Long - Time to go.

[Snowball]

He's a great player, been saying so for years, and even better when you
realise that for virtually all his starts in 2008-09 he played 60-65 minutes



27 (10) 2 (0)
05 (05) 0 (2)
04 (10) 1 (0)

36 (25) 5 (2)


What's important now is whether his knees are really fixed. Can he play 28 x 90 minute games
from now until the end of the season, will he break down, will he need to come off on 60?

If he is back to as good as he was when he partnered Doyle, we have, IMO, a million-pound player


His experience as a winger ought to mean he could play in the hole or in 4-4-1-1


For me Long and Hunt are a perfect partnership because we can switch in and out of 442, 451, 4411 with the same players.

[Stranded]

Sorry, Snowball. What I meant, -albeit obscurely - was that he kept on trying. This was meant as a form of support for you and for Shane Long, who, whatever may be said about him, keep on trying.

No probs. I am totally serious when I say I believe Shane Long to be real quality
and vastly under-estimated by too many. If it's true he's on 15K a week and
the club didn't think he was worth it, why would they extend his contract?

Pure business decision perhaps, any potential fee outweighing the 15k per week for a year?

[Wycombe Royal]

And Shane? HIS league appearances for RFC are LESS starts

FEWER

I'm a professional writer with 400 publications including five novels and a collection of prize-winning short stories. LESS is totally fine by me.

The less-fewer disntinction is anal.

Finally enough clues to work out who you are....

[Negative_Jeff]

For me Long and Hunt are a perfect partnership because we can switch in and out of 442, 451, 4411 with the same players.

I have never decided whether you are either argumentative or downright antagonistic Snowball, but every now and again up pops a really good observation like this one. I take it from the above that you are a fan of Dutch football.

[Platypuss]

Set up our goal, but gave their striker a virtual free header for the equaliser.

[brendywendy]

id question/blame the system that made our striker mark their striker, rather than the striker failing to mark a man properly

[cmonurz]

id question/blame the system that made our striker mark their striker, rather than the striker failing to mark a man properly

This, tbh, but I guess that goes with having a team of short-arses, we'd ideally leave Long up the field, but not with Hunt, Tabb, Karacan etc. At least Long is decent in the air.

[Hoop Blah]

It's pretty standard stuff for a forward, especially one who is one of your best players at winning he ball in the air, to come back and defend at set pieces. The fact we're a shortish side just makes that more noticable perhaps. Kitson used to be invaluable to us when defending set pieces.

Their man might've not noticed how well Long competes in the air, and he's probably not used to being marked by someone that small. More to the point though it's more just a bit of banter from their player.

[brendywendy]

agree totally- just disagreeing with plat attaching much blame to the lad for it

[Man Friday]

And Shane? HIS league appearances for RFC are LESS starts

FEWER

I'm a professional writer with 400 publications including five novels and a collection of prize-winning short stories. LESS is totally fine by me.

The less-fewer disntinction is anal.

Raw nerve?

[Platypuss]

agree totally- just disagreeing with plat attaching much blame to the lad for it

Long had his head in his hands, so as he clearly put blame on himself, it's hardly unfair for us to do the same.

[brendywendy]

agree totally- just disagreeing with plat attaching much blame to the lad for it

Long had his head in his hands, so as he clearly put blame on himself, it's hardly unfair for us to do the same.

i agree he was at fault.
i simply question whether the actual blame lies with him, or the person who decided he should mark the big striker instead of our 2 big CBs, is all

[BR2]

agree totally- just disagreeing with plat attaching much blame to the lad for it

Long had his head in his hands, so as he clearly put blame on himself, it's hardly unfair for us to do the same.

i agree he was at fault.
i simply question whether the actual blame lies with him, or the person who decided he should mark the big striker instead of our 2 big CBs, is all

That would have been our manager.
Presumably the centre-backs were already designated to mark who our manager thought to be the biggest danger.
This was where Kitson was so good because he was our best defender in the air as well as our best attacker in the air.
BTW brendy it's not like Sunday football where defenders sort out who they are marking when a corner is about to take place so Long would have known that this was his man-he failed.

[brendywendy]

i didnt say it was. at no point did i say, or imply that the person who sorted it out was anyone at all.

[Hoop Blah]

agree totally- just disagreeing with plat attaching much blame to the lad for it

Long had his head in his hands, so as he clearly put blame on himself, it's hardly unfair for us to do the same.

i agree he was at fault.
i simply question whether the actual blame lies with him, or the person who decided he should mark the big striker instead of our 2 big CBs, is all

He's not exactly a man mountain though is he (same height as Long apparently)? Long is probably our 3rd or 4th best header of the ball (after Mills, Pearce, Harte) and so he's going to have to pick up one of their bigger threats isn't he?

What's the problem with that system, apart from our players not being taller or doing their jobs better?

[brendywendy]

there are taller, and better headers of the ball, and theyre already part of the back 4. so imo they should probably be in charge of marking the strikers at corners.pretty simple and self explanatory
it was just a passing comment and im not sure deserves this much analysis

[BR2]

i didnt say it was. at no point did i say, or imply that the person who sorted it out was anyone at all.

But you asked the question and that has now been answered-no point getting all defensive about it (which is what Long should have done).

[Snowball]

Finally enough clues to work out who you are....

As I am not sure who I am, I love the clue-finders


You could always ask of course

[cmonurz]

What's ya name, I like reading books.

Edit: Are there any pictures? The only book I've finished in the last year or so was White Tiger. Only got half way through Michael Owen's autobiography and otherwise it's just Empire magazine.

[Hoop Blah]

there are taller, and better headers of the ball, and theyre already part of the back 4. so imo they should probably be in charge of marking the strikers at corners.pretty simple and self explanatory
it was just a passing comment and im not sure deserves this much analysis

You're right, it doesn't need much analysis, you should be able to realise the error of you ways without so much prodding!!!

Long picking up a player that is (according to the official sites) the same height as him and certainly not their biggest threat in the air seems perfectly reasonable to me. Mills, Pearce and Harte would've had their own men to mark and would also have been called out for getting easily beaten in the air to allow them to score, so not sure where the issue is with Long getting the same treatment.