The Keen & Judah Show: Pablo Sarabia was a 'different person' against Aston Villa

Liam Keen and Nathan Judah discuss the good and the bad following the excellent 2-0 win over Aston Villa

Transcript

00:00So Kino, there were so many opportunities to discuss multiple players. We discussed one,

00:06two, three, four, five, six players. It's difficult, but let's go with the first one.

00:13We said Kunyu as well, but you said no to him, so that's fine.

00:15Don't do that. That's not funny.

00:19Pablo Sarabia is the one we'll go for first. Look, Sarabia was a huge surprise to me,

00:26probably less of a surprise to you, but I thought that we wouldn't see him for a while.

00:30Two, for me, disappointing performances away at Chelsea and then the home game when they came

00:36back as well, and I thought, oh, I've had enough of seeing Pablo Sarabia, but I tell you what,

00:43he was a different person. He was aggressive. He was smart. He used the ball well. He provided

00:49assists. He tracked back. He hustled. He pressed. He was a different Pablo Sarabia.

00:55As an Expressenstar colleague of ours reporting on Villa on the day, so you can figure out who

01:00that was, said to us during the game, Sarabia is like a man possessed. I mean, it was a totally

01:06different footballer from what we've seen. Now, what we have seen in his good games in the past,

01:10which unfortunately have been few and far between at times, albeit he does clearly have technical

01:15quality, is he can pick out a pass. He's great on the ball. He's got a good delivery, has an eye

01:21for goal on a couple of occasions, and we did see that. We saw that pass for Bellegarde for

01:27the opening goal was a beautiful threaded pass. It was a very intelligent run from Bellegarde as

01:31well, but it's a beautiful pass and a good finish. He created several other chances for Guedes,

01:36for Cunha. He could have had a hat trick of assists easily in that first half. He created

01:41chance after chance, but exactly what you just said there, not only was he good at what we know

01:47he can do, but he was good at what we didn't think he could do as well. He was great in the

01:52tackle. He was aggressive. He pressed really hard and really heavy and really high up the pitch,

01:58won the ball back on several occasions. He linked up so beautifully with Samedo down that side

02:04going forward. And they created loads of space and they hassled and hurried and pressed

02:10and harassed Villa down that side for the whole half. It was a really, really impressive

02:14performance from Sarabia. Now, obviously he's held off a little bit in that early part of the

02:19second half, but the team as a whole, we started to concede a few chances and we're having to sit

02:23a bit deeper, which doesn't really play into sort of his style. And then obviously he came

02:28off eventually, but he came off to a standing ovation and rightly so, richly deserved. I

02:32thought he was very good. It was up there with one of his best performances in the Wolfs shirt.

02:37Yeah. And like you say, I haven't seen that Sarabia at all, like not that performance in

02:42the way that he played those 70 or so minutes, I think, since Sarabia arrived at the club from PSG.

02:48So yeah, really interesting. And as we've said before, Keno, that right-hand-sided forward has

02:53been a major problem spot for Wolves going in the past. And you've got to think Sarabia's got this

02:58shirt at this moment in time. If someone plays well in that position, then it's theirs to lose.

03:01But we'll see what team he picks against Blackburn on Saturday. But you've got to expect going to

03:06Anfield a week on Sunday that Sarabia will probably be the one starting in that position again.