Juan Aaron Lennon.....

[chrissivad]

In that case I refer you to the program notes of Jol v Blackburn at the end of last year when he said our attacking players have got to work harder when we don't have the ball.

Am i right in saying that this was just an overview and it didn't say anywhere in there that Aaron Lennon needs to come back more?

I do agree that our attacking players do need to come back more, and Malbranque has done that this season, but Lennon has done this since he joined us.

 

[batigol]

From the bits I saw Lennon could easily have been MOTM. Berba did a few nice flicks and was class as always but I don't think he did anything special. He did what he needed to do but he didn't do something like Robbie who created a goal from nothing. I'm not saying he was bad or anything but he has the ability to create chances and didn't. I guess the best thing he did was bringing that ball down to set Lennon up

Think they both did great. You missed out on Berb's assist for the 2nd goal and his overall general play that made our attack so penetrative. He controlled almost every ball sent to him from every angle and held the ball such that JJ and the rest and support him. If you look through all the goals, he was always involved in the build up to the goal. That's how important he was in yesterday's game.

Got to admit that Lennon was great. Just need that bit of improvement in his final ball but he has time on his side. Anyone notice as well that he seemed to have bulked up and I saw him shrug off the full-back once or twice during the match which never happened last season. Think Lennon will flourish under Ramos and we are going to see the birth of our newest wing wizard since Ginola. All we need is another on the left wing. :grin:

 

[worcestersauce]

From what I saw it seemed that Lennon was given the opportuniy to do what he can do best by the way we played.
We seemed to be passing around Wigan and so Lennon was being given the ball running ino space instead of getting it isolated with defenders tight on him leaving him with a backwards pass to Chimbonda as his only option.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

I remember reading something from one of the Sevilla players saying something along the lines of Ramos knowing exactly what the players strengths are and then he talks to them individually and tells them to go and stamp that on the game.

It seems to me as if Lennon has been told to run at defenders again, and what an effect it has when he does. He is so difficult to stop when he runs at players, which I think it was what most frustrating about the majority of his performances this season. Instead of just taking the player on, he would instead turn back or cut inside and play a simple ball.

I don't even mind if he loses it every now and then, just the fact that he is going at the players and getting high up the pitch gives us an extra dimension. More pace, more movement and normally it takes at least 2 men to stop him, which opens up lots of space in the middle. Very promising performance, lets see more.

 

[SouthLondonSpur]

It seems to me as if Lennon has been told to run at defenders again, and what an effect it has when he does.

This is what I love about his game.

Instead of just taking the player on, he would instead turn back or cut inside and play a simple ball.

This what I hate(d).

Here's to a rejuvenated Lennon.

 

[Jack2]

Yes, he played well and his work rate was high. Still, he needs to work with the end product of his passes. He takes the ball fantastically up and overtakes the defenders quite easily (at least Wigan's ones), but too often the last crucial touch/pass lacked quality.

But I reckon that will develop when he gets more and more games. And the goal yesterday was class!!

 

[fozzi44]

ahh, one win against wigan and now, berba, lennon, Jenas and malbranque are the dogs's balls again - lol.

Anyway for me Lennon has it all if only he could cross a bit better. It is strange tho, with all the ability he has you would think crossing would be the simpliest thing to do.

 

[Stoof]

It's a good sign that we're arguing over who should have been Man of the Match. It makes a change from the token gesture award for our 'best' player from a woeful performance.

I think Levy might have known what he was doing with the appointments - one eye on the fixture list, give the new guy a couple of nice games to get his bum mould into the hot seat etc. Too conspiracialist? Probably. Me making up words? Definitely.

JJ was class, Berba was class as was Mr Lennon. Much better when he receives the ball in front of him rather than back to goal. Awesome - and could have been used more too.

 

[Bulletspur]

To be honest SS, the work rate thing is something that the whole team needed to improve on. And today they did. It pleased me the most in a way that we earnt the right to play football today. Wigan are not as bad as there position but we out battled them today as well as outplayed them. It was always lacking under Jol. You may remember it was one of my criticisms of Jol.

I read a couple of interesting things in the program today. One thing was something that bgot said many times about Jol. In todays program notes Ramos said he noticed that when we went 1-0 v Blackburn we stopped playing and handed them initiative. Apart from a brif few minutes in the second half at no time did we do that today. Like the top 4 teams we just kept going. We defended much better as a team and that allowed us to carry on playing football. It was really fucking pleasing to watch.

Are you serious? Wigan were awful, easily the worst opposition we have encountered all season, and that include the ones in the UEFA cup. While it was pleasing to see our lad doing well with runnin inot space, back tackling etc, Wigan made it so easy for us, their perfomance flattered us. The real test will come when we play against decent opposition.

 

[The Apprentice]

I really notice yesterday how high up the pitch we were pressing the ball. Seeing JJ and even lil Azza indicating with their arms for the rest of the team to press up.

First Monday I can walk into work with my head up and plenty of banter to giveto them last minute legends Chelscum!

 

[Krafty]

In the first twenty minutes, whenever Wigan had the ball, you could see Ramos telling Lennon to push up and press the full back. Before we would let thme come into our half, Lennon would sit in front of Chimbonda trying to make us solid, which is fair enough, but we would let people get crosses in and shots. When we did break Lennon would be so deep that even if he got past the first man he would to run with the ball for 70 odd metres.

