Chris Martin

[mrdave85]

Just now, rynny said:

Nothing, will always want Martin back in this team 

 

I would love the Chris Martin of a few seasons a go back. I just don't think he's that player anymore. 

[rynny]

2 minutes ago, mrdave85 said:

 

I would love the Chris Martin of a few seasons a go back. I just don't think he's that player anymore. 

Just need to get players around him, for over a year there hasn't been anyone close enough to him for him to make as big an impact as he did under McClaren. Under Wassall he scored 6 in 18-19 games, 1 in 3 isn't exactly poor, and works out at 15 for the season, plus you have his assists and he contributes more than any other player we have. It was 25 goals last, according to whoscored.com.

[TigerTedd]

There have been endless discussions on here about a plan b for ages now. It has been clear for a long time to all and sundry that we have always needed one. 

For a team to be so heavily dependent on one player is suicidal. The team lives and dies on his form and fitness. I love CM to bits, but I get the justification for getting rid, we need to learn to play without him. 

If we'd ever try a plan b in the past, if CM lost form or whatever, very quickly we'd decide, well that didn't work, let's get Chrissie back in asap. Never giving us a chance to really work on any other style of playing. Now we don't really have much choice. 

But i would love for us to learn the new Martin-less way, then have him return, and suddenly we've got some real options. 

[Highgate]

1 hour ago, mrdave85 said:

Well that was an unpopular opinion 

I still stand by that CM has been ineffective for nearly a year in this league. I don't understand why we should want him back in this form he's in. He's not proven himself for us or for Fulham. Past his best. 

I think you are correct actually.  All that matters is what he might bring to the team in the future, not what he has done in the past.  If he is past his best, and clearly the evidence is starting to indicate just that, then we are better off moving on.  We should be pragmatic. On the other hand, I wouldn't write it off just yet, we will all be clamouring for his return if he starts to bang 'em in for Fulham. 

[ramsbottom]

1 hour ago, TigerTedd said:

There have been endless discussions on here about a plan b for ages now. It has been clear for a long time to all and sundry that we have always needed one. 

For a team to be so heavily dependent on one player is suicidal. The team lives and dies on his form and fitness. I love CM to bits, but I get the justification for getting rid, we need to learn to play without him. 

If we'd ever try a plan b in the past, if CM lost form or whatever, very quickly we'd decide, well that didn't work, let's get Chrissie back in asap. Never giving us a chance to really work on any other style of playing. Now we don't really have much choice. 

But i would love for us to learn the new Martin-less way, then have him return, and suddenly we've got some real options. 

TBF at the times we lost him to injury or poor form we were at the sharp end of the season.  It's hardly the best time to leave out your best striker if you're slipping out the play offs due to a leaky defense and not being able to defend from the front.  A lot of people forget how useful Martin defending our own box...

[cannable]

3 hours ago, TigerTedd said:

There have been endless discussions on here about a plan b for ages now. It has been clear for a long time to all and sundry that we have always needed one. 

For a team to be so heavily dependent on one player is suicidal. The team lives and dies on his form and fitness. I love CM to bits, but I get the justification for getting rid, we need to learn to play without him. 

If we'd ever try a plan b in the past, if CM lost form or whatever, very quickly we'd decide, well that didn't work, let's get Chrissie back in asap. Never giving us a chance to really work on any other style of playing. Now we don't really have much choice. 

But i would love for us to learn the new Martin-less way, then have him return, and suddenly we've got some real options. 

But it isn't clear that we needed a plan B… what would have been an option would have been plan A(b). How many teams have a radically different system as a plan B? How would you know whether to use Plan B going into a game anyway? Unless you have spies in the opposition camp. 

The main two ways that teams stopped plan A were by sticking a man in front of Martin and pressing high or sitting deep and having their organisation spot on. The main reason Plan A ultimately failed was, in part because of Martin's injury. What we needed was a big ******* up front who; for teams who press high we could just lump it up to and force them back AND THEN play our football or for teams well drilled we would have had somebody's head to aim for. He would also have been similar enough to Martin to effectively cover his role him in the team. 

We wanted Jutkiewicz and Nuhiu in the Summer of 2014 did we not? Shame we didn't get either.