LJL sending off

Quoted from promotion plaice

Maybe Hurst has decided to appeal the red card in the hope that it fails and Lenny's three-game ban gets increased to four  

I haven’t gotten to see too much of Lenny this season yet. I know he has always divided opinion but I loved him in his first spell with us, yes his finishing wasn’t always great (although I though he incrementally improved during his spell, I can’t recall who it was against but I remember a great Lenny goal from the Findus side, ball played up and Lenny spun and hit it first time cross the keeper into the far bottom corner from maybe 20 or so yards whilst holding off the defender, fantastic goals and finish, I’m sure that was in his last season with us)) but he always put in an absolute shift, would bully centre half’s for fun, he held the ball up fantastically and brought others into play with his control and pass off play up top.

I remember him hardly ever being beaten in the air when the ball was played long, it was ridiculous for a player not conventionally very tall. I would like to see the stats of his goal ‘contributions’ during his first spell during the preceding or once removed but of play as I’d suggest his numbers would be high, he just never could get the doubters off his back with his own scoring record.

But I would argue, and this always seems to stir up debate, that the role of a striker is not always to be the scorer of goals, it is whatever their style of play and build dictates. A good example would be Michael Owen, absolutely his primary role in all the teams he played was to get goals, same with Shearer, Lineker, Klinsmann et al.
However, Emile Heskey, while still a striker was not in the team primarily to be the goal getter, but for his build up and hold up play that bought others into play to score the goals. Especially during his time in an England shirt, quite different to be fair to his style of playing during his early days at Leicester I seem to recall where he was fast and could finish well.

That was how I viewed Lenny in his first spell and always thought he did terrifically well at that side of the game. When he came back end of last season I thought he made another positive impact, albeit having lost a yard of pace by was still a reasonable percentage of the Lenny of old in terms of his strengths and impact on the team style of play, and considering he had been plying his trade and 2 or 3 steps(?) lower in the pyramid.

This season, I’ve only seen him a couple of times and when I have, it seems the summer was perhaps one too many for him? I would like the opinions of others who have seen him consistently this season please…

Is his hold up/build up play up to par?
Has he lost more than a yard of pace?
Is he the same Lenny as before and actually it’s the game that has changed and quickened and he hasn’t adapted?
Can he/has he shown this season he can positively impact the team in terms of contributing to creating good chances with close control, bouncing defenders off of him and bringing others in?


Clearly, Lenny is not, and probably was never meant or intended to be, the player to fire us back up the league with his goals, but can he play a positive part in this team or is Father Time calling on his career?

Honest opinions please and not just front those that have always thought he was useless so won’t give him the time of day regardless oh how he performs. But I am interested in all different opinions of how Lenny is viewed as a player in his first spell up to present day.
It intrigues me how people see players very differently and can hold such varied opinion even when watching the same 90 minutes of football.

Apologies for the lengthy post, it’s currently 03:20 and I’m up trying to get out new puppy to have a wee and he thinks it’s bloody play time!!! Get a dog they said!!!

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

I haven’t gotten to see too much of Lenny this season yet. I know he has always divided opinion but I loved him in his first spell with us, yes his finishing wasn’t always great (although I though he incrementally improved during his spell, I can’t recall who it was against but I remember a great Lenny goal from the Findus side, ball played up and Lenny spun and hit it first time cross the keeper into the far bottom corner from maybe 20 or so yards whilst holding off the defender, fantastic goals and finish, I’m sure that was in his last season with us)) but he always put in an absolute shift, would bully centre half’s for fun, he held the ball up fantastically and brought others into play with his control and pass off play up top.

I remember him hardly ever being beaten in the air when the ball was played long, it was ridiculous for a player not conventionally very tall. I would like to see the stats of his goal ‘contributions’ during his first spell during the preceding or once removed but of play as I’d suggest his numbers would be high, he just never could get the doubters off his back with his own scoring record.

But I would argue, and this always seems to stir up debate, that the role of a striker is not always to be the scorer of goals, it is whatever their style of play and build dictates. A good example would be Michael Owen, absolutely his primary role in all the teams he played was to get goals, same with Shearer, Lineker, Klinsmann et al.
However, Emile Heskey, while still a striker was not in the team primarily to be the goal getter, but for his build up and hold up play that bought others into play to score the goals. Especially during his time in an England shirt, quite different to be fair to his style of playing during his early days at Leicester I seem to recall where he was fast and could finish well.

That was how I viewed Lenny in his first spell and always thought he did terrifically well at that side of the game. When he came back end of last season I thought he made another positive impact, albeit having lost a yard of pace by was still a reasonable percentage of the Lenny of old in terms of his strengths and impact on the team style of play, and considering he had been plying his trade and 2 or 3 steps(?) lower in the pyramid.

