Djemba-Djemba
Full Member
Well an assist can also be a 5 yard sideways pass and if its done at the perfect time and tempo then its still an important part of any goal anyway
I posted the article earlier which talked about the low amount of goals and assists from players like Iniesta and Modric who conversely score highly in the pre-assist charts - to be fair though, they are not usually playing as high up the pitch as Lingard is for us
So yes He does deserve criticism for lack of output, especially when we have seen that he is capable of scoring spectacular goals and has even done it on high profile occasions (cup finals, world cup etc) but as usual some of the criticism goes way overboard
I think some of the attempts to defend him are pretty ridiculous and go way overboard too though to be honest.