Maguire-Drew

Echo the thoughts of others about JMD's quality, however could be used in games we are expected to dominate at home against teams we are fancied to have alot more of the ball and not chasing? Just a thought but I'm glad he's upset and p!ssed off not to be starting. Had too many players over the years that are happy to just be here and collect a wage.

He's just not naturally as athletic as many (or even most?) professional players. I don't think fitness is a massive part of things for him right now. With his ability, if he had the running capacity of Clifton, he'd be playing a couple of divisions higher. As it stands, he has bags of ability and an eye for goal, but he's not going to outrun anybody or be able to get back and defend as effectively as most, either. Bringing him off the bench is a good ploy and he certainly seems to do better as a supersub to me.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

It’s a drawback of the modern game that workrate is preferred to skill and quality. I always think there’s room for more balance and if your going to accommodate hard working players like agree and Clifton there should be room to play someone with JMD’s qualities and have the grafters cover his weaknesses.

Workrate should be an absolute given. Not a nice to have. I get a player might have a weakness in touch, passing or finishing. All things that still should be worked on in training. But workrate is a basic and a prerequisite. Sorry if I am morphing into Roy Keane but players with ability, such as JMD, should not be allowed to be excused the basics of any footballer. Tracking back, closing down, recovery runs.....absolute basics.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

How can he still not be fit? Not injured since about March and a full pre season.

It's not about that. You can put all the effort and hard work, if your body isn't up to getting fit enough to do 90 minutes of professional football itll take a fair bit of time to get it to where you need it to be

JMD should probably watch Harry Clifton. JMD is miles and miles ahead of Harry in terms of ability and end product yet Hurst finds a reason to consistently pick Harry week in week out. It’s workrate in both directions and not just going forward.

I don’t even think it’s fitness so much as laziness. Twice just after scoring he lazily turned his back when they feigned to cross the ball. Fortunately nothing came of it but it’s just pure laziness when defending. His ability is far better than the likes of Clifton but not to the extent that we can carry a passenger when out of possession.

Can't add anything else other than to say I really rate him and hope he reaches his full potential with us. Delivers end product in spades. Hopefully he and Wearne can nail down starting spots because we looked really dangerous with them both on the pitch.

Quoted from mariner91

I don’t even think it’s fitness so much as laziness. Twice just after scoring he lazily turned his back when they feigned to cross the ball. Fortunately nothing came of it but it’s just pure laziness when defending. His ability is far better than the likes of Clifton but not to the extent that we can carry a passenger when out of possession.

This might be a bit controversial and I do see your point and understand it, but calling him ‘lazy’ isn’t fair in my view. He’s a very good offensive player who has delivered for us many times. Im not sure I want him to expend loads of his energy defending, getting behind the ball or tracking runners when our shape doesn’t necessarily demand that he does that. I see him as an outlet and don’t mind if he stays fairly high up the pitch when we don’t have the ball. He’s not in the team to defend and doesn’t really have that skill set. He finishes, creates, runs at defenders, delivers crosses and set pieces to a high standard. I’d rather he used his fuel focusing on that.

Also - little point in comparing him to Clifton - they are different kinds of players - Clifton is ‘box to box’ and has a different set of attributes. JMD made a huge contribution to our promotion and I hope he doesn’t read comments that peg him as ‘lazy’ or ‘unfit’. Squads are made with a blend. He is what he is - some games it will be tactically right for him to start, some maybe not. Depends on our system and opponents.

He has the natural habit of always being in the right place at the right time.
No coaching or fitness plan can ever be a substitute for this.
He reminds me a bit of di canio.
Pops up at vital times to pull us out the shite.
Hurst was too negative imho yesterday playing one up top at home in our first game.
It invited them on to is too many times and the ball just seemed to bounce off Taylor,who tried hard up there on his own as always.
Imagine this Taylor and desi up front, jmd and wearne out wide, Clifton ,holohan through the middle. We should of kept desi imho ,we dropped a bollock there.

Quoted from chaos33

This might be a bit controversial and I do see your point and understand it, but calling him ‘lazy’ isn’t fair in my view. He’s a very good offensive player who has delivered for us many times. Im not sure I want him to expend loads of his energy defending, getting behind the ball or tracking runners when our shape doesn’t necessarily demand that he does that. I see him as an outlet and don’t mind if he stays fairly high up the pitch when we don’t have the ball. He’s not in the team to defend and doesn’t really have that skill set. He finishes, creates, runs at defenders, delivers crosses and set pieces to a high standard. I’d rather he used his fuel focusing on that.

Also - little point in comparing him to Clifton - they are different kinds of players - Clifton is ‘box to box’ and has a different set of attributes. JMD made a huge contribution to our promotion and I hope he doesn’t read comments that peg him as ‘lazy’ or ‘unfit’. Squads are made with a blend. He is what he is - some games it will be tactically right for him start, some maybe not. Depends on our system and opponents.

Can't disagree with any of this, all the best forwards are left to do just that, be creative, let the yardogs in midfield and the defenders deal with defending.
Far better to have jmd up the pitch where he's tying up at least two of the opposition. I don't want to see him back defending, didn't someone once say the best form of defence is attack?