Sess. My view

[Jonaldiniho 88]

Sorry for being so blank with my OP. I am seriously impressed by this player. I think (after I start a post) that he is going to be world class. The whole reason I have posted this is that I believe we have got him wrong. If I were to compare him to three players, with his skill set I would write it as...... I'm about to write it. I have my own opinion of the lad, which is incredible. I will for the sake of asking a closed question direct it to what I believe but I hope people put me wrong or agree on mass. I won't be too offended if neither happens. I have probably had one too many. But here goes

Ashley cole; I don't feel that Ryan is close to being a great left back. I don't feel he will ever be a great left back. He offers so much more.

Gareth bale: bale is physically and technically a beast. He worked his way from left back to play wherever. He really has the attributes to play anywhere but seems to do ok upfront. Reminds me of ronaldo.

Saha: beast upfront. Made runs and finished when he shouldn't. Consistently did that. Quick, composed and lethal.

You may have guessed I think sess is our next Ashley cole. I think
Ashley should play upfront next season (not on his own, sole responsibility, but I think
He is the best striker who doesn't know he is a striker we have). But I obviously think he should be a left back.

[Jonaldiniho 88]

Sh*t post I'm sorry. I couldn't get my words out. Sorry. I won't try again as I will make it worse

[Andy S]

I see what you are saying but I believe we have to just wait and watch him develop and eventually watch another team get the benefit of his skills. Yes he is already an exciting player who can and will do a job for us. This time last year he was nowhere. What comes next we must wait and see

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

He will be a world class midfielder, buzzing about from position to position, predominantly left sided
Perfect for our current system

[therealjaybee]

No doubt he'll be a superstar one day BUT he needs to be managed well from here. He's definitely got talent and I can see him turning in to a Bale-esque kind of player.

To me personally, I don't see him as a left back. He's definitely more confident when attacking and it seems like he loses focus and position because he knows he should be defending. I really hope we bring in someone to fill that place at left back so he can start in Left Mid or on the Left Wing and just give opposition fullbacks hell for a full 90 minutes. If we do bring in a left back, I can see a huge amount of rotation throughout the season across both wings and I'd say he'll end up having another successful season.

He's not yet the finished product, far from it, but for a 17 year old playing in a VERY physical division, he's shown more than enough to prove that he'll be a superstar one day

[f bloke]

Tha stand out quality he has shown so far, other than his maturity, is his attacking instincts- most of his goals have been fairly easy tap ins and that is meant as a compliment. Malone also had good attacking instincts and I would definitely see him as a full back.

The general consensus appears to be that he has more potential as an attacking left sided midfielder with the Newcastle game given as an example of why. The thing is that game played to his strengths, away from home against an attacking team, he had the space to play.

In that position he stood out less at home against the park the bus sides. For me he has not yet shown consistently the close skills of Aluko, Ayite or  Kebano to be as effective as them in that position.  He is currently probably also behind peers like de la Torre when it comes to these close skills. As someone who saw Kenny  Achompong play, I appreciate that there is more to this position than close skills but I do think they are important if to be considered a star in this position

More than any other position, modern full backs have to be good athletes- he is a very good athlete. He occasionally got exposed as a full back last season but so do all full backs
particularly those that play in a side set up as offensively as we were last season- but for the most part he showed remarkable maturity in that position.

At present, if we include LVC, we have four players with real first team experience who can play wide midfield- we have no left back. Based on last seasons form, I would not start him ahead of those four. As such I would start him at full back and from time to time over the course of the season and during games play him further forward to see how he progresses.

I do think that expectations of him need to be reined in a bit. The kid is being ridiculously overhyped right now. He needs to be given a bit of time and space to develop