Has Roberts' legs gone?

I agree to a certain extent. But there's always time to get fitter, whether that's a professional footballer, or me and you. I assume you wouldn't tell someone who is 40 and a bit overweight that it's too late now, just stay plump?

Whatever they're doing throughout the week fitness wise, or away from the club individually, efforts must be doubled.

Case in point, Vimal. Young lad, 18 years old, professional footballer, he should be able to run at a decent rate for 90 minutes. Irrespective of opposition or location. The running and the working hard is the only two things an opponent cannot stop you doing, so start there. Get that 100% and you're half way there. We have the quality and the talent in my opinion, I just question whether the group has that heart, character and desire to dig in and run their blood to water. Based on Stevenage and Man Utd, I'm doubtful. Time will tell.

 

From what I've seen this season Roberts and Pines are our best CBs. Both have their faults but they are the best we have. We need a bit of luck with injuries and to play a settled back line what ever formation it is and they will be fine for league 1. I'd like to see Gent or lofthouse getting a run of games on the left. Either would be fine but tell them they are in for the next 5 games.

 

Need to have a word with myself then

I get what you're saying about doubling efforts and individuals focusing on fitness but I don't think there's time to do that when games are coming thick and fast.
With the exception of those players who were injured, pre season should have been a very tough and gruelling mini campaign so come the first league game of the season those players were at peak fitness and ready to tackle a full season. Some of them look way off it fitness wise. As pointed out elsewhere, Val and Duff had their squads fit and ready.

 

Our recruitment at the back has been shocking.. Robbo may still be decent in the air defending high balls and corners, but on the floor under pressure we've got what the Birmingham fans said we were going to get. Not Slagging Robbo off because he's not our worst defender by a mile but he signed a two year deal.. he ort to be like Hourihane and be used sparingly.. say 20 games over the two seasons..
But Mael, who I actually think as got better this season, still will never play above the level he's at now.. Then Pines, with what he can do and can't do he should be our worst defender not our best, that is the standard that's needed if we ever want to get out of L1 and stay in the championship ever again.
So our recruitment, Mael Earl, will never play above where they are now. Robbo best days behind him.. McCarthy Lopata and Shepherd are not L1 level and like I said Pines should be the minimum standard.. not our best player..
And our recruitment is still getting it wrong.. Needed a goalie, Jackson Smith 3rd choice behind Gab and Killip says it all . Ghent, Clarke would sooner play Earl out of position and two right footers in O'Keefe and Lofthouse..at left back. We were not crying out but screaming out for a left back and a goalie all summer.. and who we brought in can't even make our bench.. changers are needed behind the scenes because recruitment is crucial..
Sorry but this his club will never do anything with our current recruitment team.. They have proved themselves time after time not to be up to the job. .

 

The fitness thing is a bit of a red herring. Chasing the ball alll night against a much better knackers most players.

 

Is Gent injured, or just a worse option than Earl or O'Keefe?

 

That isn't down to fitness though, that's just straight up pace.

You could be fittest player on planet but still have this happen to you if the opponent is clearly faster than you.

 

No. He played for the U21s yesterday.

Personally, I’d have played Lofthouse at LB over O’Keeffe

 

We are comparing a bunch of lower-level footballers with some of the absolute top end professional players. I would certainly expect the Utd players to have naturally higher baselines of fitness, speed and ability that any of our squad - Harry Maguire on his own cost more than probably ever single transfer fee that we've ever paid. Ugarte can't be far off. And that is just two of the players that started last night.

 

Well then they need to bring in a sprint coach to work on their form whilst running.

From my own personal experience, much lower level but I'll share it anyway. I was 14/15 years old at the time, I was playing and training every week but I was never particularly "quick". My dad took me to sprint training at Dorothy Hyman on a Tuesday evening. They taught me how to run "properly". Extending your stride, working on posture, being explosive. The training regime around that side of things doesn't exist as far as I'm aware? Cotter is quick, but his actual form is terrible, arms flailing all over the place. He'd gain a yard if he was coached to run properly. All our players run "differently". Which leads me to believe that nobody is coaching that particular aspect.

Anyway, I didn't lose any weight at all, but I was several yards faster as a result of working on how I ran.

Just a suggestion for the Club if anything. Get an athletics coach (nothing to do with Football) to go in and train the lads and work on their running. It can't hurt.

 

Not sure I see the vitriol over Roberts as valid. Yes, he was culpable (along with O'Keeffe) for their first goal last night but it was 60 cap international Rashford running at him full pelt and he could well have attempted a low percentage tackle and given away a penalty, got a red card and been suspended for vital league games.

What I did see was that Roberts blocked three or four goal bound efforts in the first half and the half-time scoreline would have been far worse but for him. I've watched the coverage back again this morning to confirm this.

There's absolutely no question for me that Roberts is our best right-footed centre back and playing him out of position in previous games just to accommodate the woeful, slowful MDG beggars belief. There are reasons we have the worst defence in L1 in 2024 and the main one is French.

Needless to say when Roberts went off and the walkabout, positionally inept, lightweight sloth that is MDG took over in the centre our defending and conceding got even worse than the first half!

 

Val took over an unfit team in October and knocked us into shape within 3 to 4 weeks.
He transformed a bottom 3 team into a play off team.
Kept it simple, played it simple, got us fit, got us hard to beat, organised and disciplined.

It's on Clarke for me, needs to stop tinkering about put a marker down, theres no cohersion at the minute it's like we're waiting for things to happen rather than having any plan.

 

The thing with football is you never really run in a straight line, especially at a defender, if you run past them its with disguise and then a burst of acceleration, to do this you need have such control and precise and rapid movements in your leg,in turn you naturally flail your arms about too. Raheem Sterling and Aaron Lennon come to mind, brilliant 1v1 but looked funny doing it

 

He was up against Rashford, Antonio & Garnacho. He got little to no cover and ended up being dragged about because Earl had to cover OKeefe who was covering the young lad.

He was poor, but context and all that.

 

Val didn’t inherit an unfit side. We were one of the fittest sides in the league under Struber

 

Has Roberts ever had any legs? I mean that with the greatest of respect, but he’s never been the quickest or most agile player. To be fair, he looks the exact same to me as the day he left. Other than he’s now playing along side players with much less quality.

 

Yes he was very quick in his prime. He could outrun some of the fastest strikers in the league.

 

There's only so much you can do though with that. Some players are quick and some aren't. If someone is quicker than you then a slight technique change isn't going to make much difference.

Garnacho is just a very quick winger, that's it. Like with Walcott etc. he would fly by players cos he was far quicker, no amount of technique and sprint training would help anyone catch him.

 

I get that bit. I'm talking about the plain ability to run quickly. Cotter and Garnacho had a fairly straight foot race last night onto a through ball. Cotter, who is reasonably quick, was left for dead by Garnacho. Garnacho isn't taller, no more muscular than Cotter, the difference is the technique of how they ran. Cotters from was terrible, Garnacho's was not.

I just think it's an aspect that isn't being considered or utilised by the Club. It's not a dig at any players, I genuinely think it could help.

 

The only thing the game last night proved, is that we aren't a top half Premier League team.

They had a player who has won the Champions League 5 times, and we're using that game as a barometer to determine whether Marc Roberts' legs have gone.

Why does all sense of perspective go out of the window every time we lose a game.

And I was one of the sceptics when we signed Roberts.