Dean Coneys boots 1,400 Posted January 9, 2022 Too few leaders and too few who care. It is a really tough ask for Dean - where do you begin? The defence, midfield and attack all look less than convincing. The players are all as bad as each other, as you state. No real options therefore. Today I thought Gianoullis, PLM, Byram, Sargent and Tzolis were awful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dean Coneys boots 1,400 Posted January 9, 2022 It’s also painful seeing how much we hang back on 50/50s and just flick the ball on and hope for the best- no sense of cohesion or a plan. Something has to change but what? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mello Yello 2,293 Posted January 9, 2022 1 minute ago, Samwam27 said: Care to elaborate? Well you tell me what you think and maybe I'll tell you what I think?....But do you think that all those on the club's payroll are deserving of their salaries?.....I hold the groundsman and his staff in high esteem as the stadium pitch and playing surfaces at Colney are pristine all season..... When you watch a game don't just follow the ball....be spatially aware and look around and beyond.....including off the pitch.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beefy is a legend 224 Posted January 9, 2022 7 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said: It’s also painful seeing how much we hang back on 50/50s and just flick the ball on and hope for the best- no sense of cohesion or a plan. Something has to change but what? Was saying on Twitter earlier, we look like a side with no real idea as to how we are trying to score a goal. It's a far cry from the last manager who, for the vast majority of his tenure, and defensive weaknesses accepted, always produced sides who knew how to attack. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Great Mass Debater 1,090 Posted January 9, 2022 1 hour ago, Disco Dales Jockstrap said: Oh...go on then, I might as well: Watch out for my name sake for our 2nd goal, taking opponents on and beating them for LOLs. "Skin 'im Dale!" OTBC 20 year old Jon Sheffield?? Now THAT is a hard paper round Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
essex canary 496 Posted January 9, 2022 2 hours ago, Hoolahoop14 said: We paid 300k for Sitti. We paid 30 times that for Sargent. Yes, I'm sure. Point taken. I guess we bought him because we thought we could sell him on for a bigger fee. Maybe it will prove that it is not simply older players like Naismith that are a risk and that finding Grant Holt mark 2 maybe a better objective. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Van wink 2,994 Posted January 9, 2022 Still a young man, in the right environment could become a good player. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mannings bandy legs 388 Posted January 9, 2022 3 hours ago, ron obvious said: This is why it's so difficult to take fans' opinions seriously. It's always the same. A player does something awful ( or, more rarely, wonderful) & too many fans then base the whole of their opinion about that player around it, & invent all sorts of deficiencies (or attributes) to that player which are simply untrue. Sargent is a player who is currently awful anywhere near goal. Any confidence he may have had is shot & he becomes palpably panicked anywhere near goal. However. He's got a decent leap & can win balls in the air. He's one of our stronger players & doesn't get knocked off the ball easily. He's not particularly quick, but he's quick enough. He can show a nice touch laying off passes, even when surrounded by players. He can chase down & harry the opposition into making mistakes. Don't forgot the game when he came on (to replace Todd?) & was instrumental in changing the game. He had a poor game today, as will any young, inexperienced player player alongside other players in poor form. He's certainly not a PL quality striker (or indeed any sort of striker at the mo) but he can be useful in the right situation. Attributing all sorts of deficiencies to him that he doesn't actually have is plain wrong & of zero help to him or to the club. ..so he's much like the all the strikers playing in leagues 1 & 2.......but at 10 times the price.Not his fault,Webber's and the scouts.Simples. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spillay 180 Posted January 9, 2022 3 hours ago, Dean Coneys boots said: I don’t know. Nor why they play PLM. But maybe Because he is a good athlete- if not a good footballer -and at least tries hard and runs around a lot which is more than most of the current crop? And who else is there? Idah is also looking under par for what is needed and… Im not for one minute defending Sargent, he is woeful BUT at least he TRIES even if he is nowhere near good enough. As for the complete non-entity that is PLM, for me he deserves far more of the flak, what exactly does he do or bring to the team? Worse than useless. