Praise for Jose Baxter

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A real marmite player is Jose with our fans. One guy who sits a couple of rows behind me lambasts him at every given opportunity regardless of how well he is playing. Personally I like Baxter. He is one of the few who can create something, chips in with goals and works as hard as any other centre midfielder we have. Let's remember he's still a young player with lots to learn. Yep he misplaces the odd pass and isn't blessed with pace but he's one of the few we have who ARE good enough to help us out of this division
 
His workrate is better this year but nowhere near where it needs to be. I keep being surprised by how young he is. He looks about 28 going on 42. Still, he one of our only threats.
 
The odd goal and one or two good passes per game. If he put the work ethic in he could be another Gerard
 
JohnDenver said:
He's contributing enough at the moment for me to suggest he should be last out of him, Coutts and Hammond to be dropped.

Make of that what you will.
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Yeah I agree, sadly Adkins usually picks him or Coutts to get just the 60 mins. Hammond will never get subbed, I'm convinced.

His work rate has improved and he's either been told that he's the runner or he's finally twigged that Coutts and Hammond aren't going to have the energy levels to get forward and back in the same game, so he's doing the dirty work and keeping that midfield ticking.

He'll always be prone to a few reds due to his inability to tackle in the same week that the player has the ball, but we can live with that if he keeps us ticking the rest of the time

Wouldn't mind seeing reed get another chance instead of Hammond, it'll never happen though
 
Baxter has always been a good player but he has been played out of position so much while he has been with us.

Weir signed him as his "no.10" which was the role he had hoped McDonald would play.

Since then he has been played as the lone striker for game after game under Clough and deep midfield with Clough and Adkins.

When you've got a very good player you should play him to his strengths and build the side around him.

It is usually a "get out" for those who lamblast players for months and monrths, say they are not fit to be professionalsetc. to say they are at last trying harder all of a sudden. It happened with Quinn and Doyle.

What a catalogue of quotable abuse somebody could filter out from these pages about a 22/23 year old lad trying to make his way in the game. At times you'd mistake it for hate. It certainly doesn't serve the lad or the club well at all. Anybody got the time to compile the catalogue of abuse?
 
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Fully agree since Fulham. He has been easily our best player & I saw someone say yesterday I'm running out of superlatives for baxter every game
 
I like the Baxter that is turning up at the moment and think Adkins has found a good position for him personally. I also like Coutts but think we need a strong midfielder to accompany these 2 ,Hammond certainly isn't doing it at the moment. Still wish we had gone for Grant. Hope Baxter can keep this mental attitude going ,that is his biggest enemy.
 
sitwell said:
I like the Baxter that is turning up at the moment and think Adkins has found a good position for him personally. I also like Coutts but think we need a strong midfielder to accompany these 2 ,Hammond certainly isn't doing it at the moment. Still wish we had gone for Grant. Hope Baxter can keep this mental attitude going ,that is his biggest enemy.
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You're obviously one of the many fans that Adkins says doesn't see all the hard work Hammond does off the ball. I'm another.
 
chipsncake said:
You're obviously one of the many fans that Adkins says doesn't see all the hard work Hammond does off the ball. I'm another.
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I didn't go yesterday but every bad thing on the VT seems to involve Hammond and Long. Really don't think Long looked capable and caused problems for himself ,and don't think Adkins realises that number 35 trotting around chasing shadows is Hammond.
 
sitwell said:
I like the Baxter that is turning up at the moment and think Adkins has found a good position for him personally. I also like Coutts but think we need a strong midfielder to accompany these 2 ,Hammond certainly isn't doing it at the moment. Still wish we had gone for Grant. Hope Baxter can keep this mental attitude going ,that is his biggest enemy.
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It's a strange one. I must admit I knew of Hammond and his achievements at Southampton but had no idea what type of player he was. He was sold to me that he was a ball winner who would do the dirty work for Baxter and Coutts. He has been anything but, however Adkins seems have to have him infront of Coutts which for me doesn't work. As said in another post I would love to see the prozone stats for him and this unsung work he does. Bergen could probably break this down.

Always said we needed a Semedo type in front of the back four, which will give protection to them, but also give players like Coutts, Baxter, Adams, Scougall, Cuvellier the confidence to play.

