Lloyd Blackman

[Boney Crisp]

After watching our last 3 home games i am at complete amazement that Blackman is starting games. He has been lazy and doesn't really seem interested in the ball or the game itself. His first touch today were shocking and for such a big guy, he don't half goes down easily. For a stiker I find it hard that he doesn't get too many shots on goal and once he gets the ball into the box he is addament he can walk the ball into the box despite the evident lack of pace and skill. I think Blackman needs to rested on the bench for a bit because his form lately has been poor whether and it isn't helping us fight against relegation.

[geoff pay]

AT the moment there is no adaquate replacement. Contracted and he has scored 13 goals. More than Kenny got last year.

[mickadeem]

have to agree he was poor again and why do they let him keep taking penaltys when we all know he kicks the ball straight every time does he not know angles but who replaces him up front hopefully someone who will take a shot.but i do have to say he was unlucky with the free kick that came of the wrong side of the post.

[Boney Crisp]

This i am aware of and i personally think Sam Jones could do a decent job for us up front alongside healy. Under new management Blackman may pick himself up and i really hope he does and if he reads this i'd love for him to go out in the next game and the rest of the season and prove me wrong, so in that case i hope he does read this and reacts positively.

[Boney Crisp]

Yeah that was a very well hit free-kick and he was extremely unlucky

[DomBlueBoy]

Have to disagree with the negativity towards blackman. I always think he does work hard, challenges for everything in the air and runs himself into the ground - I bet he is bloody knackered after every game. Remember he is our captain. Wud agree that he is not blessed with great pace or skill but I think he makes up for it in workrate and effort. Don't forget that in a lot of games recently he has been near enough up front all on his own. Healy and jones are good players, ( jones being far and away our best player, always looks dangerous on the ball), but both tend to drift around a bit. Shocking suggestion to play jones and healy up front together, there's a million footballing reasons why that wouldn't work. Blackman and jones up front wud be good, a throwback to the phil collins and leon braithwaite days. But then we wud miss jones's creativity in midfield.

[wade]

He needs a partner up front. Makes a lot of runs that aren't seen by others. Granted his touch can be heavy and he lacks pace but to score 13 goals so far in a struggling team deserves credit. Personally would like an agile big man up front but there aren't many of them around!

 

Gathering from rumour/comments the new boss is going to struggle getting players in unless he can reduce wage bill so for this season he is going to need all his man management skills to maximise the potential from current squad.

[Boney Crisp]

My comments that i made were from what i've seen over the last few games, now i haven't seen enough of this season to say if Blackman is good enough or not, but the last few games he has practically been out of the game. Maybe he's frustrated by playing up front pretty much on his own who knows. When i mentioned about Healy and Jones playing up front together i agree it would be disasterous to have them both as out and out strikers, but if you have Jones playing the deep lying forward role and Healy as a target man, i really cannot see why that wouldn't work. Stubbs is just as creative as Jones, so there will still be creativity in the midfield, with Jones filling in that gap between the striker and midfield.

[acdc]

Did anyone notice how many times he was offside today.70% of the balls knocked forward today were useless because he was offside.Please somebody tell him to look across the line and get onside and the team will get forward more and he will score more goals.

[Franny]

Alex, I think those comments could apply to ALL our players over the last few games as you put it . I feel a bit sorry for the players as they have been trying to steer a somewhat rudderless ship of late. If Blackman has scored 13 league goals as someone said ,that must put him in the top 5 or 6 topscorers in the division , not bad in my opinion for someone who is as bad as you say and who lets face it is playing in a pretty bad team.

For me , Healy is too much of a luxury . Not an out and out forward and not a midfielder IMO, and at this level I dont think you can have the luxury of playing a player 'in the hole' , it just doesnt work.

I think our biggest problem this season has been our defence, endless GK's doesnt help, Lacy and Curtis do give us an extra dimension going forward but are often consequently out of postion defensively. And our centre backs are not good enough IMO, I remember MB saying in one of his first post match interviews that our central defence was not up to it (not that he did alot about it) but I wholeheartedly agreed and still think this is the case.

It seems whether we have Healy/Blackman/Jones/Cliff up front or Drogba/Rooney/Torres up front we will always let in more than we score.

[Chris1]

Blackman: either offside or too deep, goes down too easily, shoulders slump if a pass doesn't come his way. Having said that, he's as good as most in our league.

 

Then again what alternative have we got. Healy is shot-shy and doesn't compete for the ball enough. Cliff too small and he's a winger anyway. Taylor too young. Jones seems to like the deeper position, although I reckon he's a prospect: loads of skill and knows where the goal is.

 

But can the two beardies get on together? They seemed to be having a running feud on Tuesday. Everyone with a beard has an attitude anyway, don't they? (Cue the beardy mafia).

