joleon lescott

Horses for courses

Liverpool are a fluent ball playing side going forward. They played a 4-1-4-1 formation, due to Beast and Silva trying to stop there defence bringing out the ball, Yaya moved forward to stop Lucas who is playing in front of their back 4. This in turn meant our midfielders had 4 against 3. Plus then the full backs would be occupied with their over lapping f/b. Most importantly was that central midfield was 2 against 1 due to Yaya forward on Lucas. This then caused us the problems because Kompany and Lescott had to swap about with Suarez movement and the now coming forward extra midfielder. I thought when JL marked Suarez he would always stay goal side and not commit. Where as VK would try to come around Suarez and take the ball. Suarez worked VK out at times and later JL. There was once late on when it looked like Suarez had done JL for pace but he caught him up still. JL doesn't have that fast acceleration but once moving is not as slow as some think. Plus at set pieces he is good in the air and they had a tall,back four at set pieces.
 
Every time he plays this season he has done well. I think Joleon has been unlucky. He had a great season in our title year and then lost his place.
 
Methinks he will not get a contract extension and although he has served us more then well,he his now time to be replaced come June.
His time and how to use a ball is becoming more and more tedious,with virtually every ball he plays,has to go either sidewards or backwards.Some may argue that first and foremost his defensive duties are his priority,but in this day and age a top class defender also has to have the ability of moving a ball out of defence,something which is not in Joleons repertoire.
It appears that is why MP seems to go with MD,who at every given opportunity does like to move the ball into an attacking move.The biggest problem JL has,his is so obvious passing has become too "telegraphed".
A great servant and I`m certain he`ll give another Club the benefit of his professionalism,but IMO we have moved to another level and he will be replaced.
 
The defensive side of Joleon's game is superb. He's an incredibly solid centre back.
But the modern centre back, playing in the style Pellegrini wants, needs to be much more than a defender and in possession of the ball Joleon is ponderous and uncertain what to do far too often.
From watching his last few performances I think it's clear that opposition managers have sussed this out as well and he is being targeted in a sense. As a side we like to play out from the back. It's now become the norm for the opposition to close down all other option for the keeper to pass it out, but Joleon appears to be quite often left alone. Once he receives the bal he is immediately pressed and pressurised and he appears panicky on the ball. This is a deliberate tactic employed by the opposition a number of games this season.
I'll thank Joleon for his service, for his sterling performance in the title winning season. But we do need an upgrade.
 
union city blue said:
The defensive side of Joleon's game is superb. He's an incredibly solid centre back.
But the modern centre back, playing in the style Pellegrini wants, needs to be much more than a defender and in possession of the ball Joleon is ponderous and uncertain what to do far too often.
From watching his last few performances I think it's clear that opposition managers have sussed this out as well and he is being targeted in a sense. As a side we like to play out from the back. It's now become the norm for the opposition to close down all other option for the keeper to pass it out, but Joleon appears to be quite often left alone. Once he receives the bal he is immediately pressed and pressurised and he appears panicky on the ball. This is a deliberate tactic employed by the opposition a number of games this season.
I'll thank Joleon for his service, for his sterling performance in the title winning season. But we do need an upgrade.
Click to expand...
It was annoying me last night that often when Joe had the ball, VK and the full backs were running up to the half way line and Lescott was staying outside our box and was basically the only option if we wanted to play out from the back. It wasn't so much a case of the opposition closing down other options more that we were choosing to have Lescott as the only option. I thought it was odd because VK would be the ideal player to hang back and carry the ball out from the back.
 
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