Joao Carvalho

[wassy04]

A good player fits into any system and can play for any manager. You called Sabri ultra defensive yet Grabban scored 20 plus goals in that ultra mega defensive system.

Face facts Carvalho is not as good as some think he is just because of the odd fancy flick here and there. People who know football well don't fall for that S**t. The bloke has some talent but he needs to up his game if he wants to have a decent career. He's almost 25 now and he's achieved absolutely nothing in the game so far.

Not sure I agree on the first point, if you're a winger and your team doesn't play wingers for example you're likely to struggle. Plenty of examples of good players that just aren't suited to a certain system. What about someone like Marcos Alonso, pretty crap as a LB but as soon as they play a LWB he's one of the best in the world in that position.

A good comparison in a purely positional sense is Dele Alli, has struggled whenever he's been asked to play anywhere other than behind a striker.

I'm not saying this as evidence that Carv should come back btw, doesn't sound like he's exactly torn up trees at Almeria either. Just that he was never going to succeed in Sabri's formation 

The whole MoN appointment was odd anyway but given the excessive investment we'd made it would've been prudent to employ a manager that was willing to make him the focal point at the time, similar to under AK. If nothing else just to protect his value