mkrudden
Player Valuation: £40m
So taking the captaincy off him a few games into the new season is going improve his form?
Right ok...
He is human you know, not a robot. If anything changing captain would make things a hell of alot worse.
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So taking the captaincy off him a few games into the new season is going improve his form?
Right ok...
He is human you know, not a robot. If anything changing captain would make things a hell of alot worse.
ah11984
Player Valuation: £25m
McCarthy has been really really average this season in my opinion, but some seem to have a serious blindspot with him. Even saw a couple of shouts on Twitter for him as man of the match v Palace, ludicrous. He hardly touched the ball because he was played more advanced 1st half and then, through no fault of his own, was shunted to right back.
efcfanwirral
Player Valuation: £25m
I agree we'll lose the next two games, and possibly in high scoring games, but im not sure we'll remain there. As someone said earlier - with distin 11 goals and without him 1 goal. So coleman back, distin back out and hopefully howard calms down a bit.
I,d go 4,3,3 or even 451 and add Besic or Gibson becuase the back 5 are rocking.
Jimboefc97
Player Valuation: £2.5m
I think we should be rotating Barry and Gibson regularly so both stay fresh. McCarthy should be starting pretty much every game for me, with the odd exception of the league cup/fa cup where we should maybe introduce Besic to get him game time
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
Don't know until one tries, IMO give it go but more than a few minutes near the end of the game.
TGW89
Player Valuation: £35m
I'm going to take some consolation of the fact that Leicester are surprisingly handy and have a couple of players that Martinez should be watching like a hawk, Arsenal & Chelsea have undeniably improved this year and Palace have done what they do best... win at Goodison, as they have done in 4 out of 6 Premiership visits.
However, I just can't get over how badly Distin has fallen from grace, he worked wonders alongside Stones at times last season so I just don't get it, has the summer finally forced the effects of old father time on him?.... I was at the Wolfsburg game and it was a privilege watching Stones defend so well against some decent, pacy opposition, with him at CB alongside Jags I'll be less inclined to drink bleach.
What scares me most is that scoring first is no longer sufficient. Oh sure conceding first on the road is no longer the death sentence it was, but at least back in the day we had CB captains who led through equal fear and respect, Dave Watson immediately springs to mind. Without him we'd have ended up like Sheffield Wednesday, and if any other player didn't put a shift in, he'd ballock them long before Walker/Royle/Kendall/Smith ever could.
David Weir kind of the same, still doesn't get the recognition he deserves I feel.
Phil Jagielka was our best defender during our days when he WASN'T captain, it's just a shame he had to play under that negative Manc cricketer, who is really only famous for once crunching Ronaldo and apparently "turning our season around".
I think Jags is far too nice and mild-mannered to be a captain, ditto Baines. We need a captain who is a complete and utter barsteward like Roy Keane. Barry is the closest we have to meeting that description, but he's still not in the same league of barstewardy as Keane.... we need, as Brick Top describes, a NEMESIS as captain....
"A righteous infliction of retribution (on Gerrard et al) manifested by an appropriate agent personified. in this case, by a horrible kant!"
15 goals conceded in our last five home games.... that's three goals condeded every home game. It's disgraceful, and as much as I welcome the "evolved" football Martinez has brought to GP, I don't think we ever had that sort of home record under Moyes.... it's just not good enough.
I also think people are out of order for slating Howard so much, he was dynamite against Wolfsburg, easily in his top 5 games for us over eight years. McCarthy is a victim of his own success, he'll be fine, We miss Barkley.... a lot.
My concern is defence, we are relying on Stones staying fit to stay in the Premier League. Have we ever been in that situation before?
StatesideBlue3
Player Valuation: £1m
I agree with this except for Baines. I think his form is up from last year and has been a bright spot in general.
Thought Baines was excellent against Arsenal mate and that is the level I expect of him. He definitely didn't hit that level yesterday unfortunately.
bluegirl
Player Valuation: £15m
Only my opinion and it's not just based on this season either.
I'm not talking performances here, I'm talking a leader.
We've lacked a leader for years I mean neville as captain!?
I've never though Jagielka is a leader, ever. Not just this season.
We lack a natural leader and IMO McCarthy is exactly that. Even when things aren't going his way he always gives his all. As does Bainsey.
StatesideBlue3
Player Valuation: £1m
To be fair, most of the team fell short after the first 15 minutes yesterday.
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