What is Tom Lawrence's Best Position?

[Chris_Martin]

1 minute ago, wollatonram said:

on the bench as an impact player.

tom lawrence is our most overrated player, he offers limited danger and opposition teams know to get him to give the ball away you give him a sight of goal from distance and he will spoon his shot anywhere but the goal.

nobody in this division dislikes playing against him, he is a poor player and the sooner we stop building up bang average players the better

Huddersfield? 

[wollatonram]

40 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

"Lawrence doesn't get his head up and runs into blind alleys". Well, I hate to break the news to you all but Lawrence is good at retaining the ball.

Balls lost per 90*

1. Lawrence - 3.6
2. Knight - 3.9
3. Holmes - 4.4
4. Waghorn - 4.7
5. Jozwiak - 5.5
6. Whittaker - 8.9

*Failed dribbles, bad touches and dispossessed. 

 

Okay, so we've established that Lawrence isn't lazy as his defensive is the best of all our wingers and offensive contributions are 2nd best. We've previously learned that he's our most creative winger, putting in 25% more key passes per 90 than our 2nd best. We've also just learned that he's good at retaining the ball. What about finding a man once he has it?

Successful passes per 90

1. Knight - 33.3 (82.2%)
2. Whittaker - 30.9 (84.3%)
3. Lawrence - 26.3 (81.6%)
4. Holmes - 25.3 (73.9%)
5. Jozwiak - 17.7 (72.5%)
6. Waghorn - 11.5 (69.0%)

 

Well, we're quickly running out of things to criticize him for. How about a lack of crosses?

Crosses per 90

1. Whittaker - 6.8
2. Lawrence - 3.2
3. Holmes - 1.7
4. Knight - 1.3
5. Jozwiak - 0.8
6. Waghorn - 0.6

Successful Crosses per 90

1. Lawrence - 1.16
2. Whittaker - 0.52
3. Holmes - 0.38
4. Knight - 0.28
5. Waghorn - 0.15
6. Jozwiak - 0.12

 

What's left?

These stats have no context, you could get any stat and claim any argument. for example how is passing backwards a positive trait for a winger?

here is a stat, 0 goals and 0 assists all season

[Mostyn6]

7 minutes ago, wollatonram said:

These stats have no context, you could get any stat and claim any argument. for example how is passing backwards a positive trait for a winger?

here is a stat, 0 goals and 0 assists all season

That stat could be about 94% of our team! Why bully Lawrence?

[Ghost of Clough]

11 minutes ago, wollatonram said:

These stats have no context, you could get any stat and claim any argument. for example how is passing backwards a positive trait for a winger?

here is a stat, 0 goals and 0 assists all season

 

3 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

That stat could be about 94% of our team! Why bully Lawrence?

Figures for the Coventry game.

Percentage of successful passes going backwards:

1. Marshall - 0%
2. Davies - 0%
3. Wisdom - 26.4%
4. Jozwiak - 28.6%
5. Buchanan - 30.8%
6. Clarke - 39.4%
7. Bielik - 39.4%
8. Bird - 43.1%
9. Byrne - 43.4%
10. Holmes - 51.4%
11. Lawrence - 51.7%
12. Knight - 52.6%
13. Kazim - 60.0%
14. Stretton - 100%

His figures don't stand out from the other forwards (Jozwiak aside who only made 7 passes).

[Spanish]

4 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

If that's your argument against Lawrence then I'm awaiting to see your abuse for the rest of the squad.

Key passes per 90:

1. Rooney - 2.3
2. Kazim - 1.9
3. Lawrence - 1.5
4. Byrne 1.4
5. Jozwiak - 1.2
6. Shinnie - 1.2
7. Whittaker - 1
8. Waghorn - 1
9. Roos(!) - 1

but when you watch him what do you think?  One of those things where the stats tell half a story and it is the frustration of seeing somebody that looks like a game changer and is not.  After a long time of watching his contribution I don't think he will ever get to the standard expected (it is a high bar though).  He is supposed to be out star and he isn't

[Ghost of Clough]

2 minutes ago, Spanish said:

but when you watch him what do you think?  One of those things where the stats tell half a story and it is the frustration of seeing somebody that looks like a game changer and is not.  After a long time of watching his contribution I don't think he will ever get to the standard expected (it is a high bar though).  He is supposed to be out star and he isn't

I still see him as our best wide man. One of only two players in our squad who can score a goal from nothing. Then there are games were he becomes petulant and occasionally at risk of a suspension. Most wingers in this league blow hot and cold. That's why we should be rotating our wingers (especially as we have 5 subs). You know by half time if he's going to have a bad game or not, which is when we should be subbing him off at the half way mark - Boro was an obvious example.

