Russell Martin

[Miss Bum Bum 0]

Poor jump for cross cost us the goal again. Les get Ryan Bennett on in the final

[? 0]

Waveney feck off!

[lake district canary 4,531]

We won 3-1 in the most pressurised of games.......HELLO!!!!

[grefstad 0]

Lets hope Russ has one of his better days vs Boro. He can''t be saved by Bassong or the offside call every time.

Imho, Russ has been rather poor for a while now. I know it is harsh to be critical when we have reached the playoff final, but if you look at his performances at CB, it is not good enough for us, if we should be promoted.

Russ seems to have lost a yard of pace, gets turned fairly easily, and seem to struggle against big centre forwards (he is being bullied). Rarely wins headers, and his strengths (his positional sense) has been more invisible of late imho.

If you care to comment, dont give me shitty one-liners. I want a serious discussion.

[ruthers1 0]

Russ seems to have lost a yard of pace, gets turned fairly easily, and seem to struggle against big centre forwards (he is being bullied). Rarely wins headers, and his strengths (his positional sense) has been more invisible of late imho.

Sorry for the * one liner grefstad but you''re 100% right!!

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

Unfortunately I can only agree - also his clearances are getting pretty bad too.

Ipswich''s goal at Portman Road came after he hit a very soft clearance straight to the opposition. He then did this a couple more times in the game, luckily to no cost.

I remember him being excellent when Norwich were promoted under Lambert - typified by when he kept Bellamy in his pocket in the game against Cardiff.

He was always going to struggle against Ipswich, who were trying to isolate Murphy against him, knowing their striker would nearly always win in the air - but you do have to question a centre back who isn''t a brilliant header of the ball in the English game.

As a positive I would say he almost scored and his passing out from the back was generally pretty good (apart from a few hopeless balls to Jerome, not that he was the only one guilty of that).

[Alex Moss 2,165]

[quote user="grefstad"]Lets hope Russ has one of his better days vs Boro. He can''t be saved by Bassong or the offside call every time.

Imho, Russ has been rather poor for a while now. I know it is harsh to be critical when we have reached the playoff final, but if you look at his performances at CB, it is not good enough for us, if we should be promoted.

Russ seems to have lost a yard of pace, gets turned fairly easily, and seem to struggle against big centre forwards (he is being bullied). Rarely wins headers, and his strengths (his positional sense) has been more invisible of late imho.

If you care to comment, dont give me shitty one-liners. I want a serious discussion.[/quote]

You''re right, it is harsh to be critical days before the play off final, and totally not needed as we look to cement a good feeling around the club for one of the most important games in our history.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Says more about the OP than anything else.

Likes a bit of attention.

[Lewis Esquire 0]

I thought Martin was a lot better in the second leg of the Semi-final.

Do people genuinely think Alex Neil is going to change his back four now? For the final? Are you mad?!! He only ever changes it when there is an injury...

[Lessingham Canary 99]

Less than 6 days now to the biggest game in our recent history, at Wembley stadium, and amazingly we still have so called supporters looking for negatives rather than positives.

[Manchester Canary 0]

As much as i rate Martin I can''t help imagine what could''ve been if we had two Bassong type CBs all season, i feel whatever league were in next season we need to strengthen here.

Saying that, The guy bleeds yellow and green. Would be mad to drop him whilst the defence is so settled, AN knows that.

[Webbo118 0]

Why do people respond to the idiot who started this thread? Why not just ignore him?

[damn that Ralph Coates! 47]

they can''t play well every week- eg Cameron J has games without scoring. Russell Martin is due an absolute blinder this week wen it matters! Back him....

[Herman 9,700]

[quote user="ruthers1"]Russ seems to have lost a yard of pace, gets turned fairly easily, and seem to struggle against big centre forwards (he is being bullied). Rarely wins headers, and his strengths (his positional sense) has been more invisible of late imho.

Sorry for the * one liner grefstad but you''re 100% right!![/quote]That hobbyhorse must be mightily uncomfortable by now.

[a1canary 0]

Hobby horses aside, Russ was at fault for the Ippo''s goal, simple as that. There aren''t any excuses for letting their single biggest attacking threat get the wrong side of him for a set piece. He is a great captain and leader and a great guy to have around, definitely future management material. But for all that, he''s not actually the greatest defender - he does get caught out too often for my liking.