Matt Ritchie (now playing for Portsmouth)

[Guest neesy111]

Good thing we're going down. This c*** should be nowhere near the PL.

 

Jesus wept man.

[John P]

I am getting pretty tired of Matt Radgie's constant niggly fouls when he has absolutely no hope of getting the ball.

[Papavasiliou]

I am getting pretty tired of Matt Radgie's constant niggly fouls when he has absolutely no hope of getting the ball.

 

Consistantly tries to tackle with his arms too. I can't understand how a profesional player with that many years in the game still thinks he can get away with grabbing players round the neck whenevery he goes near them.

[jackyboy]

I think he just looks slow compared to Joselu

[4 stars out of 5]

I don't dislike Ritchie, he has got good delivery, and works extremely hard. But he's quite a strange player, he has no attributes to be winger really. He can't beat a man, he is not skillful, or pacey. A huge problem in our attacking play is that any scout worth his salt knows that Ritchie will do only one of two things 1v1 with a full back. Deliver an early cross, or cut back and pass the ball inside or backwards.

 

That's why he was happily let go from a lower mid table pl club 3 years ago. Like a shit cockney Scottish Ramsey running about

[Kanj]

happily let go, get lost man. he was an important player for his old club.

[Astroblack]

He'd fit in really well in our 10-11 team.

[Tribesman]

I don't dislike Ritchie, he has got good delivery, and works extremely hard. But he's quite a strange player, he has no attributes to be winger really. He can't beat a man, he is not skillful, or pacey. A huge problem in our attacking play is that any scout worth his salt knows that Ritchie will do only one of two things 1v1 with a full back. Deliver an early cross, or cut back and pass the ball inside or backwards.

 

That's why he was happily let go from a lower mid table pl club 3 years ago. Like a s*** cockney Scottish Ramsey running about

 

I'm fairly sure Howe wanted to keep him and was disappointed he left.

 

[Guest]

If we were a normal club he’d have went the way of Dwight Gayle. Thanks for promotion, thanks for helping us stabilise, now we need better.

 

The fact that he’s still a key player shows where we are.

[xLiaaamx]

In the championship he always made clever off the ball runs to get himself space so it didn't matter that he couldnt run away from people. Problem now is when you have to set up so rigid, he cant find that space. Its why he looked so much better at Bournemouth.

[4 stars out of 5]

Nobody cares about the oppinion of an Ashley sympathiser

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Ritchie is a Championship player, albeit a good one at that level. At this level though he offers nothing in terms of real quality on the ball and in the final 3rd.

[Away Day Gadgie]

For all his faults he still has 3 more assists than anyone else in our squad.  If he could start adding a few goals aswell like he did last season then i think most people would be happy with him.  When i look at him i always think he’d look a lot better in a better footballing side with pace around him, but there’s not much chance of that i guess.

 

*Just noticed Rondon is only 2 assists behind him.

[Guest neesy111]

For all his faults he still has 3 more assists than anyone else in our squad.  If he could start adding a few goals aswell like he did last season then i think most people would be happy with him.  When i look at him i always think he’d look a lot better in a better footballing side with pace around him, but there’s not much chance of that i guess.

 

*Just noticed Rondon is only 2 assists behind him.

 

He should have more assists considering he takes most of our set pieces.

[Away Day Gadgie]

For all his faults he still has 3 more assists than anyone else in our squad.  If he could start adding a few goals aswell like he did last season then i think most people would be happy with him.  When i look at him i always think he’d look a lot better in a better footballing side with pace around him, but there’s not much chance of that i guess.

 

*Just noticed Rondon is only 2 assists behind him.

 

He should have more assists considering he takes most of our set pieces.

 

I agree.  Maybe he would if the likes of Lascelles were chipping in with goals like last season?  He’s also put some great crosses in in the last 6 or 7 games that haven’t been converted.  One at Anfield stands out and there have been quite a few more.

[Dinho lad]

Not the biggest problem we've got and may well be solvable again if the other players around start performing and take the pressure off, as he's quite overworked.

 

It was the case last season until the likes of Kennedy and Diame came in or stepped up their game.

[xLiaaamx]

Nobody cares about the oppinion of an Ashley sympathiser

 

Fucking hell man. I think I prefer Crumpy.

[Disco]

Nobody cares about the oppinion of an Ashley sympathiser

 

Fucking hell man. I think I prefer Crumpy.

 

[Mattoon]

Not his fault he isn't up to scratch, he was bought for the Championship and did a great job, had a semi-decent season last season but should have been replaced. Like many others in the squad is being asked to do a job above his paygrade.

[brownie21390]

Where is Ritchie at with goals and assists in comparison to this time last season?

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I’m critical of Ritchie’s abilities or lack of and critical of his position in the team as a regular, but I find it tough to be too critical because he’s been a good player for us on a consistent basis, a player who has been a big part of our success. I say success in the sense of promotion and finishing 10th.

 

I find it hard to be too critical of any player and indeed the team because if we were to remove the name of Newcastle United from the cold hard facts, the players and manager have done wonders in the same way Wagner and Huddersfield, Hughton and Brighton and Howe and Bournemouth who against all odds have taken a tin-pot club into the big league with a team of average players and survived.

 

Unlike us though, they are in the big league to stay, they don’t want to be tin pot clubs again or any more so they’ve allowed their managers to spend money, to buy better players, to build a better team, to compete with the rest.

 

Poor Rafa though, he’s working with pretty much the same team bar one or two players and if he and these players define the odds again, what an achievement that would be.

