Luke Thomas

[hejammy]

1 minute ago, volpeazzurro said:

So if Bertrand is below par, JJ is out and you send Thomas out on loan, who are you going to play at left back?

Timmy? 

[moore_94]

He didn't have a good game today, but I don't think Castagne played particularly well either.

 

Seemed to be absolutely zero width in front of them so pretty much all first half for both players they had no passing forward option, both looked better second half with a winger in front of them.

 

Wipped in a brilliant cross 2nd half that someone should've tried to get on the end of, had a good link up with Barnes and they had some good interplay, and made a great run that was found by Youri with Thomas' shot so close to going in.

 

Today was still only his 21st Premier League appearance for us and he has already stepped up before in some of the clubs biggest games when it mattered.

 

If you aren't willing to give young players a chance once they hit bad form then you are expecting way too much from them in the first place.

Edited 30 October 2021 by moore_94

[Buzzell]

2 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

So if Bertrand is below par, JJ is out and you send Thomas out on loan, who are you going to play at left back?

Thomas stays and starts obviously but once JJ is fit then Thomas is third choice. At that point he will need games so a loan deal would be ideal for him no?

[hejammy]

1 minute ago, buzzer_b said:

Thomas stays and starts obviously but once JJ is fit then Thomas is third choice. At that point he will need games so a loan deal would be ideal for him no?

I'm not sure I understand the maths here? 1st choice right now, but when JJ is fit he's 3rd choice? So who's second choice at that point? And why are they not first choice now? 

[Buzzell]

16 minutes ago, hejammy said:

I'm not sure I understand the maths here? 1st choice right now, but when JJ is fit he's 3rd choice? So who's second choice at that point? And why are they not first choice now? 

I feel that once JJ is fit then I would say Bertrand will more than likely be Brendan’s choice as back up due to experience at this level meaning Thomas will be down the pecking order. With him only being 20 and inexperienced at this level it would make sense for him to be sent out on loan for valuable first team action instead of bench warming.

 

Hopefully he kicks on and makes the spot his own but I’m just looking at it once everyone is fully fit. We’ve still got to wait to see whether JJ will be the same player after a massive injury. Could take him a while to get back into that amazing form he found before his injury.

[Lesta2014]

10x better second half! Is much more confident with a winger infront of him! 

[Facecloth]

16 minutes ago, hejammy said:

I'm not sure I understand the maths here? 1st choice right now, but when JJ is fit he's 3rd choice? So who's second choice at that point? And why are they not first choice now? 

Its an odd dynamic with our full backs. We have 3 who can play right back and one of those three (Ricardo) can only really play there. And we have 3 who can play left back, again with one (Thomas) who can only play on the left. And we have Bertrand, who we won't count as he's useless. When all are fit, and we say Ricardo is first choice on the right and Justin on the left, you'd probably accept Castagne as second choice on either side, which would put Thomas behind him at left back, but Castagne can't play both side, so he'd be next to step up if both full backs are rested or out.

 

I think Justin and Ricardo will be struggling for full fitness for a while anyway, so he's very much needed in the squad right now. I think he's very capable for a player of his age and experience and will only get better. If people aren't happy with the likes of Thomas and Amartey filling in for our injured players (because that's all they are right now back up squad players, not starters), then get pissed off with recruitment team, because we signed two players in these positions over the summer and they've been absolutely shite.

[MalletFox]

39 minutes ago, Guy said:

As today then LK got totally "found out" against West Ham too in "that" 4-1 mauling early on in the season. As others have said, come up against seasoned/experienced pros at the top level then a young. developing pro at that level easily gets found out if the opposition have done their homework beforehand....as I suspect Arsenal might have done the minute they saw he was in the starting line up!

They did it last season! Pepe absolutely murdered him all game last season down the KP!

[Guy]

13 minutes ago, MalletFox said:

They did it last season! Pepe absolutely murdered him all game last season down the KP!

With a similar sort of result too ....1.3 ?! 

[volpeazzurro]

6 hours ago, hejammy said:

Timmy? 

He's on the right because Ricardo is injured. However, bar one game against United, he also, against expectation, looks unnatural, slow and unconvincing on the left also.

