Scouting Report

[FenwayFrank 2,456]

Tom, is it true that you are also an airline pilot and a brain surgeon ?

[norfolkngood 1,086]

I know one of Ipswich''s main scouts as he is in the same trade as me antiques dealer says it all really !!!

[the bristol nest 0]

I will of course watch the highlights until I agree with you.

Btw is "Tom Cavendish" as play on the name Tom Cavendish? Good undercover work.

[tom cavendish 0]

[quote user="Ray"]Tom,

How was the second goal RM''s fault?

Firstly, Q) Where was Bennett, A) Outside of RM, Where should he have been? (rhetorical question)

Secondly, Q) Who let Jones run into our box unmarked and unchallenged, A) Not RM but the nearest palyer to him when he set of on his run was either Elmander or Snoddy, Elmander decided to run out of a defensive position and Snoddy stopped running into the box and stood stock still as they attacked down the wing.[/quote]Of course RM wasn''t the only one to blame for that goal but I

thought his challenge could have been a lot better to try to prevent the

goal. Just another example, during the second-half (around the

47th min) with Norwich winning 1-0, RM was up for a corner to Norwich

and he was positioned in a central position on the edge of the Cardiff 6

yard box. Marshall cleared to Mutch & Saha who were both in a huge

amount of space because Martin wasn''t there at right-back. Jonas did

very well to make up a lot of ground to get back to try to make a

challenge and Olsson was just behind him. Our left winger and left-back were trying to cover our right-back position because RM had gone missing. Fortunately Cardiff wasted that great opportunity.

[Lets be aving you! 0]

Cavendish is also a village in Suffolk known for its pink cottaging, sorry cottages, available at peppercorn rents.

Not too far from Six Mile Bottom, I''d wager, hence the unending stream of carp.

[Mind the gap 12]

Tom, you''ve upset the apple cart here. The old ''Norfolk Cafu''

has become a legend in these parts you know.

Must be something in the Norfolk air.

For the record,I was at the match,as well. And agree with your marks.

In fact I''m at nearly every match, and regularly see wingers glide past him with ease. But he points very well.

There !!! I''ll share the flack from the serial posters.

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

Pointing is a very underrated skill. Paul ''the guvnor'' Ince was brilliant at it.

[Ray 111]

Tom,

Do you think RM was up there because he just fancied a wander or do you think he was there under team orders and Jonas and Olsson were staying back under team orders to cover? RM was up with Seb, neither of whom were back for the break, as you would expect, so had it gone down the middle you would have criticised Seb similarly would you? I assume you would have as it would have been the same crime in your eyes and therefore you don''t have as good a grasp on the tactics of football as you would have us believe, IMO.

[Ray 111]

Mind the gap,

Wingers get paid to beat full backs ocassionally you know, even ours do every now and again.

Could you tell me how many goals we have conceded from left wing crosses compared with right wing crosses and then compare this with other clubs, if you have the stats to prove your point then I''ll accept what you say.

The pointing may have something to do with trying to organise the team and defence, something which perhaps should be done by the on field captain but I don''t see a loy of it!

[Mind the gap 12]

Ray,I did say regularly,by the way. Not occasionally.

And no . Don''t do stats. Stats don''t always reflect reality.

Anyway,don''t want to get into a to and fro about this

These things often spiral downwards,pretty quickly.

Just saying what I see with my own eyes. But hey,maybe I

just don''t understand the game.

[Ray 111]

Well we obviously see things differently then, because I can''t recall too much coming from the left, which is why I disagree with your regularly, still I did agree with one thing you said!! So all''s well that ends well.

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

All very civilised.

[GJP 79]

[quote user="Ray"]Tom, How was the second goal RM''s fault? Firstly, Q) Where was Bennett, A) Outside of RM, Where should he have been? (rhetorical question) Secondly, Q) Who let Jones run into our box unmarked and unchallenged, A) Not RM but the nearest palyer to him when he set of on his run was either Elmander or Snoddy, Elmander decided to run out of a defensive position and Snoddy stopped running into the box and stood stock still as they attacked down the wing. [/quote]

So because other players may not have been doing their jobs properly that means Martin doesn''t have to defend?

 

A number of players are to blame for that second goal and Martin is one of them.

