Russell Martin

[Stylish Canary 0]

Him and Whitaker have to be dropped after this horror show by the pair of them

Being a nice guy isn''t enough to be continually picked

[firststeps 0]

I don''t believe Martin, Whits & even Ruddy wouldn''t get in the starting 11 in any other Premiership side.

[ruthers1 0]

An utter, utter, utter joke today. Runs around the ''D'' like a headless chicken for their first. Leaves Whittaker isolated for another - leaves the player in twenty yards of space for the fourth - disgusting.

[firststeps 0]

Anyone defends Martin today, I''ll order you a cab to Hellesdon now! What a clown....

[city4eva 209]

He wont be dropped though....will he

[Hairy Kenneth 0]

Do you really think with over £100m at stake the manager won''t drop players if he feels he has to?

It''s very disappointing we didn''t strengthen the area we needed to improve the most but who is better that we have on the bench?

[mrs miggins 0]

Defensively Olsson has also been pretty poor, at fault for the first goal.

[Indy 3,297]

Have to say Tettey coming off was the biggest mistake and it''s been pretty poor from the Scottish trio, Martin, Whitts and the missing Dorrans, was he on the pitch today?

Not good but take it on the chin and move on!

[sonyc 5,511]

We need 3 points desperately against Pulis'' West Brom

[firststeps 0]

Yes, overall we were defensively poor, but our captain is the centre back, an absolute embarrassment! Well done for your organisational skills captain!!! Bin HIM.

[Guest]

Disappointed with our captain today.  He''s a better player than that.  But you have to say the club need to bring in better defenders in January if they want Norwich to succeed.

[Stylish Canary 0]

If he had any self respect he would drop himself but he won''t as he hasn''t

What have we done to have to suffer Russell Martin

[pliff 4]

I am not a football coach but i can see Maclaren did his homework a majority of Newcastles balls into the box came from the right so Bassong has to defend the near post striker so Martin and Whittaker have to deal with it, hence goals galore because they are poor ballwatching defenders. Going forward i thought we looked decent.

[nutty nigel 7,531]

So.. Where was Ollson better than Whittaker? Where was Bassong better than Martin?

You could sign Kompany and it would mak no difference if 7 players are ahead of the ball when we lose it.

Having said that we could have drawn 5-5. Theirs all went in. We hit the post twice and had a clear pen not given. Perhaps Hootun would make a difference...

[hogesar 9,658]

Thought bassong was just as poor as Martin and Olsson also struggled defensively.

If we played today how AN wanted us to then he was very naive and would have learnt a lesson today. Defence were poor but left isolated on pretty much every attack with the midfield offering very little in terms of support.

[westcoastcanary 173]

nutty nigel wrote: " You could sign Kompany and it would mak no difference if 7 players are ahead of the ball when we lose it. "

Exactly. I''ve been saying for weeks that the balance is wrong, and the mindset.

Redmond giving the ball away prior to Toon''s third goal was a classic example of over-commitment in terms of numbers, and odds-defying risk-taking by the man with the ball.

[westcoastcanary 173]

hogesar wrote: "If we played today how AN wanted us to then he was very naive and would have learnt a lesson today."

But we''ve had the same lesson handed out in nearly every match, as early as the first game against Palace. It clearly hasn''t been learnt.

[swjf50 0]

Shocking defending from the team as a whole, but we have a captain who is supposed to be organising and yelling at his players. The trouble is, I''m not sure he knows where they should be and although he puts the effort in, he doesn''t defend well himself.

Too often we are caught ball watching, opposing players are left unmarked and we make it easy for the opposition to score.

It''s elementary, you''d see defending like that in your local park or at under 14 level. It''s embarrassing, so something needs to change....now!!!!

[daisy 138]

Blimey the Russell Martin things been going on for months.!! Think we all knew back in August we needed a new exp centre half, only option we have now is to bring in Ryan Bennett and switch Martin to right back ( he''s captain so Mr Neil is going to play him somewhere) so it may as well be at the expense of Whittaker. The only way i can see any sort of improvement.

[andyc24_uk 59]

Yes, he needs to go back to RB where he should''ve been all this time. Martin is NOT a CB, never has been much as he wants to believe he is. It''s just not his best position. I also think it''s time to rethink the captaincy - Dont care how nice a guy he is off the pitch, on it he isn''t the commanding leader we need. Give the armband to Tettey for a month and see how he organises things.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

As has been commented elsewhere taking tettey off was the biggest mistake. No coincidence they then immediately broke through the middle twice in quick succession and scored two goals. Tettey is the only player we have who reads those type of breaks and gets in the right position to intercept/make the necessary foul. I honestly believe that had Tettey stayed on we would have got at least a point because we were dominant at the time he made that change.

Whitaker is appalling defensively and should not be in the team.

As for Martin, that fourth goal for me sums up why he is simply not a centre back. he just does not have the instinct positionally. I am still at a loss as to what precisely he was doing running away from the only Newcastle player who needed to be picked up. Shambolic.

[firststeps 0]

I''m sat here at Carrow Road, and the guy is useless.

[Hairy Kenneth 0]

To be fair he is being played out of position

[firststeps 0]

I would laugh at that HK, but I''m more likely to cry. Yet again another Martin inept performance, he shouldn''t be on the field, simple as that!

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

[quote user="firststeps"]I would laugh at that HK, but I''m more likely to cry. Yet again another Martin inept performance, he shouldn''t be on the field, simple as that![/quote]But he is a really nice man.

[lharman7 39]

Thought he was decent till the last 15-20 when a few passes went astray and that awful shot/cross then he lost his head.

[grefstad 0]

Wasn´t the worst player on the pitch, but had a pretty average game.

Goal came from a cross from his side....not good.

Bassong lost the challenge for the goal, however. Not impressive that one.

[Guest]

He''s hopelessly out of form. Shouldn''t be anywhere near the first team right now.So many crosses came in from his flank today. Time and time again he got caught out of position. While in possession he was woeful.  Wisdom must be appalling in AN''s eyes to not even get on the bench when both Whittaker and Martin are in such poor form.

[GJP 79]

WBA got in so, so many crosses down that side.

[mrs miggins 0]

Poor game for him on the right but on the other hand Bennet was good at CB, good on the ball plus he actually headed it like a proper CB.

Martin and Whittaker to fight it out for the RB slot I guess.