Our Iberians

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

The problem with Carvalho is the same one that Joe Lolley faced, and initially suffered from.

They both have had other duties placed on them; they are the first line of defence and have to put a shift in each game.

It took Joe a good few games to get into the swing of things, but he now looks as good as ever.

Missing pre-season would not have helped Carvalho's fitness levels, certainly not with his increased work load.

Class will prevail in the end and Carvalho has bags of it.

I have seen the odd glimpse of it, nothing more.

One nine out of ten performance followed by three or four six out of ten performances.

To be brutally honest for his price tag he needs to start doing more.

Hard to disagree with that assessment Duncan.

I always think with Carvalho, Benfica wouldn't have released him if they thought he was destined for greatness. They wouldn't release Semedo on a permanent for that reason.

After his injury, and him playing catchup as a result, I'm hoping he's just struggling to come to terms with what his new role is in the team. Getting injured was the worst possible scenario for him under the new manager, after the last one didn't particularly rate him.

He has undoubted quality - we've seen it, but I can't see him playing in that no10 role that AK played him in.

The problem is that we haven't seen it often enough. One flash of brilliance every 3 games is not enough I'm afraid.