John Ruddy & Russell Martin unfair criticism......

[Dubai Mark]

Whilst its par for the course for there to be one or two City players, who despite how things are going at the club, receive continual criticism. I must say that I am particularly disappointed with some of the things I have read elsewhere regarding John Ruddy and also for a longer period Russell Martin.

Sure, the occasional comment is fine and we all do it, and I am sure the players accept that, but this "give Rudd a chance" and "Ruddy is a liability" type comments I keep reading, are in my humble opinion well out of order and wide of the mark.

Ruddy Saturday was actually unlucky with the second West Ham goal, and on another day that punch could well have gone clear and not hit a West Ham player that led to the goal, and before that he had been absolutely exceptional, unless I was watching a different game. Ruddy is a very good goal keeper, and a goal keeper for me who is particular good at his positioning, hence he is usually in the right place to make those game changing saves, he IS a Premier League keeper no doubt. As for Rudd, he will get his chance, is clearly an exceptional young talent, and when given his chance will not let the club down, as he has already shown.    

Now, Russell Martin..........don't know about you, but I am seeing a very decent CB partnership forming with Bassong (who has been excellent so far), they do compliment each other, and its also a bonus that he is chipping in with a few goals too. Sure he has made some errors......but how many CB's in this league dont make the occasional error, they are up against some of the best striker talent in the world, with even the lesser clubs strikers being top level, quick and powerful.

Sure the squad needs another quality CB as we are thin on the ground, and could be in trouble if we lose Bass and Martin at the same time, but for me Russell Martin fully deserves that shirt right now. 

I just do get fed up with the continual focus on some of our players mistakes and was just in the mood to rattle on a bit about it.....

 

[Canaryboy]

Ruddy has been excellent in the last few games and looking like an England keeper once again to me. 

 

[Beauseant]

Spot on Mark. Ruddy made superb saves at Anfield and Upton Park and looks every inch an England keeper again, while Russ is getting better by the game and looks very comfortable alongside Seb.

 

[Indy_Bones]

That weak punch was probably the only bad thing Ruddy did all game, as besides that he was excellent, but I think that's been the issue with both him and Martin at times, in that we'd thought that they should have done better on occasions, and sadly those occasions have been taken advantage of by the opposition in many cases.

 

[eatonparkboy]

Lets accept that it was a very good free kick that Ruddy had to tackle and Carroll coming in would have just caught Ruddy's attention enough for a split second and the follow through stopped the punch from clearing the box.

 

[Beauseant]

If the ball hadn't bounced kindly for Kouyate we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

 

[Indy_Bones]

Lets accept that it was a very good free kick that Ruddy had to tackle and Carroll coming in would have just caught Ruddy's attention enough for a split second and the follow through stopped the punch from clearing the box.

I can see where you're coming from, but that really wasn't the right place to be punching the ball - especially not at the angle JR did, and whilst we were clearly unlucky with what happened after it to some degree, there has to be some acceptance of the fact that it just wasn't the best way of dealing with the ball and the decision ended up costing us.

It's certainly somewhat hard to swallow, but at the top level you can be excellent for 89 minutes, but if you screw up badly just once in the other minute you could cost your team a vital goal to conceed and possibly all 3 points...

This is why I have always been hard on players like Doherty, he could be a decent defender at times (when he wasn't trying to bear hug them to death from behind), but there was almost always a mistake or two in him, and almost always they'd end up costing us at some point. It's what you sadly have to expect when you don't have a team full of world class players, but it makes it no less frustrating when it happens either.

 

[Canaryboy]

The whole team was petrified of Carroll when he came on, basically, that's what happened. 

 

[ZLF]

Against the hammers ruddy didnt cost us two points but earned us one;  but for an excellent display we could have been 2-3 goals down.   He made a mistake,  misjudged the flight of the ball, got unlucky and it cost us.   But overall his play have been excellent (helped by having a consistent cb pairing) - as seen again just the week before at anfield.

For me martin is more of a quandary;  he is a great cb for us when we have the ball, allowing us to build from the back through his passing,  going wide to allow the full backs forward and trusting in tettey to enable a back three filling the gap where needed.  I dont think we will get a better player to do this.

However his actual defending is causing us problems through a lack of concentration and positional awareness (eg his movement in losing sakho for wham goal last week).  He seems to be in the same space as de laet was under lambert;  a solid capable defender most of the time but one who switched off once or twice a game with costly consequences coming far too frequently.   DeLaet paid the price for it;   russ for me has to improve his positioning and concentration otherwise he will be dropped - a definition of madness is expecting a different outcome yet continuing to do the same thing 

There is a decent player in there but he played a central role in a goal in each of the last two weeks,   with mistakes causing opportunities every week - something the other defenders are not doing.   He deserves (and with a lack of options will get) the chance to improve and is intelligent enough to learn;   but 9 months in with seb and there is little sign of a change the clock is ticking and he has to improve quickly,   a ball playing defender is great as long as he remembers the defender bit.   

 

[GJP]

 a ball playing defender is great as long as he remembers the defender bit.   

Bingo.

 

[Boyerboy]

Well Martin certainly messed up the defender arguments today. Best I've seen him play as a central defender. He did all the stuff he is good at such as overlaps and distribution but his actual defending was excellent. Didn't put a foot wrong, won almost every header and some great blocks especially that one in the early part of the first half. 

If if he can play like this regularly, then he will be be a force and not a debate. 

 

[Beauseant]

Well Martin certainly messed up the defender arguments today. Best I've seen him play as a central defender. He did all the stuff he is good at such as overlaps and distribution but his actual defending was excellent. Didn't put a foot wrong, won almost every header and some great blocks especially that one in the early part of the first half. 

If if he can play like this regularly, then he will be be a force and not a debate. 

Agree with this. His early goal saving block set the tone for probably his best game at CB.

 

[GJP]

He did have a good game. But he wasn't really put under pressure where he had to compete for the ball.

I did think his positioning was a bit better than it has been.

 

[ZLF]

Agreed boyer -  Martin did have a decent game

We do have defensive issues though,  pace and movement particularly down the flanks;  and especially around an over-reliance on Tettey to do the cm defensive work. 

 

[Wiz]

The trouble is though that when a keeper makes a howler its gets magnified, that goes with the job I guess.

And whilst I agree that the fans reaction has in places been somewhat OTT, Russ Martin is a RB imo and that's all I'll say on that point.