Peter Clarke...

[Streaky]

I'm interested in gageing some opinions on Peter Clarke.


He seems to be a favorite for many but for me he is a poor mans AB who should be dropped for Richards. I think Clarke is becoming a bit of a liability who is costing us goals and games.

I have started to collect a list of positives and negatives to judge Shrimperzoners' opinions.




Positives
* Very determined
* Right attitude



Negatives
* Dodgy positioning
* Dodgy decision making (lets ball bounce too often in front of him)
* Awful passer
* (alledgeley) Very high earner at Southend
* Cant head the ball to a team mate for toffee


thoughts....




:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

 

[The General]

He had an absolute shocker today IMO and he hasn't been overally impressive the last couple of games either. The thing is, there is not too much competition for places and Richards is only 75% fit at the moment!

Kev

 

[Sean 2]

I'm interested in gageing some opinions on Peter Clarke.


He seems to be a favorite for many but for me he is a poor mans AB who should be dropped for Richards. I think Clarke is becoming a bit of a liability who is costing us goals and games.

I have started to collect a list of positives and negatives to judge Shrimperzoners' opinions.




Positives
* Very determined
* Right attitude



Negatives
* Dodgy positioning
* Dodgy decision making (lets ball bounce too often in front of him)
* Awful passer
* (alledgeley) Very high earner at Southend
* Cant head the ball to a team mate for toffee


thoughts....




:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

A good description.Some of his tackles are first-rate and brilliantly timed,then again when retreating into our box when he should be breathing down the neck of his opponent he ends up ball-watching and the striker loses him easily.
Brilliant and shocking is how i sum him up!

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

You would have a different opinion if you saw Richards in the first half in the reserves last Tues....he was shockingly poor.

I thought Clarke had a decent second half with some timely tackles.

It wasnt his best game but am not sure it was a game to judge who should be dropped cos few were any good over the 90 mins today with the exception of Hammell and in particular Gower. The latter was superb today and well worthy of the MOM award.

The rest were ok at best but could do a lot better. I thought Deano did well for a first game into the team.....

 

[CC51DAS]

You would have a different opinion if you saw Richards in the first half in the reserves last Tues....he was shockingly poor.

Spot on SS ! Very worrying - not much real cover IMHO

 

[Medway Blue]

Funny is all this. How opinions differ. I thought Clarke was fine today. He made one mistake forst 5 mins that could have cost a goal but didn't. Other than that, he made some good headed clearances, some timely tackles, one brilliant if I remember correctly, and he made a valiant attempt to keep out Cheltenham's first goal.

 

[dloman]

i know i am going to get slated for this but he is by far our best centre half.

 

[shrimp to 11]

Clarke was our worst performer yesterday. He didnt seem match ready,like he'd only had an hours kip or something.
apart from Richards,we shouldnt forget Lewis Hunt can do a decent job at centre back too, which is an option that'd please simon francis' fans .

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

I'm interested in gageing some opinions on Peter Clarke.


He seems to be a favorite for many but for me he is a poor mans AB who should be dropped for Richards. I think Clarke is becoming a bit of a liability who is costing us goals and games.

I have started to collect a list of positives and negatives to judge Shrimperzoners' opinions.




Positives
* Very determined
* Right attitude



Negatives
* Dodgy positioning
* Dodgy decision making (lets ball bounce too often in front of him)
* Awful passer
* (alledgeley) Very high earner at Southend
* Cant head the ball to a team mate for toffee


thoughts....




:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

I could not agree more, I dont see why so many love him, he makes important bad decisions. Not a fan

 

[* ORM *]

Whereas AB gets adored simply for putting on a blue shirt ignoring his many weaknesses. Constantly playing the opps onside, constantly losing his marker on set pieces, constantly giving away free kicks with his pushing.

The point is every player has strengths and weaknesses and you have to ask whether on balance one outweighs the other.

Collectively as a team we still cannot defend a dead ball. Until we sort that out we are going nowhere.

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

For your list then....

He will be adored if he scores the winner next week

So fickle is the football fan.....:p

 

[BrettieAngell]

Our main problem (apart from set pieces) is when we lose the ball in midfield and the other team counter attacks as soon as we are turned round we just can't deal with it and panic seems to set in.

 

[Andyhsufc]

I dont think you can blame our defences frailities at clarkes door completely. Our porblem is that Clarke and Barrett are very similar (hard working, good tacklers etc) but neither has particular good positional skills and neither are particuarly tall and there lies our set piece problem and so ino, one has to go for richards and for me its barrett as clarke/richards looked solid earlier in the season.

