Obafemi Martins

[Spider Jerusalem]

I think the main problem for him lies in the way we play, we  hardly played a ball through for him to run onto he was never given a 1 on 1 chance with a defender. It was always high long balls on Saturday, Ramage and Bramble do get rid of the ball passes when there is no need and when we need them to get shot they pass it across the back. But  a high ball to Emre is a 1 he was never going to win and I feel he is the one player that can find the pass to set Martind away.

Its way way way to early to start putting him down for 2 performances, we did see a burst of pace from him on Saturday and he did look lightening fast but he needs to show his pace a whole lot more he is quick so he should be closing down defeneders, I am sure he will come good have more faith in him than I did  in Luque after 2 games.

 

It may have been lack of training / fitness / awareness through being the new lad in the team or Roeders game plan, but I cannot remember him making any forward runs into any areas to cause the Fulham problems when we had the ball - it's not just a game of standing static and waiting for a chance to drop your way.  Mind, lack of movement when we have the ball has been a problem throughout the team at times.

 

I only saw the highlights on that 50 minute sky thing but it looked to me like we were playing very deep with Fulham sat deep themselves playing with a lot of men behind the ball so it's going to be hard to get in behind them.

 

Speculate to accuumulate!  Make a few runs, possibly get caught offside but give the defence something to think about.  Don't just stand there in the defenders pocket all game waiting for things to happen.  Make the defence run around a bit and actually earn their wages.  Pull players out of position etc etc etc.

[macbeth]

Speculate to accuumulate!  Make a few runs, possibly get caught offside but give the defence something to think about.  Don't just stand there in the defenders pocket all game waiting for things to happen.  Make the defence run around a bit and actually earn their wages.  Pull players out of position etc etc etc.

 

Exactly.

 

This is what made Bellamy so different when he joined us. Constantly hassling opposing defenders, constantly moving, making himself available, causing the opposing defenders to have to work for 90 minutes

 

On Saturday my granny could have marked Shola and Martins. Totally static waiting for the ball to come to them. Their lack of movemend made it so difficult for the defenders, and Shay to do anythign but play HOOF football. It wasn't just the forwards though, the midfield was as guilty of waiting for the ball to find them, and making it wasy for the opposition to mark them.

[Happy Face]

It would have been easier to make those runs if there was the space to play the ball into.  Fulhams tactics made it difficult.

 

I'm still confident Luque can come good for us, never mind Martins.

[macbeth]

It would have been easier to make those runs if there was the space to play the ball into.  Fulhams tactics made it difficult.

 

 

But every side comes to Newcastle and plays like that. They have done for years. Expressing surprise at that is like Roeder expressing concern at a thin squad with so many games coming up.

[Nobby]

GIVE HIM A CHANCE! he hasn't even played a whole game yet

[garth]

What pisses me off is we bring in players like Martins and Luque and we dont play to their strengths if you are going to pay all that money for a player at least play to his strengths  otherwise you get absolutely nothing for your money. So poor Management equals poor player and Martins certianly needs time to adapt like any Foreign player does.

[ohmelads]

My main concern is that Roeder bought him without any real idea of how he was going to use him.

 

Let's face it, Duff is a player who has proven it in the Premiership over several seasons and he has struggled to make an impact in this Newcastle team.

 

In three games against average teams we have posed very little attacking threat. The midfield are scared to push forward even in possession and are offering no assistance to the forwards. Until that changes whoever plays up front will have to fight for those long balls, skin the defenders and score all on their own. We could only put one goal past Ventspils in three hours of play and that came from a corner. A feature of our season so far and our pre-season has been that our strikers have rarely got a touch of the ball in threatening positions. Duff, Milner, Luque Ameobi, Martins, and Rossi have all played up front this season and all have struggled.

 

It doesn't matter who we put up front, until we attack and defend as a team we're not going to get many goals. You can't expect Martins to do it all on his own otherwise he'll go down the same road as Luque.

