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It's just not clicking - 04/12/2003
No doubts! |
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It’s probably fair to say that last season we exceeded expectations, and that this season it’s been quite the opposite. The obvious question to ask is why? And to be honest, I really don’t know. We haven’t done anything differently this season, we train the same way, we play the same way, and it’s not as if we’ve been cut down with injuries.
As for my position, I sat on the bench throughout the 120 minutes of last night’s Carling Cup defeat. I’ve figured in the last few squads, although haven’t seen much action on the pitch. Joseph Yobo is out at the moment and is also due to miss six weeks of the season when he plays in the African Nations tournament. David Weir has also been out with a knee problem, so I'm close to first team action. However David Moyes is shuffling the pack and for example, played David Unsworth as a centre-back last night. It’s a case of a waiting game – it takes patience – but as a professional I have to accept the situation. All I can do train hard and do my best when given the opportunity. The defence held firm last night, and credit to them. Middlesbrough started with Maccarone and Nemeth, then brought on Ricketts ten minutes before the end of normal time. We were comfortable throughout, and as with all penalty shoot-outs – it’s a bit of a lottery and on this occasion we lost out. Wayne was substituted again, and I have to say that the media attention has been unfair. It’s a well known and accepted fact that young players will always have a degree of inconsistency in their performance. You don’t get much younger that Wayne and some of things that have been said are unfair. He hasn’t been among the goals but his all round play has been good. Let’s face it, the team hasn’t been playing as well as last season – it’s obvious that all strikers benefit from playing in a successful side – how many goals have our other strikers scored this season? It’s just an good example of the ‘build them up, then knock them down’ policy of much of the British press. But he’ll come good - he’s a quality player.
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