[AndyinLiverpool]

I'm just sick of watching him contribute almost nothing to every game.

Stick him in the reserves.

Might as well give someone else the chance to contribute.

[Taribo]

7 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

 You know by half time if he's going to have a bad game or not, which is when we should be subbing him off at the half way mark 

This is exactly what I used to say about Chris Martin, except you could tell in the first five minutes. He'd normally fall over within 30 seconds of the game starting, if we got a freekick then he'd go on to have a good game, if not then we'd be in for a long afternoon of whinging.

[DcfcMatt]

Reverse cowboy ? 

[Alph]

I find myself agreeing that he's one of our better players. 

Which is more evidence of how pants we are. Because he's good at dribbling and if he doesn't have anywhere to go he will find a white shirt. 

But when it comes to delivering the right pass/cross at the right time he is terrible. It's either too late, too long, too high or he shoots. 

And considering the positions he gets himself in through his obvious dribbling ability and good touch he is wasting his own gift. 

I wouldn't single him out because he's one of better players. But it's players like Lawrence that have taken this team backwards. Consistently giving 6/10 performances. There are loads of them. Wisdom, Forsyth, Shinnie, Evans, Holmes... some of them give you a 4/10 as often as an 8/10

Compare it to the team we had with Hughes, Hendrick, Bryson, Martin and Ince (yes Ince) who would regularly pop up with an 8 or 9 between their 6 and 7's. 

Lawrence gives you an 8 out of 10 a handful of times per season. Which a couple of years ago was an issue. Now it'd be nice if several other players could deliver such class. 

 

[Amberram]

Sat at the bar in the Joiners 

[FLCDCFC]

Out the club???

[Sparkle]

5 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

If that's your argument against Lawrence then I'm awaiting to see your abuse for the rest of the squad.

Key passes per 90:

1. Rooney - 2.3
2. Kazim - 1.9
3. Lawrence - 1.5
4. Byrne 1.4
5. Jozwiak - 1.2
6. Shinnie - 1.2
7. Whittaker - 1
8. Waghorn - 1
9. Roos(!) - 1

He’s not scored since we beat reading in June and I can’t remember anything significant since then - your reference to abuse is inappropriate by the way 

[Premier ram]

1 hour ago, Spanish said:

but when you watch him what do you think?  One of those things where the stats tell half a story and it is the frustration of seeing somebody that looks like a game changer and is not.  After a long time of watching his contribution I don't think he will ever get to the standard expected (it is a high bar though).  He is supposed to be out star and he isn't

When i watch Tom i see him as our only match winner , much as the opposition do , hence why some double mark him , think a few comments on here are very harsh towards Lawrence

[Sparkle]

5 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Then we replaced him with Lee Croft.  To be honest since the days of Mcminn I can't really remember us having a full on out and out wide player since bar Jozwiak.  To be honest he seems to be keen on drifting inside as well.  Even Simpson who came in as a winger started playing central. 

Now Simpson was a good player !

[Chris_Martin]

5 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

He’s not scored since we beat reading in June and I can’t remember anything significant since then - your reference to abuse is inappropriate by the way 

Who has though?? 

[Chris_Martin]

2 hours ago, wollatonram said:

These stats have no context, you could get any stat and claim any argument. for example how is passing backwards a positive trait for a winger?

here is a stat, 0 goals and 0 assists all season

Yep there's a few of them on that 

[AndyinLiverpool]

3 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

Who has though?? 

Knight, Marriott, Whitaker, Shinnie, Sibley, Waghorn, Rooney...

Even Chris Martin has scored more for us since then.

[Sparkle]

2 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

Yep there's a few of them on that 

So we should keep selecting them then?

[Wolfie20]

2 hours ago, wollatonram said:

on the bench as an impact player.

tom lawrence is our most overrated player, he offers limited danger and opposition teams know to get him to give the ball away you give him a sight of goal from distance and he will spoon his shot anywhere but the goal.

nobody in this division dislikes playing against him, he is a poor player and the sooner we stop building up bang average players the better

You know 'nobody in this division dislikes playing against him' how exactly? You state it as though it's fact  - it's not, it's your opinion.