MadDogg
Full Member
Good post.Lingard is in the team because he's more direct than someone like Valencia, who like a robot tries to get to the byline and put in aimless crosses over and over. He's also more direct than a player like Mata who is far too static when he plays on the wing and offers very little goal threat, illustrated by his last PL goal being scored 3 and a half months ago.
I'm not saying he's a regular starter for the club, but the criticism he gets from some is silly considering how much worse some players are performing relative to their standing in the game. It's almost as if people think that dropping Lingard would magically improve Rooney and Mata's form.
Lingard gets a bit of leeway for me for how he played when he first started getting regular games this season. Back in November or whenever it was, when we were at our absolute worst in terms of playing boring tumescent crap. He came in and was the only player who actually tried to play positively and trying to force things to happen. There were two or three games where he came off the bench and we instantly starting looking a little more likely to create something because he was running at people and creating space.
Now don't get me wrong, he still wasn't playing amazingly well during that period. But he was the only one in the team who showed the balls to try to make something happen.
Should he be our first choice? No he shouldn't. But at this moment in time I'm happy with him as a squad player