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The Great Drinkell

The Ryan Bennett debate

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I along with many other fans I have spoken to am amazed that Ryan Bennett hasn''t been given a few games to prove himself but not only under the current manager but also under others this hasn''t happened - I wonder why?

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Either not good enough in AN book to displace the current two or AN as other inexperienced managers will favour experienced players rather than gamble on players with less playing time.

It''s no coincidence that all our young players are out on loan to gain match experience.

I don''t thin it will be long before Bennett will get a chance.

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Fair point Indy - couldn''t remember if AN was in charge when he got injured against Ip5wich I seem to recall last season. does seem a little injury prone.

I had also heard from a "friend of a friend" that he is a natural footballer and for this reason doesn''t APPEAR to work as hard as other in training? may just be the old rumour mill?

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Would like to see him given a go with Martin reverting to right back.

He would certainly cut out some of these headed goals we seem to be conceding on a regular basis as that is his strength.

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I''m all for giving him the chance as let''s be honest both Bassong and Martin could both be under threat.

For me I would drop Bassong as Martin gives us a goal threat from set pieces.

Not been impressed too much with Bassong in recent games.

Maybe Wisdom & Bennett in this weekend?

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[quote user="Jim Smith"]Would like to see him given a go with Martin reverting to right back.

He would certainly cut out some of these headed goals we seem to be conceding on a regular basis as that is his strength.[/quote]Yep, I would be happy with this.

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Always rated him - confused why he hasn''t been a regular starter... looked sharp against West Brom in the cup with a couple of crucial tackles.

Time to give him a try.

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[quote user="Indy"]I''m all for giving him the chance as let''s be honest both Bassong and Martin could both be under threat.

For me I would drop Bassong as Martin gives us a goal threat from set pieces.

Not been impressed too much with Bassong in recent games.

Maybe Wisdom & Bennett in this weekend?[/quote]

Throwing out both would be a bit radical, but agree that it could be either Bassong or Martin that has to temporarily step down.  It would seem that something else maybe needs to be tried and with Bennett and Wisdom available, one other could step in.  So if it was to be Bassong to step down, can Bennett or Wisdom play the left side CB position?  I thought these two were mainly right sided and with Martin also that way inclined, could any of them take Bassong''s place as the left sided CB?

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From what people say about him you''d think he''d be in the team every week. People say he''s strong, fast, composed, good on the ball and we can now add "natural footballer" to the list.

Reality is that he''s pretty average, hence why after almost 4 years here he''s never established himself.

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indeed, he''s nothing special, otherwise he''d be in the team on a regular basis. The question is, as we''re doing so badly defensively as a side, what is our best side? From what we''ve seen so far Wisdom has been poor when we''ve seen him but so is Whittaker (who would''ve thought eh) but Bennet was very decent when we played v West Brom - a PL team yes but a team that also didn''t look like they wanted to attack.

The obvious point is that we didn''t buy quality when we all knew (or most of us) we should''ve done. The solution surely is to at least give Bennet a go against West Brom again?

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There is an alternative.  Three centre backs.  Brady could be the link to left back and Howson to help out Martin on the right side of centre.So a team such as -               Ruddy   Martin Bennett BassongHowson Tettey Dorrans Brady      Redmond Hoolahan               Mbokani            - would not be so radical really - it gives Martin the role as CB still, Brady would still have defensive duties, as would Howson. Looks more solid to me than the Newcastle game where we looked terribly exposed at times, but still gives us attacking options.

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Whilst, I dont think Bennett is a better option than Martin or Bassong, neither can complain if they are dropped on current form. If only to send the message that they are not automatic selections and can''t be complacent. It seemed to do the trick when Hart temporarily lost his place to Pantilimmon for Man City.

The only problem I''d have with switching Russell Martin to right back is what his performance level would be like there. He''s only played there very occasionally in thr last 18 months and wasn''t particularly distinguished there when he did play. It''s a big ask to flick that switch and play there after so long away.

