This morning's Journal has Bobby unsurprisingly standing by his under fire striker, Carl Cort.

However, he has admitted that needs a summer of intensive training before he discovers his best form. He is quoted "Carl will come good. I will keep faith with him because I recognise his quality, and know what he can do. Carl has been out for along time, but by giving him games now we are making sure he is in the best shape to start next season. Alan Shearer may be out for the next fortnight so Carl will have to stick in there. He has the right attitude, works hard and will be vital to us in Alan's absence".

This looks like more perverse logic to me - one the one hand he needs a summer of intensive training before he can be expected to recapture his form: on the other hand, it it is felt to be more important to play him now to ensure he is ready for next season, despite his form and fitness levels - even if it meant screwing up our CL qualification.

Go figure!

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Answers

.....I meant to add, that I really believe many fans feel CC is a good player. However, they don't believe he should have been persevered with when it was perfectly apparent to anyone prepared to keep their eyes open that he is woefully short of match fitness, and hindering our team-play at a critical time of the season. His excellent goal v Everton probably dragged out the problem by convincing BR that he past the worst and on the way up.

IMO there is real danger that his confidence could be seriously damaged by the present course of action, and by causing the fans to turn against him his career at SJP could sadly be fatally harmed - especially if we were to fail to qualify for the CL.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

A mate of mine said that he thought BR should drop him now before it becomes an 'Akinbiyi situation.' Quite a frightening thought that isn't it?

However looks like he'll play for the rest of season especially if Al's out for a couple of games. Poor Lua Lua - he deserves at least a start.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

All he needs to do to get back in the fans' good books is to score a goal and dive into the crowd like Luax7. There really isn't much choice for out and out strikers when Shearer and Bellamy are injured. Saturday was great grafting, but I think showed both our bottle and belief and Derby's lack of both when rattled. Charlton will be a real test being better organised and they enjoy the trip up to SJP.

Chopra might get a sniff late on, if we're leading by 2-0 or 3-0. I don't like us pushing midfielders like Dyer into striking positions - he's far better running at defenders from the middle / final third. So Luax8 might get a rare start with Cort. Not exactly a warming proposition is it...

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Lua x 8????????????

Little? Lovely? Late? Lippy?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Those adjectives can only really be for Bellend - apart from Lovely :-)

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Seems to me that part of the problem has been the partnership with Shearer - who of course is beyond criticism. We may find (hopefully) that CC is a much better replacement for Al than a partner.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Bobby - I certainly accept that AS's injury presents another issue, and like yourself I wouldn't feel entirely comfortable going into the Charlton game without a target man up front who can hold up the ball.

However, after the problems experienced in the last few games it's quite possible this could nowonly serve to make CC's problems worse. If his confidence hadn't been so cruelly exposed by playing him when he clearly shouldn't have been playing, then I would have been quite happy to bring him in on Saturday. As it is, his confidence looked rock bottom on Saturday, the crowd reaction to him was again negative, and to be honest I'd think long and hard about playing him on Saturday even if AS isn't fit.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

We might Andrew, but I doubt it. Al's contribution is his all round game. No way can you say that about CC, certainly not at the minute, and not before he got injured either. If Craig is back, then LL has every right to be pi..ed off if he gets another bum warming session behind CC (if you take my drift!).

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

CC on his own as the battering ram has all the potential to be a disaster. The long ball out of defence to Shearer invariably sticks, and while he is in the side it will hit him probably 60% of the time, CC gets the rest and it rarely sticks.

If CC is battling on his own then he could have an awful time of it.

In the Scene@StJames recently arrived there is an exceleent piece on Alan Irvine (what a loss !!) and one of the things he said was that performance mattered more for the kids than results, except in cup matches. He also said that he didn't allow his goalies to kick the ball out of their hands for the first few months of the season, as he wanted the whole team to learn to pass the ball. This is spot on, I'd make the first team take that aproach from now on, but extend it. We need to avoid hoofing the ball at CC's head as it just won't work. Th eonly time it should be allowed is to hit the ball into thee box, or like Robert did against Everton to hit the ball 60 yards inch perfect from one wing to the other.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

I have to say the final 20 minutes on Saturday were a real eye-opener for me. Stripped of both target men, and supplemented by additional pace and skill, we immediately stopped hitting it long and used exclusively the skill and pace of Robert, Solano, Dyer, JJ, and Lx3 - well-supported by Bernard and Speed. Perhaps it wouldn't work against better opponents, but it provided a lot of food for thought and careful consideration.

In todays Journal Dyer is quoted as saying: "I can't explain why we were so poor before the break. Derby seemed to cope well in the air against Alan And Carl, and perhaps it unsettled their defence when both of our main strikers went off. They didn't react well to pace!"

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

I have loved the way Robson has bought Bellamy, Robert, Lua2, Jenas (and failed to get Gudjohnsen and Lovenkrands) who are all about pace. Speed kills, and defenders are petrified of it. They all love the man to man physical battles that Shearer/Ferdinand bring to the show but it makes it easy for them. If the ball is in the air the defender has time to think, time to react, time to position himself. If Dyer, Bellamy, Robert, Lua2 are flying at you you have so little time to do anything about it.

England may well miss Beckham, but they always look very poor when Owen is out of the side because he has the pace that frightens even the best defenders. Dyer surging from midfield on to Gerrard's passes will be England's best hope in the World Cup.

Carl Cort is so opposite of all this, and really does not add much, at the moment . Hopefully he'll be fit and ready to go in August.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

I'm all for giving a player a chance to regain his form, but Cort has had plenty of chances recently and hasn't taken them. On Saturday, he was poor, and another performance like that against Charlton will get the crowd well and truly on his back. We can do without that. We have the best chance for many seasons to qualify for a top Euro place. Please Bobby, don't allow your stubborness and loyalty to one of your most expensive buys to affect our chance of qualification. Surely you can realise that the recent style of play just doesn't work. Remarkably, reverting to the proven fast runners made us look like an entirely different (and much better) team than we've been for a long while (Everton excepted). Please, please, please Uncle Bob, don't blow it!

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Bobby Stands By CC"

I thought that was Shearer's job.....;-)

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

With Shearer sidelined, we'll need Bobby's experience up front. ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Shearer left Pride Park in his pal's BMW as Rob Lee drove him away after the game, presumably to go off and compare injuries.

However, according the player himself:

'I'll be back on Saturday.' - So we'll have the same up front pairing again. Dream over chaps.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Softie - I think it should have been "Bobby Stands By WC" - well, he has to be prepared at his age :-)

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Alan "It's only a flesh wound" Shearer would play with two broken legs if they let him. I'm sure Bobby won't play him if it's not safe. We aren't that desperate for his services next weekend.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

My God! I'm glad we cleared the PP area pretty quickly after the game. Just imagine what it would have been like with two aging bu99ers in the car, one in the driving seat and one navigating, and both with double vision and unable to think straight. Well, there you have it - exactly what the third owd bu99er sitting in the back of the Stealth Astra © was thinking as I drove hyem.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002