Doc wrote:
Buy instinct I meant movement, he gets in to a lot of dangerous positions.. End product is all he's lacking to be a top player, with his previous record I'd give him more than half a season to prove it.
But he only really gets into great positions when he's got the ball at his feet. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but I'd say a 'typical' striker knows how to get himself into good positions in the box so midfielders can find him. Gervinho on the other hand gets the ball into the box at his own feet, but is useless at doing anything with it when he gets there
I know looking at his stats from France is encouraging, but the fact is it's a weak league, and the Prem is still a big step up. The games are exciting, and there are some good players, but don't think it's really the gold mine for great talent it was 15 years ago. In gervinho's case, think it's easy to understand why making the step up is problematic - if you'd watched any of him in France, you'd be able to see which areas of his game really were outstanding, and which were causing Lille fans to tear their hair out, and so far, nothing had really surprised.
He's always been hopeless in the final third in terms of passing and shooting. He's always been bloody good at getting into good positions. In France, doing the latter will always translate to more goals, but in England if you don't have the former you're going to be punished much more severely. Gervinho didn't finish like Van Nistelrooy in France.
