A bizarre omission from the side this season has been one of our most talented youngsters to come through the youth ranks in well over a decade. Ronaldo Vieira bossed it last season but hasn’t barely had a sniff of first-team football under Thomas Christiansen, the Spanish head-coach today made it clear his time will come.
Vieira is one of the most talented youngsters in the country, his now consistent England Under 20’s call-ups are proof of that. It’s about time that Thomas Christiansen tapped into this raw talent and realised that games like Millwall, Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday are the games where players like Ronaldo Vieira will take the fight to the opponents rather than letting us be rolled over. We needed him most at Sheffield Wednesday, the deeper midfield role wasn’t containing the likes of Gary Hooper who was dropping at the two central midfielders had the freedom of Hillsborough against Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips who, to be quite honest didn’t turn up.
It is a very rare occasion when Ronaldo Vieira comes off the park and hasn’t turned up, I have seen it a few times but very, very seldom and even if he doesn’t have the best game the opponent will know he has been in a game when he leaves the pitch, home or away at any ground. The Sheffield Wednesday players probably felt like they had been playing against a team from the league below they had that much room and as for a Yorkshire Derby it certainly wasn’t how we expected the players to stand up and fight.
Christiansen has pointed out that Vieira has been injured recently or “struggling” with an issue but he has been on the bench so I’m unsure what the situation is with the player. There is no reason as to why he shouldn’t be getting a chance with the performances of some of the players in the last four games and hopefully his tweet that said he was working in silence was a hint that he may feel his luck may turn and a chance will come his way. If that chance does come I can’t see him looking back and it will be a case of Christiansen looking to rotate the players he has.