 

As demoralising as it is to watch and as poor as our players and our team are, they are giving their all to achieve just that which would represent overachievement for many of them individually and overachievement as a team and for our club who if we were again to remove the name and attendance figures, is a lower Championship club no different to a Blackburn or a Sheff Wed.

 

That’s our level.

 

Should Rafa keep us up, it will be a miracle and for me his biggest achievement to date. Forget his name and CV, no-one and I mean no-one could do any better than he has and achieved what he already has upto now.

 

Wagner had done a great job at Huddersfield, Warnock at Cardiff, Hughton at Brighton, Howe at Bournemouth, but they are in a different league to us now even if Huddersfield and Cardiff are down there with us at the moment. We are the tin pot club with no money and a shit team. We are the ones punching above our weight out of those clubs.

 

Without Rafa we would probably be below Blackburn right now who we could only draw both home and away with recently in normal time. And that’s where our tin-pot Ashley club belongs and most of our players or certainly this team with a full collection of such players in every position on the pitch and bench the manager is only able to choose from. Players he isn’t allowed to replace with much better players that the others are allowed to do.

 

Ironically if Ritchie was for sale today at another club, we wouldn’t be able to afford him even at the price we bought him for originally. He probably cost 15m +

 

Let that sink in. Consider also how much Perez would cost us to buy today and how much we spent on Joselu to provide competition for him and to even replace him in the team. He cost over double the 1.5m we paid for Perez. We probably couldn’t even afford Joselu today.

 

I’ve come to accept what we are and although I hate how we play and now refuse to watch us because it’s demoralising, it’s not half as demoralising knowing Rafa can’t do a ducking thing about it like every other manager can.

 

So when Perez shoots over or Ritchie fails to beat his man from a corner or Joselu falls over in the box, console yourself they won’t always be this shit and will do much better when they return back to the Championship where they will be much more at home.

 

Whether it’s this season or the next, that’s where NUFC are heading.

 

Rio jumped the gun a bit when he said NUFC are a yo yo club. We soon will be though, if we’re lucky.

 

I say we, I mean for those that stick around.

—————————-

Could be worse for us fans I suppose, we could easily be Leeds or Portsmouth. Thanks to Mike though we’ve won two promotions and even finished 5th once and if we stay up this season, at least we get one more season of PL footy at SJP and if not a battle to avoid dropping into League One or another promotion push next season would be just as exciting. And a potential derby if the mackems go up!

 

I’d get rid of a lot of players if we did go down though, most of them wouldn’t be good enough. The manager too, he’s not good enough for that league either. He’s not even good enough for the league we are in now, just look at where we are in the table.

 

Whoever our next manager is needs to have experience at spending his own money on players and be minted.

 

Big Sam’s loaded isn’t he?

 

He’d sort us out. He’d take us back up and keep us up for a bit I’m sure.

[TRon]

I think Ritchie is technically a very good player, he does put in some good crosses, and he has a winners attitude. The problem is his lack of pace means he's not much threat as a wide player and very easy to deal with for defenders. Also with us having a style where we like to sit back, he's useless on the counter because of the said lack of pace. I think he was actually a lot more effective for Bournemouth with their pressing style, although he'd be a liability defensively then.

 

Also, as neesy already said, he should be contributing a lot more assists, and goals for that matter considering he takes set pieces. Disappointing he's not more threat from free kicks.

[themanupstairs]

I think Ritchie is technically a very good player, he does put in some good crosses, and he has a winners attitude. The problem is his lack of pace means he's not much threat as a wide player and very easy to deal with for defenders. Also with us having a style where we like to sit back, he's useless on the counter because of the said lack of pace. I think he was actually a lot more effective for Bournemouth with their pressing style, although he'd be a liability defensively then.

 

Also, as neesy already said, he should be contributing a lot more assists, and goals for that matter considering he takes set pieces. Disappointing he's not more threat from free kicks.

 

If he's to have any kind of future in the top flight (with us or someone else) he needs to take a good look at what Milner has done for himself. Versatility has prolonged Milner's career IMO. He'd have been finished years ago if he only played on the wing.

[TRon]

I think Ritchie is technically a very good player, he does put in some good crosses, and he has a winners attitude. The problem is his lack of pace means he's not much threat as a wide player and very easy to deal with for defenders. Also with us having a style where we like to sit back, he's useless on the counter because of the said lack of pace. I think he was actually a lot more effective for Bournemouth with their pressing style, although he'd be a liability defensively then.

 

Also, as neesy already said, he should be contributing a lot more assists, and goals for that matter considering he takes set pieces. Disappointing he's not more threat from free kicks.

 

If he's to have any kind of future in the top flight (with us or someone else) he needs to take a good look at what Milner has done for himself. Versatility has prolonged Milner's career IMO. He'd have been finished years ago if he only played on the wing.

 

Milner might not have been lighting quick, but he was never disastrously slow. Milner was a young player bought by SBR to supplement a CL side, not a player bought for a side that got relegated.

[54]

I think Ritchie is technically a very good player, he does put in some good crosses, and he has a winners attitude. The problem is his lack of pace means he's not much threat as a wide player and very easy to deal with for defenders. Also with us having a style where we like to sit back, he's useless on the counter because of the said lack of pace. I think he was actually a lot more effective for Bournemouth with their pressing style, although he'd be a liability defensively then.

 

Also, as neesy already said, he should be contributing a lot more assists, and goals for that matter considering he takes set pieces. Disappointing he's not more threat from free kicks.

 

If he's to have any kind of future in the top flight (with us or someone else) he needs to take a good look at what Milner has done for himself. Versatility has prolonged Milner's career IMO. He'd have been finished years ago if he only played on the wing.

You could argue that he is already doing that, given he's essentially been playing at LB for the last few month.