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Russell Martin

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Whittaker should never have been dropped. Said it all the long. Martin has got away with murder in comparison.

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He said in the press they had had a team meeting and it was a full and frank discussion did they omit the bit where he is totally out of position yet again for the last 15 minutes. Yes I know we want to win and put the game to bed but you do that by defending well, if necessary taking a booking for the team should your man go past you in a wide area not by trying to play as a centre forward and scoring. It is now time we jettisoned this liability but who plays there. Pinto not good enough yet as only likes to attack as does Whittaker. Who fancies Ryan Bennett to play there. good strong defender and we have not won since he has been left out (only saying)

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We play Pinto, he was given two chances and dropped! Martin has been given chance and chance again. Teams are now targeting our right back because they know he won''t be there! He was out of position for both of their goals today! Its ridiculous!!

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i does appear to be quite an achievement by our scouting "network" that from august to january,we werent able to identify a right back in the whole of world football who apparantly isnt better than what we''ve got??

If we really are writing off Pinto at this early stage, we may aswell put Wisdom back in when he''s back fit as ,defensively at least, seems the best we''ve got.

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[quote user="GJP"]Whittaker should never have been dropped. Said it all the long. Martin has got away with murder in comparison.[/quote]
Ideally you wouldn''t want either there, but Martin is better than Whittaker. Whittaker is truly horrific, whilst Martin gets the slightly higher largely $h1t rating.

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The reason we got caught out today was because of Martins positioning, he simply doesn''t have the pace to get back to cover his responsibility when he gets anywhere near the half way line.

I know I sound like a broken record, but whilst this useless headless chicken continues to get selected then I''ll continue to post!

I honestly don''t think he would be first choice in any Championship team, let alone the Premier League! AN says he watches each game back, if this is the case he must be blind or being ridiculously loyal to the Scottish cause.

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Perhaps he sees something different eg Martin marking the man on the touch line whilstsomeone in midfield fails to go with the runner, but hey why stop making him a scapegoat. By the way if we are talking about pace..Klose?

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Klose has the turning circle of the Titanic. Turned and done today for pace which led to a goal, as he was for Villa''s second last week not forgetting the Liverpool game where it happened yet again. Never mind he cost £8 million so he must be good hey ?

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Pinto should be our RB every match, right now, irrespective if hes no better at defending than Martin. Martin has had seasons here, and hes just not good enough. We bought Pinto as our new RB, we have seen his attacking intent, he should be in the team, gaining some PL experience, let him make the mistakes, right now, its no worse than what Martins doing anyway. Next season in the Champs he could have that 12 or so PL games as a foundation to help him along against the lesser  teams there, and could really enjoy himself at City. Alex dropping him after 2 games was absurd imo.Incidentally anyone know the length  running on Russ Martins contract?

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]Klose has the turning circle of the Titanic. Turned and done today for pace which led to a goal, as he was for Villa''s second last week not forgetting the Liverpool game where it happened yet again. Never mind he cost £8 million so he must be good hey ? [/quote]A tad unfair Til. The guy who done him yesterday was hardly Waveney''s fatter brother.

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Well Herman the fact remains it has happened three times now in nearly as many games and cost three goals. Together with Pinto we have spent in excess of £10 million in an effort to plug a leaky back four and it has failed to address the problem. Pinto now cannot get in the team which having seen him in his two games i can fully understand why.What worries me is if Alex Neil sourced these players i am concerned at what he actually sees or was our famous  ''Football Board'' which has two members on it in the CEO and The Man from Mulbarton who have never played the professional game responsible for imposing these signings on Alex ?Yes i know the green and yellow tinted glasses brigade will point out that we are not in the bottom three but that is because of the shortcomings of the clubs around us and not us playing our way out of trouble.

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I actually think Klose has done okay so far. I agree that Pinto doesn''t look ready or isn''t good enough - depending on which interpretation you want to spin it with. Therein lies the danger of signing a person in January rather than the summer and expecting them to adapt to a very unique league (which England is due it''s intensity and speed).

But I think it''s too easy and lazy to blame the defence alone. Yes, the defence is sunstandard and has much to be blamed for. But you defend collectively as a team and there has been a common denominator in the two collaspes against both Liverpool and West Ham - the lack of protection and cover from central midfield.

In both games our central midfielders have allowed midfield runners (Henderson and Noble) to arrive untracked from deep and have all the time in the world to score. You cannot leave yourself wide open like that and I''m convinced that had Tettey played in both matches we''d have probably won both.

