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r/avfc•
SteDa

Clement(Manager of Club Brugge) about Wesley

Yesterday he was on a Belgian football talkshow Extra time. The guests get to pick their moment/highlight of the week. and he picked Wesley's performance against Norwich.

He talked about the progress he made as a player. Because Clement was the assistant coach at Club Brugge when Wesley arrived as an 18 year old(Already physically impressive). He told that Wesley was played behind the striker, more as a 10 at his previous club(Trencin). He also mentioned a story where 2 Brazilian teammates and closest buddies (Gedoz and Claudemir) were dying of laughter during a finishing exercise with how poor Wesley was. Who was almost in tears, because it was finishing from crosses and apparently he missed almost half of the balls crossed. But he kept working hard on those things under the previous manager Leko.

As a Brugge fan myself, I didn't know these facts. It makes his progress more impressive to me, knowing where had to come from as a striker/finisher. So I hope, he has still a lot of room to improve as a finisher. Clement really looked impressed that he is already performing like that in the BPL compared to where he was 3-4 years ago. Clement became a headcoach elsewhere for 2 seasons, so he didn't get to work with him for long)

I thought u guys might like this, so I decided to share.

Posted Oct 8, 2019, 1:31 PM UTC

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upthevilla_•

Good info, thanks.

I had my doubts at first (I panicked early). It just felt like a series of a few things would have to go perfectly for him to get goals. Like he didn’t have that poacher/nose for goal mentality.

Then he got the monkey off his back vs Everton.

Then Saturday the first was played well by him. Finished it calmly. Then the second he attacked the goal, bang.

And now I can see how/where he’s going to get his goals, and it’s a huge relief.

I wish he’d show us a Benteke like aerial threat, but it’s still early days!

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hopelessromantic7Grealish•

A Wesley hat trick would have had me in dreamland

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SteDaOPBrugge•

I think a lot of people panicked because of the lack of alternatives for him and already had a worst case scenario in mind. He looked kinda useless while being on an island the first few games. Which I can understand.

But he just needs time, going from a weaker league playing on a dominant team going to the BPL and playing for a team that isn't playing dominant football while adjusting to a new country.

He isn't the best header, but I'm sure he will improve.

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upthevilla_•

I agree. I don’t think we really knew how to use him at first. He’s getting much more service now. And he’s also starting to understand how the team flows. I love his want to go back and defend. All good signs for us and he himself.

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cirogol87•

To be honest, I don't really remember him being a big aerial threat. Sure, he's scored some headers, but not that many. But no doubt he's working on that as well. He's got the mentality for it, always wants to get better.

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upthevilla_•

You’re right, I probably shouldn’t have generalized in goals. Just his ability to win every goal kick vs a defender. Stuff like that. To be fair, Wesley is doing a great job of that so far as well.

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AThiefsEnd4•

I've said a couple times on the sub that Wesley often seems like he doesn't know if he should hold up or get behind. This insight kind of reinforces that, maybe his old number 10 instincts are telling him to stay deep but he's been taught to be more of a 9 and that's giving him pause. He turned up some of that number 9 instinct against Everton and again against Norwich, and I think he's capable of it. It's interesting to see him develop, and I am beginning to get on side

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allthesoundsJohn McGinn and the Giant Peach of a Volley•

Thanks for sharing this. I really like Wesley and think Smith has done the right thing sticking by him rather than dropping him. He seems a strong character too and has a lot of self belief in interviews. His play acting is annoying but hopefully he will cut it out.

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jordan_prentice•

Wesley was mentioned because he came to say hello at our match on Sunday. You might be interested in the video the club tweeted: https://twitter.com/ClubBrugge/status/1181222900986085377?s=19

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neverendum•

What did the say about Real Madrid, couldn't understand that?

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jordan_prentice•

We played at Bernabeu last week and got a nice draw. He said that of course he would have liked it to play against Madrid his dream was to play in the PL.

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Griss27•

I still doubt he has the potential to be an elite striker. And in a way this backs that up because frankly, elite strikers don't have their teammates in stitches laughing at their finishing ability - it comes more natural to them, even from an early age.

But if he was an elite striker we'd never have had a sniff of him, so I suppose that's obvious. What he can be is a very good, hard working player who bags 12-15 goals a season, and if we're lucky and he develops well maybe more. That's exactly what we need especially this year and the next, and for 22-odd million he could be a bargain. He's that rare transfer these days that really feels appropriately priced.

Needs to work on his heading and his attitude when he hasn't been in the game much. Do those things, and he'll be improving nicely.

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