What he did yesterday was press their fullback in their half, and so did the rest of the team, so that when we did win the ball we were right on the atatck again, attacking the final third, not in our own half and ending up passing the ball sideways and backwards between the midfield and defence.

It was much more enjoyable to watch, and hopefully we will see more of the same against the Spammers

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

Are you serious? Wigan were awful, easily the worst opposition we have encountered all season, and that include the ones in the UEFA cup. While it was pleasing to see our lad doing well with runnin inot space, back tackling etc, Wigan made it so easy for us, their perfomance flattered us. The real test will come when we play against decent opposition.

Surely they aren't as bad as Derby. If they were sponsored by Carlsberg they would be 'probably...the worst team to ever play in the Premiership'

 

[Bulletspur]

Surely they aren't as bad as Derby. If they were sponsored by Carlsberg they would be 'probably...the worst team to ever play in the Premiership'

LOL!! I had thought about that, but in my opinion, that Derby team we beat, would have beaten Wigan yesterday, quite comfortably.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

LOL!! I had thought about that, but in my opinion, that Derby team we beat, would have beaten Wigan yesterday, quite comfortably.

I don't. Certainly not unless they were at home. Away from home they have scored 0 conceded 19. Not sure they would win at home either, they just got thumped 5-0 at home by West Ham whose only fit striker was Carlton Cole. Lets be honest, we were 3-0 up against Derby after about 10 minutes and then just stopped altogether, I can only imagine how many we would have put past them with the players performing as they did yesterday. With a mercurial Berba, rampant Lennon and some guy called Jenas who could play football I could easily have seen us getting close to double figures in that game against Derby and that isn't an exaggeration.

 

[phil]

From the bits I saw Lennon could easily have been MOTM. Berba did a few nice flicks and was class as always but I don't think he did anything special. He did what he needed to do but he didn't do something like Robbie who created a goal from nothing.

You mean he didn't do anything apart from setting up three of the goals, hitting the crossbar with a wonderful effort and generally controlling the game.

 

[phil]

The pleasing thing yesterday was the way we pressed when we did not have possession. Lennon was particularly good in this respect including a sliding tackle to concede a corner. 'Lennon and sliding tackle' - bet none of you ever thought you'd read those words in the same sentence.

 

[DC_Boy]

I think that Lennon's been playing well for a while now. Also so good that it's been him on the right, Steed on the left - and Jol got that wrong way round too often for me.

Interesting though that when TT replaced Steed , he struggled on left so Ramos swapped, and overall that looked like the best decision too - so it seems JR is doing a lot of smart thinking to me Wouldn't be surprised if Poyet's helping too.

 

[Has1978]

I think that Lennon's been playing well for a while now. Also so good that it's been him on the right, Steed on the left - and Jol got that wrong way round too often for me.

Interesting though that when TT replaced Steed , he struggled on left so Ramos swapped, and overall that looked like the best decision too - so it seems JR is doing a lot of smart thinking to me Wouldn't be surprised if Poyet's helping too.

According to Guillem Balague he is known as a real "common sense" manager - which is coming across with his substitutions and changes in strategy like the one you just pointed out.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Yeaaaah, we beat world dominators Wigan, 4-0 just like we hammered those other top-drawer Derby County boy!!!!

Our fortune is changing!!! We can get UEFA next season, easy now! We're back to our best!!

What made us change? Was it Juande? Lennon playing like Ronaldo (hahah)? Zokora's wicked ability??

Nah. None of the above. We're still crap.

Tottenham got our hopes up like this already, against Derby on the 18th Aug, remember? Yo guys wanna fall for the same shit again?

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

Yeaaaah, we beat world dominators Wigan, 4-0 just like we hammered those other top-drawer Derby County boy!!!!

Our fortune is changing!!! We can get UEFA next season, easy now! We're back to our best!!

What made us change? Was it Juande? Lennon playing like Ronaldo (hahah)? Zokora's wicked ability??

Nah. None of the above. We're still crap.

Tottenham got our hopes up like this already, against Derby on the 18th Aug, remember? Yo guys wanna fall for the same shit again?

Completely different. We didn't play well against Derby. In that game after we had scored the 3 goals, there was no drive or dynamism in the side at all. The defence still dropped really deep and we just cruised.

The difference in this game was that you can see things that have clearly been worked on being used in the match. The defence were cutting out the ball far earlier and not allowing Wigan to get the ball in the area between the midfield and the defence. We were closing down at every opportunity and beating Wigan to the 2nd 3rd and 4th ball. The movement on the wings and up top was fantastic which made it look like we had so much space, but to be fair we were stretching them to their limit. Even set plays seemed to be better conducted and more well excecuted. Lennon doing his little ball bounce in the corner, or playing with the flag to indicate what is coming and the balls in were mostly good.

So it isn't really a case of who we were playing, you can only beat what is in front of you. It is more that it is clear we are working hard and trying to improve the performances and that will hopefully continue over the coming weeks and months. You shouldn't be so sceptical dynamo, while we have a long we to go it is unfair to say we were shit and it is clear that we are going in the right direction.