Jonathan David

[Gian-Luca]

18 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

Nice finish on the goal, shame to hear he had a second off side goal, refs don’t want him scoring too much it seems. A brace would have been massive for him.

He didn't have a second goal, he drew a penalty which was overturned when it was ruled that part of his jersey was offside. Or maybe his pinky toenail.

[badname22]

Apparently Rennes hadn’t lost at home to Lille in the last ten matches before this game. Our boy Jo us already starting to break streaks!

[Ivan]

I thought that was David's best game for Lille.  Very involved.

[costarg]

Ice cold!  Perfect way to follow up on the late goal in the last match, answer it with an early one in this one.  Too early to say he's back?

[Snowcrash]

36 minutes ago, Cheeta said:

Don't make it easy on themselves do they?

Passing a bit off today on more than one occasion to be sure.  Still, showing better overall I'd say.  Little steps.

They don't make the simple plays.  Twice, late in the game, Sanches lost the ball which allowed Rennes to counter attack.  First one was a shot in the box that rebounded to a Rennes player.  Second was near midfield when he beat a couple of players with some nice ball handling and tried to get around a third when he got dispossed.

[dyslexic nam]

18 minutes ago, Snowcrash said:

They don't make the simple plays.  Twice, late in the game, Sanches lost the ball which allowed Rennes to counter attack.  First one was a shot in the box that rebounded to a Rennes player.  Second was near midfield when he beat a couple of players with some nice ball handling and tried to get around a third when he got dispossed.

Sanchez = Bamba 2.0

[El Diego]

David fought very hard today, first game where he looked like a real leader. Obviously it is great to see him score, but it again was a good performance even forgetting about the goal. Very involved offensively, defensively, and in transition.

[cronaldo7]

Jo seemed much more confident and comfortable on the ball. He was much tidier with possession and was more in rhythm than what we've seen this season. Also had a few confident strikes at goal. And of course, his goal was taken brilliantly (3 out of 4 goals this season have been game winners against tough rivals, which can't be understated).

He struggled at the start of the season, had glimpses from match to match albeit inconsistent but I think we are finally starting to see him in settle. Fingers crossed. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

I also felt that the fact that he scored made him more available to teammates, or at least they looked for him a bit more. At least he was more part of the set up. Now there was a Yacizi run where he missed David open, but he was being closed down. I get the sense that he'll win over his teammates by scoring, and then it will all even out with this business of them not passing to him.

BTW, I predicted >10 on the season in that poll someone posted here.

In general this whole team misses easy obvious passes in a pinch, they almost lost the game late by dumb dribbling and poor decisions by the mids.  They are constantly squandering decent breaks and attacking plays by erroneous decisions, it's really amazing at times. Not only David.

Edit: I meant that not only David is affected negatively by this.

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Unnamed Trialist

[Gian-Luca]

It will be interesting to see when his teammates finally properly set him up to score a goal. They set him up for few chances in a game. Of his four goals so far, only the first came from a pass from a teammate which came off a poor giveaway, the second goal was a mis-hit shot by Ikone that landed to him, then the next two off keeper errors. Whereas David seems to build up a decent number of chances for his teammates from the run of play every game, that rarely seems to happen for his benefit from his teammates - maybe once a game on average. Until that changes, his goalscoring will continue to be down from what it could be - there's only going to be so many defensive gaffes that he can capitalize on.

[Gian-Luca]

Case in point, in these highlights notice that even the chance that David gets which leads to the corner which leads to his goal is from a pass that was accidentally put in his path as Araujo meant it for Yazici who has two guys on him even though David (and Bamba) are wide-open. It only deflected to David.

In fairness, as UT was saying it looked like in this game that his teammates tried to find him more after the goal than they normally do (a rare instance of this happening twice in the 2nd half), so hopefully it is a sign of changes to come.

[Craig11rm]

I wish Weah would get on the pitch more with David. Seems like they get along quite well and from the games I’ve seen he likes to combine with David. The only thing I like about watching Lille other than David is their back line. Like many have said, Botman is probably my second favourite player on the team and I think Fonte is a great leader. Sanchez is overrated and I prefer Soumarè in the middle.... Ikone, Araujo, Bamba and Sanchez are all so frustrating to watch. Idk how they’re still even with PSG on points..

[One American]

4 goals in 20ish games isn't a disaster, especially if he has finally found the groove. 

[dyslexic nam]

12 minutes ago, One American said:

4 goals in 20ish games isn't a disaster, especially if he has finally found the groove. 

It’s the trend line that is most encouraging.  2 in 2 and 3 of the 4 fairly recently.  

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, Craig11rm said:

I wish Weah would get on the pitch more with David. Seems like they get along quite well and from the games I’ve seen he likes to combine with David. The only thing I like about watching Lille other than David is their back line. Like many have said, Botman is probably my second favourite player on the team and I think Fonte is a great leader. Sanchez is overrated and I prefer Soumarè in the middle.... Ikone, Araujo, Bamba and Sanchez are all so frustrating to watch. Idk how they’re still even with PSG on points..

I know there were a few guys elevating David and ripping Weah early on when we were celebrating what we all thought was going to be a total transfer success, but Weah looks to me alike a guy with al the tools he need to become an elite player.  I like that he and David seem to get along but even just on his own I think he will be pushing for more and more playing time.   

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Craig11rm said:

 The only thing I like about watching Lille other than David is their back line. Like many have said, Botman is probably my second favourite player on the team and I think Fonte is a great leader. Sanchez is overrated and I prefer Soumarè in the middle.... Ikone, Araujo, Bamba and Sanchez are all so frustrating to watch. Idk how they’re still even with PSG on points..

