TOPIC: joyce

i really don't like to do this, and i dont post a lot, but i now understand why accrington are doing so well this season- they don't have luke joyce going backwards or losing his head within 5 yds of opposition. seriously- he is not good enough for a play off/ promotion hopeful team. gary dicker would have played them off the park like he did in london in september what really concerns me is that kennedy looks tired, we have a lot of back to back games coming up, and no one else to fill in. IF Curle wants play offs, he has to get a quality midfielderin, but on loan?? is that possible. I was in the paddock and Curles face told a story, esp when went 2-1 down. think he knows the limitations, but his hands appear to be tied.

Missed comley tonight. He's not Gary dicker, granted but he's better in that department than Joyce

Thought Joyce did OK to be honest especially in the first half,for me Hery should have been brought on ,we lost the midfield in the second half , Gillihad was a passenger for most of the game ,granted he did put a great cross in for the goal.
The depth in squad could cost us now , Whke injury didn't look good , Raynes took an heavy knock , this to add to Granger,Atkinson, Miller,Hanford and Comley.

trevortrevorswinburne wrote:
Fully entitled to your opinion but that one stinks of someone with a hidden agenda. I've said it before, if Dicker was that good why did no one else in England even half fancy a look at him? He's playing for Kilmarnock which speaks volumes. Joyce on the other hand was offered a 3 year deal with Accrington and wanted by many other lower league clubs. He may not have hit full pelt yet but is a solid league 2 player who provides balance to the team.

no agenda- just agree with "solid league 2 player"- not ambitious and not good enough for top of table. i am pleased with progress this season, but very frustrated with inconsistency and our breaks breaking down in midfield- Orient were far and away quicker moving the ball up the field without hoofing it, as have many teams in the league. we seem to panic on the ball, whereas Dicker was comfortable, and inspired .

I get the passing ability bit but the bit where you say Orient were quicker moving the ball forward through midfield.
Would you rather have Joyce or Dicker protecting the back 4?
Think Joyce was ok and Gillead worked harder closing down than he has for a while.
Rigg was off the pace but understandably so with so long out.
Leyton Orient played well the second half and a draw was a fair result over 90 minutes the frustrating thing is both their goals came from our attacks breaking down.

Overall I thought we missed Comley more than Dicker in that game.

Edit to add the Ref was good last night as you can tell when we haven't won and there aren't a load of posts about him.

It was the best I've seen Joyce play in a blue shirt last night. Didn't do much wrong in the first half - one misplaced pass that I can remember.

Second half he fell foul, as did the rest of the team, of being poor.

Mouldy wrote:
He had three passes in the opening ten minutes which went straight out of play. Wasn't until about the 30 minute mark until he attempted a forward pass.

JackCUFC wrote:
We were relatively dominant in the first half and he covered a lot of ground, winning the second ball, beating the bounce, breaking up their attacks. Surely he can't have been as woeful as implied?

For the record, I usually slate Joyce every week for being captain backwards and sideways - disagree with your summary Jack, but hey ho.

Thought Joyce was pretty decent on Saturday and last night, after being woeful against Stevenage.

My main issue with him is that he literally looks no better than the player we released in 2009.

A crapper Paul Thirlwell.

It is pretty short sighted to be criticising sideways and backwards passing, it retains the ball and plays a pivotal part in dragging teams out of position. Look at some of the best teams over the last 10 years who do that.

As for calling him a poor man's Thirlwell, surely that poster is a wind up merchant?

Problem is that more often than not when he passes backwards he puts us under pressure.

Thought he was poor last night, hell of a lot of misplaced passes, passes which put players in trouble and sideways passes behind wide men. Put the ball in front of them to run onto ffs!

Main thing I notice about Joyce is his first thought is nearly always to turn backwards with the ball, which invites pressure from the opposition. Merson made a good point about Drinkwater at Leicester, when he receives the ball from his centre halfs he's always on the half turn, ready to drive on and take the play to the opposition, always looking to go forward. Joyce is the opposite.

Probably right there, Joyce wouldn't be a good signing for Leicester.

No

I didn't see this thread before I mentioned on the match thread that i think Joyce slows the game down we needed it quickened up and I also call bullshit on the every team needs a Def. mid. the best midfielders can do both and interchange taking turns going forward.

Five out of ten at best. A player in that position needs to break up the opposing attack, make a yard of space and lay the ball off to start our attack. I don't see that Joyce does any of these. His positional sense is poor, he is never in the right place. He can't tackle and doesn't have the presence of Prokas; his passing is woeful- its not a case of passing backwards he made several passes that played other players into trouble yesterday. After 15 minutes McQueen came across to mark Jahraldo Martin (number 30) because he was breaking quickly from deep and Joyce couldn't cope with his pace. Breaking up those attacks is exactly what he is supposed to do

Could Hery play this position?

He's not shy of a tackle to be fair, he was very disciplined in his RM defensive role at Accrington. He's probably a better passer of the ball than Joyce and much more mobile than Dicker.

Hery is a good shout to play there but I suspect he is too flamboyant a choice for KC's liking. He seems to have lost faith in him since the 3-2 against Yeovil when he was hauled off after half an hour for giving the ball away too often