Thomas on the move?

I haven't been impressed with his last few appearances, when he started the match against Blackburn I thought go on Thomas show us what you can do, he offered very little., the other night I thought he was a liability gave away stupid free kicks in dangerous places and misplaced passes. Gave us some more energy but it wasn't always positive. If we can bring in someone better and let him go then maybe better for both parties.

 

Derby had our pants down , before we paid way over the odds for him, he had been loaned to Coventry , it was obvious that Derby did not have him in their future plans , whilst he has always given the impression that he has potential, but after over 50 appearances & 1 goal this potential does not seem to be developing , a loan move might be beneficial for all concerned but I fear long term the championship might be a step too far for the lad , hope he proves me wrong & becomes a world beater but I fear we were sold a pup

 

i suspect he probably had his best game against us in the 2-2 draw at Oakwell.

I wish him and Schmidt well. They either need stratospheric gains in ability and outcome to stay, or we need to offload them as they are taking up room. Just a pity the latter action means crystallising considerable loss.

Thomas can carry the ball but nowhere near consistently enough and rarely commits players. Even the penalty he won was a result of cutting inside and going down a blind alley til he fell over.

I’d like him to improve, but I’m not seeing a better player than what we saw when he first joined.

 

It doesn"t matter what position Thomas has been asked to play, at some point during a game he will end up out wide & when he does he never delivers the cross or final ball , simply because he does not lift his head , his decision making in the final third continually lets him down & when it comes to tackling he is lightweight . I do believe he has genuine pace & potential but for a club like ours ,the size of the fee we paid was high & we need a return

 

It'll be his wings and karate chop action.

 

The thing for me with Thomas is that, he's never been played in the correct position. If you watch the highlights of him from his time at Coventry, he's getting up and down the wing, blocking crosses, putting balls into the box. He's clearly a wing back. Yet 3 managers now have persisted with him as either a wide striker, or a number 10.

I think the worst thing for him was scoring on his debut. There's this expectation around him because of it.

I think Val is playing him where he is, because we're lacking striking options.

 

Thomas is so young. He's got a lot of time to improve, and I'm sure he will. There's definite quality there, and we've seen glimpses of it. Boro away in the League Cup he was brilliant, for example.

He needs consistency, and to improve his decision making. I think a loan would help him.

He's got 2 1/2 years left - I think we should loan him out, get him some game time then take another look at him ahead of next season.

 

Sell him to a big League 1 club and cut our losses. Same applies to Miller, Bahre and Schmidt. Val is quite clever. He's only involving them in the matchday squad to add to their value.

 

Thomas and Schmidt will both improve a lot - they're so young still. They're also on long contracts. I think it'd be worth just loaning them out!

 

Regarding Schmidt I don't think it helped him not getting on the scoresheet against QPR.

 

And if the first part of your comment is right, it shows the limitations of the transfer process. We had windows close together where we signed a load of number 10s when playing 4.4.2 with wide players. Then a year or so later we signed a ton of wide players and then played a narrow diamond and now to a 3.4.3 with wing backs.

There does have to be some adaptability though when a chance presents and if Thomas' main traits are carrying the ball and driving forward, it's not too much to expect to ask him to do that to some degree of success in a front 3. I've felt his main areas to improve are decision making and a by product, to keep his confidence levels high.

I suspect as someone said, if he doesn't improve or the coaches don't feel he is adapting quickly enough, he will be shipped out on loan.

 

They probably will do, but we've shelled out a lot of money on those 2 signings and it's not unfair to expect some form of return from them.

Schmidt has now been passed by Adeboyejo and Miller. Thomas is being preferred to him as a front 3. And we've obviously Woodrow, Chaplin and Frieser. That makes him 7th choice forward. We seem to be wanting to bring in more forwards. We can't have 8 or 9 forwards at the club. Especially not one our size, thats just crazy. We're going to have to let some go, even if it's that they are 3-4 years away from being usable and of value. That's a lot of money in wages to pay in the hope they can tear the championship up some point in the future.

Edit remember we've also got Simoes, Aiden Marsh coming through and we've Aitchison out on loan. That's a huge amount of forwards around the first team pool.

 

He could start by making a decision when on the ball even if it's the wrong one. It would be progress.

 

He's played out of position for the bulk of his time here, I agree, but I don't think that's an excuse for some of the basics that he constantly gets wrong. The amount of times he gets near the box and picks the wrong pass, puts a shot into the stand, or just loses the ball is frustrating. I'm not convinced he's the obvious wing-back that some are pointing him out to be. He's got the energy, but I don't think he's got the strength, or the discipline to stay switched when defending. There's a reason our current, and previous manager haven't opted to play him there.

I'm not writing him off yet. A loan into League One, for the remainder of the season may do him the world of good. I didn't think we'd see Mowatt in a Barnsley shirt again when he was shipped out to Oxford.

 

Can't he play the selfless runner on the outside of the three and if he isn't comfortable coming inside, get to the bye line and cross or pass it to Woodrow?

 

A loan to a team in top 6 of League 1 would be perfect for him. Send him to LJ or Pompey etc. get him a run of games and get his confidence back.

 

LJ will send him down the corridor of confusion and judging by his indecision around the 18 yard box that might not be a good thing.