Dougie, What are you doing?

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

First Two times he played for us up front I thought he was brilliant, quick feet and brain and getting a few shots on goal and setting up chances, now when we need him to play as a striking partner for Barney he starts dropping back in the hole after ten minutes and we revert to a negative and boring One up front at home.

The last Three matches that he has started he has probably had about Four shots in total as he is playing far too deep. Such a waste of a natural goalscorer. We need goals, not another midfielder.
The Moose made so many great runs at the saints defence, and Dougie was never near their penalty area for Moose put him through on goal.
So it ended up going to the well marked Barney or a short pass sideways and wasted.

Get up there Dougie, and help keep their backline back, and be an option for the midfield.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Don't agree there, Dougie's role at the moment is identifying the holes and exploiting weaknesses. He's won several important free kicks in recent games, and last night was no different. He provides an outlet for the midfield to lay off to to enable them to progress forward, I just don't think his job in the team IS to score goals atm.

He's aged a lot physically (his legs!) and endured a lot of injury since he came, the fact he's still able to perform as well as he does at his age is testament to his commitment. I don't necessarily think last night's conditions were the best for him though and I'd probably have had him on bench myself.

 

[timeveritt]

i thought we looked a better side with him on the pitch last night...an outlet for the midfield though in the second half agree there was no-one in the box. catch 22 really need him to link the midfield but need someone upfront. i think hes been playing quite well last few games.

 

[GBJ]

He's past it. Simple.

It occurred to me recently, that Tilly (and imo RM's probably involved) seems to keep going for these washed up ex-prem strikers. Why? From the one's we've had, who has been a success? Goater was fair enough i suppose, but the likes of Freedman, Ricketts and Paul "creeky" Furlong have been dire. We're throwing money away on these players wages

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

All our strikers execpt Barney are toilet. Hope TIlly can pull something out the bag in January.

 

[Shrimper]

I wouldn't expect Freedman to score goals and if he does then it's an added bonus for us, if you ask me he's there to help the other striker and lay it off or hold it up for them creating chances. Also, i wouldn't say all of our strikers are toilet. O'Donovan isn't bad, he has quick feet and good movement and Laurent is good but a bit selfish. Judging them against a good Southampton defence is a bit harsh as i think most in the league will struggle against it.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

If he was still the player he was he wouldn't be with us, I still think he offers us something.

 

[EastStandBlue]

I wouldn't say Paul Furlong was dire... You see, he would've had to have actually played for us for him to be dire.

 

[A Century United]

David Crown was co-commentating on the game last night. He rates Dougie highly, and was impressed with what he was doing for us. I will happily take the opinion of a very decent former striker over some of the blinkered bilge that is spouted on here. We have problems, but Freedman isn't one of them.

 

[EastStandBlue]

David Crown was co-commentating on the game last night. He rates Dougie highly, and was impressed with what he was doing for us. I will happily take the opinion of a very decent former striker over some of the blinkered bilge that is spouted on here. We have problems, but Freedman isn't one of them.

Sorry mate, but Freedman was awful last night... Got the ball, got tackled, moaned at someone else. That's all he accomplished last night.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Sorry mate, but Freedman was awful last night... Got the ball, got tackled, moaned at someone else. That's all he accomplished last night.

Err no, got the free kick that Friend scored from....and mugged Harding off in the process too.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Err no, got the free kick that Friend scored from....and mugged Harding off in the process too.

Oh sorry. On one occasion he got a Free Kick.

So thats, got the ball, got tackled, won a free kick once, moaned at someone else on other occasions. Freedman might be able to "mug off" some of the poorer defenders in this division, but coming up against seasoned professionals like Rahdi Jaidi? It was all too easy for the Saints defenders.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

He faded in the second half last night, conditions would have played a part in that for someone his age.

I don't think his role at the club is an out and out goal scorer now, last week at Stockport lining up just behind Barnard.

 

[A Century United]

Sorry mate, but Freedman was awful last night... Got the ball, got tackled, moaned at someone else. That's all he accomplished last night.

You'll have to argue with Mr. Crown then, because that is absolutely not how he saw it. And as he is a former striker of some ability, I hope you wont be offended if I take his word for it.

