Obafemi Martins

[Guest Gemmill]

Can anyone put up a decent argument against what they've said about Martins like?

 

Of course...

 

"one of the most inept, clueless and woeful displays that the famous number 9 shirt has ever witnessed"

 

Those comments are loaded with emotion, they're way over the top and if Martins was a Geordie, you know they'd write something like "he needs to start showing his £10m form soon" or something much tamer along those lines. I take it they weren't watching Shearer last season and some of his 'famous number nine' performances? Or indeed most of the season before that?

 

Exactly. Am sure Shearer spent 90 minutes rooted to the spot in a couple of games in his last 2 seasons. Definitely some bias going on.

 

Haway lads, I meant the specifics about his touch, lack of pace, total absence of strength (he looked like a bairn playing with his dad's mates) etc.  I had just discounted that first bit tbh. 

[ohmelads]

He had a poor game, like most of the team. He also had a poor game against Villa, like most of the team. I don't think anyone can deny that.

 

Come on though, they sound like drama queens. 'OMG lol one ov the worst numba 9 performances eva!!!1!11!!'. Complete overreaction.

 

When the whole team plays poorly and they single out one player, while praising others for their shite performances (Duff and N'Zogbia were very poor) then you have to admit it looks like there's an agenda going on there. Yes all eyes were on Martins for his home debut, but Duff was equally under the spotlight and they have written utter bollocks about him. It's total double standards and makes Martins look like he stood out as the worst player on the pitch - which is nonsense.

[Guest Li3nZ]

A lot of people seem to have deep under-lying problems with nufc.com for some reason.

 

Their report on Martin's performance was correct and to the point. Please for a minute disregard comparing their reviews on individual players and get to the point in hand - Martins. The previous description of Martin's performance, sadly, is correct. He had no presence or strength to hold the ball, looked slow, and seemed to be playing with flippers on his feet the way he controlled the ball.

 

NUFC.com are usually spot on with reviews most of the time. People used to come on and moan about how they slated Robert when he correctly did have a mare. They would complain and reference a performance from 4 weeks ago when he showed spirit... barking up the wrong tree i think.

[Guest Li3nZ]

And anyway, it's only human nature for someone to look deeply into the new 10million strikers performance. As only the best players get boo'ed, a high profile recent signing is likely to get more criticism than another player who had a similarly poor performance but has just come up through the ranks, as the level of expectation is rightly totally different!

[Guest kenchubb]

Howay man the lad's young, new to the english game and we're not exploiting the way he plays, the lad plays along the ground gets in behind the back line and creates havoc, he's only 3ft tall (mebbes 4), so fuckin shuntin the ball up to him and expecting him to do something with it is ridiculous, he can't hold the ball up or scrap for it himself. We need to be sliding balls through to him to use his pace, our midfields the only sturdy part of our teamat the moment but instead of trying to craft chances through it we're bypassing the whole of our midfield with bramble's wooden leg swing and its getting us newhere.  I'd like to think he can play in the prem he absolutely ran amok against arsenal in the CL a couple of years ago, and that was because he was taking advantage of the high back line, which is inherent in the english game, I know you can't base it on one game and he was playing with a mint team behind him, but it shows that if he was given the right service he'd cause teams a lot of problems. 

 

I think he'll be even better than Stephan Guivarch. 

Seriously.

[ohmelads]

And anyway, it's only human nature for someone to look deeply into the new 10million strikers performance. As only the best players get boo'ed, a high profile recent signing is likely to get more criticism than another player who had a similarly poor performance but has just come up through the ranks, as the level of expectation is rightly totally different!

 

Maybe you can make that case for N'Zogbia but not for Duff.

 

In fact, with his Premiership experience, I'd go so far to say that Duff has even less of an excuse than Martins, who was making his home debut and playing only his second game in the Premier League.

[Guest Gemmill]

A lot of people seem to have deep under-lying problems with nufc.com for some reason.

 

Their report on Martin's performance was correct and to the point. Please for a minute disregard comparing their reviews on individual players and get to the point in hand - Martins. The previous description of Martin's performance, sadly, is correct. He had no presence or strength to hold the ball, looked slow, and seemed to be playing with flippers on his feet the way he controlled the ball.

