Craig Gardner



Evester said:
Not whilst he is playing at rightback

I really hope we sign a right back this season or give Love a chance. I would like to think he is Div 1 standard which will allow 09 to move to a more forward role
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Agreed mate. We signed him as a midfielder so he needs time to play in that role.
Similar with Love, we bought him whilst we were a premier team and although pretty crap in the Championship, he may well be league 1 standard given a run in the team as I don't think he's any worse.
 
rocky said:
Absolutely no awareness on the pitch. The amount of times he was caught in possession was comical.

Nice likable lad and tried his hardest, pretty poor though
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This. He could keep it simple further down the pitch, but once he got in the final third he didn't see anything but the goal and because he had a tremendous strike he was trying to get in a position to shoot. He simply wasn't clever enough to play in an advanced role - he had a tremendous shot and that was it. The amount of times he got caught in possession as a result or missed a better opportunity to pass was chronic.
 
He was a typical Steve Bruce signing.

We were being quoted silly money for strikers to replace Bent and didn't score many from midfield so signed a goalscoring midfielder instead who'd got double figures for relegated Birmingham.

Sound logic, except the whole team had been built around him (hence why they got relegated) and he'd practically played up front, took pens and free kicks. Bruce twigged on before the season even started that he was pretty useless in a flat midfield 2 and he was too slow and blinkered to play attacking midfield so he didn't really get a look in until MON have him a run at right back.
 
Fantastic long range shooter, no matter what you thought of him. Also a superb penalty taker

Generally one of the most frustrating footballers I've seen for us in recent years, his hesitancy on the ball was infuriating
 

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