Harry Wilson – Hull City
While the main Liverpool squad had a weekend off in Spain, there was plenty of action to come from the players on loan. Harry Wilson kicked off the weekend’s proceedings on Friday night when his Hull side visited Chelsea in the FA Cup. Wilson was evidently the most promising Hull player on the pitch and it was clear that the Tigers didn’t exploit his attacking potential enough. He looked bright on the ball and threatened to make something happen every time he was in possession. Chelsea dominated and went in at half time 4-0 up and the tie was done and dusted. Wilson persevered and won a penalty early in the second half after a trick piece of footwork. Sadly, he injured his shoulder when he fell to the ground and was forced off the pitch just a few minutes later. To make matters worse, the resulting penalty was missed, and Chelsea saw out the rest of the match, which finished 4-0. Thankfully, Nigel Adkins confirmed that there was no dislocation, but Wilson was still in some discomfort. Everyone is hopeful that he’ll be fit to start again this weekend.
Taiwo Awoniyi – Royal Excel Mouscron
It appears as though Taiwo Awoniyi is threating to put together a little run of form, potentially for the first time in his Mouscron career. The Nigerian forward contributed an assist to his side’s 2-2 draw with Waasland-Beveren. He displayed his pace when he picked up the ball just inside in the opposition’s half, before making a powerful run at the defence and laying it off for Dorin Rotariu to expertly curl home. If Awoniyi can add a couple more goals and assists to his name before the end of the season, he’ll definitely be able to call his stay in Belgium a success.
Marko Grujic – Cardiff City
Marko Grujic continues to draw in praise for the early stages of his spell with Cardiff. The defensive midfielder played another two matches this week for the Bluebirds and was in fine form. Grujic has been doing an excellent job of protecting the back four but is also very capable of flipping play and turning defence into attack in the blink of an eye. Cardiff held onto second spot in the Championship with a 2-0 win over Bolton and a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough.
Ryan Kent – Bristol City
Although Bristol City will be annoyed that they threw away a 2-0 lead, Ryan Kent will take some comfort in the fact he was probably their best player in the 2-2 draw with Leeds United. Kent was full of pace and skill on the left wing with his seven successful dribbles was easily more than anyone else on the pitch. His corners provide a constant aerial threat as well, with most of them crying out for someone to get the decisive touch. Kent also produced one venomous shot that required a decent save. Bristol will look back at the past two weeks, where they’ve thrown away a 3-0 and a 2-0 lead in successive weeks, and seriously try to improve on securing all three points.
Corey Whelan – Yeovil Town
Corey Whelan enjoyed another 180 minutes of football over this past week, but both matches produced contrasting results. First up was a 2-0 win over Barnet in midweek, in which Whelan and his defensive partners battled seriously hard to secure the clean sheet. Whelan is also becoming a dangerous threat on the edge of the box from corners. The Irishman had two strikes, once which only just cleared the crossbar and another that had to be blocked on the line. Although that’s not why they signed him, Yeovil will be thankful for the added contributions he can make. On Saturday, Yeovil travelled to Stevenage where they lost 4-1 and all of the players will be disappointed with their afternoon’s work.
Divock Origi – Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg welcomed Bayern Munich at the weekend, always a daunting fixture in the Bundesliga. Nevertheless, they put in a gutsy performance, losing just 2-1. Divock Origi can be pleased with his efforts as a lone striker as he battled hard for the ball, winning possession on a few occasions and making three testing dribbles. However, he’ll perhaps be left wondering if he could’ve done more as he failed to produce a single shot on goal.
Pedro Chirivella – Willem II
Pedro Chirivella, by his usual high standards, had a poor match for Willem II. Playing in his key central midfield role, the Spaniard was uncharacteristically wayward with his passing, completing just 66% of his pass attempts. Willem II lost 2-1 to ADO Den Haag and Chirivella also picked up a yellow card, his eighth of the Eredivisie campaign.
Allan Rodrigues – Apollon Limassol
Allan Rodrigues has been mainly used as a rotation option during his time in Cyprus, and that trend continued once again this week. The Brazilian was deployed in a midweek cup tie but was helpless to side suffering a cup upset. They lost 1-0 to Division 2 side in the first of two legs. Allan’s services were not required for the league match at the weekend.
Anderson Arroyo – Real Mallorca B
The new signing made his full debut for Real Mallorca’s “B” side in a 1-1 draw.
Matty Virtue (Notts County) played for just 17 minutes, coming on as a late sub in a 0-0 draw with Newport County. Daniel Sturridge (West Brom), Ovie Ejaria (Sunderland) and Sheyi Ojo (Fulham) were all out of action through injuries, whereas Lazar Markovic (Anderlecht) is still not deemed to be fit enough to feature in competitive matches. Jon Flanagan (Bolton) and Andy Firth (Chester) were also not given any game time and are still waiting to make their debuts for their respective clubs. Connor Randall (Hearts) was the final player to spend his week on a substitutes bench.
