Now Then

[selby]

  In the game v Rochdale we played against a young player slightly older than Bobby Faulkner at central defender for Rochdale.
  It looks like he went completely unnoticed  as there has been no comments on here, he is valued at millions, is on loan from Leicester City, in the current England u19s squad that won the Euros and playing in the group stages, has played u16s for Scotland, u16s u18sand u19s for England, and nowhere near as good a stand out player at division 2 level as Bobby Faulkner IMHO.
   Just saying like.

[wilts rover]

His parent club believe his potential is best developed by playing at a level three divisions below what they are.

Just saying like.

[BiargeBob]

  In the game v Rochdale we played against a young player slightly older than Bobby Faulkner at central defender for Rochdale.
  It looks like he went completely unnoticed  as there has been no comments on here, he is valued at millions, is on loan from Leicester City, in the current England u19s squad that won the Euros and playing in the group stages, has played u16s for Scotland, u16s u18sand u19s for England, and nowhere near as good a stand out player at division 2 level as Bobby Faulkner IMHO.
   Just saying like.

Totally disagree Selby, he looked like a Rolls Royce compared to the rest of the players on the pitch. As good as Faulkner is I think you should take off those rose tinted glasses.
  Just saying like 

[selby]

  There wasn't what I call a defender on the pitch in that game, and certainly no Rolls Royce's, and no comments about any two days later.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Where  Faulkner was loaned to I see no point. He has gone past that stage of needing to play at that level. The lowest he should be playing is in the conference, he wasn’t going to learn much from Worksop’s level.

[Chris Black come back]

The whole point of loaning him out was to help him develop by playing games. If he goes to the National League or even National League North this will not be guaranteed. No point him being on bench at these places. We need to have someone willing to give him realistic chance of playing regularly. If there are no offers to this end then we cannot force clubs to take him.

[Sammy Chung was King]

If he’s dropping that far down I would keep him with the squad. Organise friendlies for fitness.

[dickos1]

The Rochdale defender was very good on the ball totally different player to Bobby who is more of an out and out defender

[steve@dcfd]

Bobby is an all out defender who puts his body on the line to get the ball, that’s why he broke his jaw by sliding on the floor. I wasn’t there to comment on the Leicester centre half but if he develops then he won’t be playing in league 2 especially if he has good on the ball skills to add to his defensive qualities.

[Canadian Rover]

The Rochdale defender was very good on the ball totally different player to Bobby who is more of an out and out defender

Whilst I agree about Bobby's defensive qualities he's made a real difference to the Rovers when he came on in midfield for the Rovers early in the season.

[Chris Black come back]

If he’s dropping that far down I would keep him with the squad. Organise friendlies for fitness.

It’s not fitness. It’s helping him develop by playing competitive senior football.

[Cramby10]

Bobby is an all out defender who puts his body on the line to get the ball, that’s why he broke his jaw by sliding on the floor. I wasn’t there to comment on the Leicester centre half but if he develops then he won’t be playing in league 2 especially if he has good on the ball skills to add to his defensive qualities.

when you describe Bobby like that it describes just the player we need. He’s the only one in our squad with a pair of b*llocks. Yet in our infinite wisdom we f**ked him off to Worksop to get his face smashed in. Ridiculous. I don’t care if he’s 18 or 80, he’s the best we got!!

[steve@dcfd]

Sliding in for a tackle and playing falling on you could happen what ever standard of football he plays. So being at Worksop or playing for us this type of tackle can end up injuring yourself.

[Cramby10]

Ye but I’d rather he did it for us. Even if he hadn’t done it at all, he still wouldn’t be here playing for us would he? Instead we have to endure sideshow Bob and the rest.

[Canadian Rover]

Sliding in for a tackle and playing falling on you could happen what ever standard of football he plays. So being at Worksop or playing for us this type of tackle can end up injuring yourself.

To be fair to Bobby there was pressure placed on him to see how he could and would step up to the "physicality of men's football" the challenge he went for he shouldn't but I guess he was trying to hard to show he could handle the physical/aggressive game.

[dickos1]

The Rochdale defender was very good on the ball totally different player to Bobby who is more of an out and out defender

Whilst I agree about Bobby's defensive qualities he's made a real difference to the Rovers when he came on in midfield for the Rovers early in the season.

Don’t recall him playing midfield for us

[selby]

  Dickos McSheffrey put him up front the very first time he used him as a sub and he got up in the box and challenged the Keeper in the air and the ball broke to Rowe who centred for our goal.
 At Northampton the same went up and forced the corner that led to our goal and had one of his own disallowed.
 And of course was shoved up for a corner at Hartlepool and scored, with I must say quite a show of technique sorting his feet out to get the shot in, something not that common in our players in the penalty area.
  So no not really used as a mid fielder, but one who can make a difference in the box.
   A coach at the Rovers once said to me before he had played a game in the first team, and I quote, " he is the best at the club at getting to the ball first in both areas both attacking and defensively"  I agree with him now and consider it a big part of the technique to be a top defender on a football field, and more importantly is not that easy to coach, more a natural ability trait, unlike passing the ball across the face of your own goal that seems to be the big  thing at this time in the coaching fraternity.