Leigertwood - Not good enough at this level

[Wimb]

Ledge has had some shockers but who in the team hasn't? He has also had some subtlety influential games as well. For me it doesn't look like he's in form at the moment and we are just waiting for him to shift into gear also one of my criticisms is that opposing players ghost past him too easy otherwise if you check his overall stats he is in the top five for distance traveled,speed(average),pass completion,total passes,interceptions, tackles etc. So personally I hope this situation can be turned around soon!


Hmm I wonder who will be the next scape goat?

To be honest you'd expect your central midfielder to be covering the most distance, making the most passes, tackles, interceptions etc. It's the quality/frequency of those stats that's worrying some people, myself included. Here's his pass completion for the last seven games according to Opta.


Fulham 75%
QPR 81%
Norwich 77%
Everton 72%
Wigan 68%
Villa 62%
Man Utd 82%

The Wigan and Villa stats in particular highlight how important he is to our game. For a Premier League midfielder in a 4-4-2 to be completing under or around 2/3 of his passes isn't good enough really and he's just not showing the consistent quality needed for this level. I still think he's got a large role to play and can do a job in the same way Gunnar did in 2006-2008 but like Bryn, he should be cover or the 5th man in the midfield rather that a key cog in a Premier League 4-4-2. Coppell found that out the hard way in 2008 and I hope Brian's also seen it before it's too late.

[handbags_harris]

The problem we have is he is our enforcer. He is our meat in the middle. We have nobody else with the same physical quality he brings. He may not be up to the standard but he is the only midfielder in his physical mould we have and for that reason he is all but undroppable. Playing Karacan alongside Tabb, you have the biting, snappy, terrier like quality but he would be outmuscled. Guthrie is very much like James Harper for me, won't win a tackle and won't win a header so that would be suicide playing him alongside Tabb.

[Barry the bird boggler]

To be honest I reckon about 70% of the team aren't good enough at this level, it's all very well having belief and commitment and workrate but without the required technical ability underpinning it you may as well all go home now.

[percy_freeman]

To be honest I reckon about 70% of the team aren't good enough at this level, it's all very well having belief and commitment and workrate but without the required technical ability underpinning it you may as well all go home now.

Got to agree there, maybe even put that at 80%. I don't mind too much losing if the team play like they did yesterday and at Chelsea, but I am sure if we did that every week, we would have half a chance of staying up.

[Wimb]

The problem we have is he is our enforcer. He is our meat in the middle. We have nobody else with the same physical quality he brings. He may not be up to the standard but he is the only midfielder in his physical mould we have and for that reason he is all but undroppable. Playing Karacan alongside Tabb, you have the biting, snappy, terrier like quality but he would be outmuscled. Guthrie is very much like James Harper for me, won't win a tackle and won't win a header so that would be suicide playing him alongside Tabb.

I agree in part that he's the only player we've got to play the enforcer role but then I think in the Premier League that role as a pure enforcer with no creativity only works if you've got a five man midfield, or you're happy to give teams possession knowing that as long you're keeping your shape and they are outside the box, chances are they won't hurt you.

That's exactly what Reading did last year as Leigertwood was still giving the ball away but teams generally didn't punish us for losing it because they didn't have the quality to break us down or create something out of nothing. Look back at the games against Southampton and West Ham, or even games like Brighton at home when teams had plenty of the ball but just couldn't do anything with it or wasted chances.

Leigertwood is good at putting a foot in and nicking the ball which is perfect if you're playing him just in front of that back four or we're dominating out wide but to play him in a two man midfield means that you're sacrificing one key area of creativity and hoping his partner can not only create but do the dog work as well because Leigertwood isn't great at getting around the pitch.

I imagine this is exactly why McDermott signed Guthrie as on paper he was a 'Sidwell' type player that could not only hassle players and make a tackle but get forward and play passes through the middle. Sadly Guthrie looked unable to do the hassling bit so Brian went back to playing it safe with a more defensive option but then we've had the problem that Tabb/Jem can't create. When our wing play is in full flow, having no creativity in the middle isn't a problem but if teams work it out and shut us down then we really are left with nothing but hoofball and hoping for corners or free-kicks.