Paisano!!! Mi gente good to see a fellow Venezuelanvrabbit wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:15 pmso as I mentioned in the introduce yourself thread, I come bearing 3 years of following Rondon at WBA. I followed his career a bit before that but definitely not as closely. I'm very excited about what this could turn into.
Fair warning that my positive outlook is heavily driven by two things: I'm a bit biased towards him because I'm Venezuelan (although I try to be as objective as possible) and because Rondon comes from one of the worse attacking sides I've ever seen in my life. For most of Pulis' tenure at WBA the main source of their goals was their set-pieces, and he didn't even get a full season without Pulis to get to play in an actual different setup (same roster) that might give him more chances. Even with that, and coming off a tough season in '16-17 that saw him score only once after the hat-trick vs Swansea, Rondon's numbers looked much better once Pulis was sacked (8 of his 10 goals and 3 of his 4 assists came post-Pulis). During his time under Pulis and even after it, West Brom were rarely able to create much in open play due to many reasons, most notably Pulis' philosophy of sitting deep back in their own field and not even worrying about possession, but also a criminal lack of creativity in the midfield. (I also need to mention that Rondon was often receiving the ball near midfield and being asked to win/hold the ball against multiple defenders until his teammates arrived - he got better at this as his time there went on.)
So Rondon joining Newcastle, and I understand some of you all have a lot of reservations about the roster and the improvements it needs, it's actually a massive improvement for my boy. Shelvey alone is a SIGNIFICANT improvement in the midfield and even if there are questions regarding Perez and where he fits best and whether he's a #10/CAM or something else ... He's infinite times a better partner than Rondon has ever had in the PL.
This is said a lot and sometimes dismissed as lazy analysis but it's actually somewhat accurate: if Rondon could score 10 goals in two different seasons with West Brom, he should definitely provide more goals for a squad that actually has a clear(er) idea as to how to go about scoring. I think he can reach double digits in the league alone. He isn't an injury liability and the effort is always there.
Really looking forward to this season!
I must say good analysis on Rondon too my countrymen!
Yeah that's what I'm thinking too you can't compare West Brom's team to ours as they were devoid of creativity and positive football under Pulis it was all defensive long ball route one style and Rondon is a good all-rounder he has a little bit of everything just needs to be more clinical like in his Zenit and Malaga days were he used to score 1 in 2/3 goals that would be a good return if he can get some assists and 10+ goals it would be a success. Shevely, Kenedy and Ritchie around him should provide the crosses, passes and ammunition he'll ne