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dean Coneys boots 1,400 Posted January 9, 2022 14 minutes ago, Spillay said: Im not for one minute defending Sargent, he is woeful BUT at least he TRIES even if he is nowhere near good enough. As for the complete non-entity that is PLM, for me he deserves far more of the flak, what exactly does he do or bring to the team? Worse than useless. I agree with this point. Sargent is an honest player just not good enough- but he gives 100%. PLM looks bored and puts in little- Tzolis is anonymous - both look off half arsed in comparison Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Van wink 2,994 Posted January 9, 2022 15 minutes ago, Spillay said: Im not for one minute defending Sargent, he is woeful BUT at least he TRIES even if he is nowhere near good enough. As for the complete non-entity that is PLM, for me he deserves far more of the flak, what exactly does he do or bring to the team? Worse than useless. All about confidence, shouldn't be written off but admittedly we dont have the environment to let him grow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canaries north 151 Posted January 9, 2022 All fault lies with the recruitment team. All of them. Why any of them believed we should sign him as a striker looking at his record is beyond laughable. Was he really signed to take the strain off of Pukki. Even with RVW and Hugill you could at least see they had had some success at an earlier point in their career. Not his fault at all but people are allowed to have an opinion on his performances. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrD66M 99 Posted January 9, 2022 Playing devil's advocate. Sargent is blatantly poor. However it's not his fault someone got him to sign for NCFC. And he does give a damn, as hopelessly **** as he is, he'll run himself into the ground. My honest opinion is that he was a sweetener in the Rashica deal. Wish someone would have just drilled him in the basics to a solid foundation when he was a teen - as that ship has sailed, tell him to stay in opponent's box and shoot on sight of the ball. Look at some other clubs... say, Tottenham, where Ndombele is one of the highest wages, is exceptionally talented and can do outrageous stuff with a football if he feels like it - but he doesn't give a scintilla of a f*** about the club. Furthest thing away from a team player. With 4 different managers in almost 3 years, he hasn't come close to being a regular starter. Aubameyang at Arsenal, Pogba (to an extent) and Martial at MU, some teams have players like these, there are too many of them who think they're too good to put the hard yards in, unwilling to do the bare minimum consistently. Josh is not like that, but his self esteem is shot, since he never had a solid base to work from. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crafty Canary 495 Posted January 9, 2022 6 hours ago, Hoolahoop14 said: He's the worst signing this club has ever made and ever will make. A dreadful, dreadful footballer. As someone said above, it's not his fault we paid 9 million pounds for him, but that doesn't mean we can't criticise him. I would be happy if he never played for us again. Get rid asap and take a loss. Truly think we'd be lucky to get 10% of what we paid for him back. Did you see Gerry Howshall play for us? He made Sargent look good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TIL 1010 4,746 Posted January 9, 2022 7 hours ago, Myra Hawtree said: He scored two against Bournemouth U23's in the EFL Cup!! Corrected it for you . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CDMullins 436 Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) A perfect example of our poor our recruitment was this summer. No doubt he was brought here to be second choice to Pukki, But we can't afford to have that sort of money sat on the bench. And he has proved he is no where near upto top flight football when called upon Edited January 9, 2022 by CDMullins Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CDMullins 436 Posted January 9, 2022 3 hours ago, Van wink said: Still a young man, in the right environment could become a good player. Right environment, League One? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HertsCanary93 222 Posted January 10, 2022 Until *that* open goal miss, I actually think he started off looking fairly promising. No end product, but changed a couple of games with great pressing and physicality. Like many others in the squad, he has completely lost any sense of confidence in the last few months and any team with even a reasonable amount of depth would be taking him out the firing line. Unfortunately, we have zero depth - so he continues to play badly and damage his fragile confidence further in each game. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
king canary 7,606 Posted January 10, 2022 15 hours ago, ron obvious said: This is why it's so difficult to take fans' opinions seriously. It's always the same. A player does something awful ( or, more rarely, wonderful) & too many fans then base the whole of their opinion about that player around it, & invent all sorts of deficiencies (or attributes) to that player which are simply untrue. Sargent is a player who is currently awful anywhere near goal. Any confidence he may have had is shot & he becomes palpably panicked anywhere near goal. However. He's got a decent leap & can win balls in the air. He's one of our stronger players & doesn't get knocked off the ball easily. He's not particularly quick, but he's quick enough. He can show a nice touch laying off passes, even when surrounded by players. He can chase down & harry the opposition into making mistakes. Don't forgot the game when he came on (to replace Todd?) & was instrumental in changing the game. He had a poor game today, as will any young, inexperienced player player alongside other players in poor form. He's certainly not a PL quality striker (or indeed any sort of striker at the mo) but he can be useful in the right situation. Attributing all sorts of deficiencies to him that he doesn't actually have is plain wrong & of zero help to him or to the club. I'm not sure people are inventing deficiencies though. One thing that stands out to me statistically is Sargent loses the ball significantly more than anyone else. His aerial ability is more theoretical than real at this point- he wins less than one header a game on average. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoolahoop14 124 Posted January 10, 2022 10 hours ago, Crafty Canary said: Did you see Gerry Howshall play for us? He made Sargent look good. Afraid not! I’m sure we had many players that are worse than Sargent in fairness, but none which cost us 9 million quid (RVW aside). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ron obvious 1,502 Posted January 10, 2022 11 hours ago, king canary said: I'm not sure people are inventing deficiencies though. One thing that stands out to me statistically is Sargent loses the ball significantly more than anyone else. His aerial ability is more theoretical than real at this point- he wins less than one header a game on average. Perhaps this is one of those occasions where statistics don't tell the whole story. He will take men on & try to carry the ball in attack, often with no support, so that is more likely to happen than with other players who will play a safe but meaningless ball (usually backwards). And he often gets close enough to the opposition when attempting to win a header to cause them to misdirect. I don't think any of our other attacking players do that. He's not great, & I don't think he ever will be to be honest, but he can be useful - & would be much more so with some self-confidence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bradwell canary 109 Posted January 10, 2022 Shame he can’t learn from Pukki. Pukki displayed on Sunday how unselfish he is. Could have taken a shot, but saw a player in Better position, delivered a great pass, which resulted in goal. Sergeant on the other hand took two shots, where he could have played to players in better positions. Greed lead to two useless shot. He works hard, but that alone without the required talent does not work at this level. However I don’t blame him, the responsibility lay firmly the the one person who sanctioned his signing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
overthebordercanary 141 Posted January 10, 2022 22 hours ago, CDMullins said: Right environment, League One? He didn't even look remotely like scoring against mid table Charlton, so doubtful his even league one standard. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Midlands Yellow 3,985 Posted January 10, 2022 Keeps putting the effort in and doesn’t go hiding. One player I’d love to come good even though the evidence isn’t looking great at the minute. Come on Josh prove us all wrong!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
overthebordercanary 141 Posted January 10, 2022 9 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said: Keeps putting the effort in and doesn’t go hiding. One player I’d love to come good even though the evidence isn’t looking great at the minute. Come on Josh prove us all wrong!! Cameron Jerome put loads of effort in, but at least he could score! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Midlands Yellow 3,985 Posted January 10, 2022 7 minutes ago, overthebordercanary said: Cameron Jerome put loads of effort in, but at least he could score! Good point, still like the lad though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wcorkcanary 4,334 Posted January 10, 2022 On 09/01/2022 at 16:28, Danke bitte said: Somewhere out there Ricky Van Wolfswinkel is quietly sipping on his camomile tea, relaxing in his recliner with a wry smile on his face… Naismith is with him , cutting them both a slice of Victoria Sponge. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Fred 526 Posted January 11, 2022 I still think the club have a fraud case against Bremen for marketing him as a footballer i don’t know what he is good at but kicking a ball into a net and even staying on his feet are beyond his capabilities Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dean Coneys boots 1,400 Posted January 11, 2022 He gets unfair amount of flak simply because he does actually try really hard- more than can be said for many of the others. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
king canary 7,606 Posted January 11, 2022 12 hours ago, ron obvious said: Perhaps this is one of those occasions where statistics don't tell the whole story. He will take men on & try to carry the ball in attack, often with no support, so that is more likely to happen than with other players who will play a safe but meaningless ball (usually backwards). And he often gets close enough to the opposition when attempting to win a header to cause them to misdirect. I don't think any of our other attacking players do that. He's not great, & I don't think he ever will be to be honest, but he can be useful - & would be much more so with some self-confidence. Without meaning to be rude it seems its an occasion where the stats don't tell the story you want them to so you'll dismiss them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites