it difficult for the opposition to score a midfielder to cover box to box and score a few goals so why would you pick a player who regularly gets booked yet doesn't tackle has only made one assist and only scored one goal in a season because lets face it he is taking the place of another player who could do one of the aforementioned tasks.
When you look at these cold facts would you pick him if his name wasn't Sawyers but just a member of your squad?

Sorry mate but that’s a bit of a daft post. You would pick him because he is essential if you want to have a possession based approach to the game. Seems like you are suggestion midfielders must be only defensive or box to box. There’s a bit more to it than that. Players like Hoddle, Beckham etc would have never got a look in if that was the approach.

[TheJacko2000]

It doesn't stem from the Blackburn game as he's been criticised by some on several threads for a variety of reasons over the course of this season. Some of his criticism has been justified. On the other hand much of it has been pretty much laughable. Whilst I acknowledge certain aspects of his game could be better, overall I'm chuffed he's ours. Technically good player and I'd much rather have him with us than against us. There's so much to his game which seems to pass people by. Very subtle and intelligent with generally superb control.

I meant this latest round of criticism targeting his passing and general play, despite him having a good game aside from that defensive lapse. 

He's not a snotter and isn't great at the dirty work (though his positioning defensivelyi s excellent), but tbh I've had my fill of centre mids (nay, players in general) who run around a lot with little to no technical ability. Give me a Sawyers over a Livermore, Fletcher/Barry (at the stage of their careers we got lumbered with them), Gardner, McClean, Sandro, Baird, Field, etc.

Plenty of Albion fans didn't rate Krychowiak, which generally tells me all I need to know.

Hope you're keeping well mate.

[SmethDan]

I meant this latest round of criticism targeting his passing and general play, despite him having a good game aside from that defensive lapse. 

He's not a snotter and isn't great at the dirty work (though his positioning defensivelyi s excellent), but tbh I've had my fill of centre mids (nay, players in general) who run around a lot with little to no technical ability. Give me a Sawyers over a Livermore, Fletcher/Barry (at the stage of their careers we got lumbered with them), Gardner, McClean, Sandro, Baird, Field, etc.

Plenty of Albion fans didn't rate Krychowiak, which generally tells me all I need to know.

Hope you're keeping well mate.

Fair play.

Keeping well this end and I hope the same applies to you and yours. Trying  to keep away from the pre match thread though. The sound of knocking knees is driving me to distraction and ear defenders are rarely a good look.

As for Romaine he's quality, just a pity his painting kit came without a tackle. On the other hand not many artists paint with a monkey wrench. It's all about what you're there to do though.

Our Polish sightseer would have been a wonderful addition if he'd have been anywhere near fit on arrival, had the right players around him and had been used correctly. Fish out of water with us for the most part unfortunately.

Stay safe and enjoy the match later, I'm really looking forward to what should be a good game and an opportunity to put a little extra distance between us and the chasing pack.

All of the very best  .

[Hull Baggie]

I meant this latest round of criticism targeting his passing and general play, despite him having a good game aside from that defensive lapse. 

He's not a snotter and isn't great at the dirty work (though his positioning defensivelyi s excellent), but tbh I've had my fill of centre mids (nay, players in general) who run around a lot with little to no technical ability. Give me a Sawyers over a Livermore, Fletcher/Barry (at the stage of their careers we got lumbered with them), Gardner, McClean, Sandro, Baird, Field, etc.

Plenty of Albion fans didn't rate Krychowiak, which generally tells me all I need to know.

Hope you're keeping well mate.

That plenty of Albion fans have a different opinion to you?

Clearly Krychowiak is a good player but he wasn't a good player for us. That may have been the way we used him or that he couldn't get to grips with the Premier league I don't know but he was a shadow of the player he was before and after he played for us.

[TheJacko2000]

That plenty of Albion fans have a different opinion to you?

