Chris Martin really got stuck in today

[silver fox 0]

to the second half fracas.  Hoolahan got involved in everything that was good today and deservedly earned MOM.  Chris Martin got involved with the Cardiff players and deservedly earned a yellow card.  If he could show the same passion in trying to score as he did with the confrontation, then the team might benefit. 

[Nexus_Canary 1,024]

Every week you come in here for a moan about Chris Martin.1) What do you suggest to do regarding the 2nd striker spot ?2) Do you understand Martins role ? ( and please try to resist the urge to say something retarded )

[Herman 9,793]

[|-)]

[Phillip J Fry 0]

This is boring. And sad.

[silver fox 0]

[quote user="Nexus_Canary"]Every week you come in here for a moan about Chris Martin.

1) What do you suggest to do regarding the 2nd striker spot ?
2) Do you understand Martins role ? ( and please try to resist the urge to say something retarded )
[/quote]  This is only the second time I have posted about Martin, so not quite every week.  He is lucky at the moment because neither Jackson or Wilbraham are performing any better.  If Lambert brings in another striker, which is a possibility as he has let Johnson go out on loan, then Chris Martin might not be an automatic choice.

As regards his role I thought it was to score goals and not to get involved in incidents that don''t concern him and get yellow carded.  I thought he was playing as a striker alongside Holt today, but I guess you will tell me he was in midfield, or at the tip of the diamond.  Wise up Nexus, Chris Martin is playing below par at the moment.  The only time the snakepit chanted his name today was when he got involved in the fracas.

[silver fox 0]

[quote user="Gareth"]This is boring. And sad.
[/quote] I agree it is sad because I would hate to think how much money he is earning a week to under perform.

[Phillip J Fry 0]

[quote user="silver fox"][quote user="Gareth"]This is boring. And sad.[/quote] I agree it is sad because I would hate to think how much money he is earning a week to under perform.[/quote]I would like to see some constructive arguments to try and point out why you''re right and I''m wrong

[Nexus_Canary 1,024]

No offence to the snake pit, but frankly when and who they cheer / sing for does not mean Arse all in regards to how someone is performing really does it ?If you judge a players performance on the snake pit reaction then half our team was not on the pitch and they confused Marshall with some chap called Hunt.(my comments copy pasted from the Cody thread )I think that Cody is a similar but better player than Jackson.Jackson

lacks the tenacity that Cody has displayed time and again. I like Cody

as a player and really hope that he comes back to Norwich and has a

decent run in the first team.To compare Cody and Chris Martin is like comparing a Wine and a Cider.Your looking at 2 completely different  products and trying to draw a comparison !!I think people expect Martin to be a off the shoulder player and he clearly is not a pace striker.Chris Martin a holding player and could even play target man. He has also shown he can play as playmaker.Cody is a pace striker as is Jackson.Wilbraham is a blatent Target manHolt

more of a Complete Forward in his role at the moment but technically a

target / holding striker similar to Martin in many many ways.God knows what Oli is as I havent seen enough of him to be fair !Height says hes a target man, but Wilbraham joining us says hes on his way out !

Again myself, GP and a few others keep saying it.Stop watching Martin and expecting him to run through with the ball and score goals.Watch his link up and control.He is second to none in our squad.Ok the arguement of "hes a stiker he should score" is god damn weak and I will respond by saying"Russel

Martin is a Right Back he needs to defend not get out of position all

the blood time ! " which is frankly as stupid a comment as Chris Martin

is a striker he needs to score goals.The problem at Norwich is

that we play 2 very similar strikers in Holt and Martin. With Holt

getting the better run as he has the obvious free role. Where as Martin

is given a more rigid role.A lot of people saying Jackson for Martin are barmy.YES

play him if your up against League 1 or defenders with bad awareness.

But against 12 stone 6 footers Jackson is going to REALLY struggle.We

saw this in his last start where he got bounced off the ball and then

slunk off to play in the hole where his main attributes were lost.Players

like Bellamy and Cody McDonald ( very similar if you watch thier game

style !! ) have the bull dog / terrier attitude which makes up for thier

height / weight disadvantage. Jackson lacks this and frankly its not

something you can learn its down to personality !

If you really can not see what Martin is giving us, I suggest you start following a new sport, Cricket ? Rugby ?Because you blatently don''t understand very much about football !

[Harry 0]

[quote user="silver fox"]As regards his role I thought it was to score goals and not to get involved in incidents that don''t concern him and get yellow carded. [/quote]It''s called sticking up for your Team mates, Russ Martin had nearly had his plums removed.

[grantroederdisaster 0]

By all accounts off the pitch Chris Martin can be a nasty, niggly unpleasant young man but on the pitch his temperament is normally very good and he rarely reacts.

