Our weak link is........THE CAPTAIN!!!!

[Royalee]

If he marshals the midfield so well then why was our pass completion rate the lowest in the league by a good 15-20% last season given it is supposed to be a key part of his game. Xabi Alonso marshals the midfield and plays short passes - he completed over 100 against West Ham last week. I bet Harper struggles to complete a quarter of that each game in the Championship. Marshalling the midfield implies some sort of tackling ability and strength, of which Harper has none.

Matejovsky isn't and will never be a defensive midfielder (although he still tackles more than Harper who himself insisted that that was the role he was playing), instead he likes to push forward. Whenever a team Reading has played with a strong defensive base and Matejovsky has played, he has delivered (he started 5 games in the same side as Bikey last season and we racked up 10 points). Go and find me Harper's tackling and passing stats and prove he actually does anything worthwhile, the guy just huffs and puffs and wardances with no end product and is a liability when he is put up against any decent attacking opposition.

[Ian Royal]

1)If he marshals the midfield so well then why was our pass completion rate the lowest in the league by a good 15-20% last season given it is supposed to be a key part of his game. Xabi Alonso marshals the midfield and plays short passes - he completed over 100 against West Ham last week.
2)I bet Harper struggles to complete a quarter of that each game in the Championship.
3)Marshalling the midfield implies some sort of tackling ability and strength, of which Harper has none.

4)Matejovsky isn't and will never be a defensive midfielder (although he still tackles more than Harper who himself insisted that that was the role he was playing), instead he likes to push forward. Whenever a team Reading has played with a strong defensive base and Matejovsky has played, he has delivered (he started 5 games in the same side as Bikey last season and we racked up 10 points).
5)Go and find me Harper's tackling and passing stats and prove he actually does anything worthwhile, the guy just huffs and puffs and wardances with no end product and is a liability when he is put up against any decent attacking opposition.

1) Might have had something to do with the majority of our team being arse, no right winger and a gaping hole next to him all season.
2)Total guesswork based on your dislike of him. I can think of 1 glaring mistake to give the ball away this season total. There will be more, but given the amount of ball he sees his pass completion rate is likely to be high, something I believe discussed earlier with Murty confriming it's the best in the squad.
3)Tackling =/= marshalling
4) Still no one has come up with an answer that satisfies the query about our problem being defensive and not offensive so how is Marek going to help with that. His more attacking passes give the ball away more and he is no more likely to get it back. Less so in fact because he can't keep up with players to force an error and everytime I've seen him tackle it's been a freekick.
5)Given Harper is playing in a winning team and being picked by arguably best manager in our history (something else you ridiculously fail to acknowledge) the burden of providing evidence he is shit is on you.

Please feel free to produce something rather more intelligent and evidence based than "I think he's shit and can't tackle or create a goal."

[Captain Lager]

quote] *Spelling's, criticise someone's spelling and cock up your grammar, good work. [/quote]


Erm.... You took the bait!! Apologies... Anyway I was encouraging not criticising, kind of what we should be doing with Harper, Reading legend and he's getting stick. I don't see how anyone deserves bashing when we are winning most games. If we were near the bottom then things need changing but we're not. The team works and Harper is part of that team. What would happen if Harper was dropped for Marek and we lost? Some people are never happy.

[Vision]

Matejovsky would bring another attacking dimension (especially at home) with Cisse or Gunnarsson being the more defensive of the two against Blackpool, Matejovsky given license to try and create it may help trying to break down what will be a defensive lineup from Blackpool.

Am not necessarily disagreeing with your opinion of Marek but given that between them Gunnar and Cisse have contributed 6 goals in the last 8 or 9 games or so (off the top of my head) why would you want to give them more defensive duties whilst they're contributing at the other end of the pitch?

[Maguire]

Harper's shit and LOL at people who think you can deconstruct a football season like a mathematical equation. Bet you lot couldn't run 50 yards without keeling over.