 

NUFC.com are usually spot on with reviews most of the time. People used to come on and moan about how they slated Robert when he correctly did have a mare. They would complain and reference a performance from 4 weeks ago when he showed spirit... barking up the wrong tree i think.

 

Whilst I think .com are a shadow of what they used to be, I think they are right about Martins in this instance.  Ok they've gone a bit OTT with some of the stuff they've said, but looking at the specifics, you're right - there's very little to argue with.

[Guest Phil K]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

[Baggio]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

 

What did your source ( ) tell you then Phil?

[johnnypd]

Shocking that from .com. I worry about them, they're little more than another Oliver these days. Just had a look about what they said about Duff. "Threatened and looked a class act" - utter shit.

 

agree. they've gone totally OTT against Martins and after only his first home game. he looked nowt special, and did look weak, but to say it was one of the "most inept, clueless and woeful displays that the famous number 9 shirt" has seen in ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN YEARS is taking the piss. it's one thing if alan oliver comes out with shit like that, but people actually respect and will be influenced by .com

 

i'm not sure about the pace thing either. there was 3 or 4 instances where he raced for loose balls that were nowhere near obtainable and he looked rapid, when he got going that is. i think what they actually mean is, he didn't look very mobile, and a bit sluggish over the first 5 yards.

[ChezGiven]

And anyway, it's only human nature for someone to look deeply into the new 10million strikers performance. As only the best players get boo'ed, a high profile recent signing is likely to get more criticism than another player who had a similarly poor performance but has just come up through the ranks, as the level of expectation is rightly totally different!

 

Maybe you can make that case for N'Zogbia but not for Duff.

 

In fact, with his Premiership experience, I'd go so far to say that Duff has even less of an excuse than Martins, who was making his home debut and playing only his second game in the Premier League.

 

Owen had a few games where his touch was poor and the team around him gave him no service and we did not read that sort  .com reaction about him. In fact we knew Owen would come good so were patient. He scored 5 of his 7 goals in 2 games. In 6 others he did very little. Owen was a superstar who had some nothing games for us and never got any criticism.

 

Martins should be given some time and i still think that the edginess in the crowd is picked up by the player.

[Guest alex]

The criticism of Owen was reserved for him when he missed games through injury. Martins was shit on Saturday and he might even turn out to be a failure but the description of his performance is way OTT. .COM are a bit of a joke nowadays though tbh.

[Guest BooBoo]

While its not fair to judge Martins as early as this, if you look back at our really succesful strikers, then they've all had one thing in common:

 

Craig Bellamy- scored on home league debut v Mackems

Alan Shearer- scored on home league debut v Wimbledon

Les Ferdinand- scored on home league debut v Coventry

Andy Cole- scored on home league debut v Notts County

Kevin Keegan- scored on home league debut v QPR

Supermac- scored on home league debut v Liverpool

 

An early goal in a black and white shirt gets the fans behind you and players ooze confidence. Take the opposite side, of players such as Luque and Tomasson who had poor starts to their Toon careers and spiralled into injury, lack of belief and eventually heart.

 

I just hope that Oba can get a goal as soon as possible as he strikes me as a generally bubbly type of guy who once he has the crowd fully behind him, will thrive on it.

[S.S.R.]

Nufc.com are shit stirrers who will put on the high-and-mighty act when people start barracking Martins.

 

 

[Wullie]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

 

I think you need a new source. Martins has been acknowledged for years as one of the quickest, if not the quickest, players in the world.

[johnnypd]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

 

I think you need a new source. Martins has been acknowledged for years as one of the quickest, if not the quickest, players in the world.

 

funny that he gets his opinions about players from a source, tbh.

[TRon]

To be fair, Wwen can look crap for 89 mins, but he's a lethal finisher who can punish a team for one lapse. Martins will need to be judged after a dozen games or so, but he does need to start getting into goalscoring positions more often from the little I've seen. In his defence, Bergkamp and Crouch were shite for their respective clubs for a long while before they came good. Let's give him a chance to find his feet at least. This is a million miles from Serie A.

 

 

 

 

[Syrette]

NUFC fans and media disturb me more and more as the years go by.

