Adam Wharton

[JacknOry]

Some have said Cowans 2.0 as well. 

Not really sure about the Pirlo comparisons to be honest. Not seen the same range of passing for that to be the case. 

[arbitro]

9 hours ago, bluebruce said:

He's fucking ridiculous! Absolute class, all in one match too. That's better than a lot of players highlights reels.

(Yeh I know it's been posted above, it plays better on the mobile with youtube though)

He does things there that are uncoachable. Two examples are now he beats a man on the half-turn.

[G Somerset Rover]

The other sign of the best players is their ability to win the 50/50s. He went in a few times with blokes bigger than him on Wednesday and came away with the ball.

Genuinely excited to see him develop further over the course of the season.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Based on the two games I've seen him play, if we're not in the PL by the time he's 21, Rovers fan or not he'll be off. 

It's just the nature of the game these days. 

Like Wayne Rooney - a scouser and a life long Everton fan but money and fame were too hard to resist.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

He does things there that are uncoachable. Two examples are now he beats a man on the half-turn.

Do you remember Simon Barker ? He was great at that. He could always turn away from trouble instead of in to it.

[arbitro]

4 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Do you remember Simon Barker ? He was great at that. He could always turn away from trouble instead of in to it.

I do remember him. Sometimes you see young players and almost know they are set for bigger things. Barker was very driven and ambitious. Hopefully Adam will be the same and the sky is limit for him.

[Spartakfenni]

Simon should have played for one of the top teams. I know QPR were a mid table side, but he was so much better than that. I’m sure if he had been at Arsenal/Tottenham/etc he would have been in the England squads. Great player, Adam has the potential to be at least as good. I’ve watched him and Garrett for the last couple of years in the youth teams they both have a great future as long as agents don’t fuck them about.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

19 minutes ago, Spartakfenni said:

Simon should have played for one of the top teams. I know QPR were a mid table side, but he was so much better than that. I’m sure if he had been at Arsenal/Tottenham/etc he would have been in the England squads. Great player, Adam has the potential to be at least as good. I’ve watched him and Garrett for the last couple of years in the youth teams they both have a great future as long as agents don’t fuck them about.

He got 4 under 21 caps. I suspect his lack of real pace held him back. When I first heard Lowe was also an England under 21 player I was expecting to see a sort of Barker style player. Barker would have been better than Lowe playing in a blindfold.

[SBlue]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I do remember him. Sometimes you see young players and know they are set for bigger things. Barker was very driven and ambitious. Hopefully Adam will be the same and is limit for him.

Pickering interview on Rovers TV Harry was saying that Adam is "the best player in training, everyday, the most skilled etc" which is great to hear.

(As an aside can't recommend the Rovers TV subscription enough for the long form interviews, particularly with JDT, removes any editorialism or headline chasing)

[Colt Seavers]

3 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Do you remember Simon Barker ? He was great at that. He could always turn away from trouble instead of in to it.

I likened Wharton to Barker after his debut the other week. Very similar players. Wharton looks quicker than Simon, and lighter on his feet. Barker very often bossed midfield like all great players in that position.

Barker spent much of his last season at Rovers (the Archibald season) injured, hence a cut price £400k to QPR. He would have been better staying another season as we would have walked promotion (Palace season) with him playing instead of someone like Jon Millar.

If Wharton can score goals with the frequency of Barker (and I think he can) we will have some player on our hands.

[Norbert Rassragr]

Didn't see the game, o it was great to see that compilation. He looks very calm and unflustered by people closing in on him when he has the ball.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Colt Seavers said:

I likened Wharton to Barker after his debut the other week. Very similar players. Wharton looks quicker than Simon, and lighter on his feet. Barker very often bossed midfield like all great players in that position.

Barker spent much of his last season at Rovers (the Archibald season) injured, hence a cut price £400k to QPR. He would have been better staying another season as we would have walked promotion (Palace season) with him playing instead of someone like Jon Millar.

If Wharton can score goals with the frequency of Barker (and I think he can) we will have some player on our hands.

Wiki tells me Barker scored once every 5.2 games for us, which is a very good rate from central midfield. Being honest, I have to say that striking ability is the only thing in his game we didn't see any particular sign of against Blackpool. He had two shots from the edge of the area and both were blocked. I don't know if the first was on target, it's hard to tell from the video and from where I was in the ground. The second seemed on target to me at the time but the keeper had it covered.

In all his appearances, almost all of which were at youth level, he has 2 goals in 45 games. 4 of those games were senior appearances so he has a 1 in 10.25 average at youth level. Senior level is obviously harder, so it will take a lot of development to get to a 1 in 5 average you would think. Hopefully that comes.

[bluebruce]

1 minute ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

Didn't see the game, o it was great to see that compilation. He looks very calm and unflustered by people closing in on him when he has the ball.

I agree. His technique is very good but what impresses me the most about him is how composed he is and his speed of thought. He reads the game brilliantly, like very few 18 year olds can, decides almost immediately what to do and does it without any hesitation at all. So far, those decisions are spot on too. The other thing that impresses me is his ball-winning, a surprising bonus but perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise given who his brother is.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

30 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I agree. His technique is very good but what impresses me the most about him is how composed he is and his speed of thought. He reads the game brilliantly, like very few 18 year olds can, decides almost immediately what to do and does it without any hesitation at all. So far, those decisions are spot on too. The other thing that impresses me is his ball-winning, a surprising bonus but perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise given who his brother is.

