Haven't been happy with Lemina in the past two games but don't have a problem with him taking chances at all, I welcome it most of the time. Just been off the pace mentally and physically. Definitely wouldn't sell him or even cast him particularly far down the pecking order though, unless Ralph really thinks he's actively not trying and can't be gotten through to and gee'd up. One of those times where we have imperfect information. But the information we do have from the last two games hasn't been positive.
I find it hard to accept that we've been playing him injured or sick. Doesn't seem like that's something the club would sanction or that Ralph would conscience. If anything he might be struggling with the step up in intensity. Plus this isn't a new phase for him, Mario has been like this since he arrived. He's the most hot and cold player in the side. I love the guy on a good day but I said a wee while ago that he's turning up for 1 in 4 games. We don't have room for passengers anymore. This squad has been battling relegation for two seasons and there is not one of them who deserves the benefit of the doubt. If they can't produce the effort consistently they need to be moved aside regardless of the talent. In this case we don't particularly have an obvious replacement I expect Ralph will play him and try to manage a better performance from him.
Him dropping into those pockets as he does between midfield and attack could be a nightmare with no Hojbjerg there, as is Alonso doubling up on Valery/Ramsay. Might triple captain one of them in my fantasy actually
McCarthy made some cracking saves, without him city would have had 7. Bit harsh to drop him after that.
I like Lemina. I certainly don't think he's lazy or half-arsed. I think things still happen a bit quickly for him sometimes, hence why he gives the ball away a lot.
Agreed, I think he's shown frustration and let his head drop at times, but he doesn't seem lazy to me. When he doesn't act off instinct he often hesitates or just makes bad decisions. In the short-term Ralph should want to get him playing like a cruise-missile, on and off the ball. If he can't apply himself to that, then maybe we do have a problem. If he can do that, he can learn and be taught in the long term. As was discussed before as part of a larger topic about Targett, one of the problems at the moment is that his role off the ball is not simplistic due to the fluctuating roles of who covers the second man out wide. Ideally we would just let Lemina attack Jorginho and Kovacic and not let them play forwards, but in doing so we set about a chain reaction where either we leave a lot of space between the lines or ask our defenders to break out of the safety of a solid shape to compensate. I think Ralph is rather trying to coddle the defence as much as reasonably possible in his system at the moment... So Lemina becomes somewhat of a square peg in a round hole by making his task more nuanced. Personally I'd be most inclined to start in a 4-3-3 and let Romeu prowl whilst Lemina and JWP are tasked with giving their midfield no time on the ball. When Chelsea do break through it puts us more at risk, but I don't think we win a game of patience. We've shown we play best with our tails up, so get after them and try and get some belief in the team early. Race out of the gate and then if needs be we can do what we did against City in reverse and drop JWP back to wingback, without having to make a change. But I think if we don't start positively, Chelsea will wear us down I feel.
Only some players are ever accused of having an attitude problem, but it's not Lemina who is having a 4 match holiday. At least he can get a bit of rest over the cup weekend hopefully. I'm not sure what we expect to happen in a midfield with no Hojbjerg or Lemina, not a lot is my guess.
It’s the sloppy passing, when not under pressure, that does my head in, especially after he has worked hard to either regain possession or extricate himself from a difficult position. Just so frustrating. Having said that, I think our passing stats in general are lower than they used to be. I think we had something in the 60% range for successful passing, in a recent match. Just found this stats website that actually shows Lemina to have the best passing percentage in the team, (ignoring Steve Davis for lack of game time) so I will stick with my opinion of a few days ago that I think he loses concentration. Overall team pass success rated around 76%, which needs to improve, but then you have to consider how many more passes we are making forward, now, rather than backwards and sideways. https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/18/Show/England-Southampton
How dare you come up with such a pinpoint analysis so early on New Year’s Day? Love the use of “nuanced” too! It’s largely the same Chelsea team that we went 2-0 up against last season, before the defence had its customary nap, so let’s do the same thing without the slumbering.
That's all my posts out of the window then I suppose. Apart from this one. Which I am now going to pad out. And now that I've crossed the threshold... Fonte is an ugly bastard. scurries
