He made some mistakes but what I loved about his performance was his speed and how he got us up the pitch. He definitely did more in 80 minutes than we've seen from any of the other options that have played on the left. Shame his shot didn't go in, but I was happy. Hopefully he continues to start and he isn't punished for the mistakes he made.

Er

He was an absolute liability. Speed??

Granted he carried the ball upfield more effectively than schlupp, for example, but on every other metric he was wild

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

Agreed. I think he sat on the bench for the first 7 games of the season and played a total of 43 minutes. Clever use of a £20 million investment wouldn't you say! Give him a chance, start him regularly, he needs playing time. I see potential in him.

"Billy Gilbert really is God"

If you judge attacking threat as jogging up the pitch with the ball and little end product, sure

‘Some’. Defending was woeful (to be expected), and distribution was similarly off the pace. All very well driving forward but you have to actually be able to do something with it. He’s potential, raw, slight and needs time to adapt - the fee represents an investment - but the way fans have been bleating about him needing to be in the team like he’s some sort of second coming is totally ridiculous

A point proven tonight

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

est . If you dont mind me asking . How old are you ? you come across as a very spoilt little man child .

This could be heaven or this could be hell .

I don’t disagree he has potential. I do disagree that he should be starting games. Any offensive impetus is cancelled out and some by the lack of defensive awareness, pressing and leaving gaps all over the place for the opposition to exploit.

Wharton is an example of someone at more or less the same age/development stage that is up to scratch, and is capable enough to start.

Franca, not so much.

Also - those players you mention - not comparable. Apart from Zaha they’d already demonstrated their quality one level down and were playing regularly at a much higher level than Franca. Zaha - more about his temperament, and he had pace and could beat a player. And score the odd goal.

Edited by SW19 CPFC (12 Feb 2024 11.59pm)

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

Thought he did ok . In Roys rigid system you can see he is a bit lost on the defensive side but was trying to be in the right position when Chelsea had the ball which to be fair was for most of the game .
He will show his worth when we have the ball more ,at the end of the day he is an attacker , not a defender .

Only game time is going to improve Franca but I would argue that in our position we can’t afford to give him game time. It is Roy’s fault that he hasn’t had a lot more minutes in the team when we were not in a relegation battle but right now I wouldn’t have him anywhere near the starting 11 and especially not in the position he played in last night. Every team targets us with crosses already and that will just get worse with him playing.

He had a couple of nice bursts of pace when he had the ball in acres of space but overall I thought he was really poor.

I will repeat it is not the lads fault that Roy has hardly played him so he has no chance to get used to the league but for me I would leave him on the bench at Everton. Coleman would have a picnic with him.

Edited by EddieMac (13 Feb 2024 7.47am)

I agree with most of this. Franca did fine for a debut I just hope he isn't dropped for Roy's favourite South American

Parka DeBus

One more point

I wouldn't describe his performance as "Really poor", more 'Curate's Egg'. He is very inexperienced and before signing for us he was mainly introduced from the bench at Flamengo.

He did grow into the game and I suspect will benefit from the experience of being thrust into the PL limelight. A 'Learning curve' for Franca but he did enough to suggest that he could well prove to be a good purchase.

Edited by Willo (13 Feb 2024 9.37am)