David Marshall

As much as I think he's done an excellent job for us this season and saved us in numerous games, I believe he'll never step up to the next level unless he manages to sort out his extremely poor decision making and communication skills. For W.B.A's 2nd goal, his indecision in whether or not to come for the ball clearly influenced Shackell's poor header out. He sarted to come then went back, leaving him poorly out of position when Gera took the shot. If he'd come out to catch/punch it away, the goal could have been avoided. As it happened, Shacks saw him start to come which led to him not being in a position to put as much power in the header as he should have, resulting in the weak clearance he made. Then there was a free kick which W.B.A had on the edge of our area. Marshall clearly wanted a 4 man wall but because he wasn't vocal enough in telling the team what he wanted , 7 players ran across to make the wall and Marshall did nothing about it. It's so obvious that the recent goals we've conceded from set pieces have been mostly down to Marshall's inability to organise his defence. How this is allowed to happen when we have the likes of Gunny on the coaching staff I don't know. Surely someone on the coaching side of things can see what Marshall's weaknesses are and should be working with him on them. It just goes to show how much difference having Tiny in the side made for us. He was strong and vocal in defence which then rubbed off on the other players in a positive way. Unless we get a couple of strong leaders in defence and midfield in the summer we will continue to struggle next season and beyond. The fact that our only real influence at the moment (Dion) is leaving soon just makes the situation even worse. Good luck to Roeder in trying to sort it all out for us long suffering fans. My team for Sat would have to be, Marshall, Otsemobor, Shackell, Doherty, Bertrand, Croft, Russell, Fozzy, Hucks, Dion & Ched

Posted By: sadlerman, Apr 20, 23:53:14