Well that didn’t take long did it lads?
I give a lot of benefit of doubt to pretty much every single player in the squad. I rarely get hyperbolic or single mindedly critical about a player. In recent years, in order of 'deserved criticism to expection', it would be De Gea, Lingard, Martial, Mata etc (i.e post Rooney) and in general I try to see both sides of everyone. However, Lindelof is by far my 'weakness' when it comes to criticism. It's not the fact that I think he doesnt have ability (because he does) or that he is 'poor', it's the fact that he
isn't good.
I've said this many times, it's like this with every player's performance threads where there's always going to be large polarising views 'great' vs 'abysmal'. The difference is that with almost every other player I can see outright, clear and even standout quality, which gives you a reason to believe and even become defensive or hope there's a reason for when times they are below par. With Lindelof, it's just incredibly meek performances and consistently low level displays of ability yet we have his fans in here defending like he's dealing with Messi in the channels, John Carew in the air and is being pressed by peak Barca/Liverpool/City every game.
It's incredibly delusional/bias levels of gatekeeping to not simply accept he is just not good enough.
We're not analysing Pogba, Bruno or Rooney here. It's Victor Passive Lindelof ffs.
No amount of stats about how he wins a lot of aerials (against 1 striker, 20 yards away from goal where we're the dominant team) or how he's been a stalwart in our 'great' defence can tell anyone that he isn't definitely weak in the air or is a 'good' defender by any measure of the stick.