derry

The cameo that led to the goal showed where he is as far as his ability is concerned. He turned his back and was skinned by St Ledger FFS. That was the sort of defending that forwards who can't defend regularly show but a centre back, definitely not, he had to stand up and not turn his back and sell himself. In fact he should have been showing him the line rather than buying the dummy. This thread does him no favours. He was slaughtered on the after match thread. All season the forum has been moaning about the need for another experienced centre back. The jury is stll out and you quite rightly point out that he needs regular football. We need two more experienced centre backs and Martin needs a season or two in the Championship if we get promotion. Centre backs rarely mature in their early twenties so he has plenty of time. He needs game time and good guidance, improve his control, passing, especially his left foot and to play in a team that passes the ball.

He is pretty poor in terms of where we are. His distribution is abysmal, his control on the ball is poor, he is a decent marker, a good header of the ball and he has a weak left foot. Last week against Leicester he was woeful. He is young and has a long way to go if he is to be what some people on here are suggesting. He was fifth choice at the start of the season and is no better than a fourth choice now playing due multiple injuries.

Week commencing 6th subject to TV.

If you want an answer, look at how he sold himself for the second goal v Leicester. A centre back was allowed to get a cross in from the byeline because he turned his back on a feint.

Cortese said the other night that we had agreed fees for a number of players but he would not break our salary cap for anyone.

I'm not being funny but that is the no brainer. It's obvious but very few get it

For anybody that is still interested. DeRidder played in four and a half games, three were won two lost, three clean sheets, 8 for 2 against. Hammond, Cork and Schneiderlin together, six and a half games only beat Notts Forest, drew 2, lost three, plus 0-1 at half time v Hull until SDR replaced one and helped turn the game for a win. 6 for 9 against only clean sheet v Forest plus three of the goals. So really very poor. SDR is supposed to be poor defensively but the figures show that the defence is far better with SDR in it rather than the three holding midfielders.

Then, the three major non leagues were the Southern, Northern and Isthmian. Most of the teams around if they managed to fulfill the ground requirements for level 3 etc are either in the Conference South or the Southern Leagues. Some of the players had played in the Southern, half the team played representative football, most would have been regulars now in CS/SPL/S s&w depending how far they were prepared to travel.

DeRidder could be a key player in the Cardiff game. I've had a look at the results in league games that he has started or played at least a full half. In four and a half games we won three scored 8 goals conceded only 2 the two games he was in that we lost were Bristol City where we were outmuscled and Doncaster where the three central midfielders also played. To complete the picture the three central midfielders played together in six and a half games and were 0-1 down at half time v Hull when DeRidder was brought on and turned the game. The record in those six and a half games was won 1 drew 2 lost 3 and a half (0-1 H/t v Hull) scored 6 conceded 9. Even the goals scored is misleading because 3 were scored v 10 men Forest. So much for the safe option. DeRidder has been accused of being defensively inept but the figures say not, in his four and a half games there were three clean sheets with the so called safe defensive three central midfielders there was one clean sheet v 10 men Notts Forest. I make no bones about the fact I like DeRidder but I think a major part of the recent slump is down to bad selection and playing the three central midfielders together when there was an alternative. I think that he should now start a run of games and let Chaplow get properly match fit then him and Puncheon compete with DeRidder and let the best man play. Chaplow could even play with DeRidder as a central midfielder alongside one of the three. IMO we should, unless a game is vital, play nobody v Millwall that is in the squad for the Cardiff game. I think we should start DeRidder v Cardiff and subject to fitness play :- Davis, Richardson, Fonte, Hoiveldt, Fox, DeRidder, Hammond, Cork, Lallana, Lambert, Guly. Depending on performance v Millwall if they play, from Chaplow, Puncheon, Lee, Schneiderlin, Martin, Harding, Butterfield, Holmes, Falque, Bialkowski on the bench. Provided we don't compromise selection this team can beat Cardiff.

Next year if we get promoted Davis needs to be replaced before the first game. Premier sides will slaughter him and pick off his well known weaknesses.

He's back training with the first team as of yesterday.

If we want to play out from the back we need a keeper that wants to play that way and is comfortable passing the ball quickly. Davis is very uncomfortable and takes forever so the ball usually ends back with him then being lumped first time anywhere up the field. With Davis as long as he is here we might as well let him do what he is comfortable with in the first place and hit it long to Lambert. Not ideal but better an accurate long ball than a hurried punt.

It probably won't happen but I wouldn't start anybody who would be in the squad for Tuesday night.

What would now be the level below the conference Premier which didn't exist then.

:lol:

We did the same thing but nobody had anything like enough money up front. Raising money is feasible but it takes time. In our case the council buying the stadium was a possibility but what killed it and would probably kill this initiative too is running out of time. As long as the administrator of CSI is talking to potential purchasers / time wasters nothing can be started. In the end it will take time. Money can be pledged but it is difficult to start collecting it because if it doesn't happen the money would all have to be given back. With all the donations, bucket collections, etc. donated to the club only £130k was collected. £32m is a monumental amount to pay for a bottomless pit with no assets. The only way for this to succeed is for them to be made the preferential bidder and immediately set about raising the finance etc. What will probably happen is that various tyrekickers will use up the next three weeks, then with a few days before the hearing these people will be asked to have a go but the time will have run out, HMRC debt will be £2.7m, with another £3m for the next tax bill in March plus the CVA never mind wages and running expenses there will be no time unless a single buyer with the cash steps in as happened to us. Without Markus Leibherr we were gone as time had run out.