Harper = WEAK. He needs to step up or ship off.

harper =low to average prem midfielder/decent championship midfielder

plain weak is pushing it

As I've acknowledged many times, he's my hate player so I have to be harsh on him. He is weak though - if he rates himself as a footballer then he should be runnign matches at Championship level not getting dominated by the likes of Nick Carle.

[loyalroyal4life]

bunch o' harper hating morons!

There is a difference between 'hating' and just preferring someone else in the team.

Exactly, he isnt the worst player at the club but he certainly isnt the best and i just dont think he merits a starting berth like AP said just prefer someone else in the team be given a chance.

[loyalroyal4life]

1)If he marshals the midfield so well then why was our pass completion rate the lowest in the league by a good 15-20% last season given it is supposed to be a key part of his game. Xabi Alonso marshals the midfield and plays short passes - he completed over 100 against West Ham last week.
2)I bet Harper struggles to complete a quarter of that each game in the Championship.
3)Marshalling the midfield implies some sort of tackling ability and strength, of which Harper has none.

4)Matejovsky isn't and will never be a defensive midfielder (although he still tackles more than Harper who himself insisted that that was the role he was playing), instead he likes to push forward. Whenever a team Reading has played with a strong defensive base and Matejovsky has played, he has delivered (he started 5 games in the same side as Bikey last season and we racked up 10 points).
5)Go and find me Harper's tackling and passing stats and prove he actually does anything worthwhile, the guy just huffs and puffs and wardances with no end product and is a liability when he is put up against any decent attacking opposition.

1) Might have had something to do with the majority of our team being arse, no right winger and a gaping hole next to him all season.
2)Total guesswork based on your dislike of him. I can think of 1 glaring mistake to give the ball away this season total. There will be more, but given the amount of ball he sees his pass completion rate is likely to be high, something I believe discussed earlier with Murty confriming it's the best in the squad.
3)Tackling =/= marshalling
4) Still no one has come up with an answer that satisfies the query about our problem being defensive and not offensive so how is Marek going to help with that. His more attacking passes give the ball away more and he is no more likely to get it back. Less so in fact because he can't keep up with players to force an error and everytime I've seen him tackle it's been a freekick.
5)Given Harper is playing in a winning team and being picked by arguably best manager in our history (something else you ridiculously fail to acknowledge) the burden of providing evidence he is shit is on you.

Please feel free to produce something rather more intelligent and evidence based than "I think he's shit and can't tackle or create a goal."

How much more evidence based do you need than the stats from the our team this season? Tackling and Assists tables will show how poor Harper is HTH

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Assists/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Shooting/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

Backed by 1 goal to his name this season and all this is in 17 total starts and 3 sub appearances.

[Alan Partridge]

Matejovsky would bring another attacking dimension (especially at home) with Cisse or Gunnarsson being the more defensive of the two against Blackpool, Matejovsky given license to try and create it may help trying to break down what will be a defensive lineup from Blackpool.

Am not necessarily disagreeing with your opinion of Marek but given that between them Gunnar and Cisse have contributed 6 goals in the last 8 or 9 games or so (off the top of my head) why would you want to give them more defensive duties whilst they're contributing at the other end of the pitch?

It's their natural games though isn't it, it's great if they pop up with the odd goal but I would heavily doubt that Coppell has ever put Cisse or Gunnarsson on the field with regards to increasing our attacking options. The last 2 away games have just been made for Gunnarsson and he's done well in there. He's always popped up with the odd goal here and there and it's what Harper as the more attacking midfielder has never done consistently enough of.

By playing Matejovsky with them it doesn't completely nullify their chances of scoring as well as if I wouldn't want either of them ever crossing the half way line. What I'm saying is against teams like Blackpool, Doncaster and a few others that will be coming here trying not to get beat Matejovsky would offer a better option of more creativity through the middle IMO of course.

[Vision]

Matejovsky would bring another attacking dimension (especially at home) with Cisse or Gunnarsson being the more defensive of the two against Blackpool, Matejovsky given license to try and create it may help trying to break down what will be a defensive lineup from Blackpool.

Am not necessarily disagreeing with your opinion of Marek but given that between them Gunnar and Cisse have contributed 6 goals in the last 8 or 9 games or so (off the top of my head) why would you want to give them more defensive duties whilst they're contributing at the other end of the pitch?

It's their natural games though isn't it, it's great if they pop up with the odd goal but I would heavily doubt that Coppell has ever put Cisse or Gunnarsson on the field with regards to increasing our attacking options. The last 2 away games have just been made for Gunnarsson and he's done well in there. He's always popped up with the odd goal here and there and it's what Harper as the more attacking midfielder has never done consistently enough of.

By playing Matejovsky with them it doesn't completely nullify their chances of scoring as well as if I wouldn't want either of them ever crossing the half way line. What I'm saying is against teams like Blackpool, Doncaster and a few others that will be coming here trying not to get beat Matejovsky would offer a better option of more creativity through the middle IMO of course.

To be fair with the possible exception of QPR there's not been a side that has come here with that attitude that we've failed to beat without Marek. Granted Harper hasn't played in all of those games either but Marek has played in precisely none. I've no doubt that in games where we are struggling Marek has the ability above and beyond anyone in our squad to provide something a little different but we created plenty against Coventry on Monday despite them packing out the midfield area. At the moment its just not an issue for me and changing for the sake of it seems a bit strange to me.

i also don't agree that Harper is the more attacking midfielder in our set up and hasn't been for several seasons regardless of partner. I personally believe we have been at our best under Coppell when we close teams down high up the pitch.One of the major losses of Sidwell last season was that without him we didn't close the opposition down in their 3rd quickly enough and left us vulnerable . To do that though you need the cushion of a midfield player who knows what his role in the side is. In the last couple of months it has been noticeable (particularly away from home) that we have created chances from pressurising the opposition into defensive errors in their 3rd.

As far as i can see currently the central midfield is delivering protection for its back 4 as well as contributing at the other end. Its not currently set up for creative killer passing because we attack down the flanks rather than through the middle. Don't get me wrong, in order to gain promotion i do think we have to develop and alternative way of playing if our plan A doesn't function as it should. However to include Marek in central midfield at this moment in time would change the way we play when on the surface the current system is working just fine.

Worth bearing in mind of course that we should always be looking to improve ourselves so understand why we shoudl always be looking at where this could happen. Also worth bearing mind that even the best teams will always have a worst player. Personally speaking if James Harper is our Worst Player then i think we must have a pretty decent side.

[Doyler]

Erm.... You took the bait!! Apologies... Anyway I was encouraging not criticising, kind of what we should be doing with Harper, Reading legend and he's getting stick. I don't see how anyone deserves bashing when we are winning most games. If we were near the bottom then things need changing but we're not. The team works and Harper is part of that team. What would happen if Harper was dropped for Marek and we lost? Some people are never happy.

You got me I agree totally, we all know Coppell will never change a winning team and rightly so. Harper has the shirt and deserves to keep it while we are getting results. Also, some people on here argue that Marek should come in in order to create chances for the strikers. In the season so far creating chances hasn't been a problem. I believe Marek is the most technically gifted player at the club, but that alone does not merit a place in the team. He must wait his turn until the time comes when Coppell feels there is a need to change the team.

[loyalroyal4life]

quote] *Spelling's, criticise someone's spelling and cock up your grammar, good work.

Erm.... You took the bait!! Apologies... Anyway I was encouraging not criticising, kind of what we should be doing with Harper, Reading legend and he's getting stick. I don't see how anyone deserves bashing when we are winning most games. If we were near the bottom then things need changing but we're not. The team works and Harper is part of that team. What would happen if Harper was dropped for Marek and we lost? Some people are never happy.

You got me I agree totally, we all know Coppell will never change a winning team and rightly so. Harper has the shirt and deserves to keep it while we are getting results. Also, some people on here argue that Marek should come in in order to create chances for the strikers. In the season so far creating chances hasn't been a problem. I believe Marek is the most technically gifted player at the club, but that alone does not merit a place in the team. He must wait his turn until the time comes when Coppell feels there is a need to change the team.[/quote]


Fair play some decent comments made here totally agree with alot that you have said. The thing is even if we were loosing cant see harper being dropped, he is SSC love child. I dont think he should be captain IMO

[Royalee]

1)If he marshals the midfield so well then why was our pass completion rate the lowest in the league by a good 15-20% last season given it is supposed to be a key part of his game. Xabi Alonso marshals the midfield and plays short passes - he completed over 100 against West Ham last week.
2)I bet Harper struggles to complete a quarter of that each game in the Championship.
3)Marshalling the midfield implies some sort of tackling ability and strength, of which Harper has none.

4)Matejovsky isn't and will never be a defensive midfielder (although he still tackles more than Harper who himself insisted that that was the role he was playing), instead he likes to push forward. Whenever a team Reading has played with a strong defensive base and Matejovsky has played, he has delivered (he started 5 games in the same side as Bikey last season and we racked up 10 points).
5)Go and find me Harper's tackling and passing stats and prove he actually does anything worthwhile, the guy just huffs and puffs and wardances with no end product and is a liability when he is put up against any decent attacking opposition.

1) Might have had something to do with the majority of our team being arse, no right winger and a gaping hole next to him all season.
2)Total guesswork based on your dislike of him. I can think of 1 glaring mistake to give the ball away this season total. There will be more, but given the amount of ball he sees his pass completion rate is likely to be high, something I believe discussed earlier with Murty confriming it's the best in the squad.
3)Tackling =/= marshalling
4) Still no one has come up with an answer that satisfies the query about our problem being defensive and not offensive so how is Marek going to help with that. His more attacking passes give the ball away more and he is no more likely to get it back. Less so in fact because he can't keep up with players to force an error and everytime I've seen him tackle it's been a freekick.
5)Given Harper is playing in a winning team and being picked by arguably best manager in our history (something else you ridiculously fail to acknowledge) the burden of providing evidence he is shit is on you.

Please feel free to produce something rather more intelligent and evidence based than "I think he's shit and can't tackle or create a goal."

How much more evidence based do you need than the stats from the our team this season? Tackling and Assists tables will show how poor Harper is HTH

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Assists/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Shooting/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

Backed by 1 goal to his name this season and all this is in 17 total starts and 3 sub appearances.

Good stats, shame the tackling isn't also available. Ian Royal will of course come out with more rubbish about what Harper does but everyone supposedly can't see because it's so intricate.

[bcubed]

1)If he marshals the midfield so well then why was our pass completion rate the lowest in the league by a good 15-20% last season given it is supposed to be a key part of his game. Xabi Alonso marshals the midfield and plays short passes - he completed over 100 against West Ham last week.
2)I bet Harper struggles to complete a quarter of that each game in the Championship.
3)Marshalling the midfield implies some sort of tackling ability and strength, of which Harper has none.

4)Matejovsky isn't and will never be a defensive midfielder (although he still tackles more than Harper who himself insisted that that was the role he was playing), instead he likes to push forward. Whenever a team Reading has played with a strong defensive base and Matejovsky has played, he has delivered (he started 5 games in the same side as Bikey last season and we racked up 10 points).
5)Go and find me Harper's tackling and passing stats and prove he actually does anything worthwhile, the guy just huffs and puffs and wardances with no end product and is a liability when he is put up against any decent attacking opposition.

