Our best ever top flight centre back pairing? I think we've got something like 8 clean sheet this year, is that the most we've ever achieved in the top flight?
really good pairing. turner has been our best player over the past two months in my opinion. for £1.5m i don't think we can complain and bassong is worth a hell of a lot more than the estimated £3m we paid spurs. its disappointing that some fans view of turner was coloured because it seemed like every mistake he made early in the season was punished with a goal! he probably made no more errors than bassong but the cameroon international always seems to get away with his!! sadly, the same cannot be said about the full backs. i've always been a russell martin fan but he is not as good as whittaker in that role and the sooner we get him back in the side the better. garrido impressed early this season but his form has dipped badly and tierney offers little competition. i think left back is a problem area at the moment and should be solved during the summer. i've said it before and i'll say it again - i'm really impressed with the way hughton has the defence operating. its certainly true to say that we are still weak in this department because if anything happens to bassong we seem to collapse. we could do with more competition in the centre half position - hughton's done well making us more solid and we are a million times better at the back this season than we were last but we do need more reinforcements for next season.
Whittaker I fully agree with. Not because Rusty is doing a bad job, but because Whittaker was very strong during that run, defensively and also in conjunction with Snodgrass. Good player.
one thing we could try, although i'm not that keen on doing it, could be to play whittaker at left back. i've not seen him play there before but i know he has done before. martin is still a good player - but its no coincidence that we concede most of our goals when he features at right back. as you say, whittaker is just the better player, that's all.
What I like about Whittaker is that when he breaks forward he is as comfortable to cut in as he is belting down the wing which makes him a tad unpredictable and a note aggressive threat than Kafu
whittaker and snodgrass is an excellent link too - they really seem to be on the same wavelength. i rated whittaker before he came here (one of the few who had seen him no doubt) but i have to say i think he's a better player than i gave him credit for. i think i'm right in saying that we haven't lost with him in the team either! probably just a coincidence but there's no question we've missed him at right back cos rusty is not quite in the same league as him.
as i say, his unbeaten record may very well be a coincidence carrabuh. bassong seems to be the rock but there's no doubting whittaker has more ability than rusty and will be a bonus when he comes back into the side. would you try him at left back? garrido is struggling for form of late.
Turner's been great, at times better than Bassong. To begin with I think he was just settling in to the team. My dad and brother really disliked him to begin with but I have backed him all the time and have been proven right.
still think garrido is having a poor spell but you are totally right that the major issue is the midfield. we lack dynamism in the middle of the park which i thought tettey would bring us (based on early performances) but he has gone off the boil a bit and his passing is utterly atrocious at times - i'd like to see him given a more roaming role with more license to be the one to get forward. he isn't going to thread through balls and neat, intricate one-twos but he will at least give us some drive from central areas. at the moment the only drive we get on the pitch is from snodgrass (who i think is playing very well though his final ball is still a bit patchy at times). fox isn't the answer and we are crying out for a talented midfielder in that team, someone who can not only put his foot in but take control of a match and push the team forwards. who that player is i do not know, but we can't get him till the summer niow anyway, so in the meantime, i'd use tettey a bit further forward. i know people are crying out for two up front, probably because of the lack of goals, but i still stand by the one up front - we just need a few tweaks to get us through till summer and i think those tweaks would look like this: bunn whittaker turner bassong garrido johnson snodgrass tettey hoolahan kamara holt its got pace on the left, guile on the right, drive and skill in the middle and a beast up front! not sure if kamara is used to playing on the left but i understand he is both-footed and even if he is right footed, it would offer a nice balance with two inverted wingers (they could rotate if needs be though i know snoddy is ineffective from the left as he plays off his back foot). so in my opinion its a couple of minor tweaks that's all is necessary to give us a bit more going forward and if we are under the cosh then tettey can drop in. the other option would be to use kamara's pace up front on his own and pop surman on the left (until pilks is fit)
R. Martin seem to be the team captain when Holt isn't playing, so when Whittaker is fit, will he instantly take his place? But I do think Bassong and Turner are one of our best pairings in while.
I'm still in favour of one up front, but I would have Fox in for a few games for Johnson, with Tettey being defensive and Fox covering if he does the odd run forward. The trouble for me is the wingers are too wide and getting the ball too early which is fine if your passing left to right and back and forth and working chances gradually. We don't/ can't do that though, I think we look far better when the wingers are much closer to the central midfielders and receive the ball further up the pitch. This doesn't happen unless Hoolahan has help closer to him from someone like Fox because neither Johnson or Tettey can pass. The point I'm making is player interaction needs to be improved, more involvement of more players. Against Tottenham in the first half we done this really well, they were straighter through balls to play the wingers into more central positions.
I like what you're suggesting Supers, but at the moment I'd be tempted to start Kamara over Pilks, even if he was fit. Kamara seems to be much more attack minded than Pilks (whether that's instructions or not I don't know), having more recently played as an out-and-out striker. That way we'd have someone getting up to support Holt more frequently, and who can pose a greater threat in the box when Snodgrass has the ball wide. I'd like to see Tettey further forward, but where he is at the moment, himself and Johnson should be able to cover for Kamara having more license to push into advanced positions pretty comfortably.
When I suggested that Bassong was as good as Samba on the QPR board they took the p*** .I think that on the current displays he is probably better.Michu mugged Samba on saturday.
They've been quality this season it's good to have a strong centre back pairing they both put themselves in the way of things which is something I value there are centre backs who chicken out of blocks and certain tackles these two are fearless. Some valid points about Martin he'll always be a legend but needs to tidy things up a bit it's more to deal with not reading Snodgrass properly, over hitting passes and not judging runs correctly. Wholeheartedly agree about the midfield issues the only two players who are capable of doing anything amazingly creative is Hoolahan and Snodgrass. We need someone deeper back who can spot runs and play the through balls and distribute the ball around to spread us out, we struggle to break down teams who sit behind the ball and defend well a player of things calibre would punch holes and move their players out of position.
