London Irish
Well-known member
BW2, the argument isn't that Leon hasn't scored on Saturday, it's that he hasn't scored all season, his goals-to-chances ratio has been not good enough in most of the games he's played.
"he needs to be running at players from just outside the box and in the centre... not from the wing, where the threat he creates is much reduced".
The problem with that reasoning is that the more pacier central defenders of the Championship have used their greater strength to deny Leon the ball when he's been playing up front. Leon has been heavily marked when "just outside the box and in the centre" and has lost the physical battle and drifted out of games.
Leon has actually looked FAR BETTER in a more withdrawn role or on the wing, because he gets the ball without the central defender on top of him, and then has more space and time to use his dribbling skill and pace to cause problems.
On Saturday, the irony was that he did his best work out on the wing or in deeper positions. Although we were playing 4-4-2, it was a little more fluid than that as McGhee was clearly ordering at times Leon and at times Claridge to drop far deeper even when we had possession.
McGhee is frustrated with Leon's ineffectiveness around the box and is simply trying to get the best out of him in the difficult circumstances of opposing some classy defences.
It's too early to tell whether Leon has an endemic fault in his game (lack of strength) to really be a top-class striker at this level of football. But McGhee can't leave league points behind while he finds out.
Virgs will definitely play, and Leon may only get his chance to play because Claridge has not exactly set the world on fire in the last 3 games either.
"he needs to be running at players from just outside the box and in the centre... not from the wing, where the threat he creates is much reduced".
The problem with that reasoning is that the more pacier central defenders of the Championship have used their greater strength to deny Leon the ball when he's been playing up front. Leon has been heavily marked when "just outside the box and in the centre" and has lost the physical battle and drifted out of games.
Leon has actually looked FAR BETTER in a more withdrawn role or on the wing, because he gets the ball without the central defender on top of him, and then has more space and time to use his dribbling skill and pace to cause problems.
On Saturday, the irony was that he did his best work out on the wing or in deeper positions. Although we were playing 4-4-2, it was a little more fluid than that as McGhee was clearly ordering at times Leon and at times Claridge to drop far deeper even when we had possession.
McGhee is frustrated with Leon's ineffectiveness around the box and is simply trying to get the best out of him in the difficult circumstances of opposing some classy defences.
It's too early to tell whether Leon has an endemic fault in his game (lack of strength) to really be a top-class striker at this level of football. But McGhee can't leave league points behind while he finds out.
Virgs will definitely play, and Leon may only get his chance to play because Claridge has not exactly set the world on fire in the last 3 games either.
