Liam Gordon: Graded in different parts of the pitch
The trouble is that looking good in the middle third does not win matches.
Or expecting one player to be fantastic in all of those areas. Especially if youāre giving out a harsh grade in the first category.
To be fair, especially in the first half of the season, Taylor Allenās ability to put a good cross in from that side from a different angle compensated for Gordonās poor output in that area. He was someone who could carry the ball forward and also take a defender away to give Allen more room.
Jury is still out on Barret for me. He was like two different players last season, the drop off in the second half was so big. Hard to know which is the real him!
Cracking point.
It is a good point and highlights how effective Gordon can be in helping create chances whilst not getting the āassistā tag.
I would argue then that most competent professional left wing backs could do that exact same job - but also have better delivery themselves.
I agree that Gordonās delivery is generally poor - that needs to improve. But the big question is: can we get (I.e. attract to the club) better in his position? Iām not sure we can.
I donāt disagree on that but unfortunately such all rounders are likely to be out of our price range.
I agree, for me heās one of the top half dozen wing backs in the league, weāre lucky to have him.
I think when we were playing well and blowing teams away first half of the season Barrett was full on and was usually up against one of the opponents defenders and easily got past them and usually delivered a better ball in the area, but as the season went on two things took him out of most games as a threat.,
I remember that too. I remember when I heard him say that I thought āWHAT??? You must be the only person in football who doesnāt then mate!ā
I think Barrettās performances partly dispel the myth that MS is good at developing talent. He was fantastic for the first half of the season, presumably doing what heād learnt at Fylde. Then MS gets his ideas and methods into him and gradually his performances start to deteriorate, similar to Jellis.
Replying to Natalie-Drest (not karm)
I am trying to think of some counter examples, of players who were nothing special when they first came, but have really blossomed after having some time here under Sadlerās coaching. Taylor Allen; Harry Williams, possibly Okagbue.
On the other hand there is quite a long list of players who flattered to deceive and looked good prospects when they came here, but seemed to get worse the longer they stayed, such as, Foulkes, Knowles, Tierney, Oteh, Riley, Barrett, Liam Gordon, Jellis, Stirk. There may be some disagreement about some of those, but I think it is pretty clear that none of them improved here.
And of course there are the players who seemed promising when we glimpsed them, but then disappeared before we had enough information to decide.
Nice article in the E&S today, the bit I could see anyway before the payment section obscures it, speaking of the emotion on Saturday, so lovely to read such comments. Well done CC, what a lovely lad you seem to be, long may it continueā¦.
He has the potential to be a really top player.
You can see centre midfield isnāt natural to him, his positioning without the ball is off at times whether we have the ball or we donāt. Although he made the right run to be there to score the goal. If you watch though he gets caught between the play a lot, which can be down to our style at times. Anyway, if he improves this, the sky is the limit for him. It can be coached, I can see him being the next one the scouts are all over.
3 year deal aswell!
He offers something different to what we have in midfield. Fast, good dribbler and clearly backs himself to beat anyone. You can see why played as a wing back before we signed him. Bromley couldnāt deal with the directness of him and Okeke running at them.
I donāt know if his ceiling is that high as a midfielder. His passing isnāt great and too often his default when he gets the ball is to just get his head down and run at the player in front of him. Good when it works but not always the right choice.
A player of immense potential, in full flow he is a joy to watch.