#22 | Benjamin Mendy - 2020/21 Performances

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Has Mendy gotten faster? I saw him outrun a striker and Laporte to a ball, and he looked ( almost) Walker fast...


I was shocked too.
 
Did okay, but nothing out of the ordinary, and made little attempt to cut out the cross in the 1st half that the lad headed just over, could have got much tighter to the wing back, it was a bit half hearted defending for me.
 
He needs a long run of games against top opposition. Then we will know if he has any future at premier league level and prove his fitness.
Unfortunately all our games are important till the end of the season and we need to play our best players and he is behind several for the left back position.
I cannot see him featuring much so I think the club will have to let him go, maybe on loan until his contract runs out
 
For his first game for a while not bad.

I did find it funny how often he was basically like a striker attacking the box, you can tell he wasn't told to just play a wide role like he has in the past. He has to learn the midfield role as well, and you know, he's not so bad.

If he could continue this there is definitely a good player there to keep, the problem is I'm always thinking about when he will get his next injury.
 
WallyA said:
For his first game for a while not bad.

I did find it funny how often he was basically like a striker attacking the box, you can tell he wasn't told to just play a wide role like he has in the past. He has to learn the midfield role as well, and you know, he's not so bad.

If he could continue this there is definitely a good player there to keep, the problem is I'm always thinking about when he will get his next injury.
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The thing with Mendy is that I believe his upside is so high. He's very intelligent in terms of movement, pressing, positioning, and picking out passes/crosses. His left foot is great. He's very athletic. He's a far better defender than he gets credit for. I honestly think that a fully fit Mendy with a few games under his belt could be as effective as Cancelo currently is albeit in his own way. Because of all of this, I'm willing to give him as long as the club gives him before writing him off.

But he's in an eternal cycle. Comes back, looks ok. Clearly not up to speed. Normally spends a small number of games focusing on defending. Then he starts to look good all of a sudden, like the old Mendy. Then he has a bad game and gets injured and that's the last we see of him for at least 2 months.

It's hard to ever be too optimistic with the guy. He could have an excellent month for us and then he falls over trying to head it back to the keeper, costing us the game and then he pulls his hamstring in the process of it all and that's it until next season.



But maybe it's finally time to have hope again. Until the next time we're having this conversation at least.
 
WallyA said:
For his first game for a while not bad.

I did find it funny how often he was basically like a striker attacking the box, you can tell he wasn't told to just play a wide role like he has in the past. He has to learn the midfield role as well, and you know, he's not so bad.

If he could continue this there is definitely a good player there to keep, the problem is I'm always thinking about when he will get his next injury.
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Much better than the Cheltenham game.
 
His Sat Nav certainly went for a Burton last night; thought he must have backed himself to score he was that far up the park. Nice touch to give Connor Roberts a good kick as well after Sterling went off, teamwork.
 
mccity said:
The thing with Mendy is that I believe his upside is so high. He's very intelligent in terms of movement, pressing, positioning, and picking out passes/crosses. His left foot is great. He's very athletic. He's a far better defender than he gets credit for. I honestly think that a fully fit Mendy with a few games under his belt could be as effective as Cancelo currently is albeit in his own way. Because of all of this, I'm willing to give him as long as the club gives him before writing him off.

But he's in an eternal cycle. Comes back, looks ok. Clearly not up to speed. Normally spends a small number of games focusing on defending. Then he starts to look good all of a sudden, like the old Mendy. Then he has a bad game and gets injured and that's the last we see of him for at least 2 months.

It's hard to ever be too optimistic with the guy. He could have an excellent month for us and then he falls over trying to head it back to the keeper, costing us the game and then he pulls his hamstring in the process of it all and that's it until next season.



But maybe it's finally time to have hope again. Until the next time we're having this conversation at least.
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It's all about the work behind the scenes with Mendy. I've been saying for a while that he's not lost his speed, and some people seem to have realised that last night looking at the comments. There's nothing permanently broken with him.

The question is just whether he wants to be a top level professional footballer again. He's been injury free for almost a year. He's seen Pep will give people a chance to come back, like Stones. It's the least competitive position in the squad, he just has to switch on and be dedicated to the game again.
 
While I think he was a bad signing and isn't particularly suited to our current possession based narrow fullbacks game, if the rumours are true and we get a striker like Halaand or Lukaku in the summer then Mendy has to stay, far and away our best fullback at getting the ball in the box. If someone's getting on the end of his crosses his confidence will grow as will his value to the team, and just maybe he can prove me and 98% of our fan base wrong.
 
01cravend said:
While I think he was a bad signing and isn't particularly suited to our current possession based narrow fullbacks game, if the rumours are true and we get a striker like Halaand or Lukaku in the summer then Mendy has to stay, far and away our best fullback at getting the ball in the box. If someone's getting on the end of his crosses his confidence will grow as will his value to the team, and just maybe he can prove me and 98% of our fan base wrong.
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Great point.
 
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