If Battipiedi isn't good enough for league one how was he going to compete today?

[Sheebo]

Must admit I've always said there's something about him where I just can't see him improving to the standard required. And he certainly isn't there yet. Agree that it didn't help that Wood / Noone / Sparrow / Kish / Nav were all out as any one of these would have started ahead. Saying that i'd rather a shortage of players for this cup match than any league match...

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Now I am by no means a Batti fan, but if, IF he has to play I would rather it in a cup match we realistically have no chance of winning than a league match.

That SOTON game should have been his last appearance but it wasnt regrettably. Lets hope thats it now. IF not well lets hope that the Stoke game toughned him up a bit.

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

The one thing I have gathered from this thread besides nobody likes Batti, is that when it comes time for Gus to move on we have enough managers who know better than him & can continue the growth of the club. Thank goodness.

 

[Billy the Fish]

It's not slagging him off simply to suggest that he is not good enough for a top league 1 side aiming for the Championship, it's realism. The general concensus sems to be that Bati is simply not up to standard, it was probably a worthwhile gamble bringing him and Baz over to the UK, but it's not worked out, no big deal. He was involved in the first team squad earlier in the season, but as the squad has been improved he's now well down the pecking order and quite rightly not selected unless alot of players are unavailable.

Against Stoke, we would probably have been better playing with 10 men, rather than playing Bati, at least then the rest of the team could have adapted to that rather than hoping Bati would actually do something like tackle, track back or hold the ball up.

If Bati had been signed by any other recent manager than Gus, that manager would be getting all kinds of abuse on here, but even Gus isn't infallible, he's the best manager we have had for many many years, but shock horror, he's going to make mistakes from time to time and Bati/Baz is one of them.

I'd agree with all of that, with one exception. It's not a mistake, it's a punt that didn't work out and it hasn't affected the team in a negative way. I'd class a mistake as signing a player who is crocked or a bad influence in the dressing room.

My problem is with these threads that single out players when they've had a bad game or they haven't made it. They almost always descend into over the top criticism or childish name calling (take a bow tonymgc )

There's plenty of match threads you can criticise players on if you want to.

 

[JBizzle]

The one thing I have gathered from this thread besides nobody likes Batti, is that when it comes time for Gus to move on we have enough managers who know better than him & can continue the growth of the club. Thank goodness.

Absolutely, these aren't people who wrote off El-Abd, Murray, Ankergren, Barnes and Wood at various points are they?!

 

[bhamex1901]

He looked scare to receive the ball, always finding positions of no great use - I saw Bennett and Dicker both have a go at him for this precise fact. Also appeared to be lacklustre and worn out after about 30mins into the half. He had a shocker.

PS - Would love to know how many touches/completed passes he had.

 

[Giraffe]

Absolutely, these aren't people who wrote off El-Abd, Murray, Ankergren, Barnes and Wood at various points are they?!

Not me.

And I haven't written off Batti yet either. Just think it is perverse that he has now played against two of our hardest opponents but can't normally get in the team.

 

[Turkey]

Just think it is perverse that he has now played against two of our hardest opponents but can't normally get in the team.

Both times have been due to injuries and suspensions so it's been very unfortunate that he's had to come into games where he is out of his depth.

With no Sparrow, Kishishev, Navarro, Wood/Noone (so Bennett could fill in) we've had to draw from the development squad. It's put him into the firing line of those who feel the need to make a final judgement on a player after a few appearances.

If the likes of Agdestein, Kasim, Simmonds and so on had to be called into the main squad I guess everyone would be slagging them off too. I have no idea if he's up to it in the long run but there have been glimpses of a decent player there at times. I recall one game near the start of the season when under pressure, he brought the ball down on his chest, jinked left and launched a lovely long pass out to a player free on the wing with his weaker left foot. I think Gus would rather have players like that, who he can work with, than some experienced lower league clogger who'd just head it forward and lose possession.

There have also been plenty of foreign players who have proven their quality abroad but couldn't replicate that whilst over here, Forlan, Veron and so on. But I'm wasting my time even typing this because I doubt it'll make anyone whose decided he's shit change their mind. I think part of the fun of football for some people is slagging players off, I don't think I'll ever understand that but hey ho.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I'd agree with all of that, with one exception. It's not a mistake, it's a punt that didn't work out and it hasn't affected the team in a negative way. I'd class a mistake as signing a player who is crocked or a bad influence in the dressing room.

