Let's discuss Chris Martin

[Move Klose 303]

I think a goal or 2 against Millwall tuesday night will do him good. He is technically good footballer with a good accurate strike on him, would like to see him try his luck a bit more, shoot more and outside the area.

[zak123 0]

If we get bennett?

--------------Fox----------Crofts

-----------------------Wes---------

Bennett---------------------------------Surman

-----------------------Holt

[king canary 7,562]

Martin has had some bad and some good performances of late. He ran the show against QPR but was annonymous on saturday. The thing that bugs me is that it feels like with a large section of support Chris Martin begins every game on a 4/10 and has to work his way up, while someone like Grant Holt starts on an 8/10. Its tough on Martin who I think is often involved in a lot of good that we do, his link up play can be brilliant (look at Ipswich, QPR etc) but he can seem disinterested. It also doesnt help that he is not an impact player, so coming off the bench doesnt suit. He doesnt have the burst of pace to unsettle defenders in a 15 minute spell.

[Yellow Rages 0]

[quote user="king canary"]Martin has had some bad and some good performances of late. He ran the show against QPR but was annonymous on saturday. The thing that bugs me is that it feels like with a large section of support Chris Martin begins every game on a 4/10 and has to work his way up, while someone like Grant Holt starts on an 8/10. Its tough on Martin who I think is often involved in a lot of good that we do, his link up play can be brilliant (look at Ipswich, QPR etc) but he can seem disinterested. It also doesnt help that he is not an impact player, so coming off the bench doesnt suit. He doesnt have the burst of pace to unsettle defenders in a 15 minute spell.[/quote]

Thats a very sensible point KC and something I hadn''t really considered from the supporters. However, the argument has arisen from those who have merely pointed out that he has been below par in his last few appearances, for which they have been told they must hate him and they should get off his case. Nothing to do with starting him off with lower ratings in this case. It''s purely a retrospective assessment on his recent performance. For what it is worth, I don''t think either of our forwards are helped by the diamond. It does tend to make them play wide when what they really want to be doing is getting on the end of a wingers cross. The problem with the diamond, whilst it gives us good options centrally, it requires the full backs to press on more than they probably should and the front two to play wider than they should to compensate for the overall lack of width. This doesn''t help a player like Martin who at this point in time just simply needs goals under his belt.