Breaking News Woodyard joins Braintree on loan

[davewebbsbrain]

Record in their league starts for Southend

Woodyard

W 0 D 2 L 5 Pts 2 (from 7)

Spillane

W 3 D 1 L 5 pts 10 (from 9)

Spicer

W 4 D 2 L 4 pts 14 (from 10)

Lund

W 1 D2 L 3 pts 5 (from 6)

Reeves

W 0 D 2 L 2 pts 2 (from 4)

Can't be bothered to work out Leonard, but we've won loads with him in the team.

Spicer looks like he should be starting on these stats. He has never played as low as L2 and I truly feel he won't get another chance under Sturrock. If Sturrock goes, Spicer may get a chance for anew contract with the new manager, otherwise he may find a game back in L1

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Spicer looks like he should be starting on these stats. He has never played as low as L2 and I truly feel he won't get another chance under Sturrock. If Sturrock goes, Spicer may get a chance for anew contract with the new manager, otherwise he may find a game back in L1

Was surprised to see Spicer with the most effective stats not least because I seem to recall us struggling at the start of the season but I'd say the difference between him and Spillane and Lund (and probably Reeves) is within the expected margin of error given the small sample size. Take Spillane for example, two of his 9 games (and one of Lund's) we've finished with 10 men. I'd have fancied us to beat Northampton if Mohsni had stayed on the pitch and that would have put Spillane with a higher points per game than Spicer and Lund only fractionally behind.

 

[Liam AAS]

Feel gutted for the lad. No Wembley for him after an excellent performance against Oxford, and a calm head against Orient in the first leg. Deserves to be on the bench for us at least on the 7th.

 

[snapper1]

Quite impressed with him-but at
the moment it's results that count.Not enough time to allow him to establish himself in the first-team-a very good prospect-wish him all the Best.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Best Wishes Alex Woodyard. You are miles better than Spillane. Better than Spicer. Better than Lund. Better than Leonard or Hirst when they play in the middle. Better than Reeves(controversial i'm sure, but my opinion) But not as strong as Mkandawire,Laird or Timlin.
I hope you get your head down + impress at Braintree , who i also watch sometimes ... and maybe you will bounce back to be a big player for us next year. You deserve a good run of games but sadly have suffered from being ex youth team as opposed to being an ex premier team reserve.

Can't agree with that at all - I think quite the opposite. He's nowhere near good enough for League Football at the moment- he offers nothing that Spicer, Lund, Hurst, Leonard or Reeves or Spillane can't offer - he just gets more encouragement than those as "he's one of us".

I sincerely hope he improves for the loan spell, but he needs to improve a hell of a lot. He's been well out of his depth whenever I've seen him in the first team.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Feel gutted for the lad. No Wembley for him after an excellent performance against Oxford, and a calm head against Orient in the first leg. Deserves to be on the bench for us at least on the 7th.

I'd rather pick players on merit to be honest - call me old fashioned, but I'd quite like to win the final

 

[tonie]

good luck to the lad needs games hope we dont throw him away, but not strong enough at the moment

 

[amsemp]

Some strange comments here :facepalm:he isn't better than our current midfield options but he certainly isn't useless. Think this loan move could do him good. Just needs to smooth out some of those rough edges and I can see him doing a job for us next season.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Wish him all the very best, he's played some extremely good games when called upon this season but also not had much luck in others. Needs games, and Braintree will give him that. Think he's worth persevering with, blimey, if we can give johnny Herd 1st team games, then Woody should have no problem!

 

[Liam AAS]

I'd rather pick players on merit to be honest - call me old fashioned, but I'd quite like to win the final

I think he does deserve to be there on merit. He was one of our best players against Oxford, totally man-marking their no.15 out of the game, they only got back into the game when he was substituted. He's always looked neat and tidy to me. Perhaps physically bullied at times but good in possession, always playing with his head up and conscious of the counter.

Laird and Spillane will be cup tied, Timlin injured leaving Spicer as the only natural CM. Hurst is totally ineffective anywhere but RM, Leonard has looked capable without excelling. I'd like to see the cover there for Mkandiwire.

 

[Mick]

Needs games, and Braintree will give him that.

Certainly will - they've got 7 matches in the next 16 days !!

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

Actually feel sorry for him, deserves to be involved at Wembley.

 

[danburyshrimper]

Woodyard's suffered by not being very good.

He's nowhere near as good as Spillane, Spicer or Lund. That's nothing to do with where he came from (Kane Ferdinand was a regular) and everything to do with how limited he is as a player.

I can see him sinking without trace because he doesn't seem to read the game at all. Someone like Spillane will spot an attacker making a run into space and go and plug that gap. Woodyard can't do that. He doesn't see the danger develop. He's mechanical, playing by numbers rather than any feel for the game. Sure he runs about - when he's got into the team he's played on adrenaline but you can't make a career of playing on adrenaline - and maybe his running sticks out more because he's reacting and having to run rather than anticipating and getting there before to snub danger out.

Other than energy and adrenaline I don't see a single facet of his game that is better than any of Spillane, Spicer or Lund.

If he wasn't a youth team player would there be this clamour to play him?

I'm not clamouring to play him. I'm just stating that for a club that is deeply in debt we already had a central midfielder who would run through brick walls for our club , who lacks a little bit of experience but in the away games he has played this season hes been excellent. But instead of playing him when we were desperately short of central midfielders we chose to go out + pay big salaries for Spillane ( whos been terrible) Spicer, Lund + Reeves. Or move Hurst,Leonard or Phillips to central midfield for some games when clearly they are far better in other positions. Likewise Reeves. I think the lad is a tidy player. Indeed his 5 little flicks on saturday were very fancy. But Reeves cant tackle and Sturrock obviously doesnt fancy him in the middle where i believe was where he was signed to play. Reeves playing means that Hurst moves to the left where Hurst looks suddenly ineffective. Reeves best position is just behind the front man , which means playing 1 up front , which is want none of us want to see in most games. At least Woodyard plays central, deep , can tackle, is mobile , cheap , keen + probably wont moan if he is only on the bench .

Ive already stated he would well behind my ideal midfield of Mkandawire + Laird but i just get fed up when the club continually overlooks youth team players and go and pay up for far more expensive players who are possibly no better.
The Bentley/Smith debate is a similar scenario.

Anyway , hopefully loads of games at a level just 1 below ours will give him the experience he needs and can come back ready to play and we wont need to go out and sign 6 loans players in front of him next season!!!!

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Wouldn't be suprised to see him re-called before Wembley.

 

[prawntobewild]

Good move for Woody IMO - A young lad still developing - he may make it - he may not . Seen him play some good stuff & make some errors like most of our team - He sometime seemss to struggle to pass the ball on quickly enough & gets a bit stuck with it under his feet - hopefully a regular run of games will sort him out.

 

[chapperzUK]

I'm not clamouring to play him. I'm just stating that for a club that is deeply in debt we already had a central midfielder who would run through brick walls for our club , who lacks a little bit of experience but in the away games he has played this season hes been excellent. But instead of playing him when we were desperately short of central midfielders we chose to go out + pay big salaries for Spillane ( whos been terrible) Spicer, Lund + Reeves.

Can you back any of this up though? Lund and Reeves are premiership reserves and doubt we are paying much for them if anything at all. Would be surprised if Spillane is on much either after coming from Daggers.

I don't get this "would run through brick walls for our club", as I don't know where you can get that from. I'm sure there are hundreds of people on this forum who would do the same, doesn't mean I want them to be playing for us.

Just my opinion, but thought he has been decent for us in games but ot excellent.