Opinions on Russell Martin as a first choice centre back?

[Thorpe Wreck 0]

Martin does ok at cb imo.   We were only beaten by one goal and his positional sense is good.   The goal was down to a good cross with a good run by the attacker and we were stretched.  Sometimes you get that.  The rest of the game the defence did what it had to do.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

In my opinion (no inside knowledge) Adams has been very keen to have Martin (as one of the senior players who appears quite influential in the dressing room) onside from the outset of his regime. He wanted to have a good, reliable club man as captain and saw martin as that man. As part of those discussions Martin has probably told him that his preference is to play as a centre back (as he is on record saying a few times) and Adams (possibly also thinking it would be good to have a CB who is comfortable on the ball) has agreed to give him a chance to cement his place in that position.

I have no problem with him as a CB in terms of positional sense or ability to read the game. Indeed ironically he can probably get away with playing there at International level because most international teams are less direct and play the ball on the floor. Where, however, i think its a problem for us is in the championship where there will be a fair amount of long ball stuff and crosses coming into the box because Martin gets the wrong side of his man and gets done in the air. i can think of at least 4 or 5 goals in the last 18 months where he has been outjumped by strikers or opposition midfielders.

I thought Ryan Bennett looked the real deal at times last season when he came into the side. He has reasonable pace but more importantly he''s also a rock in the air which is what we need at this level, he should be playing alongside Turner and martin should be reverting to right back in place of the defensively poor Whitaker. trouble is Adams has set his stall out now with the squad numbers and his pre-season selections so unless Whitaker gets injured I can see him being loathe to admit he was wrong.

[king canary 7,578]

I''d much rather have him at RB but that is mainly based on the fact Whittaker is crap.

I think the one thing that Martin brings playing CB though is leadership- if you watch players like Ryan Bennett and Michael Turner don''t seem to be organisers and talkers and it is good to have someone who does that in the middles of the back 4.

[GJP 79]

Does he bring "leadership"?

So far there''s been nothing to suggest he is an improvement defensively or in terms of leadership.

[The Judge 0]

[quote user="CJ"]This is where Neil Adams will fail as a manager or needs to learn quickly what it takes!

Russell Martin is a team player through and through and loves NCFC however he is and has been for some time been playing poorly in defence, he is certainly no CB. You also only to look at highlights of goals in this league to know aerial threat is a bigger issue in this and lower league. you have to have two CB who can deal with standard crosses like the one Wolves scored from yesterday.

Adams made so many elementary mistakes yesterday it is very worrying.

First Surman and Hools together away from home was just shear stupidity. They are similar players and both need time on ball to put mark on game , Surman maybe but Tettey should have been on instead of Hools.

R Bennet should have been on instead of Martin, who should have replaced Whittaker at RB.

Lafferty should have also been on from start to hold up long balls and give us a hold in the game.

The most worrying factor is we have players like Olssen , Fer, Hooper, Tettey and Pilks who I am not sure want to be here anymore no matter what they say in public.

I am sorry to say that N Adams has failed to impress to date including the fiasco of really only having one meaningful pre season match to sharpen up the team after no shows in Italy.

The division may be different but the team looks and plays the same, toothless, unfit, lacking motivation and leadership , all the things Adams said he would solve!!

Adams should have shipped a lot more players out pre season and got in some more hungry keen players not players who think they are still playing in the Premiership or should be![/quote]

Can''t disagree with most of this. We have a team that is used to losing and need hungry players without this baggage to replace those that just aren''t good enough or don''t want to be here to turn this around. On relegation the team needed a major overall (most of them weren''t good enough last year even against the poor Prem teams and won''t be this) the thing is this is major risk for a rookie manager who ''on paper'' has a very good championship squad and doesn''t have the pulling power to attract the fresh talent needed so he feels his best chance of succeeding is keeping the vast majority of the squad in tact hoping that playing at a perceived lower level they will come to the fore - and may be / hopefully they will - but for me they would stand a much better chance by getting 4 or 5 new players in that should be in the starting line up (CB and RB being top of the list ) it''s not that we can''t afford iit

Not pushing for promotion this year with the financial resources at our disposal in this league (whether that be for players or managers) will be a far far bigger failure than getting relegated last year.

It is early days, but the next couple of weeks, both on the pitch and in the transfer market will be key to how our season is going to pan out..

[GJP 79]

Anyway, I think Whittaker deserves a run of games to prove himself.

BUT if Whittaker had to miss out in order to get Martin away from CB I''d be fine with that.

Overall though I''d like to see a Norwich team without Martin and Johnson for a few games. Two regulars who are often weak links.

[The Judge 0]

[quote user="GJP"]Does he bring "leadership"?

So far there''s been nothing to suggest he is an improvement defensively or in terms of leadership.[/quote]

No I don''t think he does GJP. He is good in front of the journalists and talks well, but it''s what you do on the pitch that matters for a football team. Grant Holt was an excellent example, Andrew Crofts was another from the recent past, and going back further, Darren Huckerby, Dion Dublin, Robert Fleck, Steve Bruce....all players that raise their game when the going gets really tough, not disappear and hope others change the course of the game. Martin had never done this and doesn''t have the ability to either. Decent chap undoubtedly and seems to genuinely love Ncfc - but a leader he is not.

[Surfer 1,547]

" My opinion is that RM is a decent Championship level full back . He is not PL standard, and the fact that he plays regularly for Scotland is more a testament to the lack of quality in depth north of the border than any perceived failings of Russ himself."

Agree with that. I thought it was worrying when the club handed out positional numbers, which strongly suggested Martin as first choice center back, which IMO he isn''t. As a right back possibly, but then he lacks speed, and if we were still in the Premiership Sam Byram from Leeds, and as we aren''t, Elliot Bennett would be better choices for us.... now as he''s captain, Adams has a problem dropping him.

[Mr Angry 1,545]

This reminds me so much of Nigel Worthington''s decision to use Simon Charlton to replace Malky, which I think was a major factor in our relegation in 2004/05. I''d rather have Bassong, whatever his problems, than Martin at CB.