If you follow my Twitter (@FNRLTheBlog for those of you who don't) you'll probably know that I am the founding member of the John Lundstram Fan club. "John" I hear you ask, "why are you seemingly obsessed with a player that everyone else seems to dislike or make a scapegoat of?" Well... there's not much of a story but I'll try and explain how I came to be one of the sole people who don't seem to absolutely despise United's no.7.
John Lundstram signed for United in the late summer of 2017 and was unveiled to the crowd ahead of the sole home friendly against Stoke City. At this point, I knew very little about the man who would one day become the Mauler of Milan. All I knew was that he captained Oxford the previous season and that he had come through the Everton youth academy and had represented England at youth level. As the season rolled on and United began to pick up steam again in the Championship, John Lundstram was something of a bit part player. He'd make the occasional substitute appearance and always seemingly picked up a booking whenever he came on. After the incident at Burton, Lundstram began to feature more regularly for United and this is also when our form took a bit of a nosedive. Seemingly everyday on United forums there'd be new threads about how Lundstram was costing us games and how Lundstram wasn't anywhere near as good as our fallen angel Paul Coutts. As I read more and more negativity about Lundstram I began to feel a little bit sorry for him. He didn't deserve this. He probably knew that he was stepping into the boots of arguably the most influential midfielder the Blades had had in a long time. He was a 23 year old who hadn't really ever played above League One and now here he was being fed to the big dogs of the Championship. The thing is... during that first season he never really played particularly badly. He always put a shift in and never hid from the ball if things didn't go his way. This led to him scoring three goals and occasionally proving his talent that had yet to be fully polished. A defence splitting pass against Aston Villa helped us gain a crucial point when we seemingly couldn't buy a win in the League. His goals against Sunderland and QPR helped the team to crucial points in the run in for a play off spot. John Lundstram does do positive things. I think it just got looked over that he wasn't Paul Coutts. A new season begins and we welcomed Inter Milan to the Lane for a prestigious pre season friendly. There was a crackling atmosphere around the Lane as the likes of Mauro Icardi would be on show. However, I wasn't bothered by that. I was more bothered that my boy, John Lundstram would get to show what he could do against the worlds elite and boy did he ever do that... Lundstram was bustling throughout the match, he and his midfield counterparts made life very difficult for Inter and at around the halfway point of the first half, John Lundstram chased down a loose ball which was also being followed by two Inter players. It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, he crashed into one player and the ball continued on then BAM! He absolutely mauled an Inter player and play had to stop as the Inter player was taken off on a stretcher. Obviously, I hoped that the Inter player was ok but it showed why I love John Lundstram. No matter what happens on the field, he'll always give 100% and will put his body on the line. he won't just shy away from big challenges, he embraces them (Jack Grealish knows what I'm talking about) he always gives his all and genuinely seems to want to impress the fans. Well John, you might still have not impressed a lot of the Blades but you have impressed me.
0 Comments
|
AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
Categories |