Bannan and Ireland

[danlanza]

The problem in this squad is that there are too many under performers who do not consistently deliver - the likes of Ireland, holman, el ahmedi, bannan, nzogbia( better recently) , and gabby come into this bracket.

We can afford the odd off day but too many very rarely have an on day and we cannot afford that.

Sorry, Eastie, but Gabby is not in that company.  He might not be the 20 goal a season striker we might've wanted a few years ago, but he's more of a threat than any of those others names. 

Agreed but he is also a threat to our Premier League safety. He promises much but delivers little.

Just watch him go for the rest of the season. He will score tomorrow and more in the coming weeks. Nothing wrong with Gabby.

[PaulWinch again]

I bloody hope he does, but I've seen no evidence to suggest he will.

[paul_e]

I'm sure there's something in Bannan. he played well when we won at Sunderland and for a few ganmes thereafter he and Westwood looked like a good combination. he's stopped playing well - as has Westwood really - and so you can't have completely anonymous players in midfield. Which is why we're struggling. Amongst many other reasons.

What summed up Bannan this season was being MOTM against Arsenal and then 3 days later being arguably our worst player against Reading.

Which suggests he's more inconsistent than 'a championship standard nobody who offers nothing as a professional footballer'.  Which has been my point about him all along.  The issue is a lot of people completely ignore the performances like Arsenal and judge him entirely on the performances like Reading and I can't figure out why, there are a large number of fans who just seem to hate him and are waiting for a chance to slag him off.

[dekko]

I'm not sure what it is that makes people hate Bannan so much.  Where I sit in the upper holte everyone around me seems to be constantly on his back absolutely all the time - the minute he makes a poor pass he gets dogs abuse, often for the rest of the game.  He could play the perfect game, but one wasted pass in the last 20 minutes and suddenly he's the worst player ever to pull on a claret and blue shirt, its bizarre.

I think his problem is the same as 90% of the rest of the team - there's not one of them that doesnt have bags of potential, but they're being asked to do too much too young, without enough support from more experienced players, and they're suffering for it.

Also theres absolutely no comparison with Ireland - even when he's having a dreadful game, Bannan always works his tiny socks off, and is never afraid to call for the ball and try and make something happen.  That alone puts him above that waste of space Ireland.

[Clampy]

I thought Bannan had a decent game today. Kept it neat and tidy when he had to and rarely gave the ball away. Good to see him back.

[LeeB]

The problem in this squad is that there are too many under performers who do not consistently deliver - the likes of Ireland, holman, el ahmedi, bannan, nzogbia( better recently) , and gabby come into this bracket.

We can afford the odd off day but too many very rarely have an on day and we cannot afford that.

Sorry, Eastie, but Gabby is not in that company.  He might not be the 20 goal a season striker we might've wanted a few years ago, but he's more of a threat than any of those others names. 

Agreed but he is also a threat to our Premier League safety. He promises much but delivers little.

Just watch him go for the rest of the season. He will score tomorrow and more in the coming weeks. Nothing wrong with Gabby.

Good work Dan.

[LeeB]

I thought Bannan had a decent game today. Kept it neat and tidy when he had to and rarely gave the ball away. Good to see him back.

Amen.

[PGW]

Bannan was not my MOM but he did well. he contributed to the team effort. did very well. For me i thought Gabby and concrete were outstanding!!!!

[Monty]

I thought Bannan's good spell in the game coincided with the team's good spell - namely, the middle third of the match (from the Reading goal to about the 65th minute). I'm not sure whether we played well because he did, or if he played well because everyone else did (bit of both, you'd suspect), but I do think we lost a bit of composure in possession when he went off. What impressed me most today, however, wasn't that he didn't make mistakes with the ball, but the fight he showed in making amends for them. That was very welcome.

[atticus snood]

Bannan can be excused through youth and inexperience... Ireland however came out his mother's womb a twat.

[SoccerHQ]

Did Lambert say why Bannan has been out of the squad the last few games, secret injury or just taken out of the firing line for a bit?

[peter w]

Chipsticks really hates Bannan.

[paul_e]

I thought Bannan's good spell in the game coincided with the team's good spell - namely, the middle third of the match (from the Reading goal to about the 65th minute). I'm not sure whether we played well because he did, or if he played well because everyone else did (bit of both, you'd suspect), but I do think we lost a bit of composure in possession when he went off. What impressed me most today, however, wasn't that he didn't make mistakes with the ball, but the fight he showed in making amends for them. That was very welcome.

He's the type of player who, if he's playing well, makes it easier for other people to play well because he's always looking for the ball and giving an option so yes, him playing well and the team playing well were very much linked today.

I've always found it odd when people question his work rate because that's always been something I've liked about him, particularly trying to make up for his own mistakes.

I do think the change weakened us, but more because of the change in shape than the personnel changes, Nzogbia played 15yards further forward which meant we weren't able to pass in neat little triangles around them.

[ROBBO]

Can't fault Bannons workrate but he simply isn't good enough.

[seanthevillan]

The commentators over here were waiting for Lambert to make a change for 5-10 minutes before he did - because we'd dropped deeper and lost control over the midfield. They were as surprised as I was when N'Zogbia came on for Bannan, though he did well, because that didn't help stop the problem.

As for Bannan, he ran the show at times today and passed the ball really well. He made a couple of poor errors in the middle (not that our other players were immune to this) but got back and made up for them, and in our best spells he was the stand out player. I'd rather give him credit for that - making the team pass and play well - than say it was just because the team were on top.

I think he deserves to keep his place for next week, but having not seen much of QPR I'm not sure what kind of midfield they have.