Cuellar

[Salopian]

He seems a wily and unflappable character, with years of experience behind him. Yesterday, against Huddersfield, he seemed to be a steadying influence and also really played played Holt out of the game.

Earlier in the season, when he first played, I think that he was suffering from a lack of fitness and he was not so impressive, but in the last two games he has seemed very good.

Adams has a problem now, - a nice one, does he continue with the paring of Russell and Cuellar, and keep out Bennett? They have both played well, but Bennett has greater height to deal with high balls and is also an excellent blocker.

As things are, I think that I would prefer Bennett to partner Cuellar, with Martin at right back, but Adams seems to prefer Martin in the centre.

We shall see.

 

[GJP]

What about Turner? Our best defender for the majority of the season. Are we to forget about him just because he's slipped up a couple of times recently?

Turner is the best ball winner. While Cuellar brings both strong defending and quality on the ball.

 

[lyb]

I think there's enough quality that squad rotation really needs to be the order of the day to keep everybody involved and sharp and, as you say, there's scope for picking players for specific attributes like their height depending on what's useful for whom we're against on the day. 

Still the FA Cup will present an opportunity for others to get more game time. Lets hope they make the most of it! 

 

[Yellow Fever]

What about Turner? Our best defender for the majority of the season. Are we to forget about him just because he's slipped up a couple of times recently?

Turner is the best ball winner. While Cuellar brings both strong defending and quality on the ball.

I like Turner and it must be tough for him to sit these games out, but Cuellar has taken his chance well and I don't see how you can change a defence that has managed two successive clean sheets, especially as Martin adds mobility to the back line. I'm also pleased to see Olsson returning to his best form at last. 

 

[Din]

I admittedly did not see the League Cup games that Cuellar featured in earlier on in the season, but when he made his league debut against Nottingham Forest I thought he was superb, and was very surprised to see him dropped the next game.

Whilst I am not a fan of Russell Martin playing at centre back, as I think he is a much better right back, him and Cuellar do seem to have a very good understanding, and Martin slowly seems to be growing into that centre back role. I am of the opinion that if it isn't broke then don't fix it. Whilst Bennett is a great centre back at this level, and as GJP says Turner has been our best defender for the majority of the season, I don't see any reason why we should change the Martin-Cuellar partnership for now. Even if it does mean having the woefully under-performing Whittaker at right back. 

 

[GJP]

 Even if it does mean having the woefully under-performing Whittaker at right back. 

Whittaker is doing alright. It's just got to the stage where people don't want to see any positives in his game.

Against Huddersfield he took a bit of stick from the crowd when he momentarily failed to control the ball. Yet when Martin messed up to allow Wells in for their best chance of the half the was nothing from the crowd. 

Undoubtedly Whittaker is one of those unlucky players who people are hoping makes a mistake so they can get on his case.

 

[Din]

Whittaker is doing alright. It's just got to the stage where people don't want to see any positives in his game.

Against Huddersfield he took a bit of stick from the crowd when he momentarily failed to control the ball. Yet when Martin messed up to allow Wells in for their best chance of the half the was nothing from the crowd. 

Undoubtedly Whittaker is one of those unlucky players who people are hoping makes a mistake so they can get on his case.

The thing was though that Whittaker gave the ball away several times in the first half, and in general was very poor on the ball. Hesitating to deliver crosses, and eventually taking too long and having to pass it backwards or give it away. This contrasts completely with the one occasion in the first half where Martin got the ball in a deep position and travelled with a good 30-40 yards with it before he put the ball out to the wing for a cross to come in. Martin for me is the much better option at right back. Whittaker's performances on the whole have been flawed this season, which is a shame as for the last 2 years he has looked a good player in that position.

I certainly don't hope that Whittaker makes mistakes, and I don't think you'll find a single Norwich fan that does want that. I personally want Whittaker to do as well as I want any other of our players to do, as do all of our fans, however I don't think there's any getting away from the fact that he's been poor this season.

 

[GJP]

I would have to disagree a bit with regard to Whittaker's performance, particularly in that first half. In my opinion he was one of our better players in the opening 45.

He kept trying to make things happen. He was driving forward and tried to provide some spark. A couple of times he put in crosses that went to nobody and of course people whinged about it. But did people have a look to see that there was nothing to hit? No.

Yeah, sometimes he gave the ball away but Martin does that when he plays there too.

Just the way it is now. If Whittaker knocks the ball down the line into space it'll be "Oh what the hell was that, Whittaker!?" but if Martin does the same thing it'll be "Great ball, Russ!".

I don't think Whittaker has had a "great" season but looking at the rest of the defence it's hard to find anyone who has.

