[Albion] Locadia Today

[Triggaaar]

From the extended highlights he looked very good yesterday, in particular his % of successful passes. Apart from the unnecessary free kick at the end from which Everton rattled the bar, I didn't see JL make a single error all match. He looks big too so the number 9 shirt really will fit him well.

For all our progress, it's disappointing to learn we still don't have different sized shirts for our players.

Watching the full Arsenal game again, I didn't see him make a mistake until after 70 minutes, when one of his passes went awry.

As for Florin Andone, he looks a real handful.

Agreed, he looks like a nightmare to play against. He won't give up on a ball.

 

[Seasider78]

One thing I will say about Locadia is almost every one of his passes is intelligent and positive moving us forwards as a unit. Looked like a token gesture playing him as the wide side of a 3 but I think that is where he was used for PSV and certainly looks more at home there than as a central striker

Shirt is his to lose now

 

[Djmiles]

Agreed, he looks like a nightmare to play against. He won't give up on a ball.

We’ve had players in the past like that (Alex Revell springs to mind), but Andone seems to have a bit of everything to go with it. That goal against Palace was pure class.

 

[Triggaaar]

If I could be bothered, I would check to see if it was the same posters who claimed after pre season friendlies and a couple of matches that Matty Ryan should be ditched. I'll bet it was though......

Every year they're proved wrong, and they never change.

For my part, I was doubting whether Locadia was good enough, but I didn't slag him off because someone needs to be a really lazy **** for me to slag them off while they wear our shirt. I simply hoped (and wrote) that he'd prove me wrong, and he has.

 

[Triggaaar]

I'm getting a bit sick of all the 'told you so' posts about Locadia. No, most of you didn't tell us so.

I don't think people are saying 'told you he was great' because, like you say, they didn't. I think they're simply saying 'told you not to write him off', which many did.

When we break a club record to buy a player, it is quite reasonable to expect them to make an impact, sooner rather than later. Locadia didn't get handed many chances it is true, but those chances he got, no-one could justifiably claim he grabbed with both hands;

Sure, but it's not his fault we broke the transfer record to get him, and that was more to do with current prices and the fact we've never spent much before. And no, he didn't grab his chance like Andone has, but he was getting more criticism than he deserved IMO.

"There may be a footballer in there somewhere, but.............." was a not unreasonable summary of his early appearances. Now - at last - he's finally shown us a bit of what he's capable of, and it looks good. Great. Brilliant! I'm delighted! Long may it continue, and may he carry on scoring lots of goals and become a club goal scoring legend over the next 2-3-4 seasons.

But ................................................. had it not been for the last couple of games, I'd still be thinking that a loan move in January might be the best thing for him to try and get his mojo back, and that maybe we'd have to take a loss on moving him on, and OK, the recruitment team is brilliant but even they might get it wrong occasionally.

Agreed.

And I make no apology to anyone for that, and nor do I concede the moral high ground or superiority to those who are now clamouring to say, no, never had any doubts. Never? Yeh, right!

Please point out who is saying (without their tongue wedged in their cheek) that they never had any doubts? If you thought a loan move might be best, to get his mojo back, then you're not really one of the ones that was giving him a lot of shit, so the piss-taking posts at those writing him off are not aimed at you.

 

[Triggaaar]

When did he ever get dogs abuse!?

Presumably after his dodgy performance against Athletico? Propper would have had the same, as he also took a couple of games to settle. The difference with those two, is that we had no real choice but to play them. Locadia got a small chance, and was soon dropped for the in-form Murray and Gross.

 

[Stat Brother]

Jurgen Locadia has endured dogs' abuse by some football 'consumers' who expect instant gratification and forget their venom is being aimed at a sentient fellow human being. Credit to him for demonstrating to the management that he had the skill and backbone needed to start a match. He was fighting for his place in spite of the chorus of negativity and I am sure this contributed to earlier under performance.
I could never understand the motives of any one on here screaming for him to be discarded or sold for whatever we can get for him; it just made matters worse.
If I could be bothered, I would check to see if it was the same posters who claimed after pre season friendlies and a couple of matches that Matty Ryan should be ditched. I'll bet it was though......