[Porka]

I don't rate Blackman despite the decent goal return. Perhaps his previous injury that ended his pro hopes inhibits him (so possibly not his fault that his movement isn't what it could be). Despite that, there's no excuse for being so short of fitness. As the game wears on you can see him dropping deeper and deeper, squeezing the play with no chance of a striker chasing a through ball.

[blueblood]

yesterday, not counting the keeper, we had 8 players who gave their all on the field and in my view 2 players( for the benefit of the load negative voice who stood near me, Sammy is not one of the pair) who did not. unfortunatly it is the same 2 in my opinion who have let us down with attitude since the Cray game.

My outstanding player was Curtis. how long can we keep him?

[StuyRandall]

The thing that p!$$ed me off the most about Blackman yesterday was the handball. He could easily have headed that in and put us 2-1 up. Why the [****!!****] did he use his hand? Did he honestly think the ref would allow it?

 

 

[Chris1]

My outstanding player was Curtis. how long can we keep him?

Until the end of the season when he's out of contract and buggers off to MK Dons or somewhere.

[DomBlueBoy]

Do u really think Curtis is a football league, professional player ??

[Chris1]

No, but stranger things have happened.

[StuyRandall]

Curtis has potential, but he's not good enough for a pro team yet. Firstly, he needs to cut out all the stupid and needly bookings he's getting. Secondly, he needs to make his crosses earlier and stop trying to take every defender. He cannot beat them all. Thirdly, he needs to sort out his throw ins. Every time we get a throw on the left side of the pitch, he throws it away. He only has to look around and find somebody open instead of throwing it to the 2 or 3 players who are being marked by the whole opposition defence and we could make something happen, but he refuses to even look for an open man. He is nowhere near ready to play pro football.

[Boney Crisp]

Alex, I think those comments could apply to ALL our players over the last few games as you put it . I feel a bit sorry for the players as they have been trying to steer a somewhat rudderless ship of late. If Blackman has scored 13 league goals as someone said ,that must put him in the top 5 or 6 topscorers in the division , not bad in my opinion for someone who is as bad as you say and who lets face it is playing in a pretty bad team.

 

 

As i've said before and i'll say it again, i have not seen enough games as of yet to criticise the players ability i am going by what i've seen over the last few games and for it hasn't been good enough and as Porka rightly says his fitness levels at this moment in time aren't very good, so maybe he needs to be rested. As for all our players i disagree especially with the midfield which i believe is a midfield set up that most teams would be pleased with having in this league, the only problem is that they seem to lack confidence at time to get the ball into the box and you can also add the positioning up front at times is not quite there, it seems that once our attackers get into the box a few like to stand around and allow defenders to mark them instead of moving and creating spaces for the midfield to pass into, i think this is why i have singled out Blackman as he is our most advanced player in terms of he is an all striker and he could be an excelent target man, but he doesn't move about enough in the box and yesterday especially that costed us a few potentially glorious chances.

 

I'm going to go off topic here and talk about the defence at one point whilst we were defending i decided to watch our centre backs and our marking is shocking, we give the opposition defenders way too much space and time. I remember at point thinking if Canvey get a cross in now, then they have a striker who will have a free header at goal, it seems we play with a zonal marking system and in all honesty our defence lack the ability and intelligence to play that system. We really need to work on defending set pieces because every time we concede a corner we very rarely deal with it sufficiantly.

 

We need to a buy a tall, powerful, experienced defender and the same sort of player for a striker. I think with those 2 signings our fortunes will improve massively, the problem is though who is going to want to join us with our current position

[local lad from London]

Hello guys, As you have pointed out Blackman is not playing that well, I do agree on that. He seems either not fit or can not be bothered, I don't know which. Often the ball is fed to him, but he really IMO does not do much with it. OK he has scored 13, well done for that, but how many sitters has he missed. Im not here to tear him apart, as I think all sportsman have their ups and their downs, it's how you deal with it, and as Captain he really should lead HIS team by example, that's not dropping your head when things / balls have not been delivered directly to his feet, go to the ball every now and then, as a striker you will not get every shot in the back of the net, even at 2 or 3 meters from the net, have a punt a bit further out, the goal keeper needs to be tested, might even get a deflection to another Margate player, Blackman does seem to wait for the other team to catch him up and surround him, then it a big free for all to see if the ball goes in or not. Captain really, mm I don't know.. At the moment, as we all are aware management is an issue, but the Captain walking back to the changing room last week at Hornchurch after being subbed, he should of stayed on that side line, as Captain and watched the the game, and encouraged HIS team, the other players IMO, as I'm sure I would have if I was in the team, would of felt like if the captain has not got his heart in it, why should I, especially with no manager.

He should be giving confidence right across the pitch from the goal keeper, defenders mid field the whole lot, this I don't see a great deal from LB, This includes players on the bench they need his full support, before the game, during the game and after the game, win or lose, that's what it's all about being Captain.

 

Thanks for your time gentlemen.