 

[EastStandBlue]

You'll have to argue with Mr. Crown then, because that is absolutely not how he saw it. And as he is a former striker of some ability, I hope you wont be offended if I take his word for it.

Well, I'll let you value his opinion from last night, but personally, I'll side with the majority of people who were at the game who thought Freedman was decidedly poor and completely inaffective against a well marshalled Southampton outfit.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Oh sorry. On one occasion he got a Free Kick.

So thats, got the ball, got tackled, won a free kick once, moaned at someone else on other occasions. Freedman might be able to "mug off" some of the poorer defenders in this division, but coming up against seasoned professionals like Rahdi Jaidi? It was all too easy for the Saints defenders.

You didn't see when he left Jaidi on his backside, or the 30 yard first time cross field pass to Friend. It's very subjective picking on one player for being poor when the overall performance was average.

Many have said Francis was poor, and IMO he was responsible for the second goal, when the ball should have been in Row Z, rather than passed 5 yards. But to be fair to him he's right back in one game, and then back to centre half. Our lack of resources aren't his fault but being chopped and changed can't help.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Well, I'll let you value his opinion from last night, but personally, I'll side with the majority of people who were at the game who thought Freedman was decidedly poor and completely inaffective against a well marshalled Southampton outfit.

Well, I beg to differ but there were also many who did not notice anything like Dougie being ineffective against Southampton - and as I'm sure I've said somewhere, his role doesn't seem to be as a goal scorer any more. He's there for the tactical nouce - and on that score he did ok, though as Ayrshire says, the conditions took their toll on him. He played the full 90 against Stockport last week, but conditions were very different.

 

[EastStandBlue]

You didn't see when he left Jaidi on his backside, or the 30 yard first time cross field pass to Friend. It's very subjective picking on one player for being poor when the overall performance was average.

Many have said Francis was poor, and IMO he was responsible for the second goal, when the ball should have been in Row Z, rather than passed 5 yards. But to be fair to him he's right back in one game, and then back to centre half. Our lack of resources aren't his fault but being chopped and changed can't help.

I'm not picking on just one player though... The title of this thread is Dougie, if you read my report on the game last night in the other thread, you'll see that it isn't just Freedman I thought was poor last night. I stood up for Francis against others in a seperate thread as well, but that's irrelevant to the subject of this thread.

A forward of Freedman's nature, and at this time in his career, is not to chase after the ball but to recieve it to feet and use his intelligence to probe holes in the opposition defence, while getting in the positions he knows he can find. Last night, it was all too easy for the Southampton line to push forward, and their defensive midfielder to simply marshall him to the sidelines and rob him of possession.

As for the Jaidi incident, to me it looked like he lost his footing in the pitch.

 

[A Century United]

Well, I'll let you value his opinion from last night, but personally, I'll side with the majority of people who were at the game who thought Freedman was decidedly poor and completely inaffective against a well marshalled Southampton outfit.

It's all about opinions though, isn't it? So why would I prefer your opinion over someone who has been there and done that? As an aspiring sports journalist, I would have expected a more balanced opinion about Freedman from you anyway - as others have pointed out he certainly didn't achieve "nothing", even if you felt that he could have done more. When I read through these forums, I almost always ignore the absolutist-type of opinions anyway, they come over as too simplistic and ill-thought out. The truth is always more complex than that.

 

[EastStandBlue]

It's all about opinions though, isn't it? So why would I prefer your opinion over someone who has been there and done that? As an aspiring sports journalist, I would have expected a more balanced opinion about Freedman from you anyway - as others have pointed out he certainly didn't achieve "nothing", even if you felt that he could have done more. When I read through these forums, I almost always ignore the absolutist-type of opinions anyway, they come over as too simplistic and ill-thought out. The truth is always more complex than that.

In all fairness, I'd rather you wouldn't patronise me with that. Because I'm an aspiring journalist i'm chastised for expressing my opinions on the team that I support on a forum where opinions are encouraged. In the same manner, how can my opinion possibly matter, when a former professional has said something different? Garth Crooks played professional football once, but he talks a whole lot of nonsense that the majority of the British public choose to ignore.