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It's been a while (thankfully), but Jenas watch was back last night (sadly) - and with a bang! The big man had 27 touches that I counted last night in his time on the pitch. This may be a record in terms of touches-per-minute during his time with us, but unfortunately for the 21-cap wonder, each was more ineffectual than the last.
What is it with people on this board. Always so negative. And running.people. down. I've.never. known. A club like this for such over reaction.to reults. The crowd at HQ are now adopting the same attitude. Give it a rest.
I thought it was a reasonable substitution, as Carroll had been, well, ineffective.
Jenas has a better scoring tally, but if you want to bash an anti-Jenas drum, well, you've already done it.
He bashes his own drum well enough. It was indeed an absolutely like-for-like substitution, one ineffective player for another. Why not bring on Traore and put him wide, with Krancjar slotting into the centre where he kept drifting anyway?
What is it with people on this board. Always so negative. And running.people. down. I've.never. known. A club like this for such over reaction.to reults. The crowd at HQ are now adopting the same attitude. Give it a rest.
I thought JJ did OK when he came on. But they sniffed a vital win and were working their socks off in the last 20 minutes. We didn't have the guile to break them down. It wasn't down to lack of effort, by any Rangers player.
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I was working so had to listen on the radio Ive never such a biased commentry on radio five with Robby Savage suprise suprise with his Derby connections.Rangers sounded utterly pants Came home from work today and watched it on Sky whilst we werent good I didnt think we were crap Derby scraped a win with help from Greens mistake and our lack of a Austin up front Just goes to show how 2 different reports on a match can contrast Thought Andy Hichcliffe and Sky commentary was fair
He just never does anything. I sit and watch him for ages sometimes just wondering how somebody can always be a minimum of ten yards away from literally everything that happens in a football match.
You're right, he wasn't particularly bad or good last night and there are other worse culprits, but his total lack of any sort of input is a real puzzle to me.
He had one good game playing off the striker earlier in the season, maybe Derby at home actually, but apart from that I find him mystifying. Stealing a living.
He just never does anything. I sit and watch him for ages sometimes just wondering how somebody can always be a minimum of ten yards away from literally everything that happens in a football match.
You're right, he wasn't particularly bad or good last night and there are other worse culprits, but his total lack of any sort of input is a real puzzle to me.
He had one good game playing off the striker earlier in the season, maybe Derby at home actually, but apart from that I find him mystifying. Stealing a living.
"Stealing a living"....stealing a fortune more like. I wouldn't care if we were paying hi £30k a year.
In all fairness, Monday night wasn't his worst showing. He had a few nice touches. However, he still gave the ball away a lot (including his first two possessions) and he added nothing to the game in terms of impetus, effectiveness or end product. Yes, LTC was worse on the day.
But this is just yet another game where Jenas has been on the pitch at some point but contributed nothing to proceedings. He's just relentlessly ineffective. I could be relentlessly ineffective. Christ, I'm pretty sure we could select anyone from the u18 to be relentlessly ineffective and I'm pretty sure their salary may have two fewer zeros on it each week.
The one observation I made about his cameo performance was the moment he appeared in the penalty box and right by the goal posts, as we went for an attack. It was the first time any midfielder had attempted to burst beyond the strikers.
I say burst loosely mind, but we've had that problem all season long, whether we play one up front or two. The only time we came close to really offering decent support was the win over Ipswich away when Niko Krjancar did manage to get up and alongside Charlie Austin very often.
As for Jenas, well, it's just another of those signings where a knee injury has clearly taken what was left in him, out of him. He's never been anywhere near the same and doesn't look like he can adapt to the capabilities of his body. For me, it would be more simple to tell him exactly how you want him to play and what type of midfielder you want him to be, and make him stick to it.
The first match he played for us, he sat more centrally and didn't move around so much, but got himself on the ball and used it well. That was his best moments, he's never repeated it, and they could find a way to if they instructed him properly.
On the flip side, those moments came in the Premier League, where we had opportunities to play more counter attacking football, and maybe that's part of the problem, that his skill set is more suited to a team set up to counter than one that has to break another team down.
To clarify, I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch (that was Christmas Carroll by a mile, again) and am not picking him out. I just always count his touches whenever he comes on as it's always guaranteed to be a low number, and therefore easier to collate. This only started after I noticed that, as Clive says, he's always as far from the action as it's possible to be while still 'looking' as if he might be involved. There was a point with a few minutes left where they broke from around the half way line and he was right next to the bloke with the ball. Ran with him for about 30 yards (I say with, I mean he started 2 feet away from him and eventually got further and further away) and then let him go completely. Nary a thought of putting any kind of pressure on the ball, let alone a tackle. As Clive says, the man's stealing a living. And why Redknapp always, always brings him on in the last 10 minutes is completely beyond me