[volpeazzurro]

6 hours ago, buzzer_b said:

Thomas stays and starts obviously but once JJ is fit then Thomas is third choice. At that point he will need games so a loan deal would be ideal for him no?

I think Thomas is still better back up to JJ for me. Plenty of cup games, if we stay in for him to play in and learn his trade. JJ is going to have to be managed after such a bad injury don't forget, we can't reasonably expect him to be 100% for sometime. We don't even know what sort of JJ we'll be getting back. 

[volpeazzurro]

6 hours ago, Lesta2014 said:

10x better second half! Is much more confident with a winger infront of him! 

He was better and more effective than Castagne in the second half for me. Better with someone in front of him like Chilwell who also used to get exposed on the left regularly. It's all about confidence too and he won't get that without playing. There were other players out there today who were poor including Tielemans and Maddison. 

[gerblod]

7 hours ago, buzzer_b said:

Thomas stays and starts obviously but once JJ is fit then Thomas is third choice. At that point he will need games so a loan deal would be ideal for him no?

No! However difficult his learning curve is, he'll stall as a player and in his  confidence if he goes off to some backwater club to get sub-par experience. If our defence wasn't so vulnerable then he could be protected - to an extent. 

BR had to field him last season and he made a real fist of it. He's not responsible for the team's poor start to the season and he's just too good to farm out.

I'd like to see JJ as a utility player - able to understudy Evans as well as playing on the left. Thomas will be content to be a sub and to feature in cup games. 

A lot of posters on here dislike young and talented players - much preferring 'dependability'. That 'quality' never won much of anything.

[gerblod]

12 hours ago, Notting your mums forest said:

Luke Thomas is coming along just fine guys. No need to get on his back. He did ok today and there were players who played worse than him in that 1st half. Actually thought Luke Thomas linked up well with Harvey Barnes again in the 2nd half and he was so close to scoring too. Keep the faith and he’ll be better than Chilwell in a couple of years (Bertrand has been nothing but awful so far!)

Well stated! Barnes and LT have demonstrated before that they have an understanding which manifests as a quick and penetrating interplay. That's something which happens rarely and spontaneously. You cannot buy that. 

In fact, BR could very well use that, in future, as an impact 'unit substitute'.  

[gerblod]

8 hours ago, Guy said:

As today then LK got totally "found out" against West Ham too in "that" 4-1 mauling early on in the season. 

Is that like Chilly got isolated and "found out" against Liverpool and Man City over Xmas '18-'19? Didn't stop Chelsea paying a handsome transfer fee for him.

[foxes_rule1978]

26 minutes ago, gerblod said:

Is that like Chilly got isolated and "found out" against Liverpool and Man City over Xmas '18-'19? Didn't stop Chelsea paying a handsome transfer fee for him.

Chilly is a great player I always liked him, and never understood the hate… however with Thomas I honestly don’t think he is near PL level as a wing back, better as a full back with someone like Barnes on the wing though 

[Deeg67]

37 minutes ago, gerblod said:

Well stated! Barnes and LT have demonstrated before that they have an understanding which manifests as a quick and penetrating interplay. That's something which happens rarely and spontaneously. You cannot buy that. 

In fact, BR could very well use that, in future, as an impact 'unit substitute'.  

But this is a problem with our squad.  "Unit substitutes" are pretty untenable for league games when you only get three, but basically Barnes and Lookman had to come on jointly because it required a total formation change.  We have too many players who only "fit" with certain other players.

Edited 31 October 2021 by Deeg67

[Buzzell]

2 hours ago, gerblod said:

No! However difficult his learning curve is, he'll stall as a player and in his  confidence if he goes off to some backwater club to get sub-par experience. If our defence wasn't so vulnerable then he could be protected - to an extent. 

BR had to field him last season and he made a real fist of it. He's not responsible for the team's poor start to the season and he's just too good to farm out.

I'd like to see JJ as a utility player - able to understudy Evans as well as playing on the left. Thomas will be content to be a sub and to feature in cup games. 

A lot of posters on here dislike young and talented players - much preferring 'dependability'. That 'quality' never won much of anything.

Not once did I say he was responsible for our bad start and I don’t dislike young players.

