Chris Mepham

A lot of money to pay for a player well below PL quality. As far as I’m aware, no other club were seriously interested in signing him. I just hope he doesn’t become another Rante, Hyndman, Ibe, Afobe, Murray, Tomlin and too many others.

We desperately need a big ugly no-nonsense centre back. Someone like the guy Mings, currently playing at Aston Villa would do fine.
 
A lot of money to pay for a player well below PL quality. As far as I’m aware, no other club were seriously interested in signing him. I just hope he doesn’t become another Rante, Hyndman, Ibe, Afobe, Murray, Tomlin and too many others.

We desperately need a big ugly no-nonsense centre back. Someone like the guy Mings, currently playing at Aston Villa would do fine.

Wow is this a serious post?

Are you trying to provoke a reaction for talking absolute nonsense?

Since when can we judge a defender on being below par and not premier league quality after 2 games (one of which he played very well in?). He’s been rushed into the team due to Steve Cooks injury, making his 2nd appearance at the Emirates against a team scoring for fun

Give the guy a break and judge him in 12 months.
 
A lot of money to pay for a player well below PL quality. As far as I’m aware, no other club were seriously interested in signing him. I just hope he doesn’t become another Rante, Hyndman, Ibe, Afobe, Murray, Tomlin and too many others.

We desperately need a big ugly no-nonsense centre back. Someone like the guy Mings, currently playing at Aston Villa would do fine.
Astounding reaction to a player after he's only been at AFCB for a month. This is akin to the "not fit to wear the shirt" King thread a few seasons ago.... but after only 2 matches!!!
 
While it is far too early to judge the lad on one performance I think the point about Mings is a valid one. Obviously Eddie thought that young Mepham was a better option as cover than Tyrone but sadly it seems, not yet.
 
Bit weird to pick on Mepham when a lot of the damage was done by not tracking midfielders as they attacked. Once again we didnt have the personnel/formation to deal with offensive play where midfield or full backs come from deep. I like Adam Smith bit his suicidal cross field ball for the second was a real shocker. Think Fraser and King are getting an easy ride for their displays at the moment.

Mepham is a young Welsh international defender who showed against wolves some great attributes. Sadly the days of £500k signings have gone. He will do fine under eddie’s guidance. Our operating model will be get youngsters to develop so there will times when they make mistakes.
 
Directly comparing Mepham to Mings and thinking they are swappable is unfair IMO. Mings is so incredibly left footed that he couldn't play on the right of Ake, and we've never once moved Ake to the right of the central two either. Unless you want to drop Ake, the only way to play Mings and Ake together is a back 3.

Now arguing that a central back 3 would be a better option against Arsenal - that is absolutely valid and I'd probably agree. But arguing that instead of Ake/Mepham as a two we should play Ake/Mings - I don't think that's valid.

Also we've got enough players in our squad who have seen screw up after screw up against top 6 opposition for years. Hell Steve Cook is the most experienced defender we have and look at his capacity for brain-farts. So let's not murder Mepham after his first attempt against that class of opposition. Let's see if he'll learn from it.

Get Man City out the way this weekend, and then Mepham will have clear run of non top 6 opposition to pit himself against until August, and hopefully by the time we meet them again next season, he'll be better prepared. And Mings might well be involved as well by then if we reintegrate him during the summer.
 
Yes, lets write the young lad off on his second appearance against a team containing world class forwards. Funny, I think this thread might get resurrected in time to come to highlight a certain post.b Def shades of King - not fit to wear the shirt.
 
IF....we want to be Negative...

Could be someone in the recruitment system, however that functions, is feeding Eddie some S##t. I mean Rico..Christ.....whats going on with that. Solanke already not playing...injury be bollixed......Clyne maybe have been offloaded by Them due to trouble off field?
People on here banged on about Mepham for months...now he walks straight into Scapegoathood.
Im thinking there are some ' divisions ' in the squad. I think I know what it could be....far too upsetting for some sensitive souls on this Forum , so i'll hold That in for now...it might go away.
Some have asked before about our 'unusual amount of injuries' and Why?
And What Really went on with Defoe?

Questions exist to be Asked...not necessarily Valid but they itch!

Something isnt quite right....when you look at results and performance like the isolated Chelsea one.

But that is a negative mode for me...I dont like Me...if I get in it!

Could just be purely unlucky injuries denting what started out as an
amazing season.
Too early and inappropriate to judge Mepham!
 
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Mepham really was particularly bad last night but it's too early to say we overpaid. We have been after him for a a long time, so EH clearly thinks he's got something.
 
Virtually all the goals we concede are allowing pacy forwards in behind our defence. The amount of goals we concede from high balls pumped into the box is negligible.

What we need are quick defenders who read the game well and make a tackle as a last resort. It’s too early to say if Mepham is that guy, but I’m pretty certain he’ll be more effective than this mythical old skool big ugly no nonsense centre back that occasionally gets mentioned!
 
