Williamson

Hope not to get castrated for this but Williamson looks really, really poor. His heading/jumping is weak for a tall bloke. Not very strong and lacks any form of pace. He leaves our right-back exposed much of the time - hence most opposition attacks coming from their left. He has no distributive skills.

I know he's a 'backup' player - but he's expected to play 20 odd games a season, and everytime he is on the field i'm worried! It's him primarily why we play so many long balls. You see Colo and Santon trying to play it out, and Williamson just shoves it up towards our strikers.

He's not good enough for us as a back-up, and would rather see Perchy start.

 

I agree I don't rate Willo as a squad player... he has not a single attribute.

 

He made one horrible mistake tonight but overall did ok. Saylor has looked shaky since coming back but people don't single him out.
My problems with him is his panic hoofballs and poor attacking headers. And the fact that he does seem to have a howling mistake in his locker every now and then(but then so do a few of our defenders).

 

Williams not great, but his constant fouling and shirt pulling make him a liability!

 

He's worse than playing with 10 men

 

I wouldn't say Taylor has been overly shaky, other than backing off Anichebe on Monday night i cant find any other fault. But Williamson lost his marker from corners twice tonight. Tried to stupidly pass with the outside of the foot. I wouldn't mind his hoofing if he was a no-nonsense defender, but this guy is essentially a Championship centre half at best - not a club pushing for top 6.

 

A tad over the top don't you think?

 

Maybe

 

As much as a club needs to repay players loyalty (Williamson never moans when not in the team etc) sometimes a club can out grow a player much like a player can out grow a club. In Williamson's case it's the former, Pardew should have hammered it home to MA & DL in the summer that a CB was a priority as Williamson is simply not good enough for a team with Champions League aspirations (something Pardew has confirmed is the aim on more than one occasion this season).

A ruthless approach should have been taken with Williamson, unfortunately the failure to sign another CB in the summer prevented such an approach.

 

Touch over the top i think. He's premiership standard but only just. In terms of ability he would be more in place in a team fighting relegation.

However, I don't think we're a big enough draw to be able to keep players happy in the squad if they know they would be first team for a mid-table prem side (or above) so our squad players are likely to be of the Williamson standard (or preferably younger versions).

Can't fault his effort or commitment and I don't think he's as bad, nor as much of a liability, as people are making out.

 

Every word of this.

Btw CAN WE BLEEPING STOP PLAYING THAT SET PIECE

 

I like him as a squad player and I think he's reasonable at defending.

What annoys me about him though is he lack of subtlety as a footballer. He ALWAYS seems to play long ball. It wasn't working vs Everton, it didn't work last night, but he continues to lump it long. Why doesn't pards tell him to look for the easy pass!?

 

I know..when the ball goes to him, when we aren't winning I tend to groan because you can expect he's going to do one of his trademark long punts. Granted, he got lucky with the long ball that Shola chested on for Ba, but how often do you get that...

 

He was terrible and mostly always is.

 

Bit of moderation.

He is a clumsy and unsophisticated defender. We should have better. He should not be our third choice. But he is not terrible.

 

Williamson is not my cup of tea, always worried when hes in the squad. If we had another CB of Saylors quality (and I'm not saying hes world class) I doubt Williamson would get a run out. Wouldn't mind if he was 4th choice but 3rd choice is one injury away from the squad.

 

We need to replace him. Its no secret we could do with a centre back. To be honest I'm keen to see Remi Streete or Tav given a chance.