Melodramatic centre-half may struggle to regain his first-team berth...
Following on from the 1-1 draw at Norwich this Sunday, there seems to have been an outpouring of praise for our other Spanish centre-half - Jordi Amat. I won't have been alone in reserving judgement on the man acquired from Espanyol this summer, but this was mainly based on his level of physicality, and when you consider how young he is (especially for a centre-half), there really is reason to be hopeful we've got a player who can go on to great things during his time here.
This begs the question; should Chico automatically regain his spot? He missed the Norwich game as he was banned for accumulation of bookings, and at least one of those bookings was acquired after throwing himself to the ground like a rag doll, feigning injury. Pretty pathetic, and what's more despite Laudrup coming out in the press to say Chico needed to cut that sort of thing out he's still carried on making the meal of anything that comes anywhere near his face. Man up, mate.
As I didn't see the game at Norwich, I can't comment on Amat's performance but he does seem a very tidy player with all the attributes he needs to be a big success. He did seem to stand off Johan Elmander in the build up to Gary Hooper's goal, but you can't predict a striker will produce a finish of that calibre, and if he retained his place in the first-team I think it would send out a twofold message - one, that fringe players can expect to retain their place if they perform well and two, that needless bookings and a lack of professionalism won't be tolerated.
Personally, I've got absolutely nothing against Amat lining up instead of Chico against Everton this weekend. Whether Laudrup feels he's up to it we can't say though.
Would you prefer to see Chico reinstated against Everton or should Amat get the nod? Get involved in the comment section below!