1) Might have had something to do with the majority of our team being arse, no right winger and a gaping hole next to him all season.
2)Total guesswork based on your dislike of him. I can think of 1 glaring mistake to give the ball away this season total. There will be more, but given the amount of ball he sees his pass completion rate is likely to be high, something I believe discussed earlier with Murty confriming it's the best in the squad.
3)Tackling =/= marshalling
4) Still no one has come up with an answer that satisfies the query about our problem being defensive and not offensive so how is Marek going to help with that. His more attacking passes give the ball away more and he is no more likely to get it back. Less so in fact because he can't keep up with players to force an error and everytime I've seen him tackle it's been a freekick.
5)Given Harper is playing in a winning team and being picked by arguably best manager in our history (something else you ridiculously fail to acknowledge) the burden of providing evidence he is shit is on you.

Please feel free to produce something rather more intelligent and evidence based than "I think he's shit and can't tackle or create a goal."

How much more evidence based do you need than the stats from the our team this season? Tackling and Assists tables will show how poor Harper is HTH

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Assists/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Shooting/0,,10794~200810306~7,00.html

Backed by 1 goal to his name this season and all this is in 17 total starts and 3 sub appearances.

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

[loyalroyal4life]

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

[Vision]

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

Right to summarise then according to these all telling stats......

Harper has made 15 league starts plus 3 as a sub and has 1 assist.

The combined central midfield trio of Karacan, Cisse & Gunnarsson have 26 league starts with 14 sub appearances and have a grand total of 2 assists despite usually playing in a more advance role than Harper anyway. This is supposed to be conclusive proof that Harper offers nothing compared to the others??

Is it really that difficult to understand that our central midfield (regardless of the individuals in it) is set up from an attacking perspective to maintain a quick tempo, service our wide players the ball and to help make up the numbers in the box when the crosses are delivered. You will rarely see defence splitting passes through the middle of the opposition because we don't play that way and our forwards don't make those sort of runs.

If its people's opinion that Harper is a weak link then fair enough, but these stats don't prove that in any way. If anything it merely confirms what ive been maintaining for a while that our central midfield is merely functional regardless of the individual players within it.

[loyalroyal4life]

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

Right to summarise then according to these all telling stats......

Harper has made 15 league starts plus 3 as a sub and has 1 assist.

The combined central midfield trio of Karacan, Cisse & Gunnarsson have 26 league starts with 14 sub appearances and have a grand total of 2 assists despite usually playing in a more advance role than Harper anyway. This is supposed to be conclusive proof that Harper offers nothing compared to the others??

Is it really that difficult to understand that our central midfield (regardless of the individuals in it) is set up from an attacking perspective to maintain a quick tempo, service our wide players the ball and to help make up the numbers in the box when the crosses are delivered. You will rarely see defence splitting passes through the middle of the opposition because we don't play that way and our forwards don't make those sort of runs.

If its people's opinion that Harper is a weak link then fair enough, but these stats don't prove that in any way. If anything it merely confirms what ive been maintaining for a while that our central midfield is merely functional regardless of the individual players within it.

ok so if the midfield is functional regardless of the individual players in it, why not drop harper and bring someone else in to see if there are improvements!!

[Vision]

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

Right to summarise then according to these all telling stats......

Harper has made 15 league starts plus 3 as a sub and has 1 assist.

The combined central midfield trio of Karacan, Cisse & Gunnarsson have 26 league starts with 14 sub appearances and have a grand total of 2 assists despite usually playing in a more advance role than Harper anyway. This is supposed to be conclusive proof that Harper offers nothing compared to the others??

Is it really that difficult to understand that our central midfield (regardless of the individuals in it) is set up from an attacking perspective to maintain a quick tempo, service our wide players the ball and to help make up the numbers in the box when the crosses are delivered. You will rarely see defence splitting passes through the middle of the opposition because we don't play that way and our forwards don't make those sort of runs.

If its people's opinion that Harper is a weak link then fair enough, but these stats don't prove that in any way. If anything it merely confirms what ive been maintaining for a while that our central midfield is merely functional regardless of the individual players within it.

ok so if the midfield is functional regardless of the individual players in it, why not drop harper and bring someone else in to see if there are improvements!!