Mepham was pretty poor but all young players have poor games and it's how you learn. Ake and Cook both had poor games and became better players for it. Yesterday was tough to take but if Mepham uses it to become a quality player it will have been a down payment worth making.
 
Virtually all the goals we concede are allowing pacy forwards in behind our defence. The amount of goals we concede from high balls pumped into the box is negligible.

What we need are quick defenders who read the game well and make a tackle as a last resort. It’s too early to say if Mepham is that guy, but I’m pretty certain he’ll be more effective than this mythical old skool big ugly no nonsense centre back that occasionally gets mentioned!
The very last thing we need is a big no nonsense ugly centre back. Think Wes Morgans performance against us this season
 
From kickoff our shape was confusing. As a viewer, never mind as a player. Our fullbacks were getting caught too far forwards which meant that Mepham and Ake were trying to cover the space which created gaps in and behind.

For me that is either an issue with tactics, or maybe (by the amount that Eddie was shouting in the first 20 mins) the players not adhering to the plan. I don’t think you can blame the CBs too much for this, they were always going to be the last man and made to look worse by being fully stretched. I’ve said similar things about Cook in the past.

Smithy had an absolute shocker last night. From the assist for Arsenal’s second to continual giving the ball away or not tracking his man well enough. He was trying to hard to make things happen up front without concentrating on his defensive duties. When Rico came on I actually thought he did a far better job at both ends. I thought it was strange to start with 2RBs and 0LBs and end the game with 2LBs, in hindsight Daniels should have been brought on for Smith or Smith pushed up in place of the ineffective Ibe.

I thought Gosling ran his socks off but as usual the Surman-Gosling partnership didn’t work and provided little in the way of attacking chances or defensive coverage. It’s a bit like the Lampard-Gerrard conundrum only more tinpot.

In summary I think Mepham was thrown in at the deep end here with the least amount of support or protection from his teammates he is likely to get. Lets give the poor lad a fighting chance before the lynching starts.
 
From kickoff our shape was confusing. As a viewer, never mind as a player. Our fullbacks were getting caught too far forwards which meant that Mepham and Ake were trying to cover the space which created gaps in and behind.

For me that is either an issue with tactics, or maybe (by the amount that Eddie was shouting in the first 20 mins) the players not adhering to the plan. I don’t think you can blame the CBs too much for this, they were always going to be the last man and made to look worse by being fully stretched. I’ve said similar things about Cook in the past.

Smithy had an absolute shocker last night. From the assist for Arsenal’s second to continual giving the ball away or not tracking his man well enough. He was trying to hard to make things happen up front without concentrating on his defensive duties. When Rico came on I actually thought he did a far better job at both ends. I thought it was strange to start with 2RBs and 0LBs and end the game with 2LBs, in hindsight Daniels should have been brought on for Smith or Smith pushed up in place of the ineffective Ibe.

I thought Gosling ran his socks off but as usual the Surman-Gosling partnership didn’t work and provided little in the way of attacking chances or defensive coverage. It’s a bit like the Lampard-Gerrard conundrum only more tinpot.

In summary I think Mepham was thrown in at the deep end here with the least amount of support or protection from his teammates he is likely to get. Lets give the poor lad a fighting chance before the lynching starts.

Agree with most of this.
I spent a lot of the match talking about Ake to my Arsenal buddies and they agreed that he looked uncomfortable playing alongside Mepham and his body language was showing he’s getting very frustrated with his teammates
 
From kickoff our shape was confusing. As a viewer, never mind as a player. Our fullbacks were getting caught too far forwards which meant that Mepham and Ake were trying to cover the space which created gaps in and behind.

For me that is either an issue with tactics, or maybe (by the amount that Eddie was shouting in the first 20 mins) the players not adhering to the plan. I don’t think you can blame the CBs too much for this, they were always going to be the last man and made to look worse by being fully stretched. I’ve said similar things about Cook in the past.

Smithy had an absolute shocker last night. From the assist for Arsenal’s second to continual giving the ball away or not tracking his man well enough. He was trying to hard to make things happen up front without concentrating on his defensive duties. When Rico came on I actually thought he did a far better job at both ends. I thought it was strange to start with 2RBs and 0LBs and end the game with 2LBs, in hindsight Daniels should have been brought on for Smith or Smith pushed up in place of the ineffective Ibe.

I thought Gosling ran his socks off but as usual the Surman-Gosling partnership didn’t work and provided little in the way of attacking chances or defensive coverage. It’s a bit like the Lampard-Gerrard conundrum only more tinpot.

In summary I think Mepham was thrown in at the deep end here with the least amount of support or protection from his teammates he is likely to get. Lets give the poor lad a fighting chance before the lynching starts.

Yeah, I'd largely agree with this. Everytime they got in around the back (which was quite often) they looked dangerous. Mepham and Ake were firefighting due to ineffective fullback cover. Stop the supply – plain and simple.

And yes, Rico looked half decent too.
 

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