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Interesting team selection yesterday. Why was Rose playing? Lambert giving him a chance to earn a contract? I would say it is pretty clear Martin and Rose are not Championship class. Spillane deserves a chance though wasn''t at his best defensively yesterday. I think his strength and height will be an asset, but he needs to continue to improve. Heard a rumour we could get Lambert for 1.5m plus Drury. If this is correct we need to invest in a couple of full backs.

If we want the option of the diamond next year we need genuine championship quality in these positions.

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I''d be sad to see Drury used in some bargaining deal... [:(] I think Drury has been very consistent for us no matter what league. I can''t even remember him having a game where he stood out as poor.Rose at his best is pretty good actually. He can make some good overlapping runs, and pings some nice through balls forward. He comes across as a confidence player to me.. I''d like to see more of him in the next 2 games.Spillane was poor at Charlton and didn''t really set the world alight yesterday for me.. He certainly is not reliable for the Championship imo.

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I think Spillane in time will be a Championship player but there are still parts of his game he needs to improve, he''s probably slightly ahead of R.Martin in my eyes.Drury will be fine in the Championship for another year for sure but will he play 46 games, i''m not so sure so quality cover/competition needs to be brought in, Rose isn''t up to it in my opinion,  though there have been occassions where he''s looked a decent player there have been as many where he''s looked very shakey so a league up is definately beyond him.

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I mentioned a different thread theleft back at Southend, Johnny Herd. Looks a similiar prospect to Adam drury when he first came over. Is out of contract but is only 20 so might require a small fee

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Losing Adam Drury as part of the deal would leave us with a ridiculous issue. Adam has plenty of championship experience and has been one of our most consistent players (when fit) this season. In my opinion he is one of only 5-6 with real champiuonship quality in our existing squad. Who remembers one of our previous Managers making the decision that Marc Edworthy should be released........We still have not been able to replace him 4 years on!

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Thought left side we were awful at times yesterday. McNamee and Rose looked like strangers and neither looked a threat. Spillane is probably not a natural full back - more centre half. He looked short on pace yesterday. Drury is still the best full back and Spillane has work to do to unseat Martin. I presume it was an experiment yesterday-not a sign for the future.

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In my opinion, Spillane has the potential to be a top player-he didn''t play particularly well yesterday, but he hasn''t had a decent run in the team for a while. We need players who are comfortable on the ball, and I don''t think players like Martin have that. Fine at Division 1 level, but not for me in the Championship.

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Despite not playing for months Spillane seems to have been tagged by some posters as a better right back than Martin, who has been pretty much ever present through our decisive run of form. As we have seen in the last couple of games this is a fallacy. He doesn''t read the game as well as Martin and is terminally indecisive going forward when closed down. He is a decent prospect at centre back, but is nothing more than a stand in right back.

Drury is Mr consistency, but there is a big question mark over his durability going back over the last few years, so cashing in might make sense. Rose does not, however, seem to be an adequate replacement and would, in my view, struggle in a higher league.

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I''m actually pretty happy with Drury and Martin as fullbacks. I think they''re both steady enough defenders (well, to be fair, Drury is an excellent defender) and both decent enough going forward.

Spillane had a great opportunity to show the manager something yesterday but really, considering we''re always being told these young players have hunger and passion, did he do anything more than the bare minimum? Just really can''t see him ever being good enough for what we want/need. Martin is clearly the managers first choice out of the two of them at right back.

As for Rose, he''s usually a mixed bag as he was again yesterday. The thing is I guess we''re unlikely to be able to sign someone better than Drury so are we going to be able to get someone better than Rose who would be happy to play second fiddle to Drury?

 

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FFS, Spillane has looked solid the last 2 games after coming in probably not match fit as he has been sat on the bench since coming back from injury.What is it with Norwich fans that want to get on the backs of our home grown players?

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It felt like lets see how we do with 442 and the second string full backs.

For wide midfield both Smith and McNamee failed miserably. Smith wandered inside and McNamee did not even do that.

At full back I thought both were poor, and both significantly poorer than drury or r martin

The first choice pair get forward far more effectively and but also defend.

Spillane in the first 5 mins committed both position and challenge errors that gave gillingham space and time. R Martin simply does not do that.

Rose was better than Spillane - but such poor distribution and offered nothing going forward.

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[quote user="scotty is here LOL"]And 2 cleansheets since spillane has been bk ?[/quote]

Plenty of clean sheets with R Martin and various combinations of backlines which haven''t included Spillane.

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[quote user="Harry"]
What is it with Norwich fans that want to get on the backs of our home grown players?

[/quote]

What is it with Norwich fans and overrating home grown players?

 

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After watching Norwich for over 40 years I have seen plenty come through who didn''t make the grade and you could see that from the start so please don''t accuse me of overrating some of our players, at the moment we have got Chris Martin, Korey Smith, Declan Rudd and Michael Spillane who IMO are all going to excellent players but there seem to be far to many who want to see them fail just so they can say "Told you so, why can''t our Youth squad develop players like they used to?"

I have said in other threads the best thing for us is if we get Forster back on another season loan and send Rudd out to a League One team to get the experience he needs to take over from Forster.

Chris Martin and Michael Spillane both had this last season on loan to Luton and have come back better players, Martin has scored 20 goals and people are still knocking him and saying he won''t be good enough for the Championship, Spillane was unlucky to be injured, when he came back from injury he sat week after week on the bench waiting for a chance and when he got it against Charlton he never let us down even with the onslaught in the second half and retained his place against Gillingham where once again he never let us down, OK he didn''t look that sharp but what can you expect after s long layoff?

