He reminds me of season 1 Sargent. Sargent couldn't hit a barn door from 4 paces, but now we greatly fear him being injured
Kenny back on Tuesday night. Straight swap for Slimane I would guess as he appears injured. Our passing is a worry. Neither weight nor direction very good in far too many instances. And I do not know what to make of Doyle. He is good and bad in the same movement. Did his first few games give us a false impression?
Who, if anyone, has performed consistently well since the 3:3 draw against 'Boro? If you take out the bulk of a team's more established and experienced players, the younger and less established contingent are going to suffer. This recent run of games is probably the first time Doyle has been a central figure in a struggling team, his previous loans having been at promotion chasing clubs -- Sunderland, Coventry, Leicester. Given also that he's been carrying an injury, I'd say his performing as well as he has is more noteworthy than any drop off. More generally, I've actually been impressed by the clear improvement over time of our "reserve" team, illustrated by their going toe to toe today with one of the strongest teams in the Championship, in foul conditions, and coming away with a creditable draw. It may not show in terms of points, but on most other measures, I think the youngsters have done rather well.
As for who has performed consistently I'd pick out Sainz, Fisher, Sørensen and Marcondes. Sainz of course speaks for himself week after week. Like Aarons and Godfrey, Fisher has shown that a young age need not be a handicap as he has emerged from backup to starter this season in several positions. Sørensen is one of those quiet players who consistently puts in steady performances which largely go unnoticed but he is at the heart of our playing out from the back and shielding the centre of the pitch. Marcondes was an inspired choice by JHT and he gets better with every game, being my MotM yesterday.
Agree on Sainz (obviously) and Marcondes - the latter was really pulling it out of the bag. The jury is still out for me on Sorensen. I really really want to think he’s brilliant, but too often we seem somehow flimsy with him in midfield. I can never quite point the blame on him, but it just doesn’t seem to work whenever he plays. Fisher is very much up and down for me - moments of excellence, but dodgy in terms of positioning - deserves plaudits for how he has broken into the team, but like many of our squad still obviously raw and inexperienced.
Re. my observation that "if you take out the bulk of a team's more established and experienced players, the younger and less established contingent are going to suffer", I'd say that has proved true even of Sainz, whose scoring rate has dropped significantly in the last four games (from 0.8 gpg pre-Cardiff to 0.25 gpg Cardiff onwards), while, against Bristol, he put in his worst performance of the season (WhoScored rating 6.0). Bristol weren't the first to try to mark him out of the game, but deprived of means of escape engineered by Sargent, Núñez or McLean, on this occasion he couldn't break the stranglehold. And regarding Rick's praise of "young" Fisher, he is 20 -- but so is Crnac, to whom Rob's assessment of Fisher -- "very much up and down ....... moments of excellence ...... but still raw and inexperienced" -- equally applies. Crnac didn't ask Norwich to pay whatever they did pay for him; it's an example of what Attanasio was referring to when he spoke of money being available to back Knapper and Thorup's judgement, as long as the player concerned fits the long term strategy (to quote Thorup "the only way for us to be able to get up there [the level needed to compete in the EPL] is to continue what we've started here. That is to bring in young and fresh players with big potential, a great future ahead of them, suited for the way that we want to play.") Please can we stop hanging the £8m albatross round young Ante's neck.
