Russel Martin abuse.

[hogesar]

The booing of Russel Martin is a complete joke and anyone who does it should be pretty ashamed of themselves; you'd have to question if they're really football fans. There's just no logic to it.

Anyway, in terms of performance Martin has had a poor start to the season and unlike the other CB's doesn't have the excuse of getting used to the league. So I wouldn't be surprised to see him dropped. I'm sure he'll still be in and around the squad though.

 

[hogesar]

Oh, and to highlight the booing logic:

- Russel Martin - Captain for NCFC, does lots of work for the club and with youngsters etc. Been part of the rollercoaster from league one to the prem and scored some vital goals, along with being involved in another promotion to the top flight. Result ? Booing from his own fans

- Kyle Lafferty - Lanky streak of p*ss who couldn't give a single t*ss what happens to NCFC. Couldn't get in the team, moaned about it publicly a few times and insulted some of our own fans on social media. Result? Cheered and celebrated when he warms up

 

[morty]

I'm not sure that anyone would expect him to be a mainstay of the defence, particularly now we have Hanley and Klose returning to fitness 

Indeed. Pretty sure I have never seen anyone advocating this.

 

[Number 9]

Indeed. Pretty sure I have never seen anyone advocating this.

you surely are aware  of the exponential response by some to any criticism of Russ? It seems like he's beyond critic in the eyes some, I think that's just as bad as booing him. Either viewpoint is extreme and the fair balance is probably somewhere in the middle.

 

[morty]

To be honest, no. I don't think I have ever seen anyone blindly defend him to the hilt. No player is beyond criticism if it is justified.

 

[Din]

I agree that the abuse of Russell Martin is wrong. I would never boo one of our own players anyway but to as passionately abuse a player who has provided great service for this club, who clearly loves and wants to play for Norwich City, and was captain throughout some of our best recent times, is a bit pathetic from some of our supporters. Ultimately as well, he can't do anything about the fact that he's getting picked every week. It's the manager's job to decide whether a player is good enough to start games regularly, and as pointed out above all of our recent managers have.

On the flip side of that though, and I'm not condemning the abuse he's been getting, there's no smoke without fire, and there's a reason he's constantly targeted and scapegoated. It's because he really isn't good enough, and hasn't been for a long time. Sunderland and Villa he was the worst player on the pitch, and although he isn't helped by playing alongside two new defenders who have performed poorly, there is no way he should be starting games as regularly as he has been in the last two or three years. To be fair Farke did hint at the start of the season he will primarily be back-up, it's just that obviously Klose was out injured, Zimmermann and Franke are new so are taking time to adapt, and Raggett and Hanley have only just come in. I just can't see us ever getting promoted though whilst he is in the team frequently. Having said all that though as I said, the abuse is unacceptable.

 

[Canaryboy]

"To be fair Farke did hint at the start of the season he will primarily be back-up, it's just that obviously Klose was out injured, Zimmermann and Franke are new so are taking time to adapt, and Raggett and Hanley have only just come in"

This is really confusing though, because if he did hint at that regarding Martin, and pretty much flat out said it about Zimmerman, but wants to play 3 centre backs... then does that mean he was always expected another centre back to arrive? Klose, Martin, Zimmerman, Franke... impossible for both Zimmerman and Martin to be backup, unless he was expecting another centre back.

But then Webber (or was it Stone?) come out and said that shipping 4 at Millwall convinced us to sign Hanley and that this wasn't budgeted money. So are they saying that we had another cheaper foreign target lined up but they decided that they realised that they couldn't afford to bed in another overseas player? 

It doesn't actually make any sense at all for us to have just 4 centre backs if we play 3, you need 5 of them, but then when Raggat arrives we'll have 6! 

All confusing. Another possibility of course is that both Martin and ZImmerman impressed enough in pre-season for Farke to change his mind about one of them being a 'backup' and deciding that one was good enough to be a first teamer, with the other pitching in until Klose returned, and then changing his mind again after we shipped 4 goals twice? 

