Objective opinion of JCR...

[palexander]

Seems so many people are quick to have a pop at JCR - so personal feeling aside, lets discuss him from a footballing point-of-view.

PROs

1) He is very quick - one thing defenders hate, hence they will stand off him and allow him room.

2) His workrate. Up and down the pitch, JCR never shirks hard work. This proves invaluable, especially away from home.

3) His intelligence. We saw this particular in the England v Jamaica game where he played a more central role, JCR will drift around the pitch to create space.

4) He is an outlet for when we are under pressue. Again, away from home it is valuable to have an outlet to give the ball too and JCR is that man.

5) When delivered, quality is normally very good into the box.

CONs

1) To even out 'Pro' 1 - he is slow on the ball. He will run and check back or hold the ball to flash his foot around it, effectively nulling his pace.

2) He holds the ball too long sometimes - though I have noticed a marked improvement in the last few games that he will get the ball, shift it and get it into the box.

3) Insistance on beating his man twice. Again, criticism that is part of number 2 above, but sometimes JCR will take the hard option of beating his man again instead of dumping into the box.

4) No real goal threat for a flair player. I dont recall any shots from JCR when he gets in good positions.

So thats my honest assesment. Personally I would always have him in the team, if only for his team work rather than his flair - though you always have the latter through natural talent.

I can see why people get frustrated at times with him, but please dont jump on the 'I hate JCR' bandwagon because you think its fashionable....

 

[BrettieAngell]

Pretty much spot on mate!

 

[fredheim_holm]

Good work.

 

[RobM.]

There's nothing he can't do to improve his game. Like....

1 Cross it when the chance is there
2 Lay the ball off first touch.
3 Stop beating 3 players and passing it backwards - see 1.

Yes, he works hard, tackles back. has pace but until he does the above, he will always be frustrating. How many times have we heard "all tricks and no final product"?

 

[RobM.]

There's nothing he can't do to improve his game. Like....

1 Cross it when the chance is there
2 Lay the ball off first touch.
3 Stop beating 3 players and passing it backwards - see 1.

Yes, he works hard, tackles back. has pace but until he does the above, he will always be frustrating. How many times have we heard "all tricks and no final product"?

 

[Welly7]

Quote[/b] ]pboreham Posted on Sep. 17 2006,15:41
1) To even out 'Pro' 1 - he is slow on the ball. He will run and check back or hold the ball to flash his foot around it, effectively nulling his pace.

Agreed and that's why he can be so frustrating. He gets into the positions to hurt teams, but then slows everything down by trying to beat his man again. I know it can be argued that he is waiting for more men to arrive in the area, but sometimes a quick, first time cross to only one player in waiting is the better option.
Still, that said, I think he's an asset to the first team.

 

[Angell Delight]

Quote[/b] (RobM. @ Sep. 17 2006,16:52)]There's nothing he can't do to improve his game. Like....

1 Cross it when the chance is there
2 Lay the ball off first touch.
3 Stop beating 3 players and passing it backwards - see 1.

Yes, he works hard, tackles back. has pace but until he does the above, he will always be frustrating. How many times have we heard "all tricks and no final product"?

Agree 100%.

 

[Southend Elvis]

Looking at it another way, if JCR was a double glazing salesman he would be sacked, or transfered to the factory floor cleaning duties for his high work rate.
It's all about results or sales.....

 

[londonblue]

Quote from a Baggies fan:-

"Yep, fair play. You kept the game open and never missed an opportunity to get forward. Your winger (the one who was subbed second half) caused us no end of problems."

I'm not the biggest JCR fan, but it is always interesting how the opposition see things, sometimes they are more objective than we can be.

 

[Southend Elvis]

So you are saying we should form an opinion over just one game, not the 30 or so games we have seen him play. After seeing him on his first game for us, I should imagine we were all impressed, not now

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

The enigma that is JCR. Apparently you either love him or hate him! Personally, I do both for all the reasons listed at the start of this post!!

 

[Badger74]

Teams we have played so far this season think he is a class player.
I cant see it but his work rate is 110%

 

[Beefy]

He's a very eye-catching player which is why opposition fans rate him so highly. They see him turn their fullback into mincemeat and think that he must just be unlucky with the final ball, when we see him everyweek and always see him make mincemeat out of the fullback and then do nothing with it.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ Sep. 17 2006,20:52)]He's a very eye-catching player which is why opposition fans rate him so highly. They see him turn their fullback into mincemeat and think that he must just be unlucky with the final ball, when we see him everyweek and always see him make mincemeat out of the fullback and then do nothing with it.

Very true.

Pretty much to a man, every opposition fan has commented on how impressed they were with him. At the same time the disillusionment at him on here shows he's got some work to do.

Way I look at it is that he's younger than me so he's still got plenty of time to learn. What he does possess is something you can't teach. Just a case of whether we can teach him enough to become the amazing player he is capable of being.

