Thoughts on Pierre Less-Melou

[shruk4 60]

I think he is pretty good. I sense he is not getting the respect he deserves from fans of the club.
. And you?

[Newtopia 573]

He looks good to me, it is hard to be enthusiastic when you are in a losing.run

Edited September 29, 2021 by Newtopia

[Tetteys Jig 851]

like all our other CMs, he's good but he's not Oli Skipp

[paddycanary 580]

My thought was that your thread title was purposely misspelled for another negative contribution to the forum. My apologies. 

In my opinion, he's a decent addition around the middle who's not afraid of a tackle and does a little bit of everything to a reasonable standard. I'm struggling to see any other team in this division with him as a starter. I'd say he is a top-end Champo quality player but probably not quite Prem standard. Probably at the right club! 🤔

[Google Bot 3,936]

Really like him so far, when he gets his passing going we'll be in for a treat.  As above though, we're in a bit of a rut at the moment so no-one is overly shining consistently yet.

[Olano 110]

Good player!!!

[norfolkngood 1,174]

That chart shows be he has 10 more pressures to get to the top so has to work harder !!! 😉

[NeymarSmith 136]

I think he's very good, especially considering what we paid for him. 

Doesn't look out of place in this league I think.

[rock bus 1,064]

I think he is a very decent player who will look brilliant in championship but probably not physically strong enough for the premier league.

Guess that could apply to most of our midfield!

but he does offer promise

[Dr Greenthumb 794]

Seems to be a walking yellow card, but there’s definitely a player there

[Petriix 3,222]

I've been a strong critic of his. Here's why:

He generally looks quite tidy, strong and physical. His positioning and tactical awareness are mostly decent and, while he's not quite clicked yet in an attacking sense, you feel like he could well chip in with a few goals and assists this season.

But, he is prone to completely switching off and getting caught horribly out of position, then he seems to be jogging in treacle in a half-hearted attempt to get back while the opposition score. If you watch the highlights of the goals we've conceded, a common theme is PLM jogging back behind the play. 

It's strange because he's not slow for the most part, but it happens a few times every game he plays, mostly in the second half. It's like he completely runs out of steam for a minute. Maybe it's a fitness thing or he's just taking a while to get used to the speed and intensity of the Premier League.

Whatever the cause, his general contribution and overall stats are pretty good, but it's being overshadowed by some really poor moments which are costing us.

Not that any of the other midfielders are doing any better. Which is why I keep banging on about playing a pair of disciplined CDMs who don't wander out of position.

[King of spain 5]

From the games I've seen i really don't think he is any better than mclean, rupp etc but maybe a good squad player. A bit like Rupp and Gilmour, it's not clear what his role is in the team - box to box midfielder he is not 

[Hardhouse44 289]

Looks like they all look. Not good enough for the level we are trying to compete at!

[Thingy 36]

Before signing for us he was playing wide on the left protecting his left-back and getting the ball forwards early on the counter. Why don't we try that?

[lake district canary 4,836]

Like several other new players, we have yet to see him/them at their best as they are all still acclimatising to a new country, a super difficult league, each other and what is required in a Farke team.  It is that combination of factors that is contributing to such a start as we have had.

I would liken it to growing pains - the potential is there in LM as with the others, but there will be some pain before they grow into the team we would like them to be.  LM will score one or two, a bit like Stiepy used to more than Vrancic (imo) who was less physical than LM appears to be.  He will learn he needs to chase back a bit quicker because Farke will be demanding it and should be decent for us and he has a good eye for a pass too.  

Encouraging, so far, but more to come from him imo, as well as with the others.

 

 

[Uncle Fred 526]

Bang average at best 

[Yellow and Green 352]

All of our midfielders are good but none of them will be part of a successful PL midfield without a big, physical cdm.

[NWC 318]

He's OK - if you watch him he often runs out of puff at about 60mins. For example watch him jog back after kenny loses the ball for Everton's second goal.

Hopefully once fitness is secured he will be a good addition to the squad if not always a regular starter. 

