Jamaican international Dexter Lembikisa left the Imps a couple of days ago as his short-term loan deal came to an end.
Short term used to mean a month, but it’s now four, with Lembikisa joining us at the start of September. His arrival just beat the window closing, and his name wasn’t revealed until the day after.
Lembikisa probably came in as cover, a late opportunity which we seized, and that is reflected in his minutes. He saw 233 minutes of action for City, just 54 of those coming in the league. For comparison, in the same period, he played 457 minutes for Jamaica in their CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group.
We might have seen more of him, but his international duties clashed with two EFL Trophy group stage matches, reducing his minutes. He actually played fewer than Fin Barbook.
He wasn’t a bad player, and his numbers read well. He got an assist on his debut as we beat Man Utd Under 21s 3-0, and his numbers across his entire spell are decent enough. He made 11 crosses, with a 72.7% accuracy, 13 dribbles with a success rate of 76.9% and contested 49 duels, winning 71.4%. They’re good numbers, and perhaps enough to cover the disappointing 15 long passes at 20% accuracy. Maybe his aversion to a long pass would suit Burton Albion….
When you drill down to the EFL matches, the numbers still stack up. His crossing was decent, four in those 54 minutes with a 75% success rate. His dribble success in the league was 100% from four attempts, and he still won 69.2% of his duels, contesting 13 in his time on the field.
The truth is Lembikisa was cover. He was never going to displace Tendayi, so we had him here to ensure that if our captain got injured, we had someone to slot in for him. His numbers aren’t bad, and while positionally he was left wanting a little, he would have been an adequate understudy.
That’s not needed now. Josh Honohan might be injured at present, but he’s here and will play a part before the end of the season, and he can play on the right. He can play centrally as well, which frees up Tom Hamer, especially with Adam Jackson returning to fitness.
I’d usually say Lembikisa was a victim of circumstance, but actually, he was a product of circumstance. I’m not sure we’d have signed him had we snared Josh in the summer window, but we didn’t. We wouldn’t have got him had a trial at Charlton come off, but it didn’t. Conditions created an opportunity which we took, but didn’t need.
For the record, I quite liked the lad, and while I suspect he’ll be far more suited to a 3-5-2 than a 4-2-3-1, I’m sure he’ll pop up in League One again and have a decent degree of success.