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Post by neilv93 on Apr 1, 2019 9:34:15 GMT
Craig is better than Clarke or Partington and Danny and probably Mayonaise too. Our biggest problem is at the other end Lockyer has been our best defender all season by a country mile. Fixed it for you
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Post by Icegas on Apr 1, 2019 10:14:37 GMT
No way has Craig been one of our best this season. Agree about the midfield though. It's gutless, clueless and devoid of anything a midfield should be. For me Craig is one of the most underrated players I’ve ever seen for Rovers. Game of opinions I guess but the stats don’t lie, with him in the side we’ve been very stable and had one of the best defensive records. I kind of now agree. Before I thought why did DC bring him in,but maths doesnt lie and apart from donny we have had a very good defence record. Its our talentless midfleld and any threat of scoring a goal apart from JCH.
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Post by neilv93 on Apr 1, 2019 10:19:39 GMT
No way has Craig been one of our best this season. Agree about the midfield though. It's gutless, clueless and devoid of anything a midfield should be. For me Craig is one of the most underrated players I’ve ever seen for Rovers. Game of opinions I guess but the stats don’t lie, with him in the side we’ve been very stable and had one of the best defensive records. Inclined to agree to an extent, purely on the basis that so few on here seem to rate him/give him any credit. He may be too short to battle the big brutes up front for some teams and he certainly isn't the fastest but his positional awareness and reading of the game are exemplary and we're clearly a better team with him in it - and Lockyer is a much better defender alongside him.
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Post by axegas on Apr 1, 2019 10:21:24 GMT
For me Craig is one of the most underrated players I’ve ever seen for Rovers. Game of opinions I guess but the stats don’t lie, with him in the side we’ve been very stable and had one of the best defensive records. I kind of now agree. Before I thought why did DC bring him in,but maths doesnt lie and apart from donny we have had a very good defence record. Its our talentless midfleld and any threat of scoring a goal apart from JCH. Coming into the season I thought we had strength and depth in the midfield department but it’s become obvious that Clarke and Sercombe have been underperforming, Upson has been inconsistent, Lines isn’t quite as good as he once was and Sinclair and Matthews haven’t been able to have had much of a look in. With at least half of them out of contract in the summer, I’m expecting a fair few ins and outs.
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Post by neilv93 on Apr 1, 2019 10:23:08 GMT
I kind of now agree. Before I thought why did DC bring him in,but maths doesnt lie and apart from donny we have had a very good defence record. Its our talentless midfleld and any threat of scoring a goal apart from JCH. Coming into the season I thought we had strength and depth in the midfield department but it’s become obvious that Clarke and Sercombe have been underperforming, Upson has been inconsistent, Lines isn’t quite as good as he once was and Sinclair and Matthews haven’t been able to have had much of a look in. With at least half of them out of contract in the summer, I’m expecting a fair few ins and outs. Over the entire season you're probably right but Upson has been our best midfielder by a long shot under GC IMO. Hopefully he continues in this vein.
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Post by axegas on Apr 1, 2019 10:29:17 GMT
Coming into the season I thought we had strength and depth in the midfield department but it’s become obvious that Clarke and Sercombe have been underperforming, Upson has been inconsistent, Lines isn’t quite as good as he once was and Sinclair and Matthews haven’t been able to have had much of a look in. With at least half of them out of contract in the summer, I’m expecting a fair few ins and outs. Over the entire season you're probably right but Upson has been our best midfielder by a long shot under GC IMO. Hopefully he continues in this vein. I’m personally a fan of Upson although I know a lot that aren’t. Perhaps doesn’t contribute enough going forward but makes an excellent holding midfielder, takes a bit of pressure off the defence and is a good passer of the ball. The diamond approach wouldn’t work without him.
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Post by Antonio Fargas on Apr 1, 2019 10:31:28 GMT
Craig is better than Clarke or Partington and Danny and probably Mayonaise too. Our biggest problem is at the other end Clarke has been our best defender all season by a country mile. What makes me laugh is all the people who say "look at our defensive record, Craig must be good" are the same people looking at Nichols scoring record and telling us what a fantastic footballer he is. What about people who use Nichol's record to point out he has failed, and then ignore our defensive record when telling us Craig isn't any good?
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Post by Hugo the Elder on Apr 1, 2019 10:31:41 GMT
For me Craig is one of the most underrated players I’ve ever seen for Rovers. Game of opinions I guess but the stats don’t lie, with him in the side we’ve been very stable and had one of the best defensive records. I kind of now agree. Before I thought why did DC bring him in,but maths doesnt lie and apart from donny we have had a very good defence record. Its our talentless midfleld and any threat of scoring a goal apart from JCH. The maths doesn't lie unless you are looking at Tom "the most technically gifted footballer at the club" Nichols when it does.
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Post by Icegas on Apr 1, 2019 10:32:21 GMT
Yesterday I saw Sercombe run from an attacking position back towards the centre backs who had possession, receive the ball, pass it back to the centre back, then turn around and run back again. He did this at least three times. Is this some sort of code? Are you making contact with your Russian controller on here? Is it Oldie?
that made I laugh...
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Post by Hugo the Elder on Apr 1, 2019 10:32:48 GMT
Clarke has been our best defender all season by a country mile. What makes me laugh is all the people who say "look at our defensive record, Craig must be good" are the same people looking at Nichols scoring record and telling us what a fantastic footballer he is. What about people who use Nichol's record to point out he has failed, and then ignore our defensive record when telling us Craig isn't any good? That's why I don't use stats to back up what is at the end of the day, nothing more than my own opinion.
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Post by lisbongas on Apr 1, 2019 12:35:47 GMT
The negativity around Craig is largely based around his shocking inability to pass the ball out of defence. It is amazing given the length of career he has had, how poor his passing is.
On the otherhand he is an aggressive and hard defender who has organised our defence into a tight defensive unit, where the goals conceded are more often the result of individual errors, we rarely have games where the opposition create countless chances (bar Doncaster).
Lockyer suffers from the same problem which doesn't help, so you have to wonder why our midfield continually play the ball back to either of them. So often we manage to turn an attacking position into a defensive one, a backward pass to our centrehalves invariably sees a wild ball knocked forward and the apologetic raised hand.
Strangely the one player we had who tried to play out from defence with some success was Tom Broadbent.
For now though we need Craig, he rarely lets us down.
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Post by aghast on Apr 1, 2019 17:40:52 GMT
The negativity around Craig is largely based around his shocking inability to pass the ball out of defence. It is amazing given the length of career he has had, how poor his passing is. On the otherhand he is an aggressive and hard defender who has organised our defence into a tight defensive unit, where the goals conceded are more often the result of individual errors, we rarely have games where the opposition create countless chances (bar Doncaster). Lockyer suffers from the same problem which doesn't help, so you have to wonder why our midfield continually play the ball back to either of them. So often we manage to turn an attacking position into a defensive one, a backward pass to our centrehalves invariably sees a wild ball knocked forward and the apologetic raised hand. Strangely the one player we had who tried to play out from defence with some success was Tom Broadbent. For now though we need Craig, he rarely lets us down. Of all the many skills required by a central defender, such as blocking, tackling, winning in the air, organisation, positioning, aggression and control, you'd think that, once he'd done all the aforementioned difficult stuff, passing it to the midfield would be the easy bit.
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