This season, I’ve only seen him a couple of times and when I have, it seems the summer was perhaps one too many for him? I would like the opinions of others who have seen him consistently this season please…

Is his hold up/build up play up to par?
Has he lost more than a yard of pace?
Is he the same Lenny as before and actually it’s the game that has changed and quickened and he hasn’t adapted?
Can he/has he shown this season he can positively impact the team in terms of contributing to creating good chances with close control, bouncing defenders off of him and bringing others in?


Clearly, Lenny is not, and probably was never meant or intended to be, the player to fire us back up the league with his goals, but can he play a positive part in this team or is Father Time calling on his career?

Honest opinions please and not just front those that have always thought he was useless so won’t give him the time of day regardless oh how he performs. But I am interested in all different opinions of how Lenny is viewed as a player in his first spell up to present day.
It intrigues me how people see players very differently and can hold such varied opinion even when watching the same 90 minutes of football.

Apologies for the lengthy post, it’s currently 03:20 and I’m up trying to get out new puppy to have a wee and he thinks it’s bloody play time!!! Get a dog they said!!!

My thoughts on Lenny he’s more than likely  a great dad brother son but he’s not good enough for this level of football

You refer to his hold up play. However his first touch has always been poor and then he’s wrestling with a defender for the second ball. I’ve never enjoyed watching the way he plays the game, but he has definitely deteriorated since he was last here.

The Bromsgrove game showed that he wasn’t up to standard. Against a team 2 divisions below us, he had about 6 decent chances and made a complete hash of most of them.

Hurst has a blind spot as far as LJL is concerned. He signed him for his work ethic and hold up game. Last season should have told him that we needed an upgrade to compete for the playoffs but he retained him. LJL's injury/ fitness problems killed that hope but Hurst still brought him on against Chesterfield. Being asked to mark the league's top scorer at a corner and getting unfairly sent off last night are a cruel denouement to his playing days at Town. The sad fact is that both LJL and Hurst are living on past glories.

The superior pace, control and movement of Stockport's players showed how ill equipped our squad is. It is a mistake to focus on one or two gaps in the squad. We are light in several areas as soon as injuries and suspensions kick in. Taylor has been praised for his linking play but, without McAtee and others playing well, he also can look powder puff and one paced compared to opposition strikers.

Whichever manager is in charge it will be a challenging January window to stop this slide.

Quoted from Croxton

Hurst has a blind spot as far as LJL is concerned. He signed him for his work ethic and hold up game. Last season should have told him that we needed an upgrade to compete for the playoffs but he retained him. LJL's injury/ fitness problems killed that hope but Hurst still brought him on against Chesterfield. Being asked to mark the league's top scorer at a corner and getting unfairly sent off last night are a cruel denouement to his playing days at Town. The sad fact is that both LJL and Hurst are living on past glories.

The superior pace, control and movement of Stockport's players showed how ill equipped our squad is. It is a mistake to focus on one or two gaps in the squad. We are light in several areas as soon as injuries and suspensions kick in. Taylor has been praised for his linking play but, without McAtee and others playing well, he also can look powder puff and one paced compared to opposition strikers.

Whichever manager is in charge it will be a challenging January window to stop this slide.

I agree

LJL is nothing like the LJL I remember, coming deep, holding the defender off, turning him and feeding the ball out wide. I always said that he often played the pass that lead to the assist which is nowhere to be seen in statistics. If he could finish clinically he would have never been at Blundell Park.

But this season it's painful to watch. He's winning very little, looks like he's modelling his appearance on Akinfenwa and it's not working. A lack of pre-season can't have helped but Taylor didn't have one either and he's done alright.

Yeah i feel for Lennie

I like him, but he looks 2 yards off the pace.

Relating to yesterday Red, by all accounts it never ever was and only person who thought it was a foul was the Ref

So we need 14 players for the next fixture to go ahead, given that I'd say the club are best placed NOT appealing the sending off.

As Braithwaite didn't play Hurst points out that he isn't considered a qualifying player so without LJL that leaves us with 13 players from last night's squad.

Is his hold up/build up play up to par?
Has he lost more than a yard of pace?
Is he the same Lenny as before and actually it’s the game that has changed and quickened and he hasn’t adapted?

all of these imho are true. He's even gone backwards from last season, when i thought he did pretty well, and certainly improved us up front. I don't think we will be seeing very much more of him in a Town shirt

I see Montel Gibson took his tally to 16 for the season on Saturday now I'm not saying he would have  been the solution but could he have been any worse than Lenny whose having a shocker of a season?