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Tumbleweed

Whittaker v Barnsley

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I know he comes in for a far bit of stick and some derision, but thought we was pretty good on Saturday and a more than capable back up. Struggled for pace a couple of times against their right sided midfield guy, but it seems to me the issues in defence are much more through the centre, and a failure to cover when either of the full backs get forward (Ivo seems to think he is more of a wing back at times with a couple of lung bursters).

But I just wanted to call out a sublime 30 odd yard pass from Whitts towards the end- anyone notice that? From wide out left he put in an absolute peach for (I think) Murphy to run onto through the Barnsley defensive line. Pinpoint precision.

Plus CJ- shame he didn''t get his goal but the guy gives it everything even when often isolated like he was with no obvious "No 10" sitting just off him as on Sat.

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Always going to be difficult for any LB when you have no LM in front of you, constantly left 2v1.

All things considered, don''t think Whittaker had a bad game at all

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Whilst Whittaker may be a bit slow these days, well ok he always has, and somewhat limited with ability, you cannot fault his effort and attitude.

Knowing he is a back up player, and will be back on the bench at best when players return from injury/suspension, he is to be applauded IMHO.

A true professional, and one who others could look towards (Lafferty for one).

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I''m not a fan of his but he did fine yesterday. Still slow and prone to the odd bit of madness- his pass across his own back line to a Barnsley player could have been suicidal. I''d still worry about him coming up against a real pacy winger at times though.

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He seems to be able to hit 40 yard passes with more accuracy and consistency than he can hit 4 yard passes.

I didn''t think he was bad but I didn''t think he was good either. I suspect a better team would have had a field day, although in fairness that Hammill bloke seemed a handful.

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Technically I have always thought Whittaker is a quality fullback and he is solid defensively and can be extremely effective going forward as well.

 

But he is let down by a huge lack of pace which means he can be a real liability, especially in the Prem where most teams have at least one really pacey wing player.  If they see Whitts in our side they can just put that player up against him and we have a big problem - even if Whitts isn''t getting beaten by the attacker, often he has to drop off so far that he leaves the winger with plenty of time to play a cross without actually having to beat him.

 

It''s a bit worrying if he was left 2v1 on Saturday as that was our main problem against Barnsley away, the difference being they took advantage of it to score their goals, so we really should have been aware it would happen.  Any fullback will struggle against 2 attackers with no support !

 

He''s certainly worth keeping in the squad another year as a backup player IMO, assuming his salary allows for that.

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Thought he did OK, and you can''t fault the work rate, however, he did a couple of terrible passes that on another would have cost us. Therein lies the problem

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His lack of pace is killer when combined with his poor positional discipline. He wants to charge upfield for too often and can''t recover when out of position.

I hope we don''t renew his contract simply as we need to freshen up this squad and he''s at best a 3rd choice right or left back.

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Guest
He did ok on Saturday. But those two rogue passes across the face of goal may well have cost us on another day.

Our defence as a whole has been a massive problem all season, whether or not Whitts has played. Certainly Barnsley created enough openings to get something from the game, had their finishing not been so poor.

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He''s a good player and I''m not sure we''ll get anyone better to cover fullback. He hasn''t got this far in the game for not knowing how to play his position.

For all the stick he has taken he hasn''t really featured this season yet our defence has been worse.

Sidenote - the lad Kent they brought on looked like he had something. I gather he''s on loan from Liverpool. Perhaps we could have him next season?

I can''t see what could go wrong with signing a youngster from Liverpool...

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done what he was contracted for this year, provide decent emergency low cost cover.

At 32 he wont give us another season but a valued squad member none the less.

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Behave yourselves, should we really have to try to make excuses for him?

He made A good pass, well done, give him a gold star.

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So in other words number 9, fans are able to criticise him at every turn and that''s ok, but if he puts in a good performance, that''s not ok?

Behave yourself.

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To fawn over him just because he didn''t make a glaring error which results in a goal on this occasion is a bit over the top.

We have some really good players at our club, Whitts as we know, is bang average at best and like some of the other defenders, should have been replaced a long time ago.

I would suggest that''s realistic rather than overly critical.

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What i will say in Whittaker''s defence, is that if a few others showed his attitude and professionalism we might be in the play offs now, have never heard him moan once, he will play wherever he is asked to play, imagine we had let him go on a free in January? we would be really struggling now.

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[quote user="Number 9"]To fawn over him just because he didn''t make a glaring error which results in a goal on this occasion is a bit over the top. We have some really good players at our club, Whitts as we know, is bang average at best and like some of the other defenders, should have been replaced a long time ago. I would suggest that''s realistic rather than overly critical.[/quote]

 

If we were still in the Prem, I would certainly agree.

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Two people now have said ''he''ll play wherever he''s asked to play.''

Who are these mystery players refusing to play where they''ve been asked to?

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@king canary

Who are these mystery players refusing to play where they''ve been asked to?

KC are you being mischievous ? you know what is meant by that comment, there are players (evident by both Russ and Jeromes comments) that we have players who either want to work against the club, think they are too good for us or simply dont want to be here, Klose for example and the recently departed duo of Brady and Olsson.

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I''ve nothing against Whits at right back

I also thought he did okay on Saturday, his poor passes were due to him not being left footed and herein lies the problem. Why are we in position that we have no left sided players ?

If we haven''t then couldn''t we either play Wildschut in front to help him out or play 3 at the back.

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Saw MOTD the other week when Hull beat Swansea 2-1. Both Hull goals came from attacks down the Swansea left, and I still have this image of Martin Olsson turning up back in the box long after the goal''s been scored because he was so far up the pitch.

Yes we need to sign left sided players - and unfortunately Dijks will probably not be one of them, but selling Olsson and Brady was probably the best transfer business AN managed in his time here.

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