My problem is with these threads that single out players when they've had a bad game or they haven't made it. They almost always descend into over the top criticism or childish name calling (take a bow tonymgc )

There's plenty of match threads you can criticise players on if you want to.

Agreed.

I do Baz and Batti have not been helped by the distinct lack of reserve team football.

The criticism of him on this game alone is feckless. This was his fifth start for us and before today, he had played 36 minutes of competitive football since our 0-0 draw with Southampton way back in November. Not forgetting that he was coming up against infinitely superior Premier League players. I don't think he was as bad as some people are suggesting.

 

[Turkey]

I don't think he was as bad as some people are suggesting.

He wasn't but he's flavour of the month so will get stick whatever. Notice there is no Gordon Greer thread when the first two goals were both his men.

 

[Acker79]

This was his fifth start for us and before today, he had played 36 minutes of competitive football since our 0-0 draw with Southampton way back in November. Not forgetting that he was coming up against infinitely superior Premier League players. I don't think he was as bad as some people are suggesting.

Quite. He has played a total of 498mins of football for us. That is about 5.5 games, split out over 6 months, and this is a young guy who has come from a foreign country and needs an opportunity to get used to the English league and the English style of our opponents on a professional level while also having to deal with the personal issues of being a young guy in a foreign country with a different language, thousands of miles from his family.

Even foreign players in the premier league can take a bit more than 5.5 games to adapt. To expect more of Battipiedi or Baz is completely ridiculous.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I would like to jump on board with the previous two comments from Mr Turkey and Mr Acker.

Sadly, I think circumstances will conspire against them both and we will see them released at the end of the season.

 

[Sam Ovett]

Batti and Baz have not been allowed much experience to shine with all of the reserve matches being called off, and with the only games they really get to play in being due to the team being hit with injuries, suspensions etc. and unfortunately these have been against Southampton and Stoke, so not really a fair chance for them to settle. I trust that Gus will make them come good in the end

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Not saying Batti is terrible but don't think he's shown anything in any of the games played and don't think will ever be BETTER than L1 bench if he get's to that standard. I know he's on a L1 bench sometimes but don't think he should be in lots of squads at this stage.

Caskey is not just a 16 year old. He's captained England under 17s, he's like Dunk I.M.H.O. good enough ALREADY for L1 BENCH in any squad in the league, but won't play much due to age. Wasn't Rooney thrown in against Arsenal for first ever game and scored a cracker never looking back? Maybe we don't want him to get the confidence and feel he deserves a starting place every other game, until he turns 17 and signs that pro contract? Maybe don't want him on the tele (though his 20 mins scuppered that as looked good) but as the ONLY other choice I don't think you start someone who will never turn into a great player. If he's truely 8th choice and 5 of the other 7 are out, don't drop him down below Batti at 9, just to spare him a single one off game whoever the opposition.

 

[Mental Lental]

a good grip on a language can be gained in two months easily too.

Two months is optimistic I feel. It also depends on how different the language is to your own and if you need to learn 4000+ Chinese characters before you can read it.

 

[cuthbert]

We had run out of experienced midfield players for Saturday, and for a one off game, I think Adam El-Abd could have played either as one of three centre backs or even in midfield. Gus has been reluctant to play three centre backs and wing backs, but it worked well for Steve Coppell and we had the players available to do it.

 

[Giraffe]

The criticism of him on this game alone is feckless.

For what it's worth, I'm not criticising him. Still too early to tell if he will make it and Poyet knows best. Just don't like the fact that we didn't play our strongest team and he is the best example of this.

 

[Simster]

Absolutely, these aren't people who wrote off El-Abd, Murray, Ankergren, Barnes and Wood at various points are they?!

And Navarro.

He wasn't but he's flavour of the month so will get stick whatever. Notice there is no Gordon Greer thread when the first two goals were both his men.

Perfectly correct. And Greer is not 19 years old.

 

[Rookie]

He looked lost against a premiership midfield, so did a lot of our players for the first 30 mins. To write him off after that is very harsh, Poyet sees something there and don't get why some on here are desperate to write off our players. It's very strange. Granted he has not been a world beater so far but both him and Baz have shown moments that there is a player there and its for Poyet to get that out regularly.

 

[LIKE]

Would rather have seen Caskey for the whole 90 minutes.

Like.