I know he did well for Hull last year and he's certainly not short of confidence. However, I thought that (apart from scoring the goal for which we are of course very grateful...) he looked like a sack of Maris Pipers. Maybe I was just in a bad mood.We need some pace in the centre of our defence. . .
I've always liked Gerrard the guy wears his heart on his sleeve and gives 100 percent. His distribution is dodgy at times but I didn't see him losing any 50 - 50 tackles or many headers this afternoon.
I thought our defense was very rocky today and they all put Marsh under a lot of pressure. 2-0 flattered us a bit
He's woeful on the ball and even slices it when clearing under no pressure. Still think we look a lot more solid this time though. Probably a mental thing, i.e down to the manager.
OK so MM has brought Turner in and he's gonna want to play; so who do you drop Gerrard or Hudson? I'm not going to comment at this point as I can't really remember Turner playing for the other CCFC against us
Its a difficult decision on which one to drop, since both have played well at points. Hudson was really good last season and i think Gerrard is just as solid. It will probably be the one that plays badly the game before or the next one to make a mistake. Probably Gerrard, though I'm not sold on this Turner bloke until I see him play. However, If I wanted someone to pick me a CB, It would be Mackay with his 20 years of experience he must see something in Turner.
The defence is a constant worry, at least centrally. We have absolutely no pace in the middle at the back. Everytime Coppinger got the ball and played off that Dumbuya bloke, I **** myself. True to say Darcy had a go at protecting them to the extent that he got a card for his troubles, but the lack of pace and reaction to the second ball in central defence is obvious. Is Turner the answer? We'll find out shortly, but he needs to inject pace, not just be a solid defender like Huds and Gerrard who can both be very good in that respect.
We are short of pace everywhere. Gerrard is fine with long balls pumped at him and hes a good squad Championship player. Over the last few seasons our best central defensive partnership was Gerrard/Blake. If Turner is as good as reported id play Blake/Turner and attempt to sell Hudson or Gerrard and keep one as back up.
This is why I believe Darcy should play centre back. He wins a fair amount in the air, and he has pace. Him and Gerrard when they played together were immense. 10 game unbeaten record when they were together, winning 8 and conceding about 4? However if you play Darcy with someone else at centreback you'll have 4 other centre backs wanting to play and possibly leave for first team football.
We have kept two clean sheets and conceded one goal three times. Take away the three during the Brighton game that does not look too bad to me. Strikers need to close down and the midfield needs to cut out most attacks, it is this area that allows the pressure on our defenders. Stop attacks higher up the field.
Gerrad can be infuriating at times hewas under pressure when he played the ball back to the keeper yesterday with the Doncaster forwards closing in and he almost forced Marshall to concede a corner when he should have hoofed the ball into touch ,that said he is certainly an improvement on what we had last season in my humble opinion so hopefully he is not up to full speed yet. I was talking with Darcey yesterday and he told me he was knaclered and by half time his legs had gone due to the two internationals he had played in culminating to 3 games in eight days including the Donny match.
