Simon Lappin merits his place in the side

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

I''ve noticed a bit on this board recently that a few don''t feel Lappin is offering enough to the side, i''ve argued back he gives us a natural balance with his left foot and he protects Drury but I also mentioned the amount of goals he''s played a part in or directly assisted from outwide, his set pieces have been key to our resurgence under Lambert.

October 24, 2009
Rank	Player	Team	Assists
1	Andrew Welsh	Yeovil Town	7
2	Richard Lambert	Southampton	6
3	Simon Lappin	Norwich City	5
	Jon-Paul McGovern	Swindon Town	5
	Jonjo Shelvey	Charlton Athletic	5
6	Chris Hackett	Millwall	4
	Clive Platt	Colchester United	4
	John Nutter	Gillingham	4
	Grant Holt	Norwich City	4
	Lloyd Sam	Charlton Athletic	4
	Jason Puncheon	Milton Keynes Dons	4
	Jordan Rhodes	Huddersfield Town	4
13	Carl Regan	Bristol Rovers	3
	Kevin Lisbie	Colchester United	3
	Deon Burton	Charlton Athletic	3
	Mark Bentley	Gillingham	3
	Wesley Hoolahan	Norwich City	3
	Dennis Behan	Hartlepool United	3
	Kevan Hurst	Carlisle United	3
	Robert Snodgrass	Leeds United	3
	Gary Roberts	Huddersfield Town	3
	James Brown	Hartlepool United	3
	Alan Sheehan	Oldham Athletic	3
	Anthony Pilkington	Huddersfield Town	3

[Fuglestad 0]

Fair enough, he has quietened down in recent weeks, I''m fairly sure at least 4 of those assists were in two of Lamberts first few games. For me he falls over way too easily, especially for a "central midfielder". Is always looking for the free kick.

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

We scored from a Lappin corner yesterday and Holts goal at Leeds was from a great cross outwide by Lappin

[Its only my opinion 0]

I don''t agree with how any of the norwich player''s are treated by us fans! Is like we don''t have a squad and every player has to be world class. If any player was world class they would not be playing for norwich.

People say hoolahan is one footed. If he had a right foot aswell he would be in the premn not here, Lee Croft had the same treatment he can''t cross well if he could he would have been playing in the prem aswell. People need to realise we won''t have world class players in our team. so we have to get behind the ones we can attract n try get the best out of them n keep them confident!!!

[Delia Out! 0]

I think that he is a great player at league 1 level, and his assists show that.

He has played very well this season, and it is good that we didn''t sell him in the Summer.

[GJP 79]

I think Lappin is quite a decent player to be fair to him but I also think we need another option in the squad. Someone with a bit of pace to give us another option. We''re a good side in this league but we''d be even more dangerous if we had someone who could take people on for pace and could run in behind defenders.

Out of the regulars in the midfield and forward line (Russell, Hughes, Smith, Hoolahan, Lappin, Holt and Martin) Lappin is probably the main one you''d think we could improve on.

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

[quote user="GJP"]

I think Lappin is quite a decent player to be fair to him but I also think we need another option in the squad. Someone with a bit of pace to give us another option. We''re a good side in this league but we''d be even more dangerous if we had someone who could take people on for pace and could run in behind defenders.

[/quote]

I agree the squad is crying out for an out and out winger to provide another option

[G 0]

Nice to see Holt with the assists aswell. 

[chicken 0]

[quote user="GJP"]

I think Lappin is quite a decent player to be fair to him but I also think we need another option in the squad. Someone with a bit of pace to give us another option. We''re a good side in this league but we''d be even more dangerous if we had someone who could take people on for pace and could run in behind defenders.

Out of the regulars in the midfield and forward line (Russell, Hughes, Smith, Hoolahan, Lappin, Holt and Martin) Lappin is probably the main one you''d think we could improve on.

[/quote]Sorry I don''t agree. We play a diamond midfield or even a 4-3-3 at the moment, part of the reason for that is we don''t have any natural right wingers. McVeigh and Whaley are all we have really unless you go into the youth squad. Personally that is the area we need to strengthen before the left hand side.Lappin does a very good job. If you watch him one of the things he does is cover people. When Drury pushes forward he covers him, if Rusty attacks the box, Lappin drops in to a more central position. He may not be the strongest player but he doesn''t shirk from putting the tackles in.Like a lot of players at the moment he seems to come under a lot of criticism even though the criticism is inacurate ''all the assists were at the begining of the season'' or that people only rate someone if they burn up turf. The fact of the matter is in a straight 4-4-2 he would be good enough in the championship - ideally to balance the side you would need a pacey right winger to counter for Lappin''s average pace but good crossing ability. In some ways you have to think of Lappin a bit like a poor mans left footed Beckham (yes I know he isn''t that good but hang on . . . .) in that he won''t skin many players with pace alone but given space he can deliver a good ball. The problem is at the moment the way the team is set out is that he doesn''t get into those positions as often as he would in a 4-4-2 so everyone assumes he is playing worse. What he did on Saturday though, was to receive the ball tucked just inside the left and encourage Drury to get forward and attack the wide space - I thought Drury was on fire on Sat and a lot of the reason for that was the understanding the two have and Lappin working space for Drury to attack into.

[Beauseant 0]

I think Lappin has done well this season and gives balance to the midfield. I also agree with Chicken about his positive impact on Drury, who is playing better than I''ve seen him for a couple of years.

Having said that, I have no doubt that Lappin''s performance level has dropped since the early part of the season and some of his passing on Saturday was very poor. Nevertheless, he is part of a winning formula and deserves the backing of the fans.

Generally I feel that Lambert is getting most things right, but I just wonder how much longer he can persist with the use of Cureton ahead of Cody. Once again Curo contributed precisely nothing on Saturday and when given the chance to send Wes clear simply ran straight into a tackle.

