Player Focus: Joe Cole (Lille)

Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa could only watch as the ball flashed past him and into the net; the camera panned back to see Englishman Joe Cole with the widest smile we have seen all year. With one flick of his left boot he had put his team 2-0 up, bombarded by his over-joyed teammates it was the Englishman’s 4th league goal of the season and his first in 2012.

In what has clearly been a difficult few weeks for the Englishman, the delight shown by both the fans and his teammates made it clear how liked Cole is around the Stade Lille Metropole. In his first start in four games the goal inspired him to his best performance since the 4-4 draw against Nice.

With Tulio de Melo suspended and midfielders Benoit Pedretti and Florent Balmont missing through suspension and injury there was space for Cole to play beside the in-form Dimitri Payet and the exceptional Eden Hazard. At times, Cole looked back to his best, linking well with Hazard and forward Nolan Roux. Eager to get on the scoresheet he had five attempts on goal, touched the ball over 60 times and included in his 81% pass completion he made two key passes.

It was a very important performance from Cole. Recently his performances have been far from impressive; compared to his WhoScored.com rating of 8.5 this weekend recently his ratings have gone from 6.29 to as low as 5.89. That poor performance came away against Lyon in a 2-1 defeat. Cole only touched the ball 37 times and was mostly anonymous. He didn’t manage any shots on goal, didn’t beat anyone with a dribble and very much deserved the low rating.

Lille made the move to sign Cole on loan from Liverpool on the very last day of the summer transfer window. It was a move that was met with positive remarks from both sides of the channel. The British media hoped it would help Cole finally fulfil the potential he had shown at West Ham United, the glimpses while at Chelsea and become the playmaker it seemed just wasn’t suited to the English game.

Over in France the Lille fans were delighted to welcome a player that had experience in both the Champions League and World Cups, and these sentiments were echoed by coach Rudi Garcia: “I think he is one of the most Latin British footballers. He should settle nicely in our squad.”

His Lille career couldn’t have started any better. A difficult away match against Saint-Etienne would see Cole start on the bench. After going a goal behind in the first half it would take the home side to go down to 10-men before Eden Hazard danced through the Les Verts defence to level the score.

Payet made way for Cole just after the hour and after taking a few touches to settle in he showed the Lille fans what he was capable of. Picking the ball up near the half way line he beat three defenders before cutting the ball back for Ludovic Obraniak and the Polish midfielder made it 3-1.

Before the end of 2011 Cole had scored his first Ligue 1 goal – a stunning strike against Lorient – an assist against Bordeaux, and looked to be striking up an exciting partnership with Eden Hazard. It looked like the loan spell to France was exactly what Cole needed to find that lost spark.

The New Year also couldn’t have started any better. A hat-trick against Chantilly in the Coupe de France was quickly followed by a goal against Lyon in the Coupe de la Ligue, although they would lose 2-1 in the end. The problem was Cole couldn’t quite turn cup form into league form and the performances started to drop game after game.

Gone were the neat link-ups with Hazard, gone was the confident Cole looking to get on the ball and create, and to make things worse for the Englishman Dimitri Payet found his form when Cole was at his lowest point for Les Dogues. Three goals in three games saw Cole drop back to the bench and Payet show the sort of performances that lead to Lille paying €9 for his services.

Now with only six games left until the end of the season it will not be long until a decision, not just from Lille but also Cole himself , has to be made as to where he will be playing his football next season. The question is; has Cole done enough to merit a permanent move to le LOSC?

In 18 games he has scored four league goals and provided two assists. He has only managed 1.5 shots per game, a lowly 0.7 key passes and 0.6 successful dribbles per game. In comparison defensive midfielders Nicolas Seube of Caen and Younousse Sankhare of Dijon average more key passes than Cole, both on 0.8 per game. Not the stats you would expect from a “natural” playmaker.

Currently Cole is still earning around £60,000 a week, with Lille paying just over a third of that as part of his loan agreement. Lille’s best player is undoubtedly Eden Hazard and the Belgian winger is currently earning around £46,000 a week. It would seem very unlikely that the money-men at the Stade Lille Metropole woud sanction the same amount of money on Cole after what has been nothing more than a mediocre season. This is before whatever fee Liverpool would want for the 30-year old.

It would take a miracle for Cole to greatly increase his WhoScored.com rating of 6.60 before the season ends, and currently this puts him joint 14th on the list of Lille’s players this season. As interesting an experiment it has been for the current Ligue 1 champions, perhaps any money received from selling Hazard should be spent on some younger talent.

Defender Aurelien Chedjou was recently interviewed and asked about Cole’s future and the Cameroonian also thought it unlikely that the Englishman would stay at Lille: “Unfortunately, it will be difficult for Lille to keep him because we know that Lille and Liverpool don’t have the same financial situation but it has been a pleasure to share this season with him.“

Off the pitch it seems that the move has been positive for both the player and the club but Joe’s performances have been nowhere near brilliant enough to justify Lille breaking the bank to keep the midfielder. Now, has Joe enjoyed his foreign experience enough to drop his demands or will we see Monsieur Cole back in the Premier League next season?