 

On his day hes good enough for this level on an off day he isn''t. He will improve if he can get more consistant!

Hes certainly he best bet for the role alongside Grant Holt! 

[Michael Starr 519]

It''s midnight, and i''ve just got back from the game (I live in Bristol!). Yes I''m a casual viewer but every time I see Chris Martin I end up disappointed. I just dont get it, I don''t see what he brings or does other than look miserable, bully defenders and get out paced. Rubbish.

[LeJuge 0]

To be honest I don''t really see what he offers either, he is really struggling in this division.Everybody seems to claim that he has some sort of role to play, yet cannot specifically state what that role is. I get it, he plays deeper than Grant Holt.So what is he supposed to do whilst sitting deeper than Grant Holt? If he is playing a support role to a main striker then I would expect him to be able to play a through ball or some decent link up play.The truth is that a great striker is setting up goals when he isn''t scoring them; Chris Martin is neither scoring them or creating them, 4 goals and 2 assists in 25 games. It is almost as if he is permitted to miss all of his chances because "he has a different role", the truth is that he has really hit a slump and is not sticking the ball in the net. Sorry guys but anybody in the final third of the pitch should be expected to achieve more than that, irrespective of their role or tactics. The guy clearly has potential, but he is better off being our third striker for now, we need a new one if possible. I find it amusing that anybody who doesn''t think Martin is playing well is automatically assumed to have zero knowledge about football, purely on the basis that Lambert picks him so he must be world class. If Lambert was given £1m to spend tomorrow we would see a new striker at the club, I have no doubts about that whatsoever.He isn''t creating, he isn''t holding a ball or retaining possession, his passing hasn''t been great, and his strongest asset - finishing ability - is also alluding him. He can''t really tackle either. That pretty much ticks off any secret role which he may have, if he has a job to do then he isn''t doing it very well. I rate him, but he is in terrible form.

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="grantroederdisaster"]

By all accounts off the pitch Chris Martin can be a nasty, niggly unpleasant young man but on the pitch his temperament is normally very good and he rarely reacts.

 

On his day hes good enough for this level on an off day he isn''t. He will improve if he can get more consistant!

Hes certainly he best bet for the role alongside Grant Holt! 

[/quote]My understanding is that he has matured a lot and is actually a pleasant young man who is generally happy to talk to fans. He is quite down to earth, judging by his decision to frequent an everyday public swimming pool after matches. He has been happy to talk with my friends in the sauna about games, even when we haven''t played well. He lives in Norwich now, away from distractions. We must remember that he was a young Norwich city player living in an area with lots of Ipswich fans, it is easy to see how he could develop a slightly aggressive attitude in the circumstances. I also know plenty about the incidents which have led to his court appearance, my understanding is that he knew the ''victim'' very well and that it was six of one half a dozen of the other.

[Mahogany 0]

Martin looked really good on the highlights. Did well to make space for Fox to take his shot which hit the bar. Also had a good shot spilt that Holt put away only to be ruled offside. If Holt had taken a step back he could still have got to the ball before anyone else and wouldn''t have been offside.

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

Compared to last season he is really struggling.

[Attleborough_Canary 65]

I think he has the attributes to succeed, I just wish he was more aggressive. He is outmuscled fairly often on the basis that the opposing player seems more physical, not stronger, just more aggressive (within the rules). He does show glimpses of strength so he definitely isn''t a weak player.

[zak123 0]

He is playing a completely different role to last season. Last year we were able to just play it through the defence with ease so could afford to have chris and Holt up there with both moving and making chances. We now need more men closer to the ball to make chances.

I will admit there have been a few occasions this year where he should have scored, but i still think he does enough at other times to be on the pitch.

QPR Goal, set up by him. Close penalty, his good ball work. Foxs shot, his good work. Holts disallowed tap in, his excellent work to run through players then shoot.

[Nexus_Canary 1,024]

[quote user="LeJuge"]So what is he supposed to do whilst sitting deeper than Grant Holt? If he is playing a support role to a main striker then I would expect him to be able to play a through ball or some decent link up play.[/quote]Thats his bleeding strong points for crying out loud.He is probably the best link up player we have got. Spend some time and watch him on the ball, try to actually spot the GOOD moves he makes as opposed to the crappy ones.Seems that people see the 1% of mistakes and discount the 99% of the time he doesnt.Martin''s control is superb and he is often playing quick short passes and moving to space or freeing up players by dragging defenders and midfielders.I will say again, his link up play is second to none in our squad.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

Nothing will change the fans are split on him . I think he is out of his depth at this level and with no pace i cannot see him getting a lot better 4 league goals tells its story the same as his namesake our right back ! I am sure Lambert is desperate to bring someone much better in though the cash is obviously the block

[paul moy 235]

Only Lambert knows Martin''s true role. If he is happy with him not scoring goals and playing a deeper role then who are we to argue. On balance yesterday I thought that Martin had a reasonable game but it is frustrating to many of us that he simply does not score enough and is not getting into those scoring positions. We have a man currently playing out of his skin at another club that could have been fulfilling that role.  [;)]

[7rew 0]

My view is that Martin is the striker we have who works best with Hoolahan.