He knows where the ball is going next before he even receives it. Not many players have that ability in this league as teenagers.

He looks a very confident player. When he carried that ball to the edge of their box he had a simple left foot pass out to a player running on the right hand side. He had the confidence to use his weaker right foot to slip a very nice pass out to the left.

Barker was a good penalty taker also.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Colt Seavers said:

I likened Wharton to Barker after his debut the other week. Very similar players. Wharton looks quicker than Simon, and lighter on his feet. Barker very often bossed midfield like all great players in that position.

Barker spent much of his last season at Rovers (the Archibald season) injured, hence a cut price £400k to QPR. He would have been better staying another season as we would have walked promotion (Palace season) with him playing instead of someone like Jon Millar.

If Wharton can score goals with the frequency of Barker (and I think he can) we will have some player on our hands.

Simon played a bit further forward for us. He had less of a defensive role.

[RoverDom]

17 hours ago, bluebruce said:

He's fucking ridiculous! Absolute class, all in one match too. That's better than a lot of players highlights reels.

(Yeh I know it's been posted above, it plays better on the mobile with youtube though)

His slide tackle on Bowler around 1:18 is just majestic. 

[bluebruce]

18 minutes ago, RoverDom said:

His slide tackle on Bowler around 1:18 is just majestic. 

The followup wasn't half bad either. Tenacity and desire, I like it. Hope he keeps that hunger and wasn't just buoyed by his debut in a local derby.

[roverandout]

He has the technique of a Spanish player and the heart of an English one.  Ok I stole that off wenger regarding wilshire

[only2garners]

6 minutes ago, roverandout said:

He has the technique of a Spanish player and the heart of an English one.  Ok I stole that off wenger regarding wilshire

I sincerely hope that he ends up with a better career than Wilshire.

I think there is a bit of a danger that we all get a bit carried away with Adam's potential. He's only played 1.5 games for the first team at Championship level. He's only 18 so will need a little careful management, he probably won't play every game and we need to accept that. His performance on Wednesday in front of the cameras means that every scout and video analyst in the division will know all about him already - Nigel Pearson will already be planning which attack dog to rough him up tomorrow.

I really hope that he fulfils his obvious potential with Rovers but there's a way to go yet.

[rigger]

21 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

The followup wasn't half bad either. Tenacity and desire, I like it. Hope he keeps that hunger and wasn't just buoyed by his debut in a local derby.

He has played like he did against Blackpool, at every level I have seen him play. Soon everyone will see that what he showed on Wednesday is just his normal game.

[bluebruce]

28 minutes ago, rigger said:

He has played like he did against Blackpool, at every level I have seen him play. Soon everyone will see that what he showed on Wednesday is just his normal game.

Is that in terms of the tenacity and desire to win the ball as well? JDT seemed to imply in a previous interview that he wasn't doing too much of that and he has been encouraging him to (and that he had taken to it really well). Maybe it's just that Wharton had been trying to show off his class rather than his graft to the new boss.

If he plays that well every game I don't think he would even need to improve to be top drawer at this level. We all know every game isn't going to go that swimmingly though, there will be teams who control the game too much for him to have an impact and there will be midfielders who will kick him around to try take him out the game. Good luck to those ones though if big bro is playing, as they'll then get twatted when they go near the defence!

[rigger]

14 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Is that in terms of the tenacity and desire to win the ball as well? JDT seemed to imply in a previous interview that he wasn't doing too much of that and he has been encouraging him to (and that he had taken to it really well). Maybe it's just that Wharton had been trying to show off his class rather than his graft to the new boss.

If he plays that well every game I don't think he would even need to improve to be top drawer at this level. We all know every game isn't going to go that swimmingly though, there will be teams who control the game too much for him to have an impact and there will be midfielders who will kick him around to try take him out the game. Good luck to those ones though if big bro is playing, as they'll then get twatted when they go near the defence!

Especially his tenacity and desire. But above all else, his vision and awareness of what is going on around him. His only drawback is a lack of goals, this may improve in the future, but I would not class that as a major drawback for a central midfielder. The other parts of his game more than make up for that. 

[Herbie6590]

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/he-ain't-heavy...he's-my-teammate/288

[Oldgregg86]

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I agree. His technique is very good but what impresses me the most about him is how composed he is and his speed of thought. He reads the game brilliantly, like very few 18 year olds can, decides almost immediately what to do and does it without any hesitation at all. So far, those decisions are spot on too. The other thing that impresses me is his ball-winning, a surprising bonus but perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise given who his brother is.

His balance and the way he uses his body also stood out for me. 
genuine talent

[LDRover]

His mentality was the one thing that shone through for me. It'd have been easy for him to play easy and pass responsibility on in order to not make mistakes. He didn't do that, he demanded the ball in tight areas and played the high tariff pass as if he wanted to show what he could do rather than just be a passenger. 

There will be bumps in the road but it's difficult to not be excited in his development here.