Pope, I'd agree with you regarding Cash, he's been class. However, I'd like to turn around your argument about Worrall, and focus it on Brereton. What have you seen in him that makes you think he can be top quality, or a better prospect than Worrall?
As others have pointed out, Worrall came into one of the worst defences we have ever had. He showed maturity, work ethic, and a fantastic attitude when he was dropped. Despite his inexperience he dug out other players when they weren't performing. I would say, when playing, he was our best CB.
Brereton on the other hand was largely awful all season. The Arsenal game aside, he hasn't shown me anything that would suggest he will be a competent Championship striker, let alone PL. His attitude was questionable first half of the season when being played out of his preferred position, work ethic questionable at times and goal scoring record terrible. Take away the two penalties and he scored what, 3 goals? Has to be among the worse records for a striker in the Championship last season. I'm struggling to find anything he did positive last season.
Worrall on the other hand, put in some solid defensive performances, in a dire defence.
That's a really good question hardy. Given the stick I have taken for my very mild comments about Worrall, I'm looking forward to seeing how much personal criticism you get for your much stronger comments about Brereton. I'm guessing zero.
A few people have lauded Worrall's Arsenal performance as the key example that makes him a potential star. But Worrall wasn't the stand out performer that day- Brereton was. He absolutely destroyed Arsenal's defence, which consisted of an experience world cup winner and a future England prospect.
For me, Brereton has lots of attributes. He has instinct, he has the ability to score fantastic goals from distance, he is capable of beating defenders and shows awareness of his team mates. In attacking midfield he was starting to torture opposition defenders.
For me what he is capable of is epitomised by his goal against Villa when he first broke through. It was a superb, instinctive finish that looked far more experienced than his age.
For me he has really suffered under pressure. Unlike Worrall, who has three defenders alongside him and a goalkeeper, Brereton has shouldered the full burden of winning us games for far too long. He has admirably learned skills in holding up the ball, and considering the 'efforts' Murphy went to in the same role at the end of the season I think he did well.
But that pressure really affected his finishing and that finishing is the main part of his game to develop.
We can quote stats about end product if we like. I can quote some pretty grim defensive stats at you, which you can then say was not Worrall's fault because defensive responsibility is shared with more experienced players.
Ok, so where were the experienced attacking players helping Brereton? Murphy hasn't scored since November. That goalscoring loan striker role wasn't a shared responsibility that we can farm off the failures to someone older. It was Brereton's job alone and he is only, what? 18?
And the reality is he got into great positions to score. If Brereton had had better finishing last season how many would be have got? I think 12-15 with better but not perfect finishing. An 18 year old doesn't get into that many good scoring positions unless he's got something.
Finishing is something he can learn and practice. He has years to get that right. I think he is an extremely exciting prospect and if we corrected one aspect of his game he would be seen as a real teenage superstar who wouldnt be with us for very long
