Loft for Words: Rehman again
There is an interesting debate about Zesh Rehman going on at the moment on the Loft For Words forums.
So, what do I think about it?
We splashed out £300k for Zesh and at the time it was a lot of money for us. He showed great promise on his debut which at the time, made me think we had a bargain on our hands. He’s never quite captured the same form since though and perhaps it was a tall order to be replacing a QPR favourite in Danny Shittu.
With Zesh, it’s quite simple actually. It’s all about confidence and for some reason he suffered a crisis in confidence quite early on. I still don’t understand why or how it happened, because I don’t recall him having a disastrous performance of any kind or making a glaring mistake that would have suddenly brought it on. It just seemed to happen. After that, he had a few stinkers.
What we must understand however is that he’s not a right-back and never will be. I felt sorry for him in the early part of this season because he was played out of position and didn’t really ever look comfortable there. When he finally made it back to the centre, he was so devoid of form and confidence that it took him a little while to get going again.
The stop-start nature, for someone of his character, is not going to be helpful at all, so we have to say that the coaching staff, John Gregory in this case, have to take some responsibility for that and to a lesser degree, Gigi De Canio as well.
From a footballing perspective he lacks in all the key aerobic areas such as mobility, pace, acceleration and agility. These cause him most problems, particularly against nippy strikers who can turn sharply. Mentally he lacks in anticipation, concentration and focus, which leads to the blunderous moments that cause people to vent their frustration.
The positive side however is that despite not being physically powerful, he’s a big lad. He’s not got great accuracy with his headers, but he can get up there and win the ball in the air. He reads the game well enough and more often than not, he’s actually making the right decision but sometimes doesn’t get the execution quite right because he rushes or maybe panics a little bit.
The way he tackles or clears the ball is a prime example. I’ve seen him launching into tackles or making clearances too early. It’s like you can tell what he wants to do in his mind, but he hurries himself and ends up committing before he should actually commit. This timing issue means he often doesn’t get a clean connection on the ball and that means it can end up anywhere or he can miss altogether. The good news is that can be fixed and coached out of him and just having more confidence and being sharper through more games will naturally help too. He’s fine on the ball, although he’s better with it centrally than at right-back. He does cross reasonably from right-back though, although he opts for a percentage based zonal ball rather than pinpoint accuracy.
If he can conquer the confidence issues and work a little more on the weaknesses in his physicality, then he can become a better player and do well. It’s a hard ask though for a man who is vilified by his own fans. My fear for him is that the writing is already on the wall. It’s difficult when thousands of people, those who are supposed to be your own, are not behind you or with you and there’s little chance to get a clean slate.
As fans, we must learn to be supportive and protective of our own. Much of Zesh’s fear is because he looks like he’s desperate to do well and be liked by the crowd, and fair play to the bloke, because he gives 100% and you can bet your life on it that if he does something good or bad, he’ll be in the thick of it the next time too. On that account, he doesn’t hide when he makes mistakes and that’s a good quality to be able to work with.
It may be best that he does move on in the summer, just so he can enjoy his football again but whatever happens, I hope it works out for the best for him.
