I can’t get over the fact he only had 1 assist all season. I think he has some good attributes but as a wing back he has to be contributing more going forward.
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I genuinely think that could easily start the first game. We’re less than eight weeks off it now and generally better strikers don’t become available until late July/August. Lowe last summer wasn’t signed for the first game and DJ in 2022 I think was signed on the morning of the Solihull friendly which was a week before the first game.
Amantchi is already the reserve for Matt who may or may not stay and Gordon still has a year left so he will be significantly used if he stays fit during pre season.
Part of why Sadler needed to be gone as that will really compound things if the results are poor in August but Trivela made the call and will have to live with the consequences of it early next season.
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13 assists in his entire career. 264 games. 3 of those in the national league, and 2 in the EFL trophy.
That’s absolutely appalling.
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Because he had about a 5 game bad spell, rather than 5 months. Think I said above he was one of our poor players along with Jellis and Barrett though 
“don’t slate him”
If you judge a wing back by assists yes.
Have we really not seen enough of Liam Gordon to know that he will never be able to cross the ball.
I remember in the past some of the exciting wingers we had such as Jason Brissett, Demontagnac, and Herivelto, who could beat men for fun and were great to watch, but they did not keep their place in the side because the question was always, “Where is the end product? What is the point of showing off, beating full backs, if you do not create any chances for our forwards?”
LIam Gordon is very good a running with the ball in the middle third of the pitch, but he has no idea where his final pass is going to land.
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Of which he isn’t one.
Given it’s a correlate of crossing ability and passing… I would say so, yep.
If you only judge a wing back on crossing, sure 
Attacking is just as important as defending as a wing back. So it’s fair to be judged by your attacking output.
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Absolutely, but Assists aren’t a perfect stat for that. No stat is. Anyone who can genuinely watch us and say he doesn’t help our attacking input is, well, either a poor judge of ability, or being wilfully obdurate. Sometimes he is our only player looking likely to turn defence into attack.
Take Chesterfield away in the play offs. He was heavily involved in both goals, won the penalty for the first, won the corner and then involved in the build up play for the second. He didn’t get an assist for either.
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LG is in the top 50% of players we have had in recent years. Really pretty good. He’s at L2 because he has limitations but he’s definitely good enough.
One thing about MS is we have overall better / more rounded players and less obvious duds that any recent time I can recall.
I know that’s not saying a lot given there’s been some absolutely useless footballers here, but we went clear at the top because we have / had basically quality players.
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Well said. I don’t get this criticism of Liam Gordon. We will miss him if he goes. He contributed massively to our good run in the season. I hope he re signs. He may not score well on the assist list but he certainly helped us being the top scorers in the division.
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I just think he’s very poor in the final third. I think we can do better. I think a reset would be good for both parties.
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Indeed. And why you’d be daft to assume he would be so easy to replace.
That’s fair, but I also judge what I see. The amount of times he does all the hard work, get us into great positions and then fluffs the most simple ball into the box … Unfortunately the assist stat reflects that.
I do like him. He’s got all the attributes to the a very good wing back but sometimes I think his feet are quicker than his brain.
In all honesty I’m not a fan of Wing Backs in general. I think too much is put onto them. I think he’d much more effective in a 4 at the back.
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The only problem I have with that view is that this is Walsall we are talking about. What player are we going to reset with? Likely a raw prospect with no proven record. That is ok for part of your squad but we have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater although the temptation is there to have a big clearout
I don’t think Liam Gordon is the only player available that is good in that position - out of those available. It is up to the club to bring in better players.
Agreed, I wouldn’t for a second try to argue he doesn’t have a weakness and we all know what that is.
Problem is I could go through the entire squad and tell you what their one (sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes multiple) weaknesses are. You could probably do it with the whole division. I personally feel what he does bring outweighs what he doesn’t.
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I think Liam Gordon and Jamie Jellis should do nothing else but practice crossing and corners. I don’t think it’s acceptable for a professional footballer not to be able kick a ball. With Jellis it’s simple, just don’t let him take corners. With Gordon,I love it when he makes those runs down the line, I love it even more when he takes the ball inside, it’s just such a shame that only about 1 in 4 are decent balls.