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Jonathan David


Vince193

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2 hours ago, One American said:

When the other players stop passing to you, you're in trouble. 

 

Fans look at that as, "He's not getting a fair shot!" But that's not the real story. 

Yeah that’s shite and not the case at all. His teammates have been showing more and more confidence in him since he joined the team. He received next to no passes in his first few matches and now he’s much more involved in the play despite the initial reluctance from his teammates 

Edited by Aird25
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9 hours ago, Obinna said:

It's a long season. How you finish is most important. Not easy being the club record signing, especially when you join without a real pre-season.

It may take a full season to find his feet. He still needs to adapt to the level of play and the style of play. He is playing heavy minutes as part of the forward rotation, and whether Gatier is gifting him those minutes or not doesn't even matter, because he is only going to benefit from the game time. 

To date he has played 1424 minutes.

For comparison Yilmaz has played 1261, Yazici has played 953, and Weah has played 312. That is a lot of minutes for an unproductive player, so David is either doing something right or Gaitier is just extremely patient and trusts he'll get better. Either way, better to be on the field than ride the bench!

I mean the argument can be made for COVID basically being the reason why David hasn't found his footing. However, same thing can be said for all sports like the MLB, NBA and NFL in the sense of not having a real off season to really gel with his squad. But like you said, it will take time for him to adjust and if given enough time like you said a full season then David could actually really thrive. In essence, I'm saying I agree with you.

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9 hours ago, Obinna said:

It's a long season. How you finish is most important. Not easy being the club record signing, especially when you join without a real pre-season.

It may take a full season to find his feet. He still needs to adapt to the level of play and the style of play. He is playing heavy minutes as part of the forward rotation, and whether Gatier is gifting him those minutes or not doesn't even matter, because he is only going to benefit from the game time. 

To date he has played 1424 minutes.

For comparison Yilmaz has played 1261, Yazici has played 953, and Weah has played 312. That is a lot of minutes for an unproductive player, so David is either doing something right or Gaitier is just extremely patient and trusts he'll get better. Either way, better to be on the field than ride the bench!

When asked Gaultier said he's not worried [that David is missing chances he should score in games] because he said David is extremely good at finishing in practice every day. I get the feeling he knows that David is mostly just needing to get his confidence up.. I can't see Bamba taking another penalty while David's on the pitch once David does get his killer finishing back (in games). I jus think it's a question of which needs to come first: the goals or his confidence. Either way.. they'll both come eventually and this will all be a distant memory. 

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Two week break will do the man more good than harm, I hope.  

Closing on half way through the season, Lille sits in 2nd (Champion League) and we haven't seen his best by a long shot so fingers and toes crossed he finds himself in 2021.  

Drew Ajax for Europa League, could have been worse I guess but I suspect that could be a fun watch.   Or not.  Think that test will swing to one extreme or the other.   

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It occurred to me last night that a comparison could be made between this Lille side and the title winning side of Leicester, at least on the surface. Solid 442 with inverted wingers and center backs that prefer to defend deep. The big difference of course is that Leicester had the ball much less that year than Lille do this year (44.7% of the time for Leicester vs. 52.9% for Lille). Leicester were so deadly on the counter attack in 2015/16, but of course Lille do not have a Mahrez or Prime Vardy in attack (not even to mention Kante in midfield).

So while I think it is cautionary to actually compare the two teams, Jonathan David does remind me of Shinji Okazaki. In 15/16 the Japanese forward made 36 appearances (28 starts) and only scored 5 goals. However, he led the pressing from the front and often was behind Vardy, linking the play, earning fouls, and making space opening runs.

Here is an article from Michael Cox on Okazaki in 2016. If names of players and clubs weren't mentioned, you might think it was about David: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/apr/17/shinji-okazaki-tireless-leicester-intelligence

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Some nice work there from David to get a cross in. Not many touches though, as per usual. This team is designed for the fullbacks to provide width, while the wingers come inside and look to collect the ball between the lines. Just pay attention to how narrow Bamba and Ikone drift when possession. This really clogs space in the middle, so it is hard for David to get on the ball. At Gent it was the opposite and he was able to find pockets out wide and deep.

Also, Yilmaz scored moments later.

Edited by Obinna
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Does Lille have another game on the weekend that David will start? If not, why the hell is Galtier taking David off at 60 minutes when he's the only forward combining well with this teammates? Ikone & Bamba are having shockers of a match, can't believe Weah didn't replace one of them instead.

 

Edited by Gian-Luca
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