I'll accept Olsson, Dorrans & Pritchard, but Martin sounds like an excuse to me. Anyway if Martin isn't fit why is he playing when we've got Bennett sitting on the bench.
It's amazing how we all see things differently..... I thought he was average at best and I havent seen anything to say he's any better than Ruddy. He spilled an easy save in front at which fortunately our defender got to first and made several weak punches - similar to one that led to a goal on Saturday that I am sure Ruddy would have got criticism for. He had a good reaction save second half but it was certainly "one for the camera's" and I think we would have moaned if it had gone in. Most other things were straight at him and didn't require much saving. I am not saying he had a bad game but he certainly has made me think that hes made any difference.It's unfortunate but I think we have ended up with two very average goal keepers!
Some excellent posts above and I'll add mine. Cromer – there was some ‘guile and slick football’, but probably only for about 15-20 minutes, nothing like enough to have a comfortable win as Newcastle certainly did (their GD is already beginning to look ominous for the other teams in the Championship!!). I’d also agree that we should be ‘killing games off’ and not ‘clinging on by our fingertips’ and as I said earlier, had JR been in goal, I’m not convinced we would have got all 3 points (sorry JR!!) Very well said Norfolkbhoy and you could see several of the players were really struggling at the end. I’d far rather see Pritchard start and bring Hoolahoops on if need be and I don’t think he and Pritchard playing together is going to work - Pritchard had a couple of good attempts on goal after Hoolahoops went off and I’d like to see more of him. Injuries do seem to be really affecting us and unfortunately to key players, especially Pinto. Yes, the midfield does appear fairly disjointed and by the time Burton visit, I’d LOVE to see the team of McGovern, Pinto, Bennett, Klose, Olsson (I thought he had a really good game last night), Canos, Tettey, Howson, Jarvis, Ja Murphy and Basil IMO, CJ (he needed 2 attempts to score on Saturday) and is missing more chances than he puts away, but I for one can’t argue with his workrate, but we desperately need (whisper it) someone akin to Gary Hooper, who can finish, but can also play a bit, as on at least 2 occasions last night the ball whizzed across the goal, but there was no one there for a tap in.
I don't know where you sit in the ground, but I'm just behind the N&P goal, so obviously had an excellent view of his saves and there was one he managed to tip over the bar and another he put out for a corner in injury time. To be fair to both him and JR, our defence SHOULDN'T be allowing a fairly average team to be having that many shots on target!!!! I'm getting quite concerned at our team's lack of fitness/injuries and yet you look at Leicester last season - Ranieri was able to play the same starting 11 for either 11 or 12 games in a row!!!!
You must lead a very miserable life if you found no enjoyment in 5 goals being scored, especially the 3 scored by the Murphys! To each his own, I suppose.
I CERTAINLY enjoyed the first half last night and Jacob took both goals very well. Everyone was moaning about Saturday's game though and I'm really pleased I wasn't there!!
Small wonder we were relegation fodder last season if ostensibly the same team / squad can only squeak past second bottom Wigan! Ja Murphy got sponsors MOTM but McGovern must have been up there in their thoughts for those 2 or 3 excellent saves late on to keep us in it.
His CV is even more tarnished than AN's! And if you're advocating we get 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' shouldn't this be on the 'What are you eating' thread?
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I was referring to the one he tipped over as the "camera save". I must admit, I left on 89 minutes as I live the other side of Lincoln so I wanted to beat the traffic....... I'll probably get lynched for admitting that! I'd agree about teams getting too many chances, but i'd say that seemed partly due to our lack of game management second half where I think we failed to either kill the game off or take the sting out of it by keeping possession. I still think JR and McGovern are a similar standard and its a shame JR can't get back to the form of a few years ago. My biggest concern on McGovern is his tendency to punch/flap at crosses although his shot stopping might be better than Ruddy's - Cant we morph the two together?!?! I was thinking earlier that is I was being pain £20k+ a week I would like to think I would be fit as a fiddle along with being support by top coaches, sports scientists and nutritionists!!
Martin started at CB and then moved to RB when Pinto went off at half-time, which meant that he had far more running to do considering he has had 2 matches in 4 days since returning from injury. I agree that performances haven't been great, but that to me shows potential for improvement after 6 points from the last two games. As AN said: "We wanted six points before these games and we got the six points. It was good at times, but it could still get better which I think is a pleasing thing. When you're playing well and you're not winning, that's when it's worrying."
Well, if I lived that far away, I'd definitely leave early to beat the traffic and totally agree that we need to at least keep possession a lot better and so deny the opposition hte chances to shoot, then our keeper wouldn't have to perform as well, Part of it I feel was due to Pinto having to go off and so force Martin into playing as a RB - I just don't feel he's go the speed to do that nowadays and I would rather AN didn't play Whittaker again any time soon!!! I TOTALLY agree with your last sentence!!! Edit- I've just seen that our crowd was a little depleted last night as a result of the accident near Postwick - http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/female_..._after_two_vehicle_collision_on_a47_1_4695866
In which case why not start with Bennett / Klose at CB and Martin on the bench. That way if a CB or the RB gets injured then Martin comes on and any re-organising / disruption is kept to a minimum. It's not as though Martin's performances are such that you would fear what would happen if he didn't play. Any way AN decided to play Martin knowing his fitness was an issue rather than a fit Bennett so the problem was of his own making. He didn't really have much choice playing Olsson, but if Olsson had got injured or not been able to play the full game then what was plan B, play Martin at LB, another reason to have Martin on the bench. AN's decision making and contingency planning is becoming more and more of an issue for me.
