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Safri a creative genius the myth

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So much rubbish has been posted about Safri on this message board, about him being our only creative midfielder, he always played too deep and how many defence splitting passes did he create, not many.  I agree we have not had a creative midfielder in the guise of an Ian Crook for many a long year. But Safri when he was fit, not tired, away on international duty or fasting was not the creative genius some would like you to believe.  You will get more energy, consistency and effort from Darel Russel than from the enigma that was Safri.

Glad he''s taken his creativity to Southampton, we''ll see this ability 18/8.

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Very true.

One cracking goal gave many supporters a blinkered view of this non-goal scoring midfielder.....

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[quote user="pete"]

Glad he''s taken his creativity to Southampton, we''ll see this ability 18/8.

[/quote]

I doubt it, most likely there''s an agreement with Southampton not to play him, like McKenzie when he went to Coventry.

 

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Nonsense, and if you really think Darel Russel is an adequate replacement then I think you need your eyes testing.

There are a lot of people on here who are acting like spoilt little teenagers who have just been dumped by their first love, "Oh well I never really liked him anyway". He was a quality passer of the ball and he will be missed unless we find a decent replacement.

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[quote user="pete"]

So much rubbish has been posted about Safri on this message board, about him being our only creative midfielder, he always played too deep and how many defence splitting passes did he create, not many.  I agree we have not had a creative midfielder in the guise of an Ian Crook for many a long year. But Safri when he was fit, not tired, away on international duty or fasting was not the creative genius some would like you to believe.  You will get more energy, consistency and effort from Darel Russel than from the enigma that was Safri.

Glad he''s taken his creativity to Southampton, we''ll see this ability 18/8.

[/quote]

In many ways you are correct pete. Safri was certainly not a player you could rely on for 40 plus games a season. However the numbers show that we won many more games with him in the side than without him.

I am also sure we will get more consistency and effort from Darrell Russell. Unfortunately having watched Russell play since he was in the youth side, I don''t think he will ever carry the kind of influence that Safri had on the team.

As a teenager Russell looked as though he would make up into a really top class player.I think we all hoped he would turn out to be a similar class to the likes of Dale Gordon and Foxy. However somewhere along the way he failed to make the step up and now he seems to have found his level at mid Championship. 

If the Championship is where we are happy to be then Darrell will be good enough. If we want promotion then he is not the type of player we need.

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[quote user="mystic megson"][quote user="pete"]

Glad he''s taken his creativity to Southampton, we''ll see this ability 18/8.

[/quote]

I doubt it, most likely there''s an agreement with Southampton not to play him, like McKenzie when he went to Coventry.

 

[/quote]

That would be against FA rules, as all the fuss with Utd and Everton agreeing Tim Howard could not play last year showed it.

We did it with Mackenzie and Coventry and we were lucky that the FA haven''t gone back to it but i''m pretty sure that they''ve changed the rules.

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[quote user="pete"]

So much rubbish has been posted about Safri on this message board, about him being our only creative midfielder, he always played too deep and how many defence splitting passes did he create, not many.  I agree we have not had a creative midfielder in the guise of an Ian Crook for many a long year. But Safri when he was fit, not tired, away on international duty or fasting was not the creative genius some would like you to believe.  You will get more energy, consistency and effort from Darel Russel than from the enigma that was Safri.

Glad he''s taken his creativity to Southampton, we''ll see this ability 18/8.

[/quote]Almost as much rubbish here too!! Of course he played deep - he''s a defensive midielder. He breaks up the play, protects the back four and can find a colleague from deep with quality passing. That was and is his role. The same as Carrick or Makelele. He wasn''t a ''creative'' midfielder in the Crook sense - his game was simpler. Defend, reclaim posession, find a colleague. Russell could be moulded to perform in a similar way, but he will play higher up the pitch. Brellier is more likely to perform the tasks that Saf did. Take Saf and the personal situation out of the equation and there is no doubt we will miss not having someone who can peform the role that he did to the level that he did. When he played of course. I''m hopeful that Brellier can be the man to perform this role, or Russell at a stretch if Brellier is unavailable. Only time will tell.

