Most Improved player under RVN

[justfoxes]

A few months ago, before RVN was in charge, under Blooper, we looked dreadful. A few players seemed to be just making up the numbers. But I must say—and I know I gave him a bit of stick for his lack of movement at times (his heat map wouldn’t fill a postage stamp, and I described him as a traffic cone in the middle of the KP pitch)—he’s made me eat my words.

 

Now, he is like a new player for us. He’s FUCHING amazing at times! He has gone from donkey to rhino, breaking up plays, making runs, and delivering passes. My god, I take it all back. There is a player in there, and I hope he improves even more in the coming games.

 

Bouba Soumare, take a bow!

Edited 1 January by justfoxes
Jon the punctuation police told me to !!

[AKCJ]

Surely Bilal El Khannouss.

[Jon the Hat]

AI can help you with your punctuation.

 

A few months ago, before RVN was in charge under Blooper, we looked dreadful and some players seemed to just be making up the numbers. I must say, I know I gave him a bit of stick for his lack of movement—his heat map wouldn’t fill a postage stamp, and I described him as a traffic cone in the middle of the KP pitch. But he’s made me eat my words. Now, he is like a new player for us—he’s absolutely amazing at times. He has gone from donkey to rhino, breaking up plays, making runs, and delivering passes. My God, I take it all back. There is a player in there, and I hope he improves even more in the coming games. Bouba Soumare, take a bow!

 

[CrazyKopCorner]

Soumare appears to be a totally different player to me. Receives a pass, often feints & / or passes it and then moves into a better position and demands the ball back. 

 

He's also significantly upped his work rate. 

 

It's like night and day 

 

Bilal looks as though he's going to be a phenomenal player under anyone's watch - You can just see the lads got it in spades. 

Edited 31 December 2024 by CrazyKopCorner

[Vacamion]

 

Bilal only showed it in glimpses under Cooper.

 

Stand out player under RVN.

 

 

[Ric Flair]

El Khannouss because a) he's actually playing him unlike Cooper and b) he's had two outstanding performances vs West Ham and Man City.

[Dahnsouff]

Got to be Bilal. Lesser shout out to Bouba too. 

[nnfox]

I'm going with Bouba.  He's starting to look like the player we hoped to have signed all those years ago.  Under successive managers it hasn't clicked.  On the FoxesTalk barometer of acceptance, when named in the starting line up, it's gone from full on melt down to slight disappointment if he's not named in the team.  There are not many players out there who have experienced such a swing.

 

Bilal is also looking very good, but that might be more down to taking some time to settle in to a new country, new language etc.  I'm not sure how much credit RvN gets for him, but if he can maintain or improve form then I'll be happy to give credit 

[Matt]

I mean Soumare had brilliant performances against Man Utd in the cup and against Ipswich, both under Cooper, but lets ignore them. Don't let a good agenda get your way!

 

Perhaps something has just clicked this season for him. There was talk of him struggling to adjust, home sickness, I think perhaps he's just more settled and/or knuckled down.

 

Another alternative view, is his contract will be expiring before he knows it and he's realised he needs to perform to a) Get a move or b) Get a new contract here. (We've seen that before)

 

Agenda's aside and answering the question - Most Improved player under RVN? Bilal El Khannouss.

 

Edited 31 December 2024 by Matt

[fox_favourite]

36 minutes ago, Matt said:

I mean Soumare had brilliant performances against Man Utd in the cup and against Ipswich, both under Cooper, but lets ignore them. Don't let a good agenda get your way!

 

Perhaps something has just clicked this season for him. There was talk of him struggling to adjust, home sickness, I think perhaps he's just more settled and/or knuckled down.

 

Another alternative view, is his contract will be expiring before he knows it and he's realised he needs to perform to a) Get a move or b) Get a new contract here.

 

Agenda's aside and answering the question - Most Improved player under RVN? Bilal El Khannouss.

This ^

 

Soumare has been the improved player of the season so far. The Ipswich game almost kicked him into gear. It was good as well that the media team made such a point of his challenge. From being booed when he came on, to now being a starter is an impressive turnaround. Cooper, yes Cooper, does deserve credit for bringing him out of his shell, and maybe giving him the confidence that he can play in the premier league. 

 

He has proven a lot of people wrong. There was a player in there. I agree with you, maybe he was just unsettled here for whatever reason, it can happen. Going away on loan and playing regularly and getting some praise may have also helped, cleared his head and made him realise he is a good player. 

