Spireite-Karl, on 01 May 2013 - 06:13 PM, said:
It's not that he doesn't have a heart. He's not a physical type of player (nothing wrong with that), so why do fans want him to be? Also he's not one of those players that is going to shine when we are a poor side (which we have mostly been over the last couple of seasons). When we look good, Mark looks good... Coincidence?
The header thing really gets me too. He's not physical, so naturally he's going to use his nous to let the ball bounce rather than compete and probably fail in the air. The one I'm thinking of where he neshed out of a header he did just that and won the ball on the ground (that's where he plays).
Mark Allot was poor in the air also, but I didn't hear folks moan at him for not winning headers.
There's nothing wrong with a deep lying ball player either. The sort of midfield that backs off to find space and play the ball out from there, but everyone wants Randall to charge down field and assist and score (again, not his game).
Personally I don't see much wrong with Randall other than his achilles heal in getting caught out too often and putting pressure on our back four, cut this out and we've got a very good deep lying midfielder. His tackling isn't as bad as some make out either, though it's obvious that's not the strong part of his game.
Mark Allot used to win a good few headers(who cleared a header of the line at wembley?),and at least he would go for the headers, not duck out of the way, he got his foot in, he worked hard and covered a lot of ground. He also tried to play the siple ball as well. The unglamorous stuff, the simple stuff, that MA did so very well, is what is stopping MR from being a very very good player at this, or a higher level.
I`d prefer to look at Ebdon, a great player who could also use the ball. He wasnt a blood and thunder tackle type, but what he did, and what Randall needs to wake up to, is to be an effective midfield player, he needs to follow play. Ebdon was always within 15/20 yards or so of where the ball was, so he was always ready to take the ball, put his foot on it and play a ball to a team mate in space or in a better position. So to do this you need to follow up, you need to cover a lot of ground.
What MR does, he plays a decent ball ball from his his own half, then strolls into the centre circle admiring his pass while play is now 40 yards up the pitch. He has taken himself out of the game. If he had continued his run another 20 yards, he might get it back and be able to play the final ball into RIchards (or whoever is in or around the box) and have a much greater influence in his play.
Now he could be playing to instructions to sit a bit deeper, but have all 3 of the last managers at CFC all told him to do exactly the same thing?
This post has been edited by death: 02 May 2013 - 03:18 PM