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He was a quality passer WHEN HE PLAYED.  I have come round to thinking it is a good thing we got cash for him and let him go, he sat to deep and played only 50% of the games.  Brellier is Safris replacement, and its your brain that needs testing if you think Russel - an attacking midfielder- is the replacment.

[quote user="Shack Attack"]

Nonsense, and if you really think Darel Russel is an adequate replacement then I think you need your eyes testing.

There are a lot of people on here who are acting like spoilt little teenagers who have just been dumped by their first love, "Oh well I never really liked him anyway". He was a quality passer of the ball and he will be missed unless we find a decent replacement.

[/quote]

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I dont think anyone implied Safri was a creative genius, he was however the best passer of the ball in the team by a country mile.

He saw a pass and actually had the ability to deliver an accurate ball.

I would never have called him a genius, but he was a quality player whom we shall miss

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90 appearances in 3 years tells you a lot about how often Safri was missing from action. By my reckoning a fit, reliable stalwart of a midfielder could have played in a maximum of about 140 matches in that time. Therefore our old friend missed about a third of all matches over the 3 seasons he was here, with excuses as pathetic as feeling too tired. Simply not good enough in my book. We can only hope that Southampton suffer as many problems as we did with him.

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[quote user="JC"]

He was a quality passer WHEN HE PLAYED.  I have come round to thinking it is a good thing we got cash for him and let him go, he sat to deep and played only 50% of the games.  Brellier is Safris replacement, and its your brain that needs testing if you think Russel - an attacking midfielder- is the replacment.

[/quote]

The original poster was comparing the energy and commitment of Russell to Safri, which suggests to me that he did think he was his replacement.

And I said eyes not brain!

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[quote user="Hairy Trainspotter"]90 appearances in 3 years tells you a lot about how often Safri was missing from action. By my reckoning a fit, reliable stalwart of a midfielder could have played in a maximum of about 140 matches in that time. Therefore our old friend missed about a third of all matches over the 3 seasons he was here, with excuses as pathetic as feeling too tired. Simply not good enough in my book. We can only hope that Southampton suffer as many problems as we did with him.[/quote]

 

Safri always has been a defensive midfielder,  deep sitting and able to break up play and then use the ball well,  that he was the best passer here for the last 2 seasons just about sums up the quality of the rest of the squad. 

90 games where he contributed 10x more than in the 72 games that Hughes appeared in over the last two seaons.  quality v quantity...

 

 

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Safri always was and always will be a defensive midfielder who could actually get the ball from him to his intended recipient;  he was the best passer here but that tells you all that you more about his colleagues than anything else;   I dont recall anyone comparing his to pass masters like crooky.

As far as appearances are concerned Hughes made 72 appearances in the last two seasons,  safri 65;     Hughes could make 200 appearances (god forbid) and he will still struggle to have had the same total effect on citys results than Safri during those 65 games.  Quality v Quantity;  Ability v Efforty.   Class will always be better..

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Safri always was and always will be a defensive midfielder who could actually get the ball from him to his intended recipient;  he was the best passer here but that tells you all that you more about his colleagues than anything else;   I dont recall anyone comparing his to pass masters like crooky.

As far as appearances are concerned Hughes made 72 appearances in the last two seasons,  safri 65;     Hughes could make 200 appearances (god forbid) and he will still struggle to have had the same total effect on citys results than Safri during those 65 games.  Quality v Quantity;  Ability v Efforty.   Class will always be better..

[/quote]

considering Safri suffered the indignity of being dropped by Grunt for 8 winless games whilst midfield genius Carl Bobinson player those figures do kindof quash the rumout that he only plays 25 games a season.  Considering Worthless also played an ill and out of his depth Gary Holt ahead of him in innumerable winless Premiership games.

It does make you wonder how much managerial talent we have actually got - Donk in midfield and speedy Chris Martin at left wing anyone... [:S]

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I would disagree.

Russel was in a team that finnished 8th and two points off 6th last season. I should imagine Ricardo that you believe in the phrase "the league table never lies".

If you didn''t then it could be argued that last season was just a blip on our part which it wasn''t, it just wasn''t good enough. But you can hardly claim that the captain and stalwart of a team that finnished that high had little to do with it.

So saying that he is mid-table at best is factualy un-supported. Even as an opinion it has its floors.

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