Muniz

[MickyAdamsFamily]

After reading many posts, here and elsewhere, slating him, I thought he did pretty well in Mitro's absence today. He's clearly a work in progress, but at 20 years old, he has all the tools to be a quality striker. I'm not sure who will get credit for the 2nd goal, but if it's given to Rodrigo for his slight touch (which might've been enough to shift the ball's trajectory so it bounced into the goal off the post), then his return is like a goal every 55 min. He also looks to be a handful for defenders; his turn for the incredibly well-taken first goal today beat 2 defenders, and the way he turned and shrugged off the defender for the run and shot vs Bristol (that led to Mitro tapping in the rebound) showed a lot of strength and skill, not to mention how well he fights to win headers with a great deal of success, including the one today that slammed off the crossbar and caromed out to Bobby for his fantastic winning strike.
More importantly, he seems to be a team player who is popular with the squad. Watch the interview with him and Fabio on the Offal, they look like best mates, and the way he ran to congratulate and celebrate with Bobby after his goal today, instead of being upset at his near-miss, showed him to be fully invested in the team's success.

[H4usuallysitting]

I've always rated him, his attitude and his willingness to learn... we're better with him

[cmg]

Very capable filling of some very large shoes.
Super goal, looked dangerous and played smartly. Most encouraging from a young man coming to grips with a totaly new environent.

Showed a fine grasp of the essentials of the English language in the interview. Fabio needed to translate everything...Except when the interviewer asked the pair which of them claimed the second goal. Rodrigo's instant response, "I".

[Thames Bank 1]

Good post, Munoz will only get better under Silva / Boa

[Jim©]

Think he's a star in the making. Won't get a better back up and he seems genuinely happy to be just that.

[MickyAdamsFamily]

I think he's landed in a very good situation. He's working with a Portuguese speaking manager and assistants to nurture his growth and make his start in a new league, country, and language a bit easier, plus he can learn the Striker's art by being the understudy of a superb example in Mitro, who also will relieve him of the burden of expectations where he might have a club entirely relying on his goal output from day 1.

[wback]

One thing I was really into today was when he absolutely smash-barged Jagielka to the ground, forcing him to give away a corner. Putting a tough former PL defender on his backside is nice to see. (I do think he's going to get sent off once or twice with reckless tackles, but he'll rein that in after it happens.)

Other than that - good enough pace and strength, finishing seems good and he seems to really want it (got through significant manhandling to hit the bar from the corner today, or look back to his first goal against Blackburn earlier in the season where he gets a toe ahead of the defender, despite being 2nd favourite).

Main area where he's got work to do is teamplay. Perhaps because he's enthusiastic and chasing about so much, but he never quite seems in place for the ball being played up to him, then the touch, then the layoff. He needs to be taught where to be so the team can find him and he can help us get up the pitch.

[MickyAdamsFamily]

Yeah, Muniz link-up play needs some work. That's an area where Mitro has come to excel, particularly this season. Hopefully Muniz can learn by observing & working with Mitro and the coaching staff how to further hone that aspect of his game.