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My thoughts exactly traveller gull. Give the boy a break and play LRT. If LRT doesn't take his chance and we bomb out into the play offs then bring Danny Boy back in fresh after a few weeks off. If LRT plays like a man possessed then we get the benefits. Not really rocket science but whatever Martin feels is right is ok by me. I'll still get behind Danny although he infuriates me with his predictability.

good post andy agree 100 persent with that give L R T a go what have we got to lose at this stage just go 4 it what will be will be and whatever happens btween now and end of season we still have had a season to rememeber and ime immencly proud of martin and the boys

He's not performed well in our recent "mini slump" that is for sure. For the record, I don't boo our players and since December 31st 2011, I've stopped the exasperated shout of "STEVENS !"

If Stevens plays against Crewe, he is going to have to man up together with other off form players, do his job, take any constructive criticism in his stride, handle the pressure and hopefully spur us on and over the automatic line.

Martin Ling's motivational skills and team selections will be vital in these last two games. It will be even more so if we end up in the play-offs.

Agree with most of what has been said, even by Trojan
Overall Danny has had a surprisingly good season, but like many others he has dropped away in the last month
But surely Ling can see Danny tends to drift inside and get lost, if he doesn't approve he either gives him a slap and tells him to stop doing it or he drops him, neither of which has happened - yet

Think you're being harsh, don't see a thread like this about Eunan and he hasn't been the great recently either!

As lexusguy suggests, any manager worth his salt will surely know whether a player is doing as instructed. If Lingy sends Danny out with instructions to try to get down the line, but instead Stevens cuts inside at every opportunity then I would expect that player to be replaced at half time at the very latest.

Hopefully Danny will play a blinder & tell certain sections of the Popside where to stick their 'constructive criticism', but either way I doubt he's deliberately flouting his managers instructions, as he has been selected for a large number of the matches this season.

L'll Danny seems to have lost form since coming back from his ankle injury. Maybe his recovery is not yet 100% and he may have lost confidence to be able to do his runs down the wing like he was doing before the injury. Hopefully the physio is still working on that ankle and Danny gains confidence in it holding up for the last games.

Just trying to defend the little chap.

So we're struggling to score goals at the moment and the solution is to drop one of our very few naturally attacking players with a bit of quality to play a left back out of position.

MentaLOL

Tbh the most notable difference is Danny seems to be cutting in too early atm. He just needs to cut inside a little later. That makes the area to defend bigger and creates space for others. Also as a fullback if he was to cut in closer to 18 yard box it means you have to think twice about your tackle and if nicho was to recieve lay off you would expect him to be higher up pitch so could cross first time or beat marker then put it in from more dangerous positions. Plus gives eunan more space to create

royal the point is danny has been a passenger on the pitch for ages now maby he needs a break to recharge the batterys L R T is a left hand sided player whos quick and could easily adapt to a midfield role hes fresh keen and eager to do well so why not give the lad a go

If we would like our right foited winger to beat his man on the outside get to the byeline and whip in a cross for our forwards - should he not be on the right wing...just a thought
Suspect that a break is more in order- he came back very quickly after his stretcher ride in crawley...too soon perhaps.

Wisconsin_gull wrote:If we would like our right foited winger to beat his man on the outside get to the byeline and whip in a cross for our forwards - should he not be on the right wing...just a thought
Suspect that a break is more in order- he came back very quickly after his stretcher ride in crawley...too soon perhaps.

Yep, I made the point on another thread I truly hate this modern trend of playing wingers on the wrong sides. I don't think it suits either of ours, maybe Stevens slightly more so but I think they'd be more effective on the other sides.

It's not worth giving anyone a 'go' when we are 4th with 2 games to play. Want the strongest side we have available out there that's done well for us for 95% of the season. That doesn't include a left back playing as a winger/striker for anymore than 10mins a game.

royalgull wrote: Yep, I made the point on another thread I truly hate this modern trend of playing wingers on the wrong sides. I don't think it suits either of ours, maybe Stevens slightly more so but I think they'd be more effective on the other sides.

It's not worth giving anyone a 'go' when we are 4th with 2 games to play. Want the strongest side we have available out there that's done well for us for 95% of the season. That doesn't include a left back playing as a winger/striker for anymore than 10mins a game.

With this 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation, I think Lingy wants his wingers cutting inside to pass through the middle. If Danny went outside and crossed from the byline we'd only have Rene there, so it wouldn't really work.
But I agree - i like wingers to skin their fullbacks and hit the byline, but only in a 4-4-2

Wubble U wrote:
With this 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation, I think Lingy wants his wingers cutting inside to pass through the middle. If Danny went outside and crossed from the byline we'd only have Rene there, so it wouldn't really work.
But I agree - i like wingers to skin their fullbacks and hit the byline, but only in a 4-4-2

What he said!

As others have said it's not that Danny is cutting inside all the time its that he starts doing it far to early. Against Dons he rarely started on the wing and acted more like a second striker playing behind Howe. All the guy has to do is start on the touchline to give us more width and we will be a much better team going forward.