 

Recently Bilal, but I would argue it was always a matter of time before he came good. Before Cooper was sacked, you could see each game he played he was getting better and better. So has RvN improved him, or are we just seeing the potential that was always there, but would take a while to come through?

Edited 31 December 2024 by fox_favourite

[The boy Linacre]

I actually think its just timing, they've had half another season in the Prem (on and off) more gametime, understanding of the pace and physicality required, for Soumare, Wilf's injury let him in and he proved himself in terms of effort and not inconsequentional ability.

Winks has been injured since Cooper's last game and you can see Sunday the difference he makes in terms of go forward vs Slipp.

As many of these things, we've stumbled on the best formation and it was made to look good vs a very nervous Man City.

It has to be repeated now for a big percentage 75/80% + of the last 19 games and most importantly picking up a decent amount of points along the way.

A Less negative approach from RVN too.

I think for many of us, they were a pleasure to watch Sunday, just really good football, BUT its a results business and we have catching up to do, I hope we can do it and Bilal and Soumare's standard level now remains Sunday.  Our alternatives are limited.

[Nalis]

I'd say Bilal but its hard to say he improved when we was effectively ignored by Cooper for some bizarre reason

Edited 31 December 2024 by Nalis

[coolhandfox]

El Khannouss 

[Bert]

I’ll go for Danny Ward 

[Jon the Hat]

3 minutes ago, Bert said:

I’ll go for Danny Ward 

We’d all go for Danny Ward if we were close enough, a quick kick in the knee just to make sure 👌 

[StriderHiryu]

It's Bilal El Khannouss, but the main reason why is because Ruud is building the team around him and letting him conduct the orchestra like Maddison once did.

 

I will be going live at midday today to do the analysis for the Man City match, and I'll show you some of the excellent and innovative rotations that Ruud has introduced into the team. It allows El Khannouss to pick up the ball all over the place so he play key passes and make things happen.

 

Will it be enough to stay up I don't know, but I think it's good that RVN has both improved and built the team around the best outfield prospect we have.

 

 

[BKLFox]

I’d say RVN hasn’t been here long enough to put any player in the category.

Bilal hasn’t become what we saw against Man C ‘because’ of RVN he always had that in him he’s just getting games and more settled within the environment.

 

Surely to go in this category your taking an academy lad from no where breaking into the 1st team or more likely someone who was playing dog-toffee and suddenly becoming 1 of the 1st names on the sheet, so could maybe put Soumare in there but that could also be down to last seasons loan, being a year older and him finally waking up.

 

Not sure I have seen any massive individual changes in only 6 games but yes to an improvement to the overall team structure though.

[ronnup]

The ELK! No question. He's essentially the best player in the world 🌎 

[JimJams]

I think it's got to be Jakub Stolarczyk.  He's gone from not even being in contention when Ward was available to number 1 in a short few weeks.  Incredible improvement.

Couldn't even get a game a few months ago, now look at him...

 

Edited 31 December 2024 by JimJams
...

[Ely fox]

I do realise he has had his critics on this said forum, however I do feel that Tony Adams has done very well for us. 

 

[Jon the Hat]

12 minutes ago, Ely fox said:

I do realise he has had his critics on this said forum, however I do feel that Tony Adams has done very well for us. 

 

Keep drinking son, it’ll be midnight soon!

[Spudulike]

Such incredibly bad timing and a massive shame that Fatawu got injured. I reckon he'd be flourishing now under RvN.

[Dmitry]

6 hours ago, justfoxes said:

A few months ago before RVN was in charge under Blooper we looked dreadful 

Will be interesting to compare the statistics of both managers when they've managed equal numbers of matches. We might be surprised who the real Blooper is...

[Clever Fox]

I thought Blooper had improved VK quite a bit and he is getting better with more game time though still has errors in him.

 

Soumare has everything needed to be a top player but I think he's one of those that need special encouragement. ( An arm around him so to speak.)

 

He was showing improvement under Blooper but Ruud seems to have figured him out quickly and has him offering more.

 

I think Soumare and Winks can offer us exactly what we need playing with NDiddi as the holding player.

 

With Bilal playing the 10 role where he has the freedom to plays as he sees it.

[Lako42]

3 hours ago, Bert said:

I’ll go for Danny Ward 

In all seriousness he's improved massively in the last two games. 

 

Fairs fair