What! Defensively or offensively he still had very little impact on the game. I didn't stutter. Defensively, he almost cost his team what would have been a third goal(would have been 2 in the whole).
By the way, I've been a big fan of Khaleem since his days at Jabloteh. I thought he, Atullah, and Peltier would have been like the 3 amigos on some big team somewhere in Europe but it didn't work out for some reason or the other.
I know he prides himself on playing from box to box, but his offensive game was lacking and slightly on the woeful side in yesterday's game. I expected a lot more from him in terms of a better offensive performance because I know he is capable of it.
Defensive mids are not just defenders of the ball. They play offense as well. Players like Xabi Alonso of RM, Michael Essien of Chelsea, and YaYa Toure of Man City are some of your more modern day defensive mids, just to name a few, with vision and an offensive game. They will score on you if you fall asleep on them and Khaleem is no different in the sense that he has a wicked shot and he will score on you if you fall asleep on him.
Deese honestly I can't comment cuz I didn't see the game.
but I reading other reports and I reading your comment and drawing the conclusion from your comments that Hyland didn't have a good game because he was not a spark offensively. Making out the bad tackle he made doesn't change the tone of your post, which seems to suggest because he didn't go forward enough or he didn't take on he had a bad game.
It doesn't help that most outlets I've read state he had a tidy game where he spread the ball and covered good ground in the middle third (mostly defensively). Now interpreting this, I'm guessing Hyland played a deeper defensive role and his role was to link the play, not be a catalyst for offense.
Mind you while doing this, he had two shot attempts, one good enough to be mentioned in the UEFA match report.
So which one is it? He played badly as a midfielder in general or he played his role but you didn't like his impact on the game?
As I stated before, Khaleem prides himself on being a box to box midfielder and the coach had to have known this about this player going into the game.
First, Khaleem played as a box to box midfielder providing defensive support to break up attacking plays from the other team, at times. This was a problem because more often than not he would committ an infringement and the other team would reset a play in Genk's half. You could blame that on the referee if you want but I saw that as poor tackling on Khaleem's part. He was a little too enthusiastic and unbridled with his challenges. His indeciviseness was almost costly as well.
Second, he seemed at times, and this happened too often, to not want to take possession of the ball from the defense, neither did he distribute passes from deep in the midfield to control the game. Like an Essien or Ture would. His passing game, just like the rest of the team, was woeful. You could say all Genk's passes lacked timing and accuracy. Khaleem's passes were not dangerous passes. The team's performance on the pitch brought out the worse in their supporters at times.
Third, when he was supporting the attack, he lost possession of the ball a little too often, bringing the attack to a halt. It was impossible for him to make that defense splitting pass and that could be the reason why he did not anticipate passing opportunities for his team mates. He did not provide the support that Genk sorely needed in tidying up the central midfield as this was the plan of the other team to muddy that area of the pitch and it worked to perfection. Genk was overran in central midfield.
Lastly, yeah he had two shots on goal but they did not have any power on them. Khaleem has a wicked shot and can sting you with both feet.
In conclusion, I was looking for a more allround/complete game from Khaleem. The kind of game that Genk is looking for from him, a better passing game with better possession of the ball and better timing on his challenges in his attempts to win the ball back, a liitle more awareness of his and his team mates positions. The stamina to run all game long is there and so is his shooting ability, he just has to take full advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself which is what he didn't do against Haifa.
Genk is going to need it if they are to get out of this round and advance against the other teams in the competition.