[Ally]

To be fair, Wwen can look crap for 89 mins, but he's a lethal finisher who can punish a team for one lapse. Martins will need to be judged after a dozen games or so, but he does need to start getting into goalscoring positions more often from the little I've seen. In his defence, Bergkamp and Crouch were shite for their respective clubs for a long while before they came good. Let's give him a chance to find his feet at least. This is a million miles from Serie A.

 

 

I really want to give him a good chance and time to settle, but sadly the way we conducted our transfer policy we are completely reliant on him to do the business now. Someone compared us to Liverpool yesterday, how they signed Kuyt and are slowly bedding him in, and they can due to their squad.

[Northern Monkey]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

 

I think you need a new source. Martins has been acknowledged for years as one of the quickest, if not the quickest, players in the world.

 

Quickest in the world?? I don;t think i've EVER heard or seen that.

 

But he must be the best at something, he signed for us!! And we're great!!

 

Full of internationals like Babayaro, Moore, Dyer, Luque etc. Only the fastest/best come to us.

[Syrette]

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

I was concerned from day ONE.

I had heard nothing concrete about this bloke, only things I had heard weren't good, and when it was said he was quick, what i HAD heard mentioned this not at all. My source was astonished we had paid what we had for a player who never amounted to much in Italy. Roeder strikes again....

 

I think you need a new source. Martins has been acknowledged for years as one of the quickest, if not the quickest, players in the world.

 

Quickest in the world?? I don;t think i've EVER heard or seen that.

 

But he must be the best at something, he signed for us!! And we're great!!

 

Full of internationals like Babayaro, Moore, Dyer, Luque etc. Only the fastest/best come to us.

 

You don't seem the type to really research new Newcastle players tbh.

[bulivye]

While its not fair to judge Martins as early as this, if you look back at our really succesful strikers, then they've all had one thing in common:

 

Craig Bellamy- scored on home league debut v Mackems

Alan Shearer- scored on home league debut v Wimbledon

Les Ferdinand- scored on home league debut v Coventry

Andy Cole- scored on home league debut v Notts County

Kevin Keegan- scored on home league debut v QPR

Supermac- scored on home league debut v Liverpool

 

An early goal in a black and white shirt gets the fans behind you and players ooze confidence. Take the opposite side, of players such as Luque and Tomasson who had poor starts to their Toon careers and spiralled into injury, lack of belief and eventually heart.

 

I just hope that Oba can get a goal as soon as possible as he strikes me as a generally bubbly type of guy who once he has the crowd fully behind him, will thrive on it.

 

did beardsley score on his home debut?      serious question

[Wullie]

While its not fair to judge Martins as early as this, if you look back at our really succesful strikers, then they've all had one thing in common:

 

Craig Bellamy- scored on home league debut v Mackems

Alan Shearer- scored on home league debut v Wimbledon

Les Ferdinand- scored on home league debut v Coventry

Andy Cole- scored on home league debut v Notts County

Kevin Keegan- scored on home league debut v QPR

Supermac- scored on home league debut v Liverpool

 

An early goal in a black and white shirt gets the fans behind you and players ooze confidence. Take the opposite side, of players such as Luque and Tomasson who had poor starts to their Toon careers and spiralled into injury, lack of belief and eventually heart.

 

I just hope that Oba can get a goal as soon as possible as he strikes me as a generally bubbly type of guy who once he has the crowd fully behind him, will thrive on it.

 

did beardsley score on his home debut?      serious question

 

No, not in either spell at the club.

[Ronaldo]

It also took Shearer till his third game before he registered a goal, and his fifth before he scored from open play if memory serves.

[Guest Moe-Ali]

Having been listening to the Legends tonight and reading various posts on here and elsewhere, there appear to already be a substantial group of people feeling a little unsure about Martins and what he can offer us. I've heard people saying he doesn't appear anywhere near as quick as reported, that he's weak, can't beat a man, can't shoot, generally has shown nothing so far etc. Roeder's even been out and given him the 'vote of confidence', a little strange to be doing it after two games imo.

 

So is anyone genuinely starting to feel a little worried?

 

Who cares?

about a substantial group of nobodies.