Korey Smith has stepped in this season and looks as if he has been in the first Team for years, he runs for the whole 90 minutes, he plays intelligent passes (I know they don''t all come off), he harries the opposition, wins the ball and fights back if he loses the ball, people forget he is only 19. Get off their backs and support them.

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I want the best possible team for ncfc.

Spillane has potential - and has had for several seasons since getting his first multi £k pw pro contract. He has not moved on and now he has to start realising that potential.

The last two games he has shown he is vulnerable. He does have time to improve. The question is whether he is better than R Martin. IMHO he is not, so for next season R Martin starts - but spillane stays in the squad to improve and provide a variety of cover where he will prove invaluable = whether or not he is home grown.

Rudd is younger and has done well. Again Forster has done well and again IMHO is the b etter player - my POTS season. But again because there is another better player does not mean I am on rudds back - his time will come.

As far as smith and CMartin are concerned they are two of the stars of our season - I have championbed both because they are fab footballers who also happen to be home grown. Chrissy is realising his potential and his quality will make him a star next season - esp with lamberts guidance.

L:ikewise Korey - he has proven his potential this season and with a solid second season should go from strength to strength next year

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[quote user="Harry"]After watching Norwich for over 40 years I have seen plenty come through who didn''t make the grade and you could see that from the start so please don''t accuse me of overrating some of our players, at the moment we have got Chris Martin, Korey Smith, Declan Rudd and Michael Spillane who IMO are all going to excellent players but there seem to be far to many who want to see them fail just so they can say "Told you so, why can''t our Youth squad develop players like they used to?"

I have said in other threads the best thing for us is if we get Forster back on another season loan and send Rudd out to a League One team to get the experience he needs to take over from Forster.

Chris Martin and Michael Spillane both had this last season on loan to Luton and have come back better players, Martin has scored 20 goals and people are still knocking him and saying he won''t be good enough for the Championship, Spillane was unlucky to be injured, when he came back from injury he sat week after week on the bench waiting for a chance and when he got it against Charlton he never let us down even with the onslaught in the second half and retained his place against Gillingham where once again he never let us down, OK he didn''t look that sharp but what can you expect after s long layoff?

Korey Smith has stepped in this season and looks as if he has been in the first Team for years, he runs for the whole 90 minutes, he plays intelligent passes (I know they don''t all come off), he harries the opposition, wins the ball and fights back if he loses the ball, people forget he is only 19.

Get off their backs and support them.

[/quote]

I don''t want to see any of our players fail. I''d take no joy in that. But I''m not going to sing the praises of players who I don''t think are up to it whether they''re one of ours or not.

I think since I''ve been posting on here I''ve always said Chris Martin has got a shot at doing something for us because he''s got some real genuine ability but with Spillane I''ve never seen anything other than a very ordinary/average (at best) young defensive utility player who will be no more than backup for us.

We''ve all seen that Paul Lambert will play and stick with the young lads if they''re good enough to do the job on a regular basis. You would assume that if Spillane is good enough/has as much to offer as Chris Martin and Korey Smith then he will, on merit, become a first choice player. But, in my opinion, at this stage he has got quite a long way to go to.

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For me Spillane was flying before his injury. Had he maintained that level he would have been first choice all season. Not sure if he is not match fit, but he did seem a little suspect yesterday. But I''ve seen enough in him to believe he has the potential to do a job in the Championship.

Having said that, playing the diamond puts so much onus on the fullbacks to provide width and handle one on ones - and in the champ this will be against quality pacey wide players. Apart from Drury who is becoming increasingly injury prone I don''t think we have enough quality in these positions.

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I really am surprised that Spillane has been picked out for stick, It thought played fine game not great but let us be clear not great team performance.Rose was behind the only two good chances that the Gills had and but for cover by Doc and Forster they would have scored. No such threat down Spillane wing.However I do think slight tactical blunder by lambert in that McNamee was doing a fair job of tracking back on that wing until removed . I noticed that when Lappin came on suddenly we seemed much more secure and balanced.

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I''m a little bit late on this one so you''ll have to excuse me. The full backs are vitally important to any team who plays the narrow diamond midfield that we have preferred this season. A lot of the problems that we have encountered in the second half of the season seem have been caused by the lack of aggressive and attacking full backs. When the diamond was first used Spillane was played at RB and produced a few excellent performances at full back. Drury complemented this with a similarly aggressive performance at LB and even Otsemebor offered something on occasions at RB (he was excellent against Leeds away earlier in the season in an attacking sense).Spillane may make the odd positional error at the moment but presumably that is something that can be coached? He has arguably the best RB in City history on the coaching staff after all! The big decision for PL in pre-season is whether he continues with the diamond and for that to be successful he needs aggressive full backs to prevent the opposition targeting us in those wide areas. I don''t see Russell Martin playing that role.

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R Martin gets pulled inside to easily IMO. He often has about 15 yards to make up to close down crosses. He is also very reluctant to carry the ball up the line- we need him to do that in the diamond formation.

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Lets be objective about Spillane. He is young and has potential. He played well earlier in the season and was great against Orient in the home game prior to injury. Having said that he was very poor indeed against Gillingham. Jury has to be out he needs to get his fitness and confidence back as well as jump into the championship. To have him as your first choice right back at the moment would be naive and reckless

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