Is Wanyama the problem?


Victor Wanyams is a solid defensive player, who is an adequate passer, no more I'm afraid. We are missing Eric Dier's passing in midfield from a defensive position, we simply don't get the same range of passing out of Wanyama.

Wanyama has played 13 Premier League games, making 711 passes in 1,132 minutes.
He has made 48 accurate long balls while 17 have been inaccurate.
He has made 583 accurate short passes and 63 inaccurate ones.

That is rather a high figure when you are in defensive midfield and you can pass to the full-backs, centre-backs or goalkeeper.

Wanyama has passed forward 61% of the time this season, Eric Dier passed forward 68% of the time last season.

Could this be why we are struggling to get the ball forward and create goals? Wanyama's  stock pass is out wide to the full-backs, but he rolls the ball so slowly and lazily that the receiving player has to stand there and wait for the ball to arrive, unlike the way Spain showed us at Wembley when you ping the ball around.

As you all know it's a bit of a bugbear of mine with several of our players guilty of it from time to time. How can we play at speed if we pass the ball slowly? It is counter productive, it simply helps the opposition.