 

[Winkle]

.

It wasnt his best game but am not sure it was a game to judge who should be dropped cos few were any good over the 90 mins today with the exception of Hammell and in particular Gower. The latter was superb today and well worthy of the MOM award.

/QUOTE]
This is a real funny one because I thought that Hamell played really well yesterday but just take a look at the first goal and see how far he is away from his marker, truly shocking. I do beleive however that our defending in open play in general is ok but from set pieces and short corners and long throwings our marking is abysmal!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Our main problem (apart from set pieces) is when we lose the ball in midfield and the other team counter attacks as soon as we are turned round we just can't deal with it and panic seems to set in.

Possibly on Saturday, but with a central midfield of McCormack and most importantly Bailey this really isn't much of a problem. In contrast to our record at set pieces, we concede few goals from open play and even fewer on the counter-attack. With the less mobile Maher in midfield this is more of a problem as we saw last season and on occasions on Saturday.

ps Fouling your man is not panicking and if you get caught the wrong side of them is the right thing to do. The important thing is to foul them early to stop any chance of the counter and ensure any free-kick is high up the pitch.

 

[Blueshrimper]

I like Clarke but in yesterdays game we needed a no nonsence defender like Richards who might not have let in such a soft goal...

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

We need a central defender who is going to attack the ball when it is played in.

Clarke is capable of looking very good and did a lot of good work. But yet again he failed to attack the ball when crosses and corners were played in, yet again he gave the ball away in dangerous areas, yet again he conceded unnecessary free-kicks and yet again his positioning was suspect at times. It doesn't matter how well he plays for the rest of the game, if he continues to make these mistakes he is a liability.

 

[Beefy]

ps Fouling your man is not panicking and if you get caught the wrong side of them is the right thing to do. The important thing is to foul them early to stop any chance of the counter and ensure any free-kick is high up the pitch.

Yep. This is something I think that Lewis Hunt is very good at - if he knows he can't stop an opponent, he's good at fouling him and fouling him early.

Whereas AB gets adored simply for putting on a blue shirt ignoring his many weaknesses. Constantly playing the opps onside, constantly losing his marker on set pieces, constantly giving away free kicks with his pushing.

The point is every player has strengths and weaknesses and you have to ask whether on balance one outweighs the other.

I don't think people are blind to Barrett's weaknesses (and how could they be with you on here always so willing to point them out? ;) ) but they make the decision that the Pros outweight the Cons with him. I'd say that the same thing is true of Peter Clarke but it's the combination of the two together which causes us problems and the lack of a player who will attack the high ball as Yorkshire Blue has long pointed out.

 

[BlueBore]

I don't think people are blind to Barrett's weaknesses (and how could they be with you on here always so willing to point them out? ;) ) but they make the decision that the Pros outweight the Cons with him. I'd say that the same thing is true of Peter Clarke but it's the combination of the two together which causes us problems and the lack of a player who will attack the high ball as Yorkshire Blue has long pointed out.

Have to agree with this. I like both Barett and Clarke individually, I think they are both very good defenders, but I worry about the partnership. I don't feel that they compliment each others strengths (commitment, drive and tackling) particularly well and think they reinforce each others weaknesses (dodgy positional sense and poor distribution). Also, neither are exceptionally tall for centre backs and this combined with positional deficiencies explains much of our weakness at set plays. Richards probably has the worst distribution of anyone but his positioning is generally pretty solid and he's tall.

I think you have to do what's best for the team and play the best combination even if that means dropping a good player. Can't comment on Richards current form for the reserves because I haven't seen it, but I thought the Clarke/Richards combination looked very solid earlier in the season.

 

[GodblessArthurRowley]

Have to agree with this. I like both Barett and Clarke individually, I think they are both very good defenders, but I worry about the partnership. I don't feel that they compliment each others strengths (commitment, drive and tackling) particularly well and think they reinforce each others weaknesses (dodgy positional sense and poor distribution). Also, neither are exceptionally tall for centre backs and this combined with positional deficiencies explains much of our weakness at set plays. Richards probably has the worst distribution of anyone but his positioning is generally pretty solid and he's tall.

I think you have to do what's best for the team and play the best combination even if that means dropping a good player. Can't comment on Richards current form for the reserves because I haven't seen it, but I thought the Clarke/Richards combination looked very solid earlier in the season.

An absolutely spot on observation I like both clarke and barrett but i'm not sure they are a fit as two centre halves.