How Do You Solve a Problem Called Lerma?

Schmiegel

Schmiegel

New Signing
He is a talented player, of course. But officials have him in their sights before the first whistle. He is handicapped because there is no toleration for even minor infringements. I love him, but I think it best if he was traded out of England if we could receive a good price for him. Then we could better use our existing roster to find a midfielder that could pass forward more often and possibly even hit the target every now and then, something Jefferson just cannot do.
 
Not enough passing forward... isn't that the same criticism that Sideways Surman used to get?

On the goal scoring front, he's mostly playing the further back role. Looking at the players that have done that for us in recent times:

Andrew Surman - 5 goals in 184 games
Jefferson Lerma - 6 goals in 127 games
Lewis Cook - 1 goal in 106 games

Now granted, they haven't played all of those matches further back but that's been their main role.

Some players simply don't contribute to the goals tally. It isn't in that position that we should be worrying why we don't get more goals. Anything that comes from there is a bonus, other duties are the priority.

There has been a real issue with officials this season in particular and he needs to adjust accordingly. A good pro can do that.
 
Rotation. We don't have an exact Lerma replica, but we do have different horses for different courses.

Pearson can do a lot of the destructive stuff to Lerma's game. Cook and Killkenny the ball recycling. Share the game time around, reducing the frequency of which Lerma can be involved in any drama. Shorter stints on the pitch where Lerma can go full throttle, then take him out of the firing line.

See where we are in the summer before we think any further ahead.
 
northstandmark said:
Rotation. We don't have an exact Lerma replica, but we do have different horses for different courses.

Pearson can do a lot of the destructive stuff to Lerma's game. Cook and Killkenny the ball recycling. Share the game time around, reducing the frequency of which Lerma can be involved in any drama. Shorter stints on the pitch where Lerma can go full throttle, then take him out of the firing line.

See where we are in the summer before we think any further ahead.
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Yes; use him sparingly...Sounds like a plan to me!
 
afcdibby said:
You don't. You just accept it like Keane at Man U and Viera at Arsenal.
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That was a different time. Referees are less tolerant of hard players now. Also, Lerma isn't as good as Keane or Viera were, so the current liability isn't outbalanced by quality.
 
He's much more in the mould of Ngolo Kante who has scored 11 times in 170 odd.epl games.

But not quite as good or as controlled.
 
per wiki, Lerma has played 32, 33, 48, 22 (Season to date) - is that really so bad in a squad game? Factor in that the guy is almost never injured. What's the problem?
 
MB1980 said:
Yeah but he's top notch relative to we're at.
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I like Jeff lots and he seems very much loved by the squad too. The predicament isn't down to him as a person or player even. It's how he's perceived by referees/the EFL and the resultant liability. Are the risks of starting him outweighed by the benefits of playing him? Maybe someone should set up a poll on that because I'm not sure I would vote 'yes'. The risks of going down to 10 are maybe too high to start him now.
 
Both times Lerma has been sent off this season have been justified. The first having been dropped in it by a poor pass and he was the last man, and a few weeks back with a late lunging tackle. No problems with the decisions. What I do have a problem with is the FA imposing additional unwarranted penalties. We should not rollover to the FA and drop him, thats what they would want.
 
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