I agree, there is a late slide on the touch line in the 2nd half by Botman that is gutsy and shows his anticipation and capacity to move out of position when called to. Fonte, totally agree, a leader. I personally like Bradaric though the coach not so much--he's just 21. 

But of all of them, excluding David, the one most ready to go to a strong team in one of the big four leagues is Botman. He is also just 21 (a couple weeks ago), was bought for 9 million euros and will sell, I predict, for over 25 million. He just debuted with the senior Dutch team. Nice player.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Unnamed Trialist

[LeoH037]

38 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

But of all of them, excluding David, the one most ready to go to a strong team in one of the big four leagues is Botman. He is also just 21 (a couple weeks ago), was bought for 9 million euros and will sell, I predict, for over 25 million. He just debuted with the senior Dutch team. Nice player.

I hope you're not suggesting that David is also ready to go to a strong team in a big four league..

[El Diego]

42 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I agree, there is a late slide on the touch line in the 2nd half by Botman that is gutsy and shows his anticipation and capacity to move out of position when called to. Fonte, totally agree, a leader. I personally like Bradaric though the coach not so much--he's just 21. 

But of all of them, excluding David, the one most ready to go to a strong team in one of the big four leagues is Botman. He is also just 21 (a couple weeks ago), was bought for 9 million euros and will sell, I predict, for over 25 million. He just debuted with the senior Dutch team. Nice player.

I feel like we all agree on Botman, which must be saying something. I am surprised that Ajax let him go for that price. I think there is a real concern about his quickness, but his intelligence and positioning make up for it. Sort of like a Per Mertesacker, who was always pretty slow but was able to play in a high line. Mats Hummels is maybe another stylistic comparison, but at his peak Hummels was absolutely incredible with his positioning and distribution.

Bradaric I am pretty meh on. As a prospect he is better than Reinildo due to age, but as of now Reinildo is the better player. I am more impressed by Celik at right back.

[Kent]

I know I am a few days late, but I caught some of the game, including the contentious offside call. I remember the concept of "being level is onside". With VAR (which I hate) it looks like there is no longer such a concept as "level".

Call me old, but I prefer some missed calls over slowing the game down in search of some sort of sacred truth that is looking for utterly insignificant offences. 

[The Real Marc]

I don't think VAR is as awful as some make it out to be, but generally yes I agree. Just like managers and players are fallible, so are referees. I wish we could just accept that.

[dyslexic nam]

I think i am in the minority but I still like VAR.  the reality is that a good goal should be a good goal that stands.  And a goal that shouldn’t be counted due to some infraction should not count.  Atiba’s phantom offside call?  Henry’s “hand of god” against Ireland? If VAR rectifies those situations it isn’t just an amendment to the score line - it is a correction that changes the course of whole teams or tournaments.  The delays are annoying - and something that could be worked on - but the principle of it matters, at least to me.  
 

Having said all that, David looked to be perfectly level on that play.  

[SpursFlu]

2 hours ago, The Real Marc said:

I don't think VAR is as awful as some make it out to be, but generally yes I agree. Just like managers and players are fallible, so are referees. I wish we could just accept that.

I'm with you guys.. i like VAR on goals but everything else I just prefer to just accept the fact that referees make mistakes. I find it becomes a big distraction from the actual sporting event

[Obinna]

I use to be pretty against VAR but I have accepted it's shortcomings and I hope to see it get more efficient in the future. 

However, when a player scores from a position that is offside by a fraction of an inch or whatever, should we really be calling that back? Was any meaningful advantage gained? In the past you just accepted that human eye is prone to error, so you learned that some days you get the call and others you don't. It was just a part of the game and the possibility of human error was sort of a natural counter weight to this "flaw" in the offside rule.

But now the mechanical precision of VAR has exposed that flaw. In this instance, making the "right" call is not very important, because we are literally splitting hairs. 

I agree with @dyslexic nam that VAR is really good for some things, like the hand of god, or some kind of foul behind the play, but it takes away from the game when it comes to razor sharp offside calls. Maybe I am in the minority and most people don't have an issue with this, but for me it is an unfortunate consequence of VAR.

Edit: I guess this falls under the "not overturning the clear and obvious" category, but this rule-of-thumb doesn't get applied consistently (like we saw with the David PK that never was). 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Obinna

[Kadenge]

6 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I use to be pretty against VAR but I have accepted it's shortcomings and I hope to see it get more efficient in the future. 

However, when a player scores from a position that is offside by a fraction of an inch or whatever, should we really be calling that back? Was any meaningful advantage gained? In the past you just accepted that human eye is prone to error, so you learned that some days you get the call and others you don't. It was just a part of the game and the possibility of human error was sort of a natural counter weight to this "flaw" in the offside rule.

But now the mechanical precision of VAR has exposed that flaw. In this instance, making the "right" call is not very important, because we are literally splitting hairs. 

I agree with @dyslexic nam that VAR is really good for some things, like the hand of god, or some kind of foul behind the play, but it takes away from the game when it comes to razor sharp offside calls. Maybe I am in the minority and most people don't have an issue with this, but for me it is an unfortunate consequence of VAR.

 

Fully agree. Would like to see some discretion given to refs/VAR for the offside rule. Handball calls are still subject to the refs judgement. The "hand to ball" interpretation...is always called when your hand is away from the body etc. I thinks if it's a matter of mms/cms they should let it go for offsides. There have been some incredible goals disallowed for fractional offsides

[rkomar]

I think the call was so close that the VAR couldn't definitely prove that the linesman was wrong.  If so, the call on the pitch would stand.

Edit: Ooops!  I didn't notice that Obinna said essentially the same thing already.

Edited January 27, 2021 by rkomar