Swansea (a) 3rd Round Replay

[AndyWolves]

How many games does he need? He's had quite a few now.

He's brilliant, but looks rusty so the more games he can get in nothing competitions the better

 

[Alan]

He was brilliant last season. At a certain point it's not rust anymore. I'd love him to come good again but you have to think he should have shown more by now.

 

[AndyWolves]

He was brilliant last season. At a certain point it's not rust anymore. I'd love him to come good again but you have to think he should have shown more by now.

He probably should have shown more, my own opinion is that there is something that isn't quite right with him - either a confidence thing or the injury isn't quite right.

Either way, it's too soon to write him off

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He was great at Millwall. That was less than three weeks ago.

 

[Langers]

Staggering lack of patience. He's hardly at Stephen Hunt levels of ineffectiveness.

 

[Kenny]

Costa is fine and dandy. He is being judged on just how good Ivan is right now though.

Would say Jota has performed worse than Helda recently.

 

[Tony Towner]

Costa is fine and dandy. He is being judged on just how good Ivan is right now though.

Would say Jota has performed worse than Helda recently.

No, he's being judged by how good he was last year in an average side, he was great in that and average in this. He's playing within himself at the moment and Nuno needs to find a way to unlock that.

 

[Siggy]

Eh am I missing something Costa had a good game against Barnsley??? Not sure why people are saying he's lost pace etc.. He still looks rapid to me just maybe not quite as dynamic as Cav at the moment. He's playing a different role now so it's not just getting fit, match fit it's adapting to his new position.

I will be more than happy if Costa plays against Swansea but some of the criticism is way off for me.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[Carrotdude]

Costa isnt at last years standards at the moment but that is more obvious by how good the likes of Jota and Cav have been. From what I’ve seen he still looks very good just missing a finish at times. I wonder whether he just doesn’t fit this formation as well as a 4-2-3-1 where he can be a more natural winger?

As for this game I’d like Bright, Mir and MGW to get 90 minutes. Would be tempted to try Graham at rwb just so Doherty isn’t playing every game

 

[Alan]

To be clear I'm not saying we should sell him or anything like that, I'm just not sure he has earned a starting place at this point and we have too much quality on the bench to get sentimental about Helder, no matter how good he was last season. Although personally I'd probably be putting Jota on the bench for the moment and having Costa and Cav start together a couple of times.

 

[pr0sl0]

I'm wondering if my own feelings about Costa so far - and maybe other people's if I'm not projecting too much? - is that last year he was by far the best player in an otherwise lacklustre team, kind of a Championship version of Liverpool when they had Suarez. He scored and created loads, and if we weren't in a game his pace and directness could drag the rest of the team forwards.

This year, the balance is completely different. Cavaleiro has emerged as our most impressive playmaker, and Jota has kind of been playing the Costa role this season instead of being the pacy, wider player who feeds off Cavaleiro's creativity (and remember, Costa and Cavaleiro each had their best form last season when both of them were on the pitch). Costa's been good overall since coming back into the team, but since he's not the focal point of our attack - and is, rather, just one cog - he's simply not the only thing catching the eye any more, and he's competing in a way with Jota for being the main person to feed off of Cavaleiro's creativity.

The thing to test this theory would be a game where Jota is rested and it's Costa and Cavaleiro with either Mir or Bonatini in the middle, and then we'll see if the setup of last season works again, I guess.

 

[big mean bunny]

He was brilliant last season. At a certain point it's not rust anymore. I'd love him to come good again but you have to think he should have shown more by now.

Disagree with this every time it comes up. Having a long term injury and returning mid season you are nearly always playing catch up on the others if not playing regularly.

 

[YoungWolf]

Disagree with this every time it comes up. Having a long term injury and returning mid season you are nearly always playing catch up on the others if not playing regularly.

Yep. And it’s not as if he is playing like Dicko was. Helder has still had a good impact and will do so for the rest of this season. Missing pre season, especially when that was the most time Nuno had working with the players tactically, was always going to leave him behind

 

[AndyWolves]

He set a ridiculously high standard last season and at times it would be no exaggeration to say he was the best player in the league.

This season I don't think he's looked like the best player in the league but maybe we're spoiled by Jota, Cav, Neves, Boly et al.

 

[Alan]

Disagree with this every time it comes up. Having a long term injury and returning mid season you are nearly always playing catch up on the others if not playing regularly.

So we bench better performers (Cav) in favor of Costa? Not for me.

 

[slink]

So we bench better performers (Cav) in favor of Costa? Not for me.

Cav isn't fully fit imo. He picked up a knock in that Millwall game in which he was terrible and Costa was the best player on the park. Seems to me like Nuno is looking after him a little and not like we've struggled with Costa playing and Cav coming off the bench. Costa could have had a couple of assists and goals from the Brentford and Barnsley games if things had been a little bit different and in the other 2 games we've had players sent off which hasn't really played to his strengths at all.

 

[arklowolf]

Costa is still playing himself into fitness and has to be given more game time. We are still getting results with him on the pitch.
Cav has been very good this season, but from what I have seen Costa is still the better player of the two.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Doesn’t look like Cav is travelling down judging by Costa’s instagram

 

[Dinowolf]

Charlie Nicholas put this on Skysports

"I thought this was going to be the tie of the round and that Wolves would have seen them off. They've gone into a bit of awkwardness with scoring goals.

I covered Swansea at the weekend and they weren't bad. We all know about their issues scoring goals, but Ki Sung-yueng was good in midfield and it tells the story that Ollie McBurnie is keeping Wilfried Bony and Tammy Abraham out of the team.

There was enough to suggest they are improving and I'm going for them to see Wolves off, with Carlos Carvalhal motivated by having a crack at the FA Cup.

Charlie predicts: 2-0 and Abraham to score first"

Hope we can prove him wrong

 

[Tony Towner]

He already is as Abraham isn't playing