[AJ 1,359]

Looked good in pre-season but has had the life puffed out of him by our recent run of form. As NWC says above, questions about his fitness but I think he's a good option in our midfield akin to Kenny, a bit more physical and happy to put himself about, but has an eye for a good pass and shot. Can see he was bought in for his experience as well, in the cup game he was constantly telling the younger lads where to be for set pieces and things

[hogesar 10,775]

Yeah I like him. Presses well (as your graphics says) seems to win the ball well and has a good range of passing, actually decent range with both feet from what I've seen. Seems to tire late on into games but certainly capable.

[canarydan23 4,770]

If you'd ask me to pick our best 11, PLM would be in it alongside Normann in a 4-2-3-1. Won't happen though.

[Thumbbass 367]

Better than Kenny, Rupp and Gilmour. Best partner for Normann in the middle.

[Petriix 3,222]

I've been thinking about this a bit more and concluded that 'applying pressure' doesn't necessarily imply that you're a good player - the list is hardly full of top names. Obviously Palace play a very specific pressing game; whether we could do something similar with success is a different question. I'd say there's probably a correlation between PLM pressing higher up the pitch and those situations where he gets caught out of position.

[RugbyCanary 106]

41 minutes ago, canarydan23 said:

If you'd ask me to pick our best 11, PLM would be in it alongside Normann in a 4-2-3-1. Won't happen though.

I agree!! Him or Sorenson. But I can't see Daniel reverting to that formation - I know I would!!! 

[spencer 1970 214]

10 hours ago, Uncle Fred said:

Bang average at best 

Binner!

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,261]

14 hours ago, Petriix said:

I've been a strong critic of his. Here's why:

He generally looks quite tidy, strong and physical. His positioning and tactical awareness are mostly decent and, while he's not quite clicked yet in an attacking sense, you feel like he could well chip in with a few goals and assists this season.

But, he is prone to completely switching off and getting caught horribly out of position, then he seems to be jogging in treacle in a half-hearted attempt to get back while the opposition score. If you watch the highlights of the goals we've conceded, a common theme is PLM jogging back behind the play. 

It's strange because he's not slow for the most part, but it happens a few times every game he plays, mostly in the second half. It's like he completely runs out of steam for a minute. Maybe it's a fitness thing or he's just taking a while to get used to the speed and intensity of the Premier League.

Whatever the cause, his general contribution and overall stats are pretty good, but it's being overshadowed by some really poor moments which are costing us.

Not that any of the other midfielders are doing any better. Which is why I keep banging on about playing a pair of disciplined CDMs who don't wander out of position.

Our whole team is guilty of that to be fair. Even Normann I've been screaming at several times in his two games to get back quicker. We're the only team in the league that doesn't sprint back into position every time we lose the ball. It generally makes a lot of other PL games terrible to watch because it usually results in the ball pin balling back and forth across the middle third with few chances created but there's a good reason that every other team is instructed to do this because it makes you hard to score against.

 

What I don't know is whether it's a tactical issue or whether it's another symptom of our lack of athleticism. Is Farke trying to keep us higher up the pitch or are we just not capable of sprinting backwards and forwards all game like other teams? Probably a bit of both but it does make us look very lackadaisical and lazy and it's frustrating. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Christoph Stiepermann

[Capt. Pants 5,019]

He's ok no worse than the rest of them, there's a lot more to come hopefully. Looks a bit spindly though, could do with bulking out a bit. Defo needs to improve his staminar for the English game.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,202]

He looked good on his highlights reel. Yet to see him do anything particularly convincing in a yellow shirt, but the same can be said about all our players so far this season. 

His size at least puts him ahead of Gilmour in my book if a choice has to be made. 

Im hoping Lees-Melou will come good and he was cheaper than Yanic Wildshut, RvW, Steven Whittaker and about the same price as Odjidja-Ofoe I believe who all contributed very little, despite high hopes.

He is probably still adapting. A midfield pairing of him and Normann would be pretty solid I reckon

[ged in the onion bag 963]

Far too soon to tell, they all need time to settle and get used to this league.   When the team finally gels, (probably a couple of months yet) we will see what they have to offer.    

[C.I.D 358]

13 hours ago, Uncle Fred said:

Bang average at best 

A country mile better than your posts then 🤪