[Guest Imperio]

Too soon for me to even think about judging him. It's a shame that we dont have a better striker for us just to say "Right, we'll bring you off the bench and give you 20 minutes this week and slowly bring you into the side"

 

We've just dumped him in at the deep end and played long balls at him, which is not useful at all to him.

 

We're not utilising him properly so far, he can be a good player in this league, I'm just not convinced it'll be with Newcastle in our current state.

[Guest stormrider]

martins = shit.

you can just tell from the start whos going to make it and whos not.

[Ally]

martins = shit.

you can just tell from the start whos going to make it and whos not.

 

Owen was toss on his debut remember.

[Ronaldo]

martins = shit.

you can just tell from the start whos going to make it and whos not.

 

you're serious?

[Guest stormrider]

martins = shit.

you can just tell from the start whos going to make it and whos not.

 

Owen was toss on his debut remember.

 

Who's Owen?

[Guest JamesD]

LOL!!1!!!111

[Parky]

I said he was a wrongun from day one. Anelka is 10 times the player and would have cost £3m less.

[Guest geordieracer]

atleast you know for a fact that anelka will score regularly, where ever he goes

[AliGupter]

atleast you know for a fact that anelka will score regularly, where ever he goes

 

Until he starts being a cunt.

[Keefaz]

Christ allfucking mighty. If Martins comes good then every knobhead who wrote him off on this board should be thrown off a fucking cliff.

[TRon]

I doubt Martins is a bad player, it probably just needs a manager who can set a team up right to get the best of the players at his disposal.

 

Does anyone doubt that O'Neill will get more from Villa's squad than that prick O'Nearly?

 

 

 

 

[Guest geordieracer]

he already has, the thing with villa was they underachieved last season now they are doing the opposite, i live in birmingham so i hear quite a lot about them,

they got some top youngsters coming through which is scary for the prem agbonlahor scored over 40 goals in 1 season in the under 18's apparently,

all my villa friends are in heaven because they got the youngsters, the rich chairman, the top manager, and quite a few champs league quality players already in laursen, bouma and baros, im very jelous especially as in the position we are now, they have 2 youth centre backs in ridgewell and cahill who are better than any centre back we have! i get the p*ss took out of me a lot for that

[Keefaz]

he already has, the thing with villa was they underachieved last season now they are doing the opposite, i live in birmingham so i hear quite a lot about them,

they got some top youngsters coming through which is scary for the prem agbonlahor scored over 40 goals in 1 season in the under 18's apparently,

all my villa friends are in heaven because they got the youngsters, the rich chairman, the top manager, and quite a few champs league quality players already in laursen, bouma and baros, im very jelous especially as in the position we are now, they have 2 youth centre backs in ridgewell and cahill who are better than any centre back we have! i get the p*ss took out of me a lot for that

 

Keep your chin up, mate. All you have to do is mutter 'Milner' under you breath every now and then.

[Guest elbee909]

We can sign good players all over the place, but it takes more than that to get them to play together well.  (Something Souness might have finally fucking learned after his stint here, thought I think he regards learning as a sign of weakness - "You saying I didn't know that already son?"  Heh).

 

To write Martins off in any way at all right now is almost hilarious.

[Guest makemeacupoftea]

Martins will only come good if Newcastle play to his strengths

 

We all know Martins is a class player

[Guest geordieracer]

thats a difference between roeder and o'neill.. o'neill brings in a player so he does exactly the same job as he does for the team he use to play for, or to his main strength and just tells him to concentrate on that

an it seems roeder buys a player because he is good, but hasn't got the tactical nouse, for example duff hes hardly playing to his strengths when being put on the right

[Guest Germfungus]

lol @ this forum 

[Guest KeithKettleborough]

Guivarch is always regarded as one of the worst ever players to pull on a Toon shirt. If the same criteria is used for Martins, then he must be regarded as crap. Guivarch started 2 games for us and didn't impress. Martins has looked no better and perhaps even worse.

 

I am not confident about Martins but think we should wait longer before deciding. Similarly Guivarch's inclusion as one of our worst players is unfair, as he didnt play enough for us to rate him fairly and like Martins, was playing in a poor team.