The answer to your question is an emphatic


YES.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

He has that rare ability to not be selfish if he sees someone in a better scoring position. That will serve him and us well

 

[Horses Arse]

The answer to your question is an emphatic


YES.

Hands up from me re Maty Ryan; 4 or 5 matches in with a big mistake per match I thought we should turn to Krul. Too many mistakes being made. Maty Ryan thought so too judging by various comments and interviews he made, he then turned it around.

There's certainly a lesson there about taking time to bed in and Locadia got more slack in that respect than Maty because poor performances from a keeper have such poor consequences. You can only judge on what you see and I saw poor touch, poor co-ordination and someone with zero confidence from Locadia - as did everyone else at the games he played in. That seems to be turning around now and thany f@Ck for that! It's taken a while.

 

[dazzer6666]

There was no dogs abuse, no venom, no chorus of negativity. It was merely observations that he looked totally and utterly useless. In fact think he was given more support and backing here than anywhere else where a new signing bombs. He really looked very very far from being any sort of a footballer prior to the Bournemouth game. The only thing that some people had faith in was that he cost £14m and the recruitment team had recently been doing a good job - that is all.

He's had three really good games. That's great and I reckon he will kick on now (certainly hope so) but that doesn't mean he was unfairly treated previously. He was just playing badly. Really really badly.

I don’t think he was. He had very few starts/minutes...and even when he did start, or had a few minutes cameo, he wasn’t being played in a formation that suited his game, or the state of the game meant his opportunities were very limited. He showed signs of being decent - good first touch, intelligent running off the ball, decent strength. He did a few things that drove the social media extreme reactions (falling over the ball, missing a simple header etc) and gave the appearance of being ‘lazy’ at times (this continued against Arsenal when he checked his run as he knew he was offside, but didn’t stop the bloke a couple of rows behind me shouting ‘****ing useless lazy ***t, **** off’.....definitely dogs abuse......and wrong). He’s never looked totally and utterly useless, very, very far from looking like a footballer or really, really bad to me personally.

He’s been coached in the ‘CH’ way (has certainly taken a while) - especially defending where the last couple of games shows he now gets it. We’ve seemingly adopted a tactical tweak with more of a 451/433 thing rather than him being stuck out on the wing.......I reckon this was in part to accommodate him (as CH has said, he’s been ‘training very well’ etc). Maybe CH was waiting for him to click to undertake the change, I dunno.

Early days for ‘New Jurgen’ for sure, but after a very decent first half against Bournemouth closely followed by two near-MOTM performances and two goals, I’m hoping we’ve got another gem in the making.

 

[Horses Arse]

I don’t think he was. He had very few starts/minutes...and even when he did start, or had a few minutes cameo, he wasn’t being played in a formation that suited his game, or the state of the game meant his opportunities were very limited. He showed signs of being decent - good first touch, intelligent running off the ball, decent strength. He did a few things that drove the social media extreme reactions (falling over the ball, missing a simple header etc) and gave the appearance of being ‘lazy’ at times (this continued against Arsenal when he checked his run as he knew he was offside, but didn’t stop the bloke a couple of rows behind me shouting ‘****ing useless lazy ***t, **** off’.....definitely dogs abuse......and wrong). He’s never looked totally and utterly useless, very, very far from looking like a footballer or really, really bad to me personally.

He’s been coached in the ‘CH’ way (has certainly taken a while) - especially defending where the last couple of games shows he now gets it. We’ve seemingly adopted a tactical tweak with more of a 451/433 thing rather than him being stuck out on the wing.......I reckon this was in part to accommodate him (as CH has said, he’s been ‘training very well’ etc). Maybe CH was waiting for him to click to undertake the change, I dunno.

