Jesse Lingard

It turned out to be a long post, added a TLDR at the bottom

During a conversation with , I came to a realization that many users here seem to be putting in a lot of faith in pure statistics. They see 0 in the Goals and Assists columns and think that Jesse Lingard is a shitbag who should be sent away to the championship, apparently his level. Now I am NOT saying that I love his output, quite the contrary, in fact, I believe he should improve his goal tally massively. However, saying that he has no contribution, and that he runs like a headless chicken, is totally false. The media generates a lot of clicks and responses by shitting on the biggest club in England, and we tend to believe these articles and slag our own players.

First of all, like points out, the timeframe that the recent article used was the one where Jesse had like 4 injuries, was brought back early twice, re-injured at least once, and the team completely, and utterly fell apart. I still thought he should have at least some contributions to goals, or else he would have been dropped. Remember, Mourinho dropped Pogba, because he wasn't laying well, Ole dropped Lukaku because he didn't fit. Lingard must be doing something right for the managers to pick him. Let's see what he's doing when we score goals. I'll start from the most recent match vs Wolves, and try to show the contributions of Jesse that don't show up in the stats table. If you are someone who decides a player's form(and that's completely okay, it's your choice), stop reading, you will be infuriated by the post.

Lingard vs Wolves

. See how 5 players have completely turned their attention to Lingard and the ball.

. One simple ball from Martial and its too easy.

See how Lingard created space for Martial and Rashford with his intelligent ball running. He started central, he's occupying the left flank in the image. He pulled 5 defenders to him, creating an attacking opportunity for Rashford and Martial.

Lingard vs Chelsea

1st Goal

2nd Goal

3rd goal

Lingard isn't involved.

4th goal

Lingard isn't involved.

So out of 5 goals scored by United, Lingard has been involved in 3 goals, even if the stat tables show 0.

Let's go to preseason.

Lingard vs AC Milan

1st goal

Wasn't on the pitch

2nd goal

Let's go to last season. Only considering matches he played and we scored.

Huddersfield- Injured

Chelsea- Injured

West Ham- Wasn't involved in the goals

Wolves- Wasn't on the pitch

Watford- Injured

Wolves- Wasn't involved in the goal. Didn't get to see any decent highlights so not sure.

Southampton- Injured

PSG- Injured

This shows a period from March to August, wherein Lingard has made zero contributions to the goal. However, as evidenced above, it is easy to see Jesse's impact. He was injured for most of the second half of last season. When he did play, he created plenty of opportunities for others by his runs and off the ball movement. It's properly evident in this season's goals. See how he creates space for others by drawing defenders to himself. Football is a team game, after all, everyone likes flashy players who have tricks with the ball. Selfless running and bringing others into play is also important in the game. Those who have said he offers nothing, I hope I changed at least some opinions. That said, he should increase his goal output.

Quoting again

I'm real, real tired of this shit. Hate on Fellaini till he's booed at home. Hate on Pogba till he's getting in rows with fans on our final game of the season, and getting racially abused online. Hate on Lukaku till he's out of the club.

If/when Jesse's gone, who next? Shaw? Pogba till he goes. Maybe when Marcus has a bad injury, we hate on him until he leaves.

Supporters. Fans. We're supposed to support. Valid criticism is fine, but this Jesse shit is real, real tiring just at the minute. And we're basically being "used" for clickbait. Nothing gets people interested like a bit of hate and drama like this.

Quoting

When looking at assists and general scoring involvement, I like to look at least to 2nd assist (you called it pre-assist yesterday, some people call it the "hockey assist" and I roll my eyes at them...) to get a better view of how the ball actually reached the net. Recently I've been looking at the , including the sequence leading to a penalty or free kick.

From last year under Ole, minutes/G or touch in goal-scoring sequence:

Herrera, 56

Pogba, 58

Mata, 61

Rashford, 63

Lingard, 64

Lukaku, 71

Martial, 77

Now, 2 things: this isn't weighted by team G/match or by strength of opposition, so it isn't fancy or perfect and I would really like an upgrade on Lingard. But the current approach to criticism falls short of actually analyzing how goals are scored and who is involved.

Quoting myself now

The hate for Lingard reached Ashley young vs PSG(home) level last match. I specifically point to one point of the match. AWB made a through ball to Lingard, but someone got a slight touch and the ball deflected away from Lingard's foot. People immediately started flinging shit at Lingard saying he's trash, he's shit, he can't even hit the ball, thinking he hit it out. Even John Moss, being the incompetent twat that he is, missed this.

Criticising our players is fine, we should expect the best from our players. However, blind criticism, because someone else is mentioning it, and without watching the complete match, is detrimental to any discussion. Please have a think about this.

TLDR: Don't let the stats table fool you. Watch complete build ups to our goals and then decide on critisizing players for lack of input.

Edit: Give me 10 minutes, the Imgur links seem to be dead

Edit2: Fixed the Imgur links

Any day now until he fulfils his true potential.