The first bit of our suck the defenders in, play it out wide, cross for Holt to score strategy, can''t be done by Hoolahan alone, this is what Martin does, and does very well. The question is whether that is enough to justify a starting place, and for me it is.

It isn''t all about our final ball, getting the ball to our wider guys in the positions where they can cross, given that they generally haven''t got the pace to get there themselves, is critical to our playing style.

[Captain Holt 522]

First time I''ve come here since last night with all the Martin stuff I''ve been saying, and at last some people are backing up my points. The people who think he''s the dogs goolies need to realise that they aren''t necessarily right.

[Nexus_Canary 1,024]

Try to think in your small heads that maybe instead of playing the diamond top less  like -------------Wes

Holt-----------------------Martin

Its looking more like

Wes ----------------Martin----------Holt

If you can stop getting over such a pathetic stigma of "Nial strikers need ghouls" then you can apprecaite that Chris Martin is the puppies privates !

[Captain Holt 522]

Why do you keep insulting our intelligence? Because we don''t agree with you?

You say Martin plays in the same role as Wes judging by your diagram? Well everything we do seems to come through Wes so he might as well be playing in goal as to be playing there.

I seriously cannot understand what people see in him. The rest of the forward line is carrying him to me, and apart from a decent free kick and the occasional cut in from the wing he offers f*** all to me.

And that''s the last I''m posting on here, good games on today.

[Legend Iwan 30]

The problem is a lot of people were berating Martin last year for being lazy, however, got shot-down because he was scoring for fun - and as they were more than happy to point out, that is a strikers job at the end of the day. This season he hasn''t been scoring, and fans are becoming agitated because of it, as we seem to let games slip from us.

[Nexus_Canary 1,024]

[quote user="Captain Holts Derby Day Hat-Trick"]Why do you keep insulting our intelligence? Because we don''t agree with you? [/quote]No because the average person doesnt understand how the game works.People are quick to insult women who dont know what offside is when they themselves dont really understand what link up play is.I find it vastly frustraiting when people dont get it.The same mongers who were saying Holt was a sack of crap at the start of the season are now picking on Chris Martin.

[Clint 221]

Spot on Nexus, people need to get a grip!

So fickle, drop Martin, get rid of Jackson, bring back Cody, he''ll fire us to promotion, blah, blah, blah........

Nothing against Cody but really? Will he? He''s scoring goals in LEAGUE 2. Surely the way that Martin and Jackson are struggling for goals at this level implies that Cody (who in Lambert''s view is clearly not as ready as Martin or Jackson) is going to find it difficult.

Whatever happened to ''in Lambert we trust''?!?

I agree that Martin does need to start getting a goal or 2 but he bring''s a huge amount to the team whether he scores or not.

[silver fox 0]

[quote user="Nexus_Canary"][quote user="Captain Holts Derby Day Hat-Trick"]Why do you keep insulting our intelligence? Because we don''t agree with you? [/quote]

No because the average person doesnt understand how the game works.  I guess you are saying you do understand how the game works, hence your previous comment about "Nial strikers need ghouls".  I have to admit I have no idea what that statement means, or what game you are referring to.
People are quick to insult women who dont know what offside is when they themselves dont really understand what link up play is.
I find it vastly frustraiting when people dont get it. Where is the link to women not knowing about offside and link up play.  Are you taking any form of medication?
The same mongers who were saying Holt was a sack of crap at the start of the season are now picking on Chris Martin.
[/quote] I think you should stick to your school work and whatever fantasy books you read Nexus.  If I seriously thought you knew anything about football then I would continue to correspond, but sadly from your recent comments it appears you talk a good game, but that game isn''t football.  You will be telling us about goblins and fairies next.

Finally, are you related to Chris Martin?

[Largey 0]

Martin, in my view, has been a 6/10 over the last month or two, bar the QPR game where he was excellent.

However, I do believe he gives more to the team than the other strikers we have, and he is also very good at free-kicks.

If he scored more, no one would have a problem with him, but some people just think it''s a strikers role to score and when they don''t, they should be dropped.

Finally, as someone else said, he links up well with the midfield and keeps the one touch football flowing,

[Captain Holt 522]

I do understand the game how the game work, so stop insulting my intelligence. I could say the same to you because you don''t agree with me, so let''s leave it there.