Lavery- Lack of service or just not good enough?

Shiggy

Shiggy

Well-known member
Lavery has been one of my favourite players since he joined. I remember thinking during those first few months in the championship that we had a real player on our hands.

Since then it hasn't gone to plan. He's had a fair few injuries and was also stuck out on the wing for the majority of last season.

What I've noticed recently, however, is that the service he receives is absolutely crap. I felt really sorry for him on saturday. It's not even necessarily the fact that it's mostly long balls, it's the fact that these long balls aren't even played directly to him, it's always 15 yards ahead. It's as if we know he's a hard worker so we just hit and hope and it's often a lost cause.

It's really frustrating because I actually think he's a decent player when he's 1v1 with the defender, but he rarely gets in those positions because we're constantly trying to feed it over the top to him.

I posted a thread on saturday discussing whether this squad was good enough for promotion, A lot of the responses stressed that it is, and that the problem was the manager not getting the best out of certain players, to which I disagreed.

However, I think Lavery is a genuine example where he's not suited to the system and the manager is trying to fit square pegs in round holes if he's instructing the players to just lump it long to him in the hope he can feed off scraps.
 
He needs to improve is ball control, he needs too many touches to get it under, we don't help him with the way we play though.
 
Sadly he's just not kicking on unfortunately. He looked electric at times pre his injury spells.

He doesn't seem to have what it takes to beat a man unless he's slipped in behind their defensive line. That's a skill you need to have when you're his size and build otherwise you're going to really struggle.
 
Bit of both. In the first half on Saturday he had that one on one but he didn’t run away from the defender and I never thought he looked liked scoring from an excellent opportunity.
 
Decent player, been unlucky and not played to his strengths but seems to have lost something!
Wouldn’t be disappointed to see him move on but conversely would be happy for him to stay as an attacking option and see if he can fulfil the early promise
 
1966_and_all_that said:
He's spent a lot of his time here chasing after the ball. I wanted him to be a Greaves / Lineker poacher. It's never properly happened. That said, I think there is that type of player in him.
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Tend to agree with you here on that type of player but unfortunately a much worse version.

He huffs and puffs a lot but ultimately he just isn’t skilful enough.
 
fcblackpool said:
He is good enough. No question. He's coming back from injury and will take time to get up to speed. Also not helped with long balls to his head.

The service he gets isn't right for him. He needs to be left side of the pen area and wants no more than 2 touches- second being a shot.
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I think that's the problem, every time he gets fully fit he gets a hamstring injury and it takes him ages to get fully fit, I would say he is some way off still
 
playing long balls to him at head height is never going to work. could be a very good striker but at the moment hes going backwards. Its just another player who gets stuck in Critchleys rigid ways of playing.

Critchley by now, two thirds of the way through the season, should be able to set up the team to make best use of the players individual andn collective talents.
 
The Catcher in the Rye said:
Decent player, been unlucky and not played to his strengths but seems to have lost something!
Wouldn’t be disappointed to see him move on but conversely would be happy for him to stay as an attacking option and see if he can fulfil the early promise
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When he sighed he looked a real handful, had the pedigree with his goals for Northen Ireland and looked a real prospect. Then he did his hamstring at home to Blackburn and to be honest had never looked the same player since. He is to injury prone, feels like a Rooney type to me in that he needs games to be in trim otherwise he always looks like he is carrying to much timber. As others have said his ball control is really poor. Why we lump it up to him to try and win headers that he never will will is beyond me so there is that question do we play to his strengths - possibly not - but I’m not really sure what his strengths are as he is never fit enough to get a run of games to really showcase them for me. One to be let go in the summer for an upgrade I feel sadly .
 
We are a, team with a lot of similar players.
Lavery is very different, and if he regains his form then he is a player who if used correctly could be a real plan B who would probably more suit 4 4 2,not sure Critchley would ever sanction a, switch of that magnitude though.
 
Had a lot of injury’s and probably catching up with him now. I know it’s said a lot but before that injury against Blackburn he looked the real deal. He has never shown that form since.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
playing long balls to him at head height is never going to work. could be a very good striker but at the moment hes going backwards. Its just another player who gets stuck in Critchleys rigid ways of playing.

Critchley by now, two thirds of the way through the season, should be able to set up the team to make best use of the players individual andn collective talents.
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"Stuck in Critchley's rigid ways..."

About right.
 
Put him in against a team that tap it around at the back and he will get you three chances a match with his pressing, in fact, he would be an ideal player to play against Blackpool. I wish every Blackpool player had his desire to win the ball and I wish his countryman Andy Lyons was also given a chance.
 
Two ways of looking at this. Rhodes scores with the same service, and he's not, so Lavery has to work on his speed, ball control, and positioning. That's on the player and Critchley. The team does not attack or defend as a team and surprise, surprise that is also on Critchley. The lad needs a run of games in his preferred position and hopefully stays clear of injuries. This is where speed will help him as he needs to be gone before trouble finds him.
 
Theoneandonly said:
Two ways of looking at this. Rhodes scores with the same service, and he's not, so Lavery has to work on his speed, ball control, and positioning. That's on the player and Critchley. The team does not attack or defend as a team and surprise, surprise that is also on Critchley. The lad needs a run of games in his preferred position and hopefully stays clear of injuries. This is where speed will help him as he needs to be gone before trouble finds him.
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Two entirely different players and one vastly more experienced, and just to add Rhodes was struggling to hit the net before he got injured.
 
Shiggy said:
Lavery has been one of my favourite players since he joined. I remember thinking during those first few months in the championship that we had a real player on our hands.

Since then it hasn't gone to plan. He's had a fair few injuries and was also stuck out on the wing for the majority of last season.

What I've noticed recently, however, is that the service he receives is absolutely crap. I felt really sorry for him on saturday. It's not even necessarily the fact that it's mostly long balls, it's the fact that these long balls aren't even played directly to him, it's always 15 yards ahead. It's as if we know he's a hard worker so we just hit and hope and it's often a lost cause.

It's really frustrating because I actually think he's a decent player when he's 1v1 with the defender, but he rarely gets in those positions because we're constantly trying to feed it over the top to him.

I posted a thread on saturday discussing whether this squad was good enough for promotion, A lot of the responses stressed that it is, and that the problem was the manager not getting the best out of certain players, to which I disagreed.

However, I think Lavery is a genuine example where he's not suited to the system and the manager is trying to fit square pegs in round holes if he's instructing the players to just lump it long to him in the hope he can feed off scraps.
Click to expand...
I think it is a bit of both. Service into him has been poor, especially now we’ve given up trying to pass it through midfield and just hoof it long. He’s never going to win headers against 6ft centre backs.
That said his first touch is generally poor and he seems to have issues with his balance weirdly. Falls over a hell of a lot when running with/for the ball. I hope he can regain some form but I’m not sure.
 
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