 

[prittlewellshrimper]

There have been a few occaisions when , because of his pace or our lack of an a decent attacking midfielder making runs into the box ( you know like Gutts USED to make ! ) , that JCR has had no one in the box to cross to . This I feel forces JCR to either check back or run into trouble as he has no option. I'll give you an example on Tuesday were 3-1 down at home to Norwich with 1/2 hour to go Jcr picks the ball up on halfway surges forward beating 2 defenders on his way to the by line , Freddy and Billy are tightly marked , Jcr pulls the ball back into space to the penalty spot behind their defence and and our forwards , the perfect ball for a late midfield runner , now , where were our midfield , I'll tell ya , Gower Gutts and more forgivably Maher were all standing in the centre circle watching the action from 40 yards !! so close to each other you couldve thrown a bloody tea towel over the 3 of 'em !!!! to my amazement the bloke behind me slags off JCR . There are other instances and I feel JCR gets unjust critisism often .

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Absolutley spot on. JCR does need to be told to release the ball as soon as a dangerous pass or cross is available. But our forwards and attacking midfielders also need to be told what to do to use JCR's skills most effectively. At the moment as previous posters have already said he often gets down the wing and finds two strikers standing more or less still in the area. Lets get some mobility in and around the area for JCR to exploit.

JCR. If your reading this. Have a dig yourself occasionally. If there's no-one to pass to, use you trickery to make a yard of space and have a crack.

 

[Kris]

I wasn't at The Hawthorns on Saturday but I've just watched the excellent extended highlights (20 minutes!) via BluesWorld and JCR makes some very good contributions in this sequence. In the first half he skins their left back and puts over a good cross, which deserved better (Paynter chests it down and attempts to lay it off but no-one is there). In the second half he makes an excellent sliding tackle in the right-back position, charges down the wing, exchanges passes with Freddy and then shoots narrowly wide. I think this was the 'sitter' that people have referred to. Bit harsh really as it was a good chance but not quite as gilt-edged as people have made out. He also contributes in several other attacks with quick passing and movement and puts over another decent cross which isn't too far away from a Southend head (Paynter again, I think).

While JCR does remain an enigma, it does make me wonder whether some people actually deliberately erase any positive contributions he makes. I keep reading comments that he never crosses the ball, which isn't true (two decent crosses from the highlights alone plus several others against Sheff Wed) and that he always slows our play down, which isn't true either. Actually, I'll qualify that - last season he was guilty of it quite a bit but this season I've noticed he's been a lot more direct. He looks to take his man on but if he can't he'll look for the overlapping Francis or a pass inside to Maher or Gutts. Either way, he's releasing the ball a lot more often and a lot more effectively. True, sometimes he gets caught in possession as well but these ups and downs are part and parcel of being a winger, aren't they (see Gower's rollercoaster Southend career for evidence)?

The chance JCR created for himself on Saturday was no one-off either. Against Leicester he won the ball in his own half, drove forward and fed Francis on the overlap, who crossed for Guttridge to sky over with the goal at his mercy.

Come on, guys, we all know JCR can be frustrating at times but these examples prove he's far from the uncreative player he's sometimes unfairly portrayed as. The way he is constantly singled out on here is depressing.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Quote[/b] (Suffolk Blue @ Sep. 18 2006,00:28)]JCR. If your reading this. Have a dig yourself occasionally. If there's no-one to pass to, use you trickery to make a yard of space and have a crack.

More like "JCR, if you're reading this, please don't lose faith in Southend fans".

Good to see a rare 'evidence-based' post from Kris too!

 

[blake]

Quote[/b] (Kris @ Sep. 18 2006,13:28)]I wasn't at The Hawthorns on Saturday but I've just watched the excellent extended highlights (20 minutes!) via BluesWorld and JCR makes some very good contributions in this sequence. In the first half he skins their left back and puts over a good cross, which deserved better (Paynter chests it down and attempts to lay it off but no-one is there). In the second half he makes an excellent sliding tackle in the right-back position, charges down the wing, exchanges passes with Freddy and then shoots narrowly wide. I think this was the 'sitter' that people have referred to. Bit harsh really as it was a good chance but not quite as gilt-edged as people have made out. He also contributes in several other attacks with quick passing and movement and puts over another decent cross which isn't too far away from a Southend head (Paynter again, I think).

While JCR does remain an enigma, it does make me wonder whether some people actually deliberately erase any positive contributions he makes. I keep reading comments that he never crosses the ball, which isn't true (two decent crosses from the highlights alone plus several others against Sheff Wed) and that he always slows our play down, which isn't true either. Actually, I'll qualify that - last season he was guilty of it quite a bit but this season I've noticed he's been a lot more direct. He looks to take his man on but if he can't he'll look for the overlapping Francis or a pass inside to Maher or Gutts. Either way, he's releasing the ball a lot more often and a lot more effectively. True, sometimes he gets caught in possession as well but these ups and downs are part and parcel of being a winger, aren't they (see Gower's rollercoaster Southend career for evidence)?

The chance JCR created for himself on Saturday was no one-off either. Against Leicester he won the ball in his own half, drove forward and fed Francis on the overlap, who crossed for Guttridge to sky over with the goal at his mercy.

Come on, guys, we all know JCR can be frustrating at times but these examples prove he's far from the uncreative player he's sometimes unfairly portrayed as. The way he is constantly singled out on here is depressing.

I agree with everything you say but don't dispair. As you correctly say Gower has had a roller coaster ride but there is a lot of support for the proposition that he has been our best player this season. This forum has offered similar "words of encouragement" to Captain Marvel, Darryl and even the Goat. Tilly stuck with them all and who is now arguing?

Hopefully Tilly will take no notice of the critics and will stick to his own judgement about JCR and that we will all support Tilly's judgement and JCR.