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Marmite Bannan


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Been reading a number of posts criticising his performance yesterday. I gave him a decent rating and thought he had an excellent game.

 

I watched the extended highlights just now, and he was right in the middle of everything we did. There was barely a highlight attack that he hadn't started or join in.

 

I also recall the Newcastle fans praising him highly. Commentators and pundits often pick him out as a key performer or even MOM. 

 

He is our Peter Reid, our Archie Gemmell, our Ray Wilkins, our out-ball, our giver and getter, our string-puller, and our play-spreader. He never stops and never ever hides.

 

He can't tackle like Hutch, nor shoot like Wallace, but if he could he would be playing for a decent Prem side, not a good Championship side.

 

Personally I see him as one of our very best and most important players. To me he is a pleasure to watch, and I always feel optimistic when he moves forward with the ball.

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totally agree, he's admitted himself he doesn't think he's been at the peak of His powers this season, but has been brilliant again on this recent winning streak, also great to see Kieron lee back yesterday, thought he was really good aswel, exiting few weeks ahead

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He's in the middle of everything because he plays in centre midfield and isn't afraid of the ball 

 

Problem is he can't shoot on target and isn't as good a playmaker as about 4 or 5 others in this division.  

 

I'll credit him for his workrate though. 

Edited by Bodhidharma
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He lost possession a few times with poor control and sloppy passes (not the only one). 

He is central to most of what we do, so if there isn't an out ball, no one moving into space up front, then he goes sideways or back to Lees/Loovens. People see this as boring, and as his fault rather than a team issue.

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I think he comes under the heading "if you never try anything you'll never make a mistake" and he's never afraid to try something. He deserves to get cut some slack for losing the ball every now and again and the odd attempted pass that might not come off.

 

The alternative footballer is Darren Potter.

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People slating Bannan have no idea about football.

 

He makes us tick, like you say he's at the centre of everything, always wants the ball.

 

Because he's so positive in possession he will have games where things don't come off, not every pass will result in an opportunity.

 

Some of the clowns getting on his back won't understand that. If Bannan then plays more reserved and goes side to side, we have ourselves another Potter.

 

 

 

 

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I have criticised him this season, because simply, he played rubbish. However, he has moved further up the pitch, he has stopped hiding, he's started moving forward and more importantly, passing it forward. So credit where it's due, he is an important player for us. 

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4 minutes ago, Tamworthowl said:

He lost possession a few times with poor control and sloppy passes (not the only one). 

He is central to most of what we do, so if there isn't an out ball, no one moving into space up front, then he goes sideways or back to Lees/Loovens. People see this as boring, and as his fault rather than a team issue.

 

I agree. Hooper, Lee, Reach and FF all misplaced passes. Only Wallace was virtually faultless. 

 

For me there are far far more positives in his game than negatives.

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Has he been that bad?

Certainly not as good as last season. Yet I think the same could be said of half a dozen of our players.

 

Indeed the team as a whole hasn't played as well as last season.

And yet....

We find ourselves in a better position than we were last season.

They've dug in and won ugly at times. And Bannan has been part of the unit that has done that.

 

That Lee, Abdi, and others have missed large chunks of the season and Bannan hasn't been able to be 'rested' from time to time is hardly the players fault. 

 

As others have said, he's not been his sparkling self of last season,  but he never goes hiding, which would be the easiest thing in the world to do.

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I think the problem is he's very hit and miss... but that's partially down to his play style

 

The most often thrown criticism that goes his way is that he's always looking for the "Hollywood pass", and I think this is true. Sometimes it comes off... I've seen some passes from Bannan that are sixpence accurate 30/40 yard balls into the box and my jaw is dropping... I've seen some where he tries a crossfield ball that's easily intercepted when a 15 yard diagonal forward was on. Away against QPR for instance, a game where we were winning long enough to want to keep possession he had a pass success rate of something like 66%, which is criminally bad and just invites pressure. Yesterday he was up in the 80s with his accuracy.

 

Swings and roundabouts, I can definitely see why he isn't liked by some, and for a centre midfielder he doesn't put in the required shift defensively in terms of tackles made and he doesn't score the number of goals he should do... a woeful finisher. That said, he also has the potential to be a lynchpin and when he's "on" it, he's amongst the best distributors of the ball outside the Premier League. 

 

I know it sounds like I'm sitting the fence... but it's hard to really give a proper call. He's a good player, but I think I'd be happier if next season (assuming we're in the Championship) we maybe saw him on the bench a little more often. 

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12 minutes ago, Holmowl said:

Been reading a number of posts criticising his performance yesterday. I gave him a decent rating and thought he had an excellent game.

 

I watched the extended highlights just now, and he was right in the middle of everything we did. There was barely a highlight attack that he hadn't started or join in.

 

I also recall the Newcastle fans praising him highly. Commentators and pundits often pick him out as a key performer or even MOM. 

 

He is our Peter Reid, our Archie Gemmell, our Ray Wilkins, our out-ball, our giver and getter, our string-puller, and our play-spreader. He never stops and never ever hides.

 

He can't tackle like Hutch, nor shoot like Wallace, but if he could he would be playing for a decent Prem side, not a good Championship side.

 

Personally I see him as one of our very best and most important players. To me he is a pleasure to watch, and I always feel optimistic when he moves forward with the ball.

He has never hidden all season, his workrate is impeccable, this season he's always had 2 men on him as teams reaslise he is the catalyst to most of our offensive play.

 

 

 

 

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He's just an easy target because he tries to do stuff that isn't as simple as a 2 yard sideways pass.  It's easy to boo when someone tries something really difficult that doesn't go right.  They'll also happily cheer when it does go right though and splits the defence open.

 

 

Just not bothered...

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5 minutes ago, Costello 77 said:

It's obvious he's filling in doing the hutch job while he's out.

 

He's not hutch but he's held the fort really well.

 

Five wins in five since Sam last played.

 

If he was fully fit for a key game shortly, would you replace Bannan with Hutch? I absolutely would not.

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