Am I alone in believing that John Fortune is our number 1 defender? Reads the game well and is the best passer from the back to midfield (only one that tries!). Looks laid back because he has so much time and rarely makes a mistake. Our best defence pairing was him and Bougherra I reckon.
Who agrees?
0
Comments
Could be a very good centre back, were it not for his proneness to lacks in concentration.
God, if only we had a Rufus.
A central defender who made more than 20 appearances in the season we came 7th in the prem is no mug.
How many games have we won since he was dropped?
It's the oh so endearing charlton habit of find a scapegoat and keep chipping away like a child picking a scab.
Lisbie (15 league goals in the bottom side in the division), Zheng Zhi and Kishishev are other good examples alongside Jon.
Franz "der kaiser" Fortune. Pure quality Ken.
He's no leader, doesn't really attack the first ball in the way even Sodje & McCarthy do.
Pair him with Bougherra, for example, who is also not a leader and you have a recipe for heart of defence indecision - as we saw earlier in the season.
If he was totally useless like many make out, he would never have played so many matches in the Prem and over so many seasons. Remember the Newcastle match where he so had Shearer in his pocket, Shearer lashed out in frustration and was sent off?
We all saw how good he was in combination with Jorge Costa, somebody prompting him and making the decisions.
Unlike many centre backs, Fortune does have pace and generally, composure.
But while he can be a bit too casual at times, he is good at is covering quickly, picking up the pieces and distributing the ball out of defence - something we are clearly lacking at the moment.
And like most confidence players, needs a run in the side to settle down and hit form.
When you rememebr this it is quite an achievment we have had has long out of him as we have had. But just like Lisbie he has been at the club for so long and is still not a first team regular he has to be moved on in the summer for the sake of his own career.
That really is a poor and yet true reflection on Fortune.
If Stoke *did* offer £1million we should've carried him up there.
Quality like Fortune should be kept and the defence built around him. I would be happy next year with moo2, FORTUNE, a new purchase (with experience to carry through the young full backs) and Youga, with Semedo just if front protecting them and feeding the ball to three new midfielders in front (pos Racon one of them)
He's a decent player IMO - to say he's the worst ever obviously never saw Joe McLuaghlin play
Or spat at it. Which is why he was sacked.
Mind you, never forget his equaliser in that do-or-die match at Chelsea - or their supporters silently holding their heads in their hands at the final whistle, as they contemplated the joys of relegation.
Championship to date: Played 40 Fortune involved Played 26 Won 11 Drawn 7 Lost 8 No Fortune Played 14 Won 4 Drawn 5 Lost 5.
Those stats illustrate to me that we are better with him than without him.
Average player but would do anything to win.
Could do with some of that *application*
To be honest, I would rather we did not go up at the moment - unless there is a serious injection of cash (unlikely from the current shareholders), Pards would simply waste what little money he was given on more cast-offs, we would be taken apart week-in week-out and we'd be back to square one in a year - OK with another pair of parachute payments but with another cobbled together team.
Our best (and for me the most interesting) course would be to try to rebuild over 2-3 years with a younger, hungrier (and smaller) squad. Give Randolph or Elliot, Moo2, Basey, Semedo, Racon, Sam, Thomas their chance every week (they'll have bad games from time to time but they've got the talent to come through) and build on that base. When we go back up we want/need to have the same spirit that we had last time. It simply isn't there in the current squad I'm afraid.
<scientist cap on>Looks that way, but could be( Actually, very likely) misleading. In order to prove it you'd have to control (or isolate) for Fortune, so that you'd be sure that win/draw/lose ratio was down to him both within and without the team and not some other dominating factor. Would be a much more complex equation; but necessary to say either way. I'm afraid your simple formula above is virtually meaningless Len ;-) </scientist cap off>