Or he thought Zimmerman or Martin alongside Klose and Franke would be OK until January, when Raggatt comes in... because they've accepted before a ball has been kicked that this isn't going to be a promotion season?

I think its clear that come January when we'll have 6 centre backs that somebody will be surplus to requirements, by no means certain that it will be Russell Martin though because Zimmerman has hardly been consistent and we have no idea how good Franke is yet, can only hope his best is yet to come.

Then there is the possibility that Klose could move on in January I guess? At 29 he's hardly going to be willing to buy into a 3 year project with us sitting in mid-table somewhere. I'll call it now.... if Switzerland qualify for the 2018 World Cup then he'll be playing the second half of this season in the Bundesliga. He'll want to be playing at as high a level as possible to give him a chance of going to Russia, it is more than likely his last chance (and who could blame him!)

The centre back situation is still all so confusing, just hope that Farke knows himself what the big plan is because I'm clueless. Presumably Franke being a Boss Level centre back was part of the plan, but must be playing at 40% if he is... 

 

[Number 9]

Another clean sheet today, Russ didn't put a foot wrong!

 

[Din]

"To be fair Farke did hint at the start of the season he will primarily be back-up, it's just that obviously Klose was out injured, Zimmermann and Franke are new so are taking time to adapt, and Raggett and Hanley have only just come in"

This is really confusing though, because if he did hint at that regarding Martin, and pretty much flat out said it about Zimmerman, but wants to play 3 centre backs... then does that mean he was always expected another centre back to arrive? Klose, Martin, Zimmerman, Franke... impossible for both Zimmerman and Martin to be backup, unless he was expecting another centre back.

But then Webber (or was it Stone?) come out and said that shipping 4 at Millwall convinced us to sign Hanley and that this wasn't budgeted money. So are they saying that we had another cheaper foreign target lined up but they decided that they realised that they couldn't afford to bed in another overseas player? 

It doesn't actually make any sense at all for us to have just 4 centre backs if we play 3, you need 5 of them, but then when Raggat arrives we'll have 6! 

All confusing. Another possibility of course is that both Martin and ZImmerman impressed enough in pre-season for Farke to change his mind about one of them being a 'backup' and deciding that one was good enough to be a first teamer, with the other pitching in until Klose returned, and then changing his mind again after we shipped 4 goals twice? 

Or he thought Zimmerman or Martin alongside Klose and Franke would be OK until January, when Raggatt comes in... because they've accepted before a ball has been kicked that this isn't going to be a promotion season?

I think its clear that come January when we'll have 6 centre backs that somebody will be surplus to requirements, by no means certain that it will be Russell Martin though because Zimmerman has hardly been consistent and we have no idea how good Franke is yet, can only hope his best is yet to come.

Then there is the possibility that Klose could move on in January I guess? At 29 he's hardly going to be willing to buy into a 3 year project with us sitting in mid-table somewhere. I'll call it now.... if Switzerland qualify for the 2018 World Cup then he'll be playing the second half of this season in the Bundesliga. He'll want to be playing at as high a level as possible to give him a chance of going to Russia, it is more than likely his last chance (and who could blame him!)

The centre back situation is still all so confusing, just hope that Farke knows himself what the big plan is because I'm clueless. Presumably Franke being a Boss Level centre back was part of the plan, but must be playing at 40% if he is... 

To be fair we were targeting that Leistner from Berlin all summer, however eventually backed out because the price was too much. There was another centre half as well from Germany as well whose name escapes me who we reportedly had bids rejected for. I think we were probably in the market for another centre back however maybe after looking decent in the opening 3 games of the season Webber and Farke thought we might be alright with the options we had, before conceding 4 goals in 2 consecutive games. It wouldn't surprise me though either if we were initially planning on signing Raggett so that he comes in immediately, rather than being loaned out til January.

Regardless though now, I think come January our centre back options will be Klose, Hanley, Franke, Zimmermann, Raggett, with Martin's role being a back-up right back. Pinto does get niggles and knocks throughout the season so Martin will still feature I imagine.