Thank you John Lundstram

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See the hull owner wasn't happy with his insta message

 

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that explains why he gave us the 3pts

 

[KMC-1889]

I don’t understand how this “phoning it in” narrative set hold. I never ever saw it. He rode the crest of a wave with us and was very effective for a short period of time. Then he reverted to the mean - ie. not quite as good. I can only think fans are resentful that a player they didn’t rate overall chose a bigger offer instead of staying with us. How dare he not realise that actually he’s shit etc.

There’s a game against Palace where Eze walks past him with the ball and he leaves him for Norwood to chase. Norwood got so much flak for that season with everyone saying ‘his legs have gone’ when you watch the games he had absolutely no help from Lundstram or Fleck. At least Fleck tried to make something happen at the top of the pitch.

Not being in the grounds really let him and others get away with a massive drop off in form.

 

[BazWainwright]

Couple of things:

When Wilder signed him I watched him closely in the warm up against Stade Reims in the pre season which we lost. He looked absolutely clueless. We were still looking for a Coutts replacement and a refresh having just said goodbye to Duffy too in the CAM spot. I did think we'd signed a dud again. But then again, Basham's first game was Laurel and Hardy and look what a legend he turned out to be.

He developed slowly but in mitigation, did add value after a while. He'd scored at the Lane v Palace, it was his three-foot boot that was 'offside' against Spurs and he banged them two goals in against Burnley at the Lane which was a pretty perfect performance galvanised by everything we saw great about United in the PL - the attacking wingbacks, the overlapping centre backs, the solid, battling midfield that competed and drove forward in possession and some clinical finishing with the front two being a right handful for Burnley's defence.

So he was hitting form and doing well in that flat midfield three which left Norwood as defensive pivot and cover whilst Fleck and he ran on to support the main attacking groups, Baldock/Basham/Lundstram on the right and Stevens/O'Connell/Fleck on the left.

Then Wilder signs Sander Berge. Quite obvious he was a shoe in on the RCM spot and a Norwegian international so Lundstram's position is now well shaky. Berge was never gonna usurp Norwood or Fleck. He wasn't a wingback and didn't readily press forward like Lundstram did. So, really, could anyone hear the 'WTF?' expressions from him when Berge settled into the dressing room and claimed a coat peg? If you are starting to grow and become in a Premier League midfield setup, you'd bagged a few goals also and are part of a pretty solid system, why change it? Why sign direct competition? And an international too? It seemed to me like Wilder suddenly had the chance to make a headline signing for decent cash and went ahead with it not seeing what disruption it would have downstream on what was a settled, progressing and above all else, damned good side, winning games and holding it's own.

You could see also the effect on stability when the team returned from COVID. The Villa game we were definitely not playing the same effective system, Villa had an answer for most of what we had to offer (and they were the division's whipping boys at the time regardless of the Norwood 'goal-that-never-was') and we failed to win away thereafter with the last three games seeing us look pretty disorganised and wretched and us not winning another game until January 2021- albeit now with flappy in goal and no Jack O'Connell and 'the system' now either sussed out or broken and Wilder lacking any real 'Plan B' or method of stopping oppositions slicing us up. By this time Lundstram had his toys out, sat on the bench or filling in for injuries in a system that was a billion miles away from the previous purple patch.

I'm not sticking up for Lundstram - downing your tools is unforgivable in anyone's eyes. But I do feel there is a bit more to it.

Great that his lack of composure on a yellow effectively gave us the points though. Did see someone on twitter describe him as an 'Easter Island Statue Headed knobhead' which made me laugh.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

When Wilder signed him I watched him closely in the warm up against Stade Reims in the pre season which we lost. He looked absolutely clueless. We were still looking for a Coutts replacement and a refresh having just said goodbye to Duffy too in the CAM spot. I did think we'd signed a dud again. But then again, Basham's first game was Laurel and Hardy and look what a legend he turned out to be.

The game against Stade Reims was in August 2019, wasn't it?

We signed Lundstram in July 2017.