Allan Saint-Maximin

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Allan Irenee Saint-Maximin



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Current Club: Newcastle United.

Previous Clubs: OGC Nice, AS Monaco, Saint-Etienne.

Loan Clubs: SC Bastia, Hannover 96.





International: N/A.

Trophies Won: N/A.





Possibly the most exciting flair player in the current game, with his constant flashy tricks and flicks that get you off your seat to applaud him. They may not always come off, but he tries things very few other players would even think about trying in practice, let alone on a match day.



Saint-Maximin is fully capable of performing a piece of match-winning brilliance with his quality running at players and going past them at pace. However, for all his brilliance at times, he suffers badly from the curse that most flair players struggle with - inconsistency.



Added to that, he is injury prone, with hamstrings that could fail him at any moment and rule him out for a lengthy period. Also Saint-Maximin does tend to play with his head down, which can lead to him failing to spot an easy pass which could create a chance.



That last problem is certainly lessened by the way Steve Bruce uses him at the Toon, as he rarely has anyone supporting him within 20 yards. The current tactic is just to give him the ball and let him try to work some magic while everyone else sits back and crosses their fingers.



While that can sometimes pay off, with a mazy run and goal, far too often he just ends up being crowded out and achieving nothing. Whether he could achieve more as part of a more attacking team or not is a difficult one to figure out.



His hamstrings would probably stop him playing a role that requires a press, it is doubtful that Saint-Maximin is physically capable of the work rate required without picking up an injury. Also, the head down nature of his play would probably just leave his teammates frustrated.



It seems likely that he is best suited to his current role of being the centrepiece of everything and the only thing that should change is for the rest of his team to offer more support. If they were ten yards further up the pitch, they could draw away some of the defenders and allow him more space to work in.



Right now though, for all his skills there is just not enough end product or consistency to see him playing at a higher level. If he can get over his hamstring problems, then that will help him, but right now he is in danger of becoming one of those players that stars for a struggling team but just does not do enough to get a move to a better side or to lift the strugglers up.



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Requested by - Longthing76 & Blue_Soldier