Francis - what's up with him?

[grassroots]

Francis is a talented player, he is a far better crosser and gets more in than Betsy and thats where I see the problem. If Francis doesnt get forward on the right, then no one will. As for the post up there somewhere saying the he put a great ball into the near post, but no one was there, that's not his fault both forwards went far! It wasnt him caught out of position on Saturday for the goal, he was in position, with TWO players on him and NO cover. When the ball went across the box there was NO ONE at the far post either! No, I say give the lad a break, to Tilly I say put him at right midfield as he looks a bit uncomfortable at the moment at the back as Betsy contributes very little to the attack. Or it could be time for him to move on and let another manager to get the best out of him.

 

[Irate Ian]

Francis is a talented player, he is a far better crosser and gets more in than Betsy and thats where I see the problem. If Francis doesnt get forward on the right, then no one will. As for the post up there somewhere saying the he put a great ball into the near post, but no one was there, that's not his fault both forwards went far! It wasnt him caught out of position on Saturday for the goal, he was in position, with TWO players on him and NO cover. When the ball went across the box there was NO ONE at the far post either! No, I say give the lad a break, to Tilly I say put him at right midfield as he looks a bit uncomfortable at the moment at the back as Betsy contributes very little to the attack. Or it could be time for him to move on and let another manager to get the best out of him.

Not at all a bad call grassroots.

This could work as SF defensive qualities are sure better than Betsey.

The dilemna is that Betsy is clearly a better wing man than Francis.

Between the devil and deep blue sea ?

 

[mattytheshrimper]

at the moment i can't bare to watch francis. such a good player blah blah blah we all no that but how easy is he to play against.

look at it from a wingers view. gives them space, backs off, will rarely mark you, make any sort of run and your away, won't track you, scared to put a tackle in. people with those red whatever glasses people on here have won't agree with that but sorry IT'S TRUE. people who deny it are a bit clueless imo.

i would love to know the route of the problem because he hasn't played well in, well i don't even know when. surely there must be a reason for that.

people blame betsey and i can see where they are coming from, sure he does leave him isolated but what about everything else thats listed above. in my book you can't blame betsey for francis being very poor this season.

my proof of how poor he has been was all on show at tranmere. personally couldn't believe how he literally passed the ball in the net for both there goals and the term goalside was in double dutch to him.

i do not want to see any sufc do bad but when will it be time to say enoughs enough and put sankofa in. he doesn't offer a lot of attacking threat but at least he might put a plug into a few of the goals we've conceding recently because frankly sunday teams could score against us at the moment. at least sankofa is dependable.

 

[Southend_Lady]

I would love to know why last night Simon Francis wasn't

A) Pulled off by his testicles
B) Attacked at the full time whistle
C) See A and B.

Last night he looked like the lazy player people have been talking about. His corners was woeful, his positioning was disastrous and his hoofs upfield were embarrassing. I lost the will to live almost last night and Simon Francis was a massive reason for this.

I'm actually quite gutted that Francis has turned out to be a steaming pile of poo because I always thought he had bags of potential and seemed to be getting better and better. So what the hell has happened?!

 

[manor15]

I'm a fan of Francis but recently he has been in awful form. He's not a right winger, he did well at centre back and he's a good right back just a poor right winger and he's not in the best of form, we should support him through it

 

[OldBlueLady]

Sam, don't be too harsh on him, he was left in the lurch for much of the night playing a completely unfamiliar role against a defensive wall that was simply unbreakable from our point of view. No-one bothered to let him know where he ws supposed to play once Osei went off, left him in no man's land.

 

[South Bank Hank]

I would love to know why last night Simon Francis wasn't

A) Pulled off by his testicles
B) Attacked at the full time whistle
C) See A and B.

Last night he looked like the lazy player people have been talking about. His corners was woeful, his positioning was disastrous and his hoofs upfield were embarrassing. I lost the will to live almost last night and Simon Francis was a massive reason for this.

I'm actually quite gutted that Francis has turned out to be a steaming pile of poo because I always thought he had bags of potential and seemed to be getting better and better. So what the hell has happened?!

Corners aside (which were unforgivable) I genuinely felt for him last night as he was far from our worst culprit of the evening. As a defender he has often suffered from having no one of quality in front of him to help him when the opposition have the ball. Last night when he dropped back into defence, he had no one in front of him to help out when he received it. There's no point playing the ball across the back and then looking to use it when your midfield and defence don't want to receive the ball.

At one stage, Francis received the ball at right back last night with only Crewe's right-sided attacker and a right winger ahead of him. I'm never usually one to start manager bashing after a defeat but I think our problems against Crewe were more to do with our shape which completely disappeared after the first substitution. For me last night was more about the lack of communication following the substitutions that any one individual player.

Corners aside that is... :nope:

If you're going to break down a team with 11 men behind the ball every time you gain possession, you need to keep your shape and width.

 

[Southend_Lady]

His positioning and role aside, fine. But his free kicks, corners and long balls were embarrassing! He just looks so lazy. Anyone that thought he was anything short of woeful is being too kind.

 

[OldBlueLady]

The corners are frustrating but that must be the way they're doing it on the training ground. Dougie's one at the end was the best of the night.

 

[Southend_Lady]

The fact that on several occasions he couldn't even deliver it 3 feet high let alone to reach the eager bunch in the box was frustrating to say the least.

The worst moment of the night was when Francis played a short corner, ever so short in fact (can't remember who to mind you) - and it was instantly called offside! Joke!