Derby County journalist Ryan Conway has been sharing his thoughts on Rams winger Tom Lawrence and his latest performance for the Midlands club during their recent 3-1 defeat against Reading in the Championship.
This comes after Conway recently uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he spoke about a number of topics concerning Wayne Rooney’s side, including their defeat against Reading.
On the subject of Lawrence, who played throughout the entire game against Veljko Paunovic’s side and managed to score Derby’s only goal of the game, Conway had this to say about his goal and overall performance on the day.
He said: “The goal from Lawrence is a fabulous, fabulous goal, it’s classic Tom Lawrence, he gets the ball in some space cuts in from the left and absolutely lashes it into the top corner.
“I thought Lawrence actually had a pretty poor game, all things considered, considering how effective he was against Luton.
“I thought for a couple of the goals, he was defensively soft, letting [Yakou] Meite cut in on the left and get a shot away which [David] Marshall’s got to do better with as well, he spills that back out to [George] Puskas, but I thought Lawrence let him inside a bit easier than on the first goal, I think him and [Jason] Knight are culpable for closing down.
“Don’t think he offered that much going forward, don’t think he offered an incredible amount, but that’s what he can do, and I suppose that’s why you have him on the pitch, it really is a wonderful, wonderful goal.”
Lawrence signed to Derby back in August 2017 from Premier League club Leicester City in a deal worth a reported fee of £4.95 million.
Since then, the 27-year-old, who is currently valued at £3.6 million, has made 140 appearances for the Rams in which he has managed to score 24 goals and provide 19 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Ryan Conway’s comments on Lawrence and his efforts against Reading…
Despite Conway’s admiration for Lawrence’s goal against Reading but his disappointment with his overall performance in the game, WhoScored still gave the Welshman a respectable match rating of 7.32/10, making him the highest-rated Derby player on the day.
Was Tom Lawrence Derby's best player against Reading?
Yes
No
In our view, despite Lawrence having more shots on goal (5) against Reading than any other Derby player and did offer something in an attacking sense, perhaps Rooney and the team should focus on putting in a strong overall team performance throughout the remainder of the season instead of relying on one specific player’s talents.
In other news: ‘He does need to start’ – Rooney urged to unleash £900k-rated man at Derby