The Keen & Judah Show: Can Mario Lemina rediscover his form over the festive season?

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Liam Keen and Nathan Judah discuss five Wolves players who need to show more on the pitch as the club enter an important set of festive fixtures.

Transcript

00:00Three more on the list. First of all, let's discuss the club captain in Mario Lamina.

00:13Again, I think when you were bottom of the table, now there's a lot of players who you

00:20would expect to be underperforming. I think Mario Lamina, again, is one of those players

00:25lost his place, didn't he, for that Crystal Palace game. Tommy Doyle preferred to him,

00:30but won it back when, as we said before the break, Gary Neal needed that win, didn't he?

00:36He went to some more experienced players. He went to his club captain, Mario Lamina.

00:40He went to Pablo Sarabia. That kind of shows, really, when the chips are down, the kind

00:45of guys he can hopefully trust to cross that white line.

00:49I thought there were some better performances from Lamina, I think, recently. I thought

00:56he had a really poor start to this season, as did quite a few of them. Jao Gomes is one

00:59of them as well, who was disappointing. But do you feel like he can rediscover that form

01:05of last season because it's not been close for me so far?

01:08I do, yeah. You mentioned Jao Gomes. He's not on this list, but I think it's because

01:12last three or four games he's been getting closer to his best. Lamina was another one

01:17who last season has played the season, and rightly so, and has been nowhere near that

01:22kind of form so far this season. He has been getting slightly better, I think, coming off

01:26the bench at Palace against Southampton as well. I think there was a slight improvement

01:31in that. But his form certainly has not continued from last season. And it's difficult, really,

01:36to put a finger on why that is. But one thing that definitely hasn't helped him has been

01:43the change in formation halfway through the first part of this season. Playing him further

01:49forward in certain games definitely not helped him. Played on the right very briefly against

01:54Newcastle, I think, on another game not long after. Played as a 10 on a few occasions.

01:59The midfield three didn't work. I think Gary Neal has come to that conclusion as well,

02:03by the looks of his last few team selections. And playing in a two has definitely helped

02:07Lamina, and I think it's helped Wolves, which makes life difficult for the other midfielders

02:12in Wolves' squad, particularly how good their midfield group is. Because, look, really and

02:19truly I believe this, that Wolves' midfield group, when they're at their best, will rival

02:23quite a lot of teams in this league. I'm not suggesting it's up there with the top six

02:28teams, but I think it's a very, very good group of midfielders. And Lamina being a very,

02:33very key part of that. At the moment, he's nowhere near his best form. I think he charges

02:37out of position too often. I think he needs to be more disciplined in his shape. We mentioned

02:43it with the moment against Southampton, didn't we, when he made that run and Larson picked

02:48the ball up and then he stopped his run. I think that screams out to me that he's being

02:53told, look, you need to be a bit more aware and disciplined with your positioning. There's

02:58a lot more to come from him as a player. But like a lot of these players, if Wolves are

03:04going to get out of trouble this season and have some sort of success, he will be very,

03:08very key to it. He will play more often than not this season. And rightly so, because he's

03:13a very good player. But if the form isn't there, if he's not performing well, Andre

03:19Doyle, Bhupi Kachauri, potentially when he's back, these players should be, should be taking

03:23his place. The competition should be, should be used really for why it's there. You can't

03:29have a player playing that's out of form. If he plays well, keep him in. If he doesn't

03:33take him out, hopefully he'll force his way back in again.

03:36Yeah. Look again, no spring chicken, Keno, 31 years old, Mario Lemiena as well. So, you

03:43know, Premier League is a tough league to perform week in, week out. I think he was

03:47almost overused last year. You know, Wolves relied on him far too much. He was dead on

03:52his feet in a number of Man of the Match performances last season. And I think that the goals that

03:58he did score, he scored almost as a surprise. He was arriving late. He's a defensive central

04:04midfielder, Mario Lemiena. And maybe, like I say, a victim of his own success in terms

04:09of, oh, well, let's move him further forward because he can score these goals. He can create

04:12assists. And he's not really that type of play with someone who wants to arrive late.

04:16I think it still should be a surprise if Mario Lemiena is in and around the box. It shouldn't

04:20be. We're expected to see that. And I think we've seen when there is an expectation there

04:24for him to be further up that pitch that, you know, he's been disappointing more times

04:27than not.

04:28Yeah, he has. I don't think further forward suits him. I think you could argue that he'd

04:33be an eight rather than a six potentially, but he's certainly not a 10, is he? And he's

04:37certainly not a right winger. And that's where I think Wolves were in a desperation to fit

04:46their best players into the team. Are you getting Andrea alongside the two of the midfielders?

04:51It didn't work. I think you have to choose a system and choose the foot for each individual

04:54game and choose the players that suit that system. The best place for each position,

04:59not trying to force your best players onto the pitch. And I think that the days of those

05:04three would feel as it's probably long gone now, unless we come back to a man city perhaps.

05:09But for the time being, a midfielder two suits of Lemiena better, we'll see better from him.

05:15And if he continues to be a bit more disciplined and a bit more sitting in his position, then

05:21we'll see a much better Mario Lemiena.

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