Early days for ‘New Jurgen’ for sure, but after a very decent first half against Bournemouth closely followed by two near-MOTM performances and two goals, I’m hoping we’ve got another gem in the making.

There are loads of excuses for his bloody awful performances that are rolled out. Andone, Ali J, Izzy before him all looked like decent players from the off despite their cameo performances. All that could be seen from Locadia was that he got into decent positions, the problems then started when he received the ball. I'm sure there were isolated people shouting abuse in the crowd but does this constitute dogs abuse? He was applauded on and off the pitch (rightly so) by the vast vast majority despite being bloody useless. It wasn't like that carthorse that generated a chorus of 'you're not fit to wear the shirt' at MK Dons (forgotten his name for the moment thankfully)

The same excuses were used for Manu and I thought Locadia was going the same way. Thankfully he seems to have finally turned things around. Perhaps someone pointed out that it was him and not circumstances; who knows. Bloody pleased i was wrong that he was destined to be shipped out at a massive loss though.

I even defended Liam Dickinson before succumbing to the fact that he was utterly shite - Locadia reminded me very much of Liam until recently.

 

[Triggaaar]

There are loads of excuses for his bloody awful performances that are rolled out. Andone, Ali J, Izzy before him all looked like decent players from the off despite their cameo performances. All that could be seen from Locadia was that he got into decent positions, the problems then started when he received the ball.

Andone is the odd one out, he's been brilliant as a striker. Izzy and Ali J were playing on the wing, where they got some time to get into a game, as Jurgen has in the last couple of games. Earlier, however, he was isolated up front, and struggling. Not that he was awful from the off, he scored in his first couple of games. He also scored earlier this season, but it was incorrectly ruled out. He's also made a few mistakes, like miss-controlling the ball when it looked like he'd be through one-on-one, and he has an unusual gait which makes it look like he's not a footballer at all.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Several people, claiming they knew all along that Locadia was brilliant and the rest of us were fools! You owning up?

I think it’s been pretty obvious I wasn’t one of those!

 

[BNthree]

and he has an unusual gait which makes it look like he's not a footballer at all.

 

[ShandyH]

He's an upgrade on a player who never got so much as a sniff when we got into the PL? Oh well, well worth £15M then!

Well, Premier League safety is probably worth £150m these days and needs roughly 40 points. His goals just got us four of those in two games against top teams so it works out exactly at that number. Lol. Give the guy a chance. He’s coming good.

 

[Rogero]

His passing was superb as nothing seemed to be wasted. We just need Ali J to come good and I think he will as he is too easily knocked off the ball.

 

[FIVESTEPS]

Bergkamp by his own admission took a year to adapt to playing in England.After joining Arsenal for 7.5 million three times there previous transfer record he failed to score in his first six games and was derided in the press.He finished that season with 11 goals in 33 appearances.Expecting a striker to adapt quickly to the premier league which is several rungs above the Dutch league and a new country is rather optimistic.Perhaps a bit more patience is required before passing judgement.

 

[wealdgull]

Special mention for this piece of skill against Coleman

 

[Springal]

I think a lot of fans probably judged him harshly to based on appearance, music thing etc. But actually in video and written interviews he comes across very well.

Most recent being https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/17326718.jurgen-locadia-i-never-wanted-to-leave/

Think the last paragraph is interesting so possibly needed some guidance from other players

 

[spence]

I think a lot of fans probably judged him harshly to based on appearance, music thing etc. But actually in video and written interviews he comes across very well.

Most recent being https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/17326718.jurgen-locadia-i-never-wanted-to-leave/

Think the last paragraph is interesting so possibly needed some guidance from other players

You might not be old enough to remember but the Locadia situation reminds me of the Guy Butters saga.
Guy was hated by a lot of Albion folk and was even put on eBay. Eventually he knuckled down and became a fans favourite.
I can see this repeating itself with Jurgen. Hope so