Liverpool’s new No.6 among five Premier League redemption stories featuring Man Utd, Arsenal stars
We had entirely forgotten one of these guys was still playing for their club and expected at least of two of them to be soaking up the Saudi sun by now, but all of them have played key roles in the first two games of the Premier League season.
Here are five redemption stories.
Casemiro
Weāre certainly not convinced the āred flagsā have turned green and still very much doubt that Manchester United can challenge for the top four without a new midfield partner for Kobbie Mainoo, but its also true that from an extraordinary low in the middle of last season Casemiro has looked more like himself in the opening two games of this campaign.
The magnetism to his head from set pieces has returned in earnest and while the yard or two of pace remains absent heās clearly benefiting from a semblance of structure that means heās not embarrassed in transition.
No Manchester United player has completed more tackles than Casemiro (5), whoās also made the most key passes (3) and has the most shot-creating actions (7).
Thomas Partey
Linked with a move away from the club for well over a year amid allegations that make us more than a tad uncomfortable about including him in this list, so to be clear, this is only about the football. Throughout that speculation Mikel Arteta ā who made the Ghanaian one of his first signings as Gunners boss ā has maintained that the midfielder remains a key part of his plans.
Perhaps not as significant a part as heās been in the first two games of the season if and when they finally get the deal for Mikel Merino over the line, but Partey has shown at the start of this season that he still has plenty to offer an Arsenal team that will need significant depth if theyāre to pip Manchester City to the Premier League title and challenge on multiple fronts.
Only Bukayo Saka (7) has made more key passes for Arsenal than Partey (5), who also scored a fine goal against Aston Villa on top of his usual hustle and bustle in the heart of midfield.
Ryan Gravenberch
Quite possibly one of only two people in Liverpool jumping for joy when Martin Zubimendiās transfer collapsed, and Gravenberch is currently the man in possession of the No.6 slot in Arneās team over Wataru Endo.
āI think he brings in certain qualities which we like in that position,ā Slot said when asked about Gravenberch playing as the holding midfielder. āHe has running capacity, so he can keep on running, he has a nice height and he is really comfortable with the ball.ā
The Dutchman has already played as many full 90-minute games under Slot as he did under Klopp andĀ having been linked with a move away this summer after a frustrating debut campaign, heās now playing under a manager who looks set to give him a run in the team to prove his worth.
To Gravenberch and Slotās great credit his performances have been such that it now feels a bit odd that Klopp never saw him as a solution in that role.
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Adama Traore
Injured for a big chunk of last season and I think we can all be forgiven for entirely forgetting that he played for Fulham before he appeared in the starting lineup on the opening day against Manchester United.
That was just his second Premier League start for Fulham, technically a consecutive one after he scored and assisted on the final day of last season against Luton, at which point Marco Silva presumably thought: āHold on, heās bloody quick isnāt he? We can use that.ā
The issue has always been the end product but in his third Fulham start against Leicester on Saturday he played Emile Smith Rowe in for his first goal for the club and has been less head-down-and-run-like-mad in general. Even a 25 per cent rise in awareness could make him a huge asset for Fulham this season; the early signs are good.
Ibrahim Sangare
Itās fair to say the Nottingham Forest fans werenāt enamoured with their club-record signing after a debut season in which he started just 13 Premier League games, most of which featured him not appearing to do an awful lot.
Heās still got a ways to go in possession, but at least heās trying to be progressive and find Morgan Gibbs-White between the lines, and his physicality and ball-winning capability are both much improved this season, with plenty of instances of him being in the right place at the right time. He may well be a Ā£30m footballer after all.
