Torquay United Fans Forum

If i may compare the two players ( Niall and Billy ). Niall is a 1st year pro, extremely raw and inexperienced and doesn't need to be thrust into a struggling team - which is what we are - in the hope that he can do something every week. I rarely make excuses for players being young and therefore it is ok for them to play crap and inconsistently but with Niall i can make an exception because, unlike Billy, i believe he has something in him that if we develop, nurture and channel his abilities in the right way and in the right tactics and formation then we have a player on our hands. He is lightning quick and if he can develop his game then everybody is looking out for players like Niall. Of course just being quick isn't necessarily good enough but if we use him properly and get him to learn the game we could be in business. I happen to think he has done really well every time i have seen him this season given the role he has been asked to play.

Billy has a few tricks up his sleeve and when they don't come off or he becomes nullified by the opposition we may as well make a sub because he hasn't yet learned how to cope with these issues. Yes he is young too but he has had a few seasons in league football and been good for about 2 months of them. Not acceptable. If he can't learn to develop and work on these problems over the summer then we've done £70k.

I don't feel I am overly negative I am just saying don't pin all your hopes on him. he has the potential don't get me wrong and was decent against rochdale but he wouldn't be playing nearly half the amount of time he has had there not been injuries....

Niall is in his first pro year and should be a player to come off the bench. He has done very well for his first season and I have no idea why you have such a negative opinion of him condisering these facts.

the jury is well and truly out on him.... hopefully he can recover some form and macklin comes back in form and dislodges stevens n thompson who arent consistant league 2 footballers..... they can do a job as back up of off the bench but i dont feel they bring alot over 90 minutes......

(que the generic niall is amazing replies) :na: :na: :na: :na: :na: :na: :na:

Unless he's suffering from homesickness or some other personal problem which will also need to be addressed, his form and fitness will return. All players go through pad patches for various reasons; he has the talent, we must have the patience.

Ok having read the peace on the official site again, the line which says in the second paragraph "Struggling for form and fitness" may not have been said by martin, but is certainly being picked up upon by whoever wrote the peace on the "official site". As for Billy Bodin being done to death, I tried scrolling back several pages on the site to find the original thread and couldn't see it. If I could have found it I would have posted this there. The fact that our club feel the need to put up a post yesterday about it, for me whether you like or not still makes it a relevant subject.

Sorry Andy on this occasion I can't agree with you, if it's a case that Billy isn't good enough or not applying himself correctly then it has everything to do with Martin Ling. No different to any miss-firing player at any club a good manager/coach would want to get to the bottom of the problems with the player and try and help fix things asap. I am sure that martin Ling is working hard with the player, Billy Bodin is the potential ace in the pack for us and Lingy would be a complete fool if he was to just chuck his hands in the air and groan what can I do, it's not my fault, also there is £70k riding on the development of this lad and awful lot of money for us to lose if he turns into a complete flop.

Where the money came from the niether here nor there, the fact if the matter is our club is believed to have paid £70,000 for Billy Bodin which correct me if I am wrong makes that the second highest transfer fee ever paid by our club, you don't need to be a football professional surely to realise that fee would mean every second of his performances or how he is handled by the clubs managment would scrutinized to its every detail.

Mav asks if playing him not fully fit and short of confidence is correct management, sound like a pretty relevant question to me.

Part of it has a very easy answer, if he is not fit then no way he should not be playing, our club is not that cash strapped or short of playing options that we need to play a lad who is not fit and who's confidence appears to be in the toilet right now. That said however how short of fitness is he really, Lingy would not have put him in with out clearence from the medical staff.

As for a lack of confidence, not so easy to manage a manager is damned of his does damned if does not, what I mean by that is simple you can rest a player short of confidence and some will say how is he surposed to get confidence back if he is not on the pitch passing the ball, making runs, creating scoring chances, some will say keep him in the side and every game he fails to complete his passes, runs down what appears to be a blind alley and fails to create a chance or score the abuse for side lines will get worse and his form will dip further.

The important thing is, is he fit, if so play him, all he needs right now is the surpport of the fans and a run of games where things work out for him, a couple of goals would help. His confidence will flow and the player we all know is there in Billy Bodin will once again be back doing what he does best, just give him time.

I think Ling is correct in stating the negative reaction to Bodin of a lot of supporters does not help. We all want to see a prospering, confident Billy Bodin but we are not going to see that if people are on his back all the time.

Mav

I found it surprising that Ling was suggesting that he is struggling for form and fitness.

I don't see Ling making any reference to Billy's fitness, but I think we all know that it will be a few matches yet before he gets fully back into his stride.

All Managers have their own ideas of how to help a player through a sticky patch. Ling will have been through them himself, as well as witnessing plenty of fellow pro's having to deal with their form dipping for a spell. “He is going through a bit of a lull and, like all of us, the only way he can fight his way out of that is through hard work "

Whether Ling and Taylor can help Billy to recapture his form, or even if they first have to contact Mav and ask him where they're going wrong, it will be really good if we see Billy back to the great form that so many of us realise he's capable of producing.

No offence Mav but this has been done to death but if other people wish to post their views then fair enough. Everyone knows my views on Billy and for me it is because the player isn't that good plus he isn't applying himself fully and has nothing much to do with Ling on this occasion. I'm not going over old ground with this one so that's my reply to this thread. Cheers.

Having read the article on the main site ref Billy http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 10266.aspx
I found it surprising that Ling was suggesting that he is struggling for form and fitness. It was quite clear he is struggling with the pace of the game vs Exeter. What surprised me is that a player who clearly could not keep up with the pace of the game, remained on the pitch. Whilst other players who if not performing, certainly had the legs. For a player so clearly out of sorts why is he being so poorly managed?