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I think that''s slightly unbalanced LDC. I''m not a 3 at the back man personally but I''d imagine if we went down that road we''d probably go for something like a traditional 352-

------------------------Ruddy---------------------

---------Martin-----Bennett------Bassong------

Whittaker--------------------------------Brady--

---------''Mulumbu-------Tettey/Howson------

------------------------Hoolahan----------------

---------------Jerome-----------Mbokani-------

Like I said though I wouldn''t be confident if we played 3 at the back. I think for 4231 is the way to go.

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Bennett isn''t going to be the answer long term. However, his inclusion in the team might give Martin something to think about.  Same goes for Wisdom at right back instead of Whittaker.Frankly, if Bennett and Wisdom aren''t deemed good enough to displace Martin and Whittaker after we''ve conceded six goals, then they shouldn''t be here.  It''s the lack of competition across the defence that bothers me.  Apart

from left back, where Brady and Olsson are competing for one spot,

the defenders simply don''t have to fight for their place.  

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[quote user="Cambridge Yellow"]Whilst, I dont think Bennett is a better option than Martin or Bassong, neither can complain if they are dropped on current form. If only to send the message that they are not automatic selections and can''t be complacent. It seemed to do the trick when Hart temporarily lost his place to Pantilimmon for Man City.

The only problem I''d have with switching Russell Martin to right back is what his performance level would be like there. He''s only played there very occasionally in thr last 18 months and wasn''t particularly distinguished there when he did play. It''s a big ask to flick that switch and play there after so long away.[/quote]

But he''s an international class defender Cambridge, he should have no trouble switching back to right back 😳

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People can say "if he was good enough he''d be playing regularly " but we all know that managers sometimes pick players they are comfortable with and leave a better player on the bench.,, deal with it.

Whenever I''ve seen him play at CB he''s looked generally comfortable including some tough Prem games. I''d say he can do better than our current pairing, I would prefer him alongside Basso and move RM to right back.

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this is something that bugs me with Norwich teams if our RB CD is out of form not playing well you should go to the reserve player see if he can do better and you go down the pecking order maybe into the under 21 / youth until you find a player that is in form and performs well in the 1st team you don''t just stick with the players who are experienced its a team / squad game

other teams do it you will hear this player has been performing well in the u21''s youth league so the manager tried him ,

all I every hear is well he is to young for the first team etc NO if good enough get him in

also a player may not look great in training but comes alive matchday and plays out of his skin likewise a player might be the best trainer but bottles in with nerves on a matchday in front of crowds you don''t know till you try them

now I know alex neil knows better than me but lets not keep playing out of form players when we have others that might grab the chance with both hands lets see what they can do

I would never blame a manager for trying something new but I would blame him for sticking with players out of form

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I''m not sure if it''s been mentioned but I still have nightmares about him backing off Suarez before he scored his 4765th goal against us.

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Ryan Bennett may well be given a chance following that trouncing but if he was as good as people are making out on here, he''d be the first name on the teamsheet every week. The hard and fast of it is that we signed him as a "promising" centre half and he hasn''t really kicked on from that. Some of the assessments of his abilitiies make him sound like the next Bobby Moore but I remember him looking more like Mary Tyler-Moore when we shipped 5 at Fulham for instance. 
That was a while ago though and he''s certainly better than that performance but we, as fans, have a habit of mentally improving players that don''t participate in poor performances (Fox/Becchio/Lafferty etc), whereas generally the reason that they aren''t playing is that the manager doesn''t deem them as good as the players that played/are playing poorly. Of course, sometimes managers make mistakes, the Adams/Bassong thing was handled badly and there''s little doubt we were a better side once he was brought back into the fold, I just can''t see Ryan Bennett having the same impact. That said, I guess we''re just looking for a reaction following the Newcastle humping and maybe a shake up can provide that.
As it is though, I think that our best back 4 would be Whittaker/Martin/Bassong and, controversially, probably Robbie Brady. Martin Olsson provided two great crosses against Newcastle but was just as poor defensively as the others. The difference with Olsson is that I believe, in Brady, we have a player who is a superior footballer ready to step in and take his place. Until January at least I don''t think that''s the case for the remainder of the back 4. 
All just opinions though..