We also signed Mulumbu to do that job in Tettey''s absence and sadly after a promising start he''s shown little evidence of being able to. The fact he didn''t even make the 18 yesterday tells you exactly where he is right now.

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Klose has a lot of good points- his timing in the challenge is great, he wins most things in the air and seems to have a good sense of positioning. However he isn''t quick and so we need to adapt and play a deeper defensive line, rather than the kamikaze style we adopted for their first goal.

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Yeah but i thought one of the recent criticisms was that the defence was playing too deep allowing the opposition more time on the ball ?

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[quote user="Essjayess"]Incidentally anyone know the length  running on Russ Martins contract?[/quote]I hate to tell you this, but I think he was given a new three and a half year contract at the end of last season...............[:O]

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King Canary

You have to be joking right ?

Klose doesn''t even look like a professional footballer ,,, what was that all about for the first goal !! He fell over when all he needed to do was take one step and clear into row z , my mum is more of a CB than him , it''s disgraceful that he is playing and Bennet is home breast feeding .

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Jacko wrote: "But you defend collectively as a team and there has been a common

denominator in the two collapses against both Liverpool and West Ham -

the lack of protection and cover from central midfield.

In both games our central midfielders have allowed midfield runners

(Henderson and Noble) to arrive untracked from deep and have all the

time in the world to score. You cannot leave yourself wide open like

that and I''m convinced that had Tettey played in both matches we''d have

probably won both."Exactly this ^^^^, but not just in those two games, and not just the central midfielders either. The problem is endemic to the midfield and one player can''t do all the necessary covering. So while Tettey playing would certainly have enhanced our chances, he alone cannot provide a solution. (His absence yesterday made the team selection yesterday even more idiotic than it would still have been if he''d played.) [:@]

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How many more times is our ''Captain Marvel'' going to cost us.

AGAIN both goals from west ham are provided by the left hand side of our opposition... our right back area.

GOAL 1 - Our left back has to rush across and cover RM which means when the shot is parried out into the area where brady would have been its a tap home for Payet. -

GOAL 2 - break down left flank, pass, score...Where was RM!

The bloke is the worst example of a footballer getting paid lots of money and underperforming!

I''m glad HE enjoyed Saturdays game!

Blokes a joke !

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I''m not totally sure how much we can criticise RM. Well, clearly the answer is a lot based on this 40 page thread however...
1) We''re clearly set up to push our full-backs high up the pitch
2) Russell Martin isn''t that quick - is that his fault?
3) Brady is regularly out of position but his brilliant pace allows him to make up for it more often than not
4) Pinto has been criticised for exactly the same thing
5) Whittaker has been criticised for exactly the same thing
6) Ollson has been criticised for exactly the same thing.
Reality is, our fullbacks are exposed. It''s how we play. I don''t care who you put there, it''s going to happen sometimes. The question is whether they provide enough attacking influence to warrant the decision to play them in such a way. In Brady''s case it''s an obvious yes. The rest are open to debate.

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Our whole defence is a shambles, as well as our defending from the midfield area. Singling out Russell Martin is just scapegoating. Would Pinto, Whittaker or Wisdom done any better at right back? I,ts very debatable.

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hogesar you do have some valid points, i understand what you say about us having attacking full backs...but my main concern is when our style has actually given us the lead in games, then our failure to hold on to the lead. leading Pool 3-1 and West Ham 2-0 we could of had another 5 points banked. We are always going to concede a few in the Premier, but the trick of course is how to stop City losing leads like they have done so often. But of course thats not just a full back issue but a whole team issue.Still, RB will not be as much an issue next season in the Champs. With Wisdom back to Liverpool and Whitts contract ending itll be a straight toss between Russ and Ivo,  2 good attacking RBs  in a division where they can be very useful.One plus about Russ, the guy hardly ever has injury or suspension issues.

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Guest
Numerous times in the match West Ham doubled up on Martin, and he defended pretty well positionally, with very little support from Redmond. Not half as bad as some of you guys make out, and useful going forward as well.

Pinto has been absolutely dreadful positionally in the two times he has played. How anyone could want him to play over Martin is beyond me.

Also, we''re not down yet. We''re not even in the bottom 3 at the moment. Seems some supporters don''t have the stomach for the relegation battle.

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Yes, one of my main gripes with Redmond is his inability to cover.

I think we''ll improve with Tettey & O''Neil as DMs.

I also think we need the nous to adapt to the opposition; once we''re two goals up if wouldn''t had hurt if Martin had stopped overlapping & concentrated on closing Moses down.

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