The Keen & Judah Show: Can Emmanuel Adebayor find his form ahead of Wolves' clash with Manchester City?

Express & Star

Will Emmanuel Agbedou be ready for Manchester City? The Keen & Judah Show analyze Agbedou's pre-season form and discuss whether he can rediscover his best before the big match.  Agbedou, a colossal presence since January, hasn't matched his own high standards in pre-season. Lapses in concentration and missed passes are raising concerns. Can he turn things around against Celta Vigo and be fully prepared for the challenge of Manchester City?  Despite pre-season struggles, there's hope Agbedou will be ready for the Premier League. He's capable of those sharp, direct passes into Larson that can unlock defenses. Can he rediscover his focus, cut out the errors, and dominate in central defense once the season begins?  #WolvesFC #PremierLeague #Agbedou

Transcript

00:00Someone who we definitely will see from the start against Celta Vigo

00:02and starting against Manchester City,

00:05barring, of course, a touch with any injury,

00:07is Emmanuel Agbedou.

00:08Someone who was an absolute colossal snack last season

00:11from January, amazing transfer signing.

00:14Of course, Boston did not replace Max Killman.

00:17And look, they paid for it in that first half of the season, didn't they?

00:19They were crying out for a commanding centre-half in the centre,

00:22bossing things, and that's exactly what they got.

00:24And the standards that he set himself so high,

00:27we kind of just expected him to breeze past pre-season.

00:31Maybe that's the issue because he's definitely not been

00:33the Emmanuel Agbedou we know and love,

00:35not just in the games, but in training as well, Liam,

00:37and constantly giving the ball away.

00:39And I think you can forgive him one or maybe two games,

00:4135-minute here or 45-minute appearance.

00:44But this has become, I'm not going to say a worrying trait,

00:48but it's definitely not the Agbedou that I think fans will expect.

00:52Now, this could quite easily be just pre-season

00:56and he's not trying 100%,

00:58but there are definitely lapses of concentration,

01:01get my words out, concentration that I think,

01:04you know, Vito Pereira will be slightly disappointed with.

01:08I fully expect him to be ready to go against Manchester City,

01:11but I definitely think we need to see a tuned-in,

01:14turned-on Emmanuel Agbedou against Celta Vigo.

01:16Yeah, we do, and I hope we do see that.

01:19Let's boil this down to its most simple example, if you will.

01:23I think there was two, maybe three occasions in that game

01:26against Girona where Girona aren't pressing high,

01:30Wolves are passing it around the defenders,

01:33no pressure whatsoever on him.

01:35And it's just a key word to use there,

01:37concentration, a lack of,

01:39because the ball comes across to him,

01:41he goes to control it,

01:43and the ball slides out from underneath his foot

01:45and he completely misses the ball.

01:46He did it on two or three occasions.

01:47It was very obvious, very evident.

01:49Now, it didn't cause any issues at that time.

01:51There were players around there that mopped up

01:52and won the ball back and continued to keep possession.

01:55But if you do that in the Premier League,

01:56you're going to get caught out.

01:58Several times, they're trying to find that pass

02:00directly from Agbedou straight into Larson,

02:02bypassing the midfield,

02:04having Larson hold the ball up and ping it out wide.

02:06It's worked on occasion through pre-season, actually.

02:08Sometimes it's long passes,

02:09sometimes it's on the floor,

02:11or sometimes it's him taking goal kicks.

02:14And a lot of the time against Girona,

02:16they tried on the ball, on the floor,

02:19direct, sharp pass into Larson.

02:22And 95% of the time, Agbedou messed up the pass.

02:26A couple of times, Larson may be good and slightly better,

02:29but for the vast majority of it,

02:30he was finding Girona players,

02:32he was putting too much on it,

02:33too much weight on the ball.

02:34He just was not quite at it.

02:36And that's been the story of his pre-season.

02:38He's been fantastic since he signed for this football club.

02:40But his pre-season has been a little bit of a disaster

02:43by the standards he'd set himself,

02:45to be perfectly honest.

02:46I do think once the season comes around,

02:49he'll click into gear and be totally fine.

02:51And I hope that's the case.

02:53But so far in pre-season,

02:54he's been nowhere near the standards he's set,

02:57and he's just not been at it at all.

02:58So,

02:58I hope that's the case

03:13that he is a disaster has the current

03:18prohibition point.

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