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Whilst I can accept that Ryan Bennett may not be the answer. If you are a first reserve player (like Bennett must be, given we shipped out all the other centre backs) then surely if you see the team ship 6 goals against a bottom of the league team, without a win, then you should expect and indeed be given a chance in the team for the next game.

Bennett may not be brilliant, but I struggle to see how he could have done any worse against Newcastle, than the selected defenders did

The above argument may also be valid for both Rudd and Wisdom.

A wholesale change to the back line would be ridiculous but surely AN will need to try to do something to solve the number of goals we are conceding.

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[quote user="mrs miggins"]For a tall CB he was also fast as well; don''t know if thats still the case since his injury.[/quote]A tall CB? He''s the shortest CB at the club. 2"s shorter than Martin and 3"s shorter than Bassong.On recent performances I would be dropping Bassong, whilst Martin inevitably got blamed for some of the goals on Sunday, he was massively exposed and at times left marking 2 strikers. I''d have a back four of Whittaker    -     Martin      Bennett    -     Brady

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Have you ever seen R Bennett?

He is probably the tallest defender we''ve got now Turner is out the picture.

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Not sure what Bennett offers us better than Bassong or Martin. My opinion is nothing. But none of the back four could really argue if they were dropped and Bennett was given an opportunity.

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[quote user="ellis206"][quote user="mrs miggins"]For a tall CB he was also fast as well; don''t know if thats still the case since his injury.[/quote]A tall CB? He''s the shortest CB at the club. 2"s shorter than Martin and 3"s shorter than Bassong.On recent performances I would be dropping Bassong, whilst Martin inevitably got blamed for some of the goals on Sunday, he was massively exposed and at times left marking 2 strikers. I''d have a back four of Whittaker    -     Martin      Bennett    -     Brady[/quote]

Any source for this comment? According to Wikipedia he''s 6 foot 2, same height as Basso and an inch taller than RM. Which is how he looks on the pitch to me.

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ellis206 wrote the following post at 22/10/2015 3:15 PM:

A tall CB? He''s the shortest CB at the club.

2"s shorter than Martin and 3"s shorter than Bassong.

--------------------------------------

If thats true then I''m really confused then why he''s a better header of the ball. Perhaps its just that Martin can''t jump?

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[quote user="mrs miggins"]ellis206 wrote the following post at 22/10/2015 3:15 PM:

A tall CB? He''s the shortest CB at the club.

2"s shorter than Martin and 3"s shorter than Bassong.

--------------------------------------

If thats true then I''m really confused then why he''s a better header of the ball. Perhaps its just that Martin can''t jump?[/quote]
I''m not sure he is. He looks taller, which is weird because according to the official site player profiles:
Martin : 185.4cm
Bassong : 187cm
Bennett : 181cm
So I don''t think Bennett is any taller than our current CB''s. Not sure he''s any quicker. He''s certainly not better on the ball. 
It''s starting to look more and more obvious why he hasn''t got himself into the first team as of yet.

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Indeed, he''s certainly not better on the ball. He''s faster than Martin (though don''t know if he still is after his injury but was) and he''s got a better jump on him and stronger. There''s certainly a reason why he hasn''t played at CB though as you say and thats because as a side that dominated games in the championship with the possession that we had, Martin was the obvious choice for the manager as he''s very comfortable on the ball. However, these days we''re not dominating the possession and we''re terrible at the back so something you''d think has to be done? whether its in midfield or in defence.

Perhaps the most important point is what AN wants to do though. His plan is normally still to dictate the game and control the ball, therefore I''d say Bennet hasn''t got a reason to have much hope in starting.

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