Michel Ange Balikwisha

I’m not going to get on his back but he needs to be doing much more. Look at the difference between him and Tounekti. Night and day.

 

He needs to do more, I don’t think he is a dribbler but he has to to do more than play it back all the time and look to link up. That will come in time as he builds understanding with other players but he has been too timid for me in getting involved in the game.

 

Both

 

Im not judging yet. Control etc he has. So I.tjink he'll do well eventually. * of a two games to start. Huns away and monsoon plastic pitch killie

 

No I am not writing him off as I said he will need to build up relationships with team mates to see the best of him I believe as looking at him before we signed him he seemed an intelligent player but he has been very timid when he has played for us.

Two games is too few to be saying rubbish especially the ones we have had as you point out.

 

At this stage I'm not going to say he's not going to make it here, or that he's a bad player. What I am going to say is he is clearly not a right winger. Hopefully he comes good in whatever position he ends up playing.

 

Wasn't overly fussed about the signing and he's been worse than my already limited expectations. Def going to need to play off the left if he's going to be impactful as he's the type of wide player that wants to come inside on his stronger foot and bounce balls off his midfielder. Worryingly for him Tounetki already looks dynamite on the left & that's before Jota comes back.

 

Struggled on right (his wrong) side, contributed zero.
Shrunk away from the Killie cluggers.

We now have 5 left sided wide players / wingers and zero on the right - it's laughable.

Got to give the lad time tho.

 

Looks exactly like his highlights video. Uninspiring.

Needs to do much more, but I'm still to be convinced he's a winger. Looks more like a CAM or old school wide midfielder to me.

 

Would like to see him and Tounekti switching sides vs Partick. At least for a little while mid game just to see how it works out.

I think Tounekti would be great at right as well.

 

I thought that would of been the plan. Even Maeda rotating a little too. It would cause havoc, defenders would hate it because you’re dealing with 3 completely different players, Tounekti can just go by you, Balikwisha makes smart runs, Maeda is a speed merchant.

 

He's definitely not a RW..

Early days tho

 

I don't think you can afford to do that. Tounekti is already our most dangerous player and everything came through him yesterday. I think we need to focus on allowing him to thrive.

One thing that really frustrated me under Ange was how often Jota would play on the right to accommodate Maeda on the left. It should have been the other way around for me.

If Kelechi shows something can we go with Maeda on the right, Tounekti on the left and Kelechi through the middle. If that works then it takes pressure off Balikwisha and we can ease him in off the bench.

We have to be prioritsing a left footed right winger now for January. We have 3 and a half months to have it ready for 1st Jan.

 

Ofc i agree, i should have been more clear. I mean it would be a great oppurtunity against Partick if we are lets say 2-0 up to try it mid game and just switch them. Who knows. Tonekti might be as deadly on the right. Would be fantastic to fit both of them in.

 

Ange also got them to switch sides during matches for spells.

 

what do you make of Michel-Ange Balikwisha and his impact so far? He played left side first week and on the right last week. How will his progression go?

Yeah, to be fair, that's on me. The boy's a left-sided player. He's a really technically gifted player. He has great footballing qualities. His best side is on the left side. But he's played in other positions. He's played on the right-hand side previously in his career. He's played as a 10. He's played as an eight. So he's played across that front line.

I wanted to see him on that right side. But there's no doubt his best position is from the left. And even if Sebastian is to play there and he sits out a game or whatever else, we still need two really impactful wingers that can play. You know, we thought Daizen Maeda was going. So we needed to make sure we were covered.

Obviously, we're not able to get what we want on the right side. So I wanted to try him, and like I say, we're in this process of finding out for players because they're just in the door. But there's no doubt he's much more comfortable on the left side.

 

Maybe better as a 10.. if we played with one..

Rodgers mentioned he's played as an 8, wonder if we'll see him in some sort of central position.

 

For now Nygren should play on the right even though he's not ideal there either but he's more of a wide player than him.

Plus we need someone more like Balikwisha in midfield, who is pretty clever and play 1 touch passes and more of a link player. Nygren and Hatate I think hold the ball too long.