Santon

He injured his knee, pardew said so on his interview with the bbc which is brilliant, just what we needed another injury.

 

Just praying he's fit for Bolton, doubt it though

 

This is beyond a joke now. It's made even more frustrating by the fact that Santon was our best player against Swansea and had a good 1st half today.

 

Hope it's very minor.

 

I'm so sick of watching Raylor play. He doesn't have a clue how to play the position, never times his runs forward well, decreases the effectiveness of Colo and Jonas, and takes over set pieces -- he may have an eye for goal on free kicks, but he can't kick a corner for ****.

 

It's a recurring injury that hes has for years that keeps popping up, cant help but feeling Santon is one of those quality looking players who is never fit enough to play more than 3 games in a row

 

I agree completely. But to be fair to Raylor it's not his best position and he's got stuck in and worked hard.

 

This. Vuckic put in a couple of decent deliveries tonight, and Ba scored a free-kick. As soon as Raylor came on it was back to the ****e deliveries we've seen for the majority of the season.

 

Oh I don't particularly blame him, and I'm glad Pardew had finally realised what Santon could offer the side and gave him a proper chance. But he really has no business playing in the position and it illustrates the importance of bringing in another fullback in January.

 

Maybe he asked Vuckic politely, but the way he took the ball away from him and acted entitled to the corner kick rubbed me the wrong way. Mind you, maybe that's a well known rule among the team that when he comes on he's to take those kicks? Either way, like you said, not been impressed by his delivery from corners.

 

I've always thought Raylor to be vastly overated on free kicks. Only ones I'd have him on are ones in the position he scored from.

 

Agree. Barton was also a bit over-rated at free kicks as 70% of his free kicks and corners hit the wall or a defender. Barton was better at crossing from open play.

R Taylor is a bit like Roberto Carlos (in the free kick sense). He's scored a few belters which have given him a reputation as a dead ball specialist, but in reality for every one good one he has 6 or 7 **** ones.

 

I have been a R Carlos fan ever since I watched football, and I would like to point out that R Carlos was not like Raylor in the free kick sense.. His freekicks aren't based on bending over walls and are just about power on the shot at goal, so only for every 6 or 7 good ones, is 1 which is way over the bar...

And I'd rather have Demba taking all the freekick duties than see Raylor.

 

I'm alone because I think Raylor does well on the dead balls.

 

I'm not saying they have similar free kick styles, but they both have loads that are ****e or fail to hit the target. The spectacular ones that fly in are in the minority.

 

Yeah it's just the moving ones that go sailing past him when he's out of position that are the problem

 

You're not alone. Vuckic took half a dozen useless corners last night (either first man or waaaay over), I was delighted when they finally swapped once Raylor came, not least because 6'+ Vuckic could then get in the box.

I actually don't think he's anywhere near as bad as people make out, he's struggled for pace with SWP, got caught out against Sturridge (though often because of midfielders giving it away rather than an out and out outpacing), and made two errors against City, but other than that he's looked fairly solid and has a decent footballing brain. Before this season I'd have dismissed him playing fullback again altogether (certainly since that attempted backpass v Man U a few seasons back) but I've been impressed. No issue with him coming in Monday at all, Jonas was just as ineffective with Santon as he has been with Raylor...

 

The answer should be to just let Ba do everything. We're a one man team while Tiotes not at his best. FK Ba, penalty Ba, corners Ba, defending corners, Ba, engine room Ba, Striker Ba, lb Ba. Solution: clone Ba.

 

Everyone knew Santon had a recurring knee injury when we bought him. So how come we bought him but failed Maiga? It's totally fu cked up!

 

Ba too. Maiga's must have been horrible if we were happy to sign Ba, Santon and Marveaux for that matter.