Steven Naismith

[Move Klose 303]

At championship level

Contribute to a goal (score or assist)

Naismith every 3.87 games

Hoolahan every 2.69 games

Pritchard every 2 games

[Move Klose 303]

Josh Murphy every 3.37 games

Watkins every 2.36 games

[king canary 7,580]

Also I''m a tad confused by the idea that he will score more this season. We scored pretty freely last season so I''d actually expect us to score less as a team this season as we try to become a bit more balanced.

[BroadstairsR 2,138]

I had high hopes of a Naismith re-incarnation this season but that''s not the only bubble that seems to be ready to burst.

Early days though.

Memo to self: "Ten games, give it ten games, ten games, give it ten ga ............."

(BUT Stevie Wonder has been with us for a season and a half now and continues to make precious little difference to results, yet a massive difference to our financial clout, whereas a new central defender might have at least made the former.)

"Ten ga ........."

[lake district canary 4,531]

[quote user="king canary"]Also I''m a tad confused by the idea that he will score more this season. We scored pretty freely last season so I''d actually expect us to score less as a team this season as we try to become a bit more balanced.[/quote]

My point was that he was not 100% fit last season and still scored five goals.  He has declared he is fitter and stronger this season and that should mean an improvement.  My point about Wes was that he rarely scores more than five a season too - but he too would hope to get more this season.  So the overall point about midfielders is that they are contributing at least a few goals in a season - Naismith does offer that (always scores a few from midfield) and although I appreciate he doesn''t always look as if he is doing much creating, I have watched him closely to try and understand his worth and what I see is a player making lots of movement, trying to find spaces and then trying to bring others into the game.  That is worth having - especially if he is giving the ball to the more creative players. 

[hampton canary 24]

Naismith always talks a good game and he said he owed the club better performances this season. Sadly he is still the same slow average player we saw last season. His main strength appears to be able to shout and wave his arms a lot, giving the impression he is heavily involved. I will be disappointed if Farke continues to play him when he has both Hoolahan and Maddison available.

[westcoastcanary 173]

Funny, but I can''t get the title of Kubrick''s last film out of my mind -- Eyes Wide Shut 

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

I have to be honest that my heart sinks whenever I see him listed in the starting 11.  IMO it''s basically like having a passenger, his contribution going forward is minimal-to-nil, defensively his contribution is hardly any better.  It was no coincidence that we looked much much better on Saturday  going forward as soon as we had Wes/Oli on the pitch instead of Naismith/Jerome (Jerome at least has the excuse the Farke system doesn''t suit him - for Naismith, it should suit him perfectly, shouldn''t it ?).

 

Do I resent him ?  Frankly, I resent what we''re paying him but that''s not his fault, it was the decision-making at the club (principally AN I can only conclude) that he would be a key asset in helping us to survive so we ended up giving him an over-generous contract in the event of relegation - I have never seen any explanation of why it was thought that should be.

 

I have seen comments that his movement off the ball is something a lot of us fans miss... Personally I don''t think it''s anything special and certainly not as effective as Wes.  Also I''ve read the comment that he provides an outlet for short passes from defence.  I haven''t seen much evidence of that myself, certainly not on Saturday.  Against Sunderland, it was probably true a bit more (due to Sunderland sitting back so deep), but most of the time he simply played it back to another defender, which may be useful for the Farke system of keeping possession, but I can''t help feeling one of our top earners needs to be contributing more than that to justify a starting place.  And I can''t see it.

 

Saturday''s performance was down to a mix of factors IMO, but a major one was that we lacked the creativity in midfield which Wes and Maddison gave use against QPR.  Aside from Josh, in our starting 11 there was no-one else that I felt looked likely to create anything when they had the ball and surely Naismith should be able to do that against a pretty poor Villa side ?