Predicitions for Coventry Match

[Ian Royal]

Cisse's turning into a decent championship midfielder. ( ) No where near Prem level though. I'd like to see Karacan get more games to see if he could develop into a Prem player, but I guess you have to go with what's more likely to get us there in the first place.

Harper has been disappointing this season, I disagree with those who think he's useless, but he's definitely been much more of a background player than he could be.

[bcubed]

Cisse's turning into a decent championship midfielder. ( ) No where near Prem level though. I'd like to see Karacan get more games to see if he could develop into a Prem player, but I guess you have to go with what's more likely to get us there in the first place.

Harper has been disappointing this season, I disagree with those who think he's useless, but he's definitely been much more of a background player than he could be.

I assume you don't include the Coventry match in that?

[Ian Royal]

Cisse's turning into a decent championship midfielder. ( ) No where near Prem level though. I'd like to see Karacan get more games to see if he could develop into a Prem player, but I guess you have to go with what's more likely to get us there in the first place.

Harper has been disappointing this season, I disagree with those who think he's useless, but he's definitely been much more of a background player than he could be.

I assume you don't include the Coventry match in that?

Actually I do. I know he's always had a tendency to play deep and build slowly, but he also used to pop up in the box a fair bit and burst forward. Certainly last season. He seems to have completely left that to his partner since returning from his injury.

He's not often stood out in the last 3-4 seasons, but he hasn't been quite as invisible (which isn't me saying he doesn't do anything) as recently.

[bcubed]

Cisse's turning into a decent championship midfielder. ( ) No where near Prem level though. I'd like to see Karacan get more games to see if he could develop into a Prem player, but I guess you have to go with what's more likely to get us there in the first place.

Harper has been disappointing this season, I disagree with those who think he's useless, but he's definitely been much more of a background player than he could be.

I assume you don't include the Coventry match in that?

Actually I do. I know he's always had a tendency to play deep and build slowly, but he also used to pop up in the box a fair bit and burst forward. Certainly last season. He seems to have completely left that to his partner since returning from his injury.

He's not often stood out in the last 3-4 seasons, but he hasn't been quite as invisible (which isn't me saying he doesn't do anything) as recently.

Some games, I will grant you, he has been below par, but not against Coventry
He may not get forward as much as you like but his passing was excellent throughout and I don't recall him giving the ball away more than once (unlike his partner in midfield). Several long through balls stand out in particular. His positional play was spot on and he as usual he covered a lot of ground. I am not sure what he has to do to get even the slightest bit of credit from some nobbers.

[Ian Royal]

Well this is bizarre. Normally I'm the one extolling Harper's virtues, and here I am being criticised for not giving him enough praise.

I found against Coventry I didn't notice Harper as much as I would normally. And I look out for him so I've got some actual examples for when I inevitably defend him.

I have a long standing view that he should play much further up the pitch as the more attacking of the two central midfielders, but clearly this isn't something he or Coppell agree with. Maybe the problem was I was watching TV coverage whereas normally I'm listening or at the game.

Anyway, I thought he was ok. I just think he's been a lot better and certainly prior to this season has been more noticable. Again maybe thats just down to him scoring a bunch last season.