Felipe Anderson may have told the official club website that his debut campaign in Claret and Blue will go down as one of the better seasons of his career, but the Brazilian’s comments ought to be viewed with strict caution.
Sure, he has been one of the standout stars of our season overall, having fired home nine goals in the Premier League, but he has also drifted from the limelight in 2019, and went 13 top-flight games without finding the net on the back of a brace at Southampton.
Before scoring the equaliser in our defeat at Old Trafford, Anderson also only managed to assist two goals, and never managed to take more than two shots in a game during his drought – often struggling to achieve more than one.
He returned to this version of himself in our draw with Leicester last time out, too, as he only managed a single effort on Kasper Schmeichel’s goal, and misplaced 31% of his 58 passes – only Lukasz Fabianski and Demarai Gray misplaced a greater per cent.
If he has desires to cement a role for himself in the Brazil team at the upcoming Copa America, like he says he does, then we need to see the Anderson from before Christmas come to the show in our final three games, and again next season, without suffering what was a shoddy three months.
“It would be great to play [in] the Copa America, the Brazilian shirt is special for every player that wears it and I want to keep on doing it for a long time,” Anderson said.
“I had very good seasons in Lazio, but this is a very difficult league and the team had a difficult situation because it had a lot of new players, so that has made it one of my best seasons in Europe.
“Arriving to a completely new team and beating some very good rivals, playing very well as we did, and get a series of victories and continuing to work was something very good.
“I always say that whenever a team is doing well, the players look better and with me it wasn’t any different. I have helped my team to get some wins and I’m happy to have adapted quickly to English football – a football with a lot of quality.
“But I always say that the most important thing is that we are playing well and winning, unfortunately on Saturday we couldn’t win, but I hope we can finish the season strongly and in the best possible way.”