[Ray 111]

GJP,

Did I say that he didn''t have to defend. No and why would I. I am serious about this club and don''t go around making such ludicrous comments as "he needn''t bother to defend". For you to assume this is was what I was saying is in my opinion, somewhat misguided in itself,

What I said was that Jones ran unchallenged into our goal mouth and ran into a gap that perhaps, and I mean perhaps, one of ourr CB''s should have been filling. He arrived unchallenged at pace against a RB holding his position. Now should RM have seen him coming and recognised the fact Snoddy and Elmander had abandoned their roles, recognisaed the fact he was unchallenged, and made superhuman eforts to compensate for the failures of his team mates, possibly yes, but imo that puts him way dowm the list of people to blame for the goal.

So, I agree with your second point, which was essentially agreeing with the point I made, that there were a number of players at fault and NOT just RM

I don''t hear people blaming Seb for the first goal, he was originally tracking Bellamy but stopped allowing Bellamy to go through unchallenged.

[GJP 79]

I''m serious about this club too and I''m getting a bit fed up with some of our weak defensive showings - which is particularly the case on the right side of our defence.

 

It needs tightening up but it just isn''t happening.

[Ray 111]

GJP,

If, and I know we didn''t, but it sort of makes a point re our defence, if we had only lost the fixtures against Man City & Liverpool, 1 - 0, then our defensive record (goals conceded) would only be bettered by Chelsea, Aresenal and Everton, so I don''t go along with all this weak/bad defending rhetoric and the criticism of the players in the defence. Our problem is creativity and goal scoring, OK the goals at the weekend were given away but the initial errors were not made by defenders.

In fact if you look at our performances so far against the top 4 and if we applied the same criteria, insomuch we only conceded one goal in each of these games, then we would be equal first on goals conceded, with Chelsea on 20.

Is it because we can''t score that the focus turns on the defence, if we were banging in 4 every game but conceding 2, I wonder how many of us would be complaining about our defence?

I have asked the question elsewhere, but will ask you, do you have any stats re the number crosses or goals that have come from the oppo''s left as opposed to their right and if so do you have any comparison data with other clubs. I ask because I don''t see what you see but if there are stats that prove me wrong then I will readliy accept your point about our rightside. Although I wouldn''t automatically blame the RB''s I would also look at the amount of cover provided by our other rightsided players.

[GJP 79]

I do agree, as I''m sure everyone would, that our biggest problem is scoring goals. And it''s been something I''ve been disappointed about for a long time. It was something we needed to address in January but didn''t.

 

But when you''re scoring goals you''ve got to be ultra tight defensively and while that has to be something that comes from the whole team the defence itself has got to be strong.

 

I think if you split our defence down the middle and say which half needs the most improvement Martin and Bennett or Bassong and Olsson it''d surely have to be the former.

 

I''ve got no idea about the stats so can''t help on that one and I think we should probably attempt to draw a line under this anyway because it''s fairly obvious you''re a massive Russell Martin fan and I''m not so much. I''m not sure any set of stats will do much to change that.

 

[Ray 111]

GJP,

As you would expect, I don''t necessarliy agree re the split down he middle but my opinion isn''t so fixed that I wouldn''t consider re-framing it if there were data I could look at which could give a statistical picture, although I am fully aware there are lies, etc. I can''t find any data although I suspect it exists within the Prozone data, which quite rightly is confidential.

Yes I am a massive RM fan, as I am of all the players that pull on a NCFC shirt, it just seems odd to me that he, and Whitts, appear to be singled out when, imo, they are no worse or better that our other defenders considering we have 8 clean sheets this season so far, which puts us equal 7th with Man City in the clean sheet league.

Of course we shouild always be looking to improve, in every area, my main point was that our defence, generally speaking, is doing OK and it is our creativity and scoring that should be our main focus, which we do agree on, so all good then.

I''m off to the U21 Norfolk Senior Cup game tonight, so here''s hoping for another clean sheet.

[tom cavendish 0]

Consider

that Cardiff had obviously brought on Saha to expose the space being

left by RM (as he was playing so far forwards and moving infield) and

that we were winning the match. Was it therefore wise to have Snodgrass

take corners from the left and put 3 of our defenders near the

opposition 6 yard box up for the corner, and one of those was RM leaving

us with no protection at all down our right, and so being reliant upon

our left-winger to quickly sprint all the way back from the edge of the

opposition box?

We got caught-out and Cardiff should have scored, and then we did exactly the same thing for our corner 6 mins later.

[4th floor 4]

This sounds similar to the Chelsea game where Martin was virtually on the penalty spot (along with Bassong) waiting for the ball to be played back in when Chelsea broke away and scored.We might get away with this against lesser opposition, but we''re more likely to get punished against the top teams. We perhaps need to be a bit better at covering, where if one gets forward then another covers. However, I think a score of 2 for Martin is a bit harsh!