anyone else begining to suspect that he is not cut out to be a premiership defender. was very suspect in almost everything he did (or failed to do in most instances) yesterday. ayala or bennett to replace him against newcastle please sir paul.
I feel he is a good defender but only when the games played in front of him. He struggles with players running at him (as do others in our defence) and when he has to chase back to his own goal. However the timing of his tackling is very good and he is solid in the air.
Ward is a good defender imo but is exposed when someone with pace runs at him like Moses did yesterday. He's good in the air, tackles well and his positional sense is normally ok but he, like most of our defence is a little bit suspect with mobile forwards who run at him. Ayala/Zak is our best defensive pairing and it's no co-incidence that sine Ayala's been out we've gone on our worst run of the seaon points wise.
I was going to start a thread on this as well, he seems to me that he wants to seem calm all the time and almost nonchalant in everything he does. He just seems to me off the pace of the premiership and not quite there but when he looks good he looks solid as a rock. I really want to see bennett get a game seeing as we've made a fuss to get him but maybe wolves would be the perfect introduction. How close is Ayala to match fitness then does anyone know?
agreed would like to have seen R Bennett given a go yesterday his youth and pace would probably have been a better match for Moses
I thought he spent most of yesterday on his arse after throwing himself in the way of shots rather than preventing the shots. He is too slow I'm afraid and Russell Martin must wonder why he wasn't there instead. Probably a good Championship defender but not up to it at this level.
Last season I thought that there wasn't much to choose between ward and Whitbread but this season I think that Witbread has been a class apart and Ward has just looked too slow and off the pace. I suspect he will drop down the pecking order when Ayal is fit and Bennett fully integrated into the squad and may depart for the Champoinship with our thanks in the Summer.
Give the man his due, he's done a good job for us. He's like a lot of our players, he needs time to gel in if he's not in the team regularly. Ayala & Whitbread would be my prefered centre backs, but we still need cover and I think Ward should be next in line. ILD OTBC
Which would render fairly idiotic the fact that we spent over £3m on Ryan Bennett just over a month ago?
We also bought Ward for a reason didn't we? Does it mean that R Martins days are numbered as well. Can we not have 4/5 in competition for places? You call Lambert idiotic if you want to, I wouldn't, or was that aimed at.....................? ILD OTBC
We need cover in the CB positions as both Ayala and Zak are treatment cases waiting to happen. Ward is good cover as is Ryan Bennett who maybe first choice next season once he's gelled into the team - he's certainly one for the future hence the hefty fee we've paid for him. Rusty gives us cover in both the CB and RB departments so I doubt if he's going anywhere so it will be Barnett who feels the cold as soon as Ayala is fit again. I would say that next year Ayala and Bennett will battle it out to play alongside Zak with Ward and Rusty as cover - the more physical forwards whom Ward faced in the Championship aren't as apparent in the PL - forwards with zip and movement are far more common and that's why Ward sometimes looks out of his depth. Then again, the same could be said for Crofts who was largely ineffectual yesterday and I can see him going in the summer as well. Don't forget Ward has been out for most of the season and is probably still not 100% fit. Despite his limitations I like the guy - could he become the new Doc and divide opinion among the City faithful ?
I think that Cromer meant that if PL thought that our best CH pairing was Ayala/Whitbread then it is unlikely he would have shelled out £3m for a bench warmer (although I am sure Cromer can state his own case!) First choice in future likely to be Bennett and Whitbread/Ayala depending on who isn't injured at the time! R Martin likely to have a seat on the bench as RB/CB cover so I see Ward as 4th choice at best - sadly just not quite up to the pace of Premiership forwards. Completely agree with other thoughts about Crofts - very off the pace yesterday but may be because he has had so few games. I don't know if he is up to scratch and just not quite match fit/hardened or another whose time may have come.
Probably not, no, it's probably just you. I think he is a decent defender and not sure what has justified this post.
well i've had doubts about ward before and continue to do so. he can be a cracking player but he nods off every game and he is too slow to recover. i'm going to push my neck out and say he won't be playing much at all next year. i just think whitbread and ayala are both better and although i've not seen much of bennett he has the right pedigree to be an outstanding defender. i think we'll keep ward and let barnett leave in the summer but i wouldn't be surprised to see him leave next january. i think when he plays he is a weak link sadly.
I think that Ward has played we so far, but I think Whitbread has been the main stay of our defence despite the fact that he was injured for some of the time. I reckon that Ayala needs to improve defensively because he does seem to put in clumsy challenges, but I thought that he played really well in the Chelsea game, I am not a big fan of Barnett, but the thing that I find wrong with Ayala and Barnett is that they spend a lot of the games ball watching which is a distraction for the rest of the back line. I think that Ayala could improve in the future and would like to see Ryan Bennett given a run in the team. The best central defensive partnership in my opinion would be the Martin/Whitbread combination because I think that they have played well together, at least Paul Lambert has got a lot of central defensive options, but hopefully they will all cope well with the pace of the Premier League and make it very difficult for teams to score against.
the fact that he has been a liability against stoke and wigan, responsible for stokes goal when he decided not to tackle etherington and just watched him run in on goal, and again against wigan, seemed totally at sea ,not knowing whether to tackle or not and usually ending up on his asp with the attacking player well past him.