[Lesta2014]

3 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

He was better and more effective than Castagne in the second half for me. Better with someone in front of him like Chilwell who also used to get exposed on the left regularly. It's all about confidence too and he won't get that without playing. There were other players out there today who were poor including Tielemans and Maddison. 

Maddison was holding his hip 15 mins before he came off 

[turlo]

As a fullback in a 4 he's had more good games than bad but as a wing back i can't remember him having a good game other than the FA cup last season. He's not got the engine on him to be effective as an unsupported wingback and unlikely ever will. 

Arteta sussed out how to exploit/overload the wingbacks in a 3 5 2 system against Villa last weekend and was worried the same would happen against us, which it did on both sides but they targeted our left more. 

 

[Ric Flair]

Are people going to completely disregard his improvement 2ns half at full back where he teamed up with his mate Barnes, who together have linked up well in games in the last year?

 

How many times do some of us have to say it, we don't have the players for 3-4-1-2 except it allows us to play Iheanacho and Vardy or Daka together and not be completely exposed in central midfield. We don't have the wingback though and our centre backs in a 3 are chaos at the minute.

 

Any of you calling for Ryan Bertrand as a left wing back yesterday honestly need to consider a one way ticket to Switzerland. Castagne and Ricardo can just about play as a wingback and run the flank on their own but even they aren't at the level we need to play that system to compete in the top 4/6. They are full backs IMO. Bertrand's honestly about as capable going forward as Danny Simpson, his decline in the last 2 years has been off the scale and yet some of our fans either don't want to believe it or are oblivious to how bad Bertrand has been. The only position he should play if he has to is either at left back or LCB where maybe him and Thomas could have protected things better 1st half.

[ceebeefox]

Can somebody tell me what Saka did after the first 10 minutes, apart from stopping Luke getting forward? He held his own against an England international albeit a lucky one . (You used to have 3 or 4 consistent seasons to be an England player not 3 or 4 games!) The lad held his own and is the best we’ve got currently in that position.

[Ric Flair]

Thomas isn't having a good season, like plenty of our players but it's easy to say hes out of his depth and not a PL player, rather than he's just failing to hit the heights he's capable of.

 

He does need to strengthen up though and I'm surprised his crossing is iffy at the minute as that's always been something he does well without much effort.

[Whys it always me]

39 minutes ago, ceebeefox said:

Can somebody tell me what Saka did after the first 10 minutes, apart from stopping Luke getting forward? He held his own against an England international albeit a lucky one . (You used to have 3 or 4 consistent seasons to be an England player not 3 or 4 games!) The lad held his own and is the best we’ve got currently in that position.

Stop with your reasoning comments. Thomas is the current player a minority love to hammer yes he had a poor first half playing a position he isn’t natural in playing in but with experience he will get there. 
 

as @Ric Flair pointed out I thought he was very good in the second half and far more attacking with barnes which is what everyone has been moaning about the last few weeks saying he offers nothing going forward. 
 

I agree I’m not sure Saka did a great deal second half and I think I the switch in formation helped us. 
 

I mentioned this the other night some people seem to focus on the negatives and only the negatives and fail to see some of the good stuff he does. 
 

I would go as far as to say the left side in the second half caused Arsenal more problems the the right side which had everyone’s favourite player Timmy playing. 
 

Give the lad a break Rodger’s is throwing him into high pressure games he sees him every day in training so will see lots of stuff us fans don’t. Do we honestly think Rodger’s just puts Thomas in the team for a laugh?

 

The whole team is out of form the defence is a shambles, Thomas is in the team one week then doesn’t make the bench for a month how can any player get match fit and in form based on this and let’s not forget he played wingback mid week against a decent Brighton side so he was possibly lacking some energy as would any player. 
 

We are very fickle fans. 

[volpeazzurro]

2 hours ago, Lesta2014 said:

Maddison was holding his hip 15 mins before he came off 

Yes I saw that too and his movement was quite impaired at times. As it appears to be a chronic condition you'd have thought he'd have been taken off earlier as it's not one of those things he can run off. He of course should communicate this but either way I thought it was poor. We've clearly in the past brought players back too soon and its a contentious area in some ways.