View From The Town End: George Evans

Many thanks to Tom Lines from Walsall podcast One Pod Beyond for his views on Evans..

So we know Evans is primarily a midfielder but what kind of player is he?

George is your classic box-to-box attacking central midfielder. He's not afraid to shoot from distance but also loves to arrive late in the box to get on the end of a cross. Good in the air, good engine and strong in the tackle he's an excellent all round player.

What would you say his biggest strengths are?

He's very gifted technically - excellent first touch and good range of passing and, as mentioned, his long range shooting and his ability to support the attack are very useful.

And likewise what about weaknesses?

Hard to pick out weaknesses but he was occasionally caught in possession for us - possibly a legacy of playing U21 football where midfielders have more time on the ball. He also has a very small head relative to the rest of his body, but this is largely a cosmetic weakness.

Do you think he's ready for The Championship?

Man City had offers for Evans from three or four Championship sides according to Walsall manager Sean O'Driscoll so clearly quite a few people more knowledgeable than me think he is. Mind you, Walsall are a very, very good footballing side so the problem might actually be that his new teammates aren't quite at the same level he's used to (no offence).

How good can he be?

He was touted by some at Man City as the heir to Yaya Touré which shows how highly they rated him. Sad, in a way, that like so may other English kids at Premier League clubs he's not considered good enough to make the final step up to the first team. He seems a genuinely nice kid too (after Man City pulled the plug on his loan deal on Saturday morning he sat with the Walsall fans at Gigg Lane during our game against Bury) so his attitude will never be a problem and I bet he'd love to prove Citeh wrong. He wasn't one of those loan players who is clearly head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch but he's only just 21 and has the time and the ability to develop into a very good player. He leaves with our best wishes and we'll be genuinely interested to see how he does for you (late attempts by Brentford to hijack the deal notwithstanding).

Thanks again to Tom and you can follow the chaps from One Pod Beyond on Twitter @OnePodBeyond