Because the 2 that are currently playing there are doing the job the manager is asking of them. Its not a computer game . If you drop players from winning teams who have performed in the manner which you have asked then you won't last 5 minutes in management. Probably why Coppell is zeroing in on 1000 games in football management whilst me and you talk bollox on a message board.

[londinium]

Vision... you are just being damn right stupid now, talking too much common sense.

All these so call 'supporters' who think they know better than Coppell don't seem to realise the fact that you brought up so clearly in your post. WE PLAY WITH WIDTH AND THAT IS WHERE OUR GOALS ARE CREATED FROM!!!!!!!!!

Our central midfield is basically there to stop the other teams attacking, to get balls out to the wings a.s.a.p. and weigh in with the odd goal now and then.

Steve Coppell >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> manager than anyone on here could ever be.. are we not THIRD.

[Ian Royal]

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

Creating a chance is about more than the last pass. Harper plays deep, he is not going to get many assists, that does not mean he doesn't contribute to the creation of goals. He has begun the move that ended in goals on at least 2 occasions in the last 3 - 4 games.

If you want to think in over simplistic terms thats your problem not mine, Harper's or Coppell's.

I have yet to see anyone knocking Harper address the central points being made by those saying there is no need to drop him.

1) Our central midfield is not set up to be the creative part of the team. It's there to feed the wings.
2) The issue is not creating chances, but retrieving and keeping the ball.
(i) Marek is no more defensively capable than Harper
(ii) Marek's more aggressive passes whilst more likely to create a goal are more likely to give away posession as well by their very nature.
3) We're not playing fantastically, but we're winning again, why change the team when it isn't required at the moment?
4) Tackling is not the only element of defensive play

All I see is get him out because he can't tackle and he doesn't get assists. Totally ignoring everything else.

[Victor Meldrew]

Unfortunately it's tackling and passing that midfielders do more than anything else and it's on their ability to do these things that they are measured by their manager.
So these stats prove nothing , other than that you and many others it seems have a blind spot when it comes to Harper
HTH

yes passing to create chances not passes to the back four which every midfield in any league should be doing when required.

i am sure the tackling stat if available would back up the other stats regarding harper

Creating a chance is about more than the last pass. Harper plays deep, he is not going to get many assists, that does not mean he doesn't contribute to the creation of goals. He has begun the move that ended in goals on at least 2 occasions in the last 3 - 4 games.

If you want to think in over simplistic terms thats your problem not mine, Harper's or Coppell's.

I have yet to see anyone knocking Harper address the central points being made by those saying there is no need to drop him.

1) Our central midfield is not set up to be the creative part of the team. It's there to feed the wings.
2) The issue is not creating chances, but retrieving and keeping the ball.
(i) Marek is no more defensively capable than Harper
(ii) Marek's more aggressive passes whilst more likely to create a goal are more likely to give away posession as well by their very nature.
3) We're not playing fantastically, but we're winning again, why change the team when it isn't required at the moment?
4) Tackling is not the only element of defensive play

All I see is get him out because he can't tackle and he doesn't get assists. Totally ignoring everything else.

Well said Ian.
Some idiots spend too much time on Championship Manager and have this hang-up about assists
How many assists did Claude Makelele get for Chelsea and France?
How many does Mascherano get for Liverpool and Argentina?
Would anybody seriously suggest that these players don't do much?
Just because Hunt takes nearly all the corners (and we get more than anybody else) and free-kicks by the law of averages he will get a number of assists but who got the corner or free-kick and aren't they playing a very big part as well?

As I see it Harper is an integral part of a team that is winning a lot more than it loses and he is the organiser-have a look when Cisse goes walkabout or one of the full-backs gets caught out way up the pitch it is Harper trying to sort things out-he may not succeed every time but he does have spacial awareness.
He may not be playing as well as in the past 3 or 4 seasons but to drop him seems pointless to me.
On the question of captaincy I said on another thread that it has little or no significance in football and I firmly agree with Capello and the Italians that captaincy normally goes to the senior player and as James has been here longer than anyone but Murty he should be captain in Murty's absence.