 

[morty]

Is Whittaker the new whipping boy then?

 

[hogesar]

Whittaker was overall very poor against Huddersfield. I know you like to defend him GJP and think he's the new 'target' but i've seen nothing close to some of the performances he gave us in the Prem, for example.

Poor control of the ball, little awareness - doesn't even seem to understand he can overlap rather than stand beside the player on the ball.

And his defending has been average at best as well.

Saying that, both our fullbacks have been suspect. Olsson has struggled for large parts of the season but has looked a bit better the last two games. One of his crosses actually found a Norwich player on Saturday which was nothing short of a miracle.

 

[Lake District Canary]

Whittaker was overall very poor against Huddersfield. I know you like to defend him GJP and think he's the new 'target' but i've seen nothing close to some of the performances he gave us in the Prem, for example.

Poor control of the ball, little awareness - doesn't even seem to understand he can overlap rather than stand beside the player on the ball.

And his defending has been average at best as well.

Saying that, both our fullbacks have been suspect. Olsson has struggled for large parts of the season but has looked a bit better the last two games. One of his crosses actually found a Norwich player on Saturday which was nothing short of a miracle.

Whittaker was instrumental in two of the goals in the second half against Huddersfield.  One pass down the line for one of them was quite excellent.   Olsson has often been left on his own on the left without much support this season - but does have a decent cross as we have seen several times over the last two seasons.  Neither of the full backs are the best, but if they were they would be playing for top premiership clubs.   They can't be doing that badly in the face of a clean sheet and helping with three out of the five goals on Saturday.......

 

[lyb]

Is Whittaker the new whipping boy then?

There's always one. Seems to have moved on from Redmond for the moment.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I also feel that Whittaker suffers from people seeing what they want to see. Martin is the better defender generally, but like Olsson, Whittaker does offer some width in this new formation with 4 CMs and that makes sense to me.

 

[GJP]

I don't like to defend him but I do like players to be treated fairly. What goes for one goes for another. But with Whittaker it doesn't. He gets stick for stuff other players don't.

 

[hogesar]

Whittaker was instrumental in two of the goals in the second half against Huddersfield.  One pass down the line for one of them was quite excellent.   Olsson has often been left on his own on the left without much support this season - but does have a decent cross as we have seen several times over the last two seasons.  Neither of the full backs are the best, but if they were they would be playing for top premiership clubs.   They can't be doing that badly in the face of a clean sheet and helping with three out of the five goals on Saturday.......

I wouldn't say he was instrumental. Then again perhaps you have a better view from a stream. But being at the game I thought he had a poor game. That's not to say he's always poor, in fact my main gripe is he hasn't been as good as i've seen him in previous seasons.

Irrespective of that, Olsson is statistically one of our worst crossers of the ball. I can only imagine it's instructed that he generally hits them low with pace into the box but from what I see the problem is he's not playing them inbetween the defensive backline and the goalkeeper, but instead in front of the back 4 which is a piece of *bleep* to defend against.

 

[hogesar]

I don't like to defend him but I do like players to be treated fairly. What goes for one goes for another. But with Whittaker it doesn't. He gets stick for stuff other players don't.

Maybe. But oddly enough I don't think anyone has a hatred for Whittaker. Generally speaking for something to stick to a player, many have to have seen it stand out. And recently in my opinion, he's been one of our poorer defenders.

I'm not saying miss him out for Derby because we've just kept 2 clean sheets in a row with him in the side; but it doesn't change my mind that if we were going to strengthen the back four the first place i'd currently look to is Right Back.

 

[eatonparkboy]

I don't like to defend him but I do like players to be treated fairly. What goes for one goes for another. But with Whittaker it doesn't. He gets stick for stuff other players don't.

The same happened with Ginger Pele. His mistakes, and he did make some howlers I must admit, were always jumped on by some supporters. Others could do exactly the same but were left alone.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I wouldn't say he was instrumental. Then again perhaps you have a better view from a stream. But being at the game I thought he had a poor game. That's not to say he's always poor, in fact my main gripe is he hasn't been as good as i've seen him in previous seasons.

Irrespective of that, Olsson is statistically one of our worst crossers of the ball. I can only imagine it's instructed that he generally hits them low with pace into the box but from what I see the problem is he's not playing them inbetween the defensive backline and the goalkeeper, but instead in front of the back 4 which is a piece of *bleep* to defend against.

But then there was that beauty of a cross right on to Redmond's head for the second goal.

 

[hogesar]

There was indeed Yellow Fever. But they're few and far between.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I wonder how much his loss of form might have been down to his parental bereavement, but certainly his concentration and application has been back to his best in the last two games.