Whittaker

[Capt_Canary 0]

Surprised not many threads on him after Saturday''s performance. Apart from a good cross to Grabban he was woeful and at fault for first goal leaving Zaha to put away a tough chance. It was no mistake he changed flanks with Puncheon so early on. Sloppy in possession, cannot defend and Zaha was made to look like Lionel Messi.

Our defence is so poor and i am dumbfounded we have added no striker and signed at least two more defenders. We have learned nothing since we come down. We were excellent at times on Saturday and midfield was superb particularly Hoolahan and Howson. Wisdom needs to start at right back for now and we need to sign someone like van Dijk.

[Move Klose 303]

Well I wouldn''t say he is woeful but I don''t think he is good enough at this level and I would expect wisdom to come in soon and make right back his own.

[ellis206 0]

I thought he played well and apart from when we play the top teams we won''t come up against the pace and trickery of Puncheon, Bolasie and Zaha too often.

Doubt there is any defender in the league as quick as those guys.

 

WBA fans on the whole say that Wisdom is terrible so not sure he will be the answer but I personally think Whittaker is certainly good enough for this level.

[NCFC198 2]

I like Whitts and stood up for him last season when a lot of people criticised him out of habit.

Thought he played really well in play offs.

But I totally agree, hes not quite good or quick enough for this league. Agree that Wisdom will take his place over the course of the season

[hogesar 9,736]

well, he was no worse than Brady.

Thought both full backs were ''ok'', against some decent wingers.

[Indy 3,315]

He was superb going forward, but Zaha is a quality winger. Bradey & Whitts were caught out of position Saturday but that''s our back line I''m afraid, needs a quality CB to take control. Martin & Bassong don''t command, organise and communicate very well, IMO.

[Chemical Bro 0]

The first goal wasn''t Whittakers fault. Brady let his man get in behind and everyone had to come across leaving a man free at back post.

I don''t rate Whittaker at all but to blame him for that just b****x

[mrs miggins 0]

You''ve got to be careful when criticising Whittaker otherwise you get Bor and a good few other posters moaning about ''scapegoating'' (though of course, as you say, he hasn''t really been mentioned as much compared to the likes of Martin, Grabban, Johnson, Brady etc.)

For Whitts I thought he had a fairly good game; nearly set up the goal which Grabban should''ve finished and always provided a very useful attacking outlet. It''s just his dribbling and defending and awareness which lets him down imo. He had a similar game to the whole of the back 4, not quite good enough, though if I had to pick one that did better than the others, it would be Bassong - thought he looked alright. However Brady isn''t a LB as we already knew and its also just the first game of the season for everybody - we''d expect him to do better than Brady at full back (it would be embarrassing if he didn''t). It''s no surprise that the defence are our weakest area of the team as it''s nothing we didn''t know before; what good is that we still had the chances to even beat Palace (Grabban effort, Jerome Dis-goal, Penalty), so we''re making the chances, we''ve got a striker coming in as well as Jerome who looked really good. Plenty of things to be positive, the hope of a new ball playing CB or RB being one of them.

[Making Plans 940]

Funny how people see things differently - I thought he was one of our better players on Saturday.

[Guest]

I don''t think it''s as simple as blaming individual players. But I also got very frustrated witnessing the same old shortcomings from the same players. Lack of pace, poor first touch, beaten in the air etc.

I''m amazed better defenders haven''t been brought in. Too much is being asked of Alex Neil in sticking with what we''ve got.

[mrs miggins 0]

Not just Brady''s fault (mostly though) but also Howson''s imo, should''ve tracked back - the defence was outnumbered. The whole of the defence should''ve communicated better.

[Canary Legend 0]

Hopeless never want to see him in a norwich shirt at this level again especially as we have wisdom who can do a job!

 

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 528]

I thought Howson looked short of fitness, or feeling the heat on Saturday - he made one run in the first half which left him out of puff and up-field for ages.

Whitts is good going forwards, but got beaten too often, and too easily, in the second half.

It felt like "welcome to the premier league". Teams like Palace have had two seasons to improve their squad, and it showed.

Not a disaster, but it could be a long and hard season.

[Feedthewolf 4,871]

Whittaker did reasonably well given the level of opposition he was up against. He was always going to get skinned a few times, but on more than one occasion he got back and made an important block or interception. There was one in particular where an attacker (possibly Zaha) got clean through the centre, but he covered round and muscled him off the ball where the other outcomes were a likely goal or a red-card foul. I do worry about him one-on-one against pace and skill, and certainly wouldn''t want to rely on him being good enough to start there all season. AN''s stock formation by definition relies upon full-backs getting forward to offer genuine width – it was a massive strength in the Championship, but at the top level it runs the risk of leaving us extremely vulnerable to the counter-attack. Will be interesting to see if (and if so, how) AN sticks rigidly to that system or whether he''ll consider stronger, more defensively minded full-backs and more pace and trickery in wide midfield – definitely a possibility once Olsson is back and Brady can play his natural role wide left.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

He played well, and it took Zaha to be swapped to Whitt''s side of the pitch to curb his attacking. Up to that point Whitt''s was having an excellent game

[Peanuts 150]

I thought Whittaker had a good game overall. It''s all well and good pointing out moments where he was caught out, but even top quality world class defenders make mistakes or lose out against tricky attackers from time to time.

I don''t agree that Wisdom is the answer either as surely if AN wanted a replacement for Whittaker he wouldn''t have gone for an out of position youth player on loan. That said I''m not sure why Liverpool would want to loan him to us just for him to warm the bench as they clearly rate him having offered him a new contract this year. I suppose we might even see him at CB and Russ over to RB if Neil wants more defensive options. I know the West Brom fans weren''t exactly blown away with Wisdom last season but I thought he looked tidy in the short outing he had against Brentford and his through ball for Jerome''s goal was real quality.

[Daz Sparks 1,182]

[quote user="Crabbycanary3"]He played well, and it took Zaha to be swapped to Whitt''s side of the pitch to curb his attacking. Up to that point Whitt''s was having an excellent game[/quote]

Indeed Crabby, Zaha swapping sides was a good tactics by Pardew, it sort of served 2 purposes, freed Zaha from Brady, who by and large kept him quiet, and exposed Whittaker''s lack of pace, although on a few occasions Whittaker couldn''t win the ball from Zaha even when he was very close to him.

[Len 74]

We needed to sort out the right back spot and we haven''t done this by signing Wisdom on loan who had previously failed at West Brom. Either him or Whittaker illustrate how we''ll get relegated because the board refuse to loosen the purse strings.