Janssen - Persevere or a quick solution?




Janssen-Persevere-or-a-quick-solution?

Mauricio Pochettino was asked about Jansen after the Aston Villa game and he gave a positive response, he is young, he needs to adapt, work hard and we'll push him.

“Yes it’s true that he’s struggling. But it’s difficult for strikers. Look again at the game against Chelsea, both strikers struggled, Diego Costa and Harry Kane, when you don’t have space to move and run it’s always difficult. 
“In the second half he started to behave better, he started to play better. He found better space to play but OK it was a moment we decided to include Dele Alli on the pitch but it was always tough not only for him. But he’s very young, he’s come from a different league, he needs to adapt his game and to work hard and not be frustrated from that performance. 
“We are a staff that push the players a lot and we will push him to try to get the level that the team need from him.”


That all raises the question, how long do you give each player. The answer is how much faith you have in their ability determines how long they get. He will certainly not be reaching some of his performance bonuses, he has had more shots at goal, 33, than any other striker in the Premier League without scoring a goal. That is a damning statistic on its own.

His price will therefore not be the maximum our press always quote, in his case it will perhaps be some £3m lower. The fee is not the issue though, can he adapt and can he succeed is another matter. There are plenty of former players who look at him and don't think he can make it.

Danny Murphy in commentary remarked that he tried hard but simply doesn't have the quality. Alan Shearer pointed out that he should be making runs into the box and he isn't, mind you when he did we chose a different pass. Gary Lineker suggested he is a poor mans Roberto Soldado, another goalscorer who simply couldn't adapt his game and lost all confidence.

he has a lot of work to do, with his game and his mindset, tough when you are not playing well and not getting chances. His shot early in the second half where he worked a one-two and created a shooting position showed some of his current problems. It was on his stronger foot but the shot was poor. Did he choose the wrong post to aim for?

To me it looked like a player with no confidence just hitting a ball on target, not really aiming anywhere, not hitting it with any conviction or determination, just a swing of the foot to have something on target, not expecting to score and just hoping for the best. That is worrying because if a striker doesn't expect to score he is making life so much harder for himself.

Erik Lamela had talent, we persevered with him because of that and also because of his fee, we simply couldn;t afford to take a huge loss on him as well as Soldado. Will Jansen be in the same boat? Does he have enough ability? This is only his second season of top flight football and only his first season of a top tier league, there is much to learn, will we give him the time to do so or look for a quicker solution?