Clearly Krychowiak is a good player but he wasn't a good player for us. That may have been the way we used him or that he couldn't get to grips with the Premier league I don't know but he was a shadow of the player he was before and after he played for us.

No, that they can't spot a decent player if their life depended on it.

There were PLENTY that didn't think this key fact (in bold). Cheers for the reinforcement.

[Hull Baggie]

No, that they can't spot a decent player if their life depended on it.

There were PLENTY that didn't think this key fact (in bold). Cheers for the reinforcement.

Staggering arrogance that Jacko, I think it was more that they could see that he wasn't a good player for us.

[TheJacko2000]

Staggering arrogance that Jacko, I think it was more that they could see that he wasn't a good player for us.

Is it though? I see belters on Twitter, hear absolutely embarrassing shouts up the Shrine,  I won't get started on fb, and it's no different on here. Some people just don't understand the game, as long as they derive enjoyment from it, that's not a problem.

[baggiejohn]

Our Polish sightseer would have been a wonderful addition if he'd have been anywhere near fit on arrival, had the right players around him and had been used correctly. Fish out of water with us for the most part unfortunately.

I can think of one or two like that over the years Dan, Borja Valero & Serge Gnabry to name just two

[seteefeet]

Watching Sawyers is like buying a used car. It looks and drives pretty well, but has a few dents and scratches, doesn't detract from the overall beauty though, so you accept that it's imperfections, because, if it was perfect, you wouldn't afford it anyway.

[KN22]

Look no further than the manager at the time as to why Krychowiak struggled during his time with us. Clearly a good footballer just not a 6 foot 6 centre half

[smethwickw]

I can think of one or two like that over the years Dan, Borja Valero & Serge Gnabry to name just two

All signed close to the end of the window if I recall (including Krychowiak). You tend to get players that are unfit, had no preseason or coming back from injury. Austin is this seasons example. It's no wonder they struggle.

[we8seals]

Sawyers contribute f@@k all. Has no meaningful impact on the game. I find it inexplicable that he gets such a free ride! Slows us down going forward and a liability at the back

[gazberg]

Always shows for the ball but not enough cutting passes made and defensively well i can't find the words.

[Hull Baggie]

Sawyers contribute f@@k all. Has no meaningful impact on the game. I find it inexplicable that he gets such a free ride! Slows us down going forward and a liability at the back

Have to say I thought he played well tonight, kept us ticking over. Misplaced passes a couple of times but otherwise looked good. Still can't tackle though.

[WBArgo]

Woeful, no awareness on the ball and constantly putting us in trouble. I like him but he's undroppable and it's infuriating, thankfully we didn't lose though.

[boinging_along]

Yeah, looking at the difference between their DM (Reed?) was crazy.  Sawyer's much more comfortable on the ball but Reed broke up our play and made several super important challenges.

[TheJacko2000]

Haha, what? controlled the game tonight. Comfortably in our 3 best players today.

Yeah, looking at the difference between their DM (Reed?) was crazy.  Sawyer's much more comfortable on the ball but Reed broke up our play and made several super important challenges.

The comparison for Reed is Livermore. I honestly wonder if some people are on here on the WU.

[Oldbury24]

Watching Sawyers is like buying a used car. It looks and drives pretty well, but has a few dents and scratches, doesn't detract from the overall beauty though, so you accept that it's imperfections, because, if it was perfect, you wouldn't afford it anyway.

Doffs cap.  Spot on.

[hunsletbaggie]

Sawyers is a liability forever been bailed out by Livermore who was superb tonight couldn't tackle is way out of a paper bag he is so frustrating.

[TheJacko2000]

Sawyers is a liability forever been bailed out by Livermore who was superb tonight couldn't tackle is way out of a paper bag he is so frustrating.

Christ. Worst take I've ever seen on here.

[paulosull]

Thinks he's Messi when he clearly isn't, offers nothing going forward with tooooooooo many touches of ball and 99 times out of hundred will pass the ball backwards or side ways. Hegazi has more influence on our attacking play than him.