[Scooby 0]

There is no doubt that Lappin has been a stalwart this season, his early season performances alone warranted Lambert giving him the captaincy for one match, however, like some others, I do feel that his performances have tailed off a little in the last few weeks.  A couple of games ago I even commented to my friend that it has been a long time since he actually hit the target with a shot and his delivery had not been of the usual high quality.  I believe that the main reason for this could be that a little complacency may have set in with our Scottish friend.  If you thnk about it there are very few spots in the team that have no direct competition for places.  Bar Gary Holt, who as Captain, top goal scorer and all round future city legend, there is no one who is an automatic name on the team sheet.  We have options everywhere except, perhaps, a true left sided midfielder?  Correct me if I have missed someone.

Perhaps a little of Lambos'' magic man management is required.  After all, it worked with Rusty, Hooly, the Doc, Nelson..........................

[Binky 0]

I''m a big Lappin fan but playing devil''s advocate - we have scored a lot of goals so far this season: is that partly because of Lappin''s assists, or has he benefited from the good work of the strikers? Probably a bit of both.What is indisputable is that it is actually worth us trying to win a corner now as there''s a good chance of a scoring opportunity as a result. I haven''t forgotten our terrible record on corner kicks when Lappin''s fellow Scot was our captain. In this Division set pieces really can decide matches. I look forward to his first goal - can''t be long now!

[Dave Backham 0]

[quote user="chicken"]

What he did on Saturday though, was to receive the ball tucked just inside the left and encourage Drury to get forward and attack the wide space - I thought Drury was on fire on Sat and a lot of the reason for that was the understanding the two have and Lappin working space for Drury to attack into.
[/quote]

I agree, I thought on Saturday there was a lot of flowing interchages between Hoolahan, Drury and Lappin on the left hand side which caused Swindon all sorts of problems tracking back and keeping up with the movement of the ball and the players. It didn''t work quite so well on the right hand side because when Hoolahan went to the right he wouldn''t/couldn''t use his right foot so he ended up turning back and letting Francomb put the crosses in whereas play involving Drury and Lappin seemed a lot more ''fluid'' rather than ''stuttering''.

Having the diamond works well if the full-backs press forwards into the wide spaces, and both Drury and Francomb did that very well, especially in the first half. We really should have scored more goals though - I know 1 is enough to win when you keep a clean sheet, and Swindon didn''t threaten us at all hardly - and I''m a bit concerned that our goals have dried up of late.

Dave.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

I like the lad and he has shown a real desire to play for this club during some difficult times. he is part of a blend of very different style in our midfield. I do accept that of late he had gone a little off the boil but hopefully his ability with set peice situations will return

[GJP 79]

[quote user="chicken"][quote user="GJP"]

I think Lappin is quite a decent player to be fair to him but I also think we need another option in the squad. Someone with a bit of pace to give us another option. We''re a good side in this league but we''d be even more dangerous if we had someone who could take people on for pace and could run in behind defenders.

Out of the regulars in the midfield and forward line (Russell, Hughes, Smith, Hoolahan, Lappin, Holt and Martin) Lappin is probably the main one you''d think we could improve on.

[/quote]

Sorry I don''t agree. We play a diamond midfield or even a 4-3-3 at the moment, part of the reason for that is we don''t have any natural right wingers. McVeigh and Whaley are all we have really unless you go into the youth squad. Personally that is the area we need to strengthen before the left hand side.

Lappin does a very good job. If you watch him one of the things he does is cover people. When Drury pushes forward he covers him, if Rusty attacks the box, Lappin drops in to a more central position. He may not be the strongest player but he doesn''t shirk from putting the tackles in.

Like a lot of players at the moment he seems to come under a lot of criticism even though the criticism is inacurate ''all the assists were at the begining of the season'' or that people only rate someone if they burn up turf. The fact of the matter is in a straight 4-4-2 he would be good enough in the championship - ideally to balance the side you would need a pacey right winger to counter for Lappin''s average pace but good crossing ability. In some ways you have to think of Lappin a bit like a poor mans left footed Beckham (yes I know he isn''t that good but hang on . . . .) in that he won''t skin many players with pace alone but given space he can deliver a good ball. The problem is at the moment the way the team is set out is that he doesn''t get into those positions as often as he would in a 4-4-2 so everyone assumes he is playing worse. What he did on Saturday though, was to receive the ball tucked just inside the left and encourage Drury to get forward and attack the wide space - I thought Drury was on fire on Sat and a lot of the reason for that was the understanding the two have and Lappin working space for Drury to attack into.
[/quote]

Yeah, I''m not the kind of person to criticise a player just for the sake of it. And I''m not really trying to do that with Lappin either. I can see what he brings to the team (and likewise what he doesn''t).

In an ideal world I wish had a good right winger and a good left winger so we could have more options available to us.

As well as the diamond has been working over recent weeks there are more than likely going to be times this season when it''s not working for whatever reason. Whether it''s the system itself or an individual in it I think we could do with a bit more available to us.

 

 

 

[Superflash 0]

I think the longer he keeps himself in the starting line-up the better. Lest we forget, Roeder left him in the cold for several months and constantly reminded us he had no future at the club, despite the fact he was pleased with his effort and attitude. He only really got back in the first team plans towards the end of our awful season in the Championship. We''re all still getting used to League One and Lappin is no different. He''s already contributed in some of our goals and I think he''ll contribute to many more as time goes on.

[The Chirp 0]

Lappin is one of those players who does his job well but doesn''t get the plaudits his play deserves. 5 assists (inc the one at Leeds) is quite a good return for a midfielder who has played 15 games this season. I think there is more to come from hiim aswell.