Ok thanks. My certainty is based on what I have seen off the ball. He consistently makes himself available, gets into excellent positions drifting away from defenders and is consistently ignored. What is not generally appreciated is the fact that outstanding pace cannot be fairly blocked. With the risk of boring you, I coached a team in a relatively high standard league. One of the players was a 28 years old ex Olympic sprinter (in football terms the fastest thing you've ever seen), he had been a representative footballer at schoolboy and youth level before seriously taking up sprinting. It took me a couple of training sessions to convince him that he needed to only take two or three touches in fifty yards to get to the byeline. The other players realised they had a dream outlet and the service was tailored to utilise his pace, not to the detriment of the team play. He was unplayable as he never dribbled, furthermore because of the turning of the defence the little left sided midfielder who had a cracking right footed shot (remind you of anyone?) scored about 35 goals coming in off the left after the defence was turned, the right back and centre backs dragged across but too late to stop the ball back to the edge of the penalty area with our players racing to get there with the centre cracked open. We won the league against teams containing many Ex League players by a distance. His pace used properly by the team was the difference. DeRidder is nowhere nearly as quick but he is very quick and used to exploit breaks from our half could do the same job.

I've never had a crap at SMS but boy have I seen some.

THIS is my last response. You missed the point completely. Pre Chaplow injury we were flying. The response to the Chaplow injury was the problem. At that point DeRidder should have been used as Guly was needed to partner Lambert and not available to play right midfield. DeRidder was the only viable alternative, switching Lallana wasn't an option and Holmes wasn't considered. DeRidder is a good player if we used his strengths, the three central midfielders plus a misfiring Lallana stopped us in our tracks and the injuries have turned our form into possible slide. I see more the poor service than DeRidders ability being the issue. He was the only midfielder that could have successfully replaced Chaplow. Schneiderlin and Cork was more about keeping the three in the team than whether it would work or not. It was a total failure and to be used six times after the Hull game even if DeRidder was subsequently injured was bizarre, even Holmes would have given more balance than either. Beating Coventry and Notts Forest was shown up by how easily Leicester ripped us apart until DeRidder and Holmes came on.

Mike, I think the problem with these things is that many on web sites have never played at any sort of level and some not at all. Only spectating will never provide the been there and done it along with the awareness of how difficult it actually is. SDR is a bloody good player and just needs to be used properly.

The problem for me is that although he was my number one choice when Pardew went and he has done overall a magnificent job, Nigel Adkins seems at heart a pragmatist and is possibly a better manager chasing than out in front. He reminds me of the golfer faced with a four shot lead coming down the stretch who abandons the free flowing drive and tries to play safe pulls out the three wood and hits it into the lake and ends up finishing fourth. We didn't get eight points clear, top scorers and decent defensive record by playing safety first. Against Bristol City we took the 'safe?' option playing the so called safe pair of hands in the wide right position. We wasted four of those five games with a midfield that was anything but safety first and virtually doubled our goals against because we no longer were pressing the oppositions defence with our pedestrian tempo and produced virtually no goals from play. Then the fates hit us hard, DeRidder came in and was injured along with Fonte, Lambert suspended, Richardson out and than Lallana. The poor safety first run then sent us tumbling into even worse, something that only a fully fit side and reinforcement might pick up. We are now between a rock and a hard place and the three midfielders won't cut it against Cardiff who will go above us if they inflict a third defeat in a row at SMS. DeRidder is unique for us he is the only really quick player we have. Adkins has used him in the no brainer plan B when we are in the mire and overall he has done alright but he brings something to the game that nobody else in the club can provide. He can play tippy tappy but he can unsettle defences used sensibly which we have hardly done. The system doesn't need to change to provide for him the players inside and behind him just need to be more aware of the service he needs then supporting him. Richardson can overlap but only if we are in the oppositions half otherwise get slightly infield and support him by staying out of his space in the right hand corner. He is our plan B as the quick break is his speciality and is at his most dangerous when the opposition are pressing us. We should start him, and add that to our game by using him rather than trying to get him to conform. I bet the opposing defences are grateful to play against our static midfield rather than DeRidder chasing them ragged. If he plays we have to give him the ball, many times he takes up great positions in free space and is ignored.

He made a wrong decision at a vital moment plus a bad touch, FFS the rest of the team were doing it all afternoon and the goalkeeper gave away a kindergarten goal but he is blamed how bloody unfair is that.

I think SDR used to accentuate his strengths could be a devastating outlet on either the right or left wide. He could be our main outlet for breaking out of our own half not to be utilised as a tippy tappy right midfielder with no opportunity to run the defenders. If we are going to use him and we paid a million for him, we have to adapt to his strengths as much as he has to adapt to our play. He is the only first teamer with pace and we would be stupid not to capitalise on that by giving him the service he needs. He needs a quick pass out from defence to break from his own half, he needs balls played in behind the defence into the corner, he needs to receive inside support to wall pass him behind the defence into the corner if blocked. He has to be used to run the defence and turn it so we can get our attacking players into the box on the blind side. At the moment we are not using his pace, he is just another cog in the ponderous midfield living off scraps and usually receiving the ball facing his own goal. It's all very well saying the manager doesn't rate him but the manager has questions of his own to answer. The plan keeping a tight midfield allegedly because De Ridder isn't defensive enough, really worked in their first five games, we conceded seven goals, twice the normal rate only scored two lost twice against rock bottom sides, drew twice and won from 0-1 down v Hull after De Ridder was brought on at half time for one of the three. Against Crystal Palace SDR made a magnificent game saving tackle chasing 30 yds and catching the nippy Scannel when he was clean through and uncatchable by anybody else. Give him a chance, give him the service and he will rip up defences even if half his crosses aren't on target he will rattle the opposition.

Same for me Ron and bottom line no need to play the three CMs together again. I just hope we haven't committed to playing Falque too much as he has a way to go if the other night is anything to go by. I just don't think he is man enough for the 19 battles to come.