When are going to get a manager who understands!
 



sheffielder said:
It's a strange one. I must admit I knew of Hammond and his achievements at Southampton but had no idea what type of player he was. He was sold to me that he was a ball winner who would do the dirty work for Baxter and Coutts. He has been anything but, however Adkins seems have to have him infront of Coutts which for me doesn't work. As said in another post I would love to see the prozone stats for him and this unsung work he does. Bergen could probably break this down.

Always said we needed a Semedo type in front of the back four, which will give protection to them, but also give players like Coutts, Baxter, Adams, Scougall, Cuvellier the confidence to play.

When are going to get a manager who understands!
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Spot on
 
Baxter has been fine this season. Had some bad games but had a lot more good ones. He would be one of first names on the teamsheet for me. That maybe says as much about the rest bu =t if you were plumping for a player of the year at the moment (what do you mean noone?) then he would be in most peoples top 3. He has been more consistent (not hard) than most other players. Only Freeman, maybe Basham and Sharp (dipped off) could say they have had 'some' level of consistency. The rest have been woeful some games and ok others with the odd good game (Adams, Coutts, Sammmon, Campbell Ryce etc).
 
Kevincarterversion2.0 said:
Its worth a mention about Baxter. Seems to be coming into some good form, a bit like when he was one of the first to respond to Clough. Playing some nice passes, getting in on the goals and looks genuinely up for it. Keeping us going at the moment.
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Spot on and its about time, is it too much to hope a few more will follow his lead ?.
 
sheffielder said:
It's a strange one. I must admit I knew of Hammond and his achievements at Southampton but had no idea what type of player he was. He was sold to me that he was a ball winner who would do the dirty work for Baxter and Coutts. He has been anything but, however Adkins seems have to have him infront of Coutts which for me doesn't work. As said in another post I would love to see the prozone stats for him and this unsung work he does. Bergen could probably break this down.

Always said we needed a Semedo type in front of the back four, which will give protection to them, but also give players like Coutts, Baxter, Adams, Scougall, Cuvellier the confidence to play.

When are going to get a manager who understands!
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I think Hammond was a strong, fit and solid central midfielder, who worked well alongside a complete player in Morgan Schneiderlin, a good playmaker, who also held his own physically and defensively. A few years older Hammond's surely slowed down and probably lacks the energy he had at Southampton.

I haven't watched the full Walsall game (the BP video doesn't work), but Adkins has praised the amount of grass he covered. The distance footballers run during a game is just one thing though. Football stamina is often about how often you're able to run very fast. Jogging 11 kilometers in 90 minutes isn't very impressive in itself, which is why distance run shouldn't be exclusively used to assess his impact.
 
Yes, praise for Baxter - and as woody has already written, Baxter came as a No 10 or as a 2 up front with Matt Smith(?) when at Oldham.
Never was a CM player, never was a left or right wing, although Adkins has him on the right sometimes.
Never was someone sitting in front of the back four.
Never could play with Scougal in CM
Relieve Baxter of all defensive responsibilities, allow him to jog around at times, but he is doing ok.

UTB
 
Imagine if we had Baxter playing in front of a midfield 2 of Morsy and Sawyers.....
 
It was offside but the ball through to JCR on Saturday was sublime and the long pass to Sharp wasn't too shabby either. Goal was well taken too. He has the ability to play a weighted pass behind the opposition defence - something we lack and he does switch the play well. He seems fitter and has better application this season (hope he keeps it up and doesn't get complacent) plus the positions he is getting now aren't exposing his principle weaknesses as much ( he hasn't got pace and is worse at tackling than Frank Lampard). He should also get the penalty duties - Sharp strikes me as too intense for the job. He's one of the few who seems to have improved since Adkins came - although that may well not be the reason why he has improved.
 
Ability wise, Jose Baxter is a class above anything else at the club and this year he seems to be fitter and more focused than he has been. He is really working hard and is obviously passionate about winning, I would hope his efforts would be infectious but it seems a large number of his teamates have been vaccinated :(

I personally believe without him we would already be several places lower in the table
 
Agreed on Baxter. His situation is a good example of managers trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

It's not rocket science, play the lad in his best position, and if that means having to leave someone out then so be it. It amazes me how managers throughout football consistently make this mistake with teams and players.

Baxters a #10, so either play him off the striker in a 4-4-2 or play a 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1. He's not a center mid as he doesn't have the stamina or responsibility to pick up runners (see the Colchester game for that), so don't play him there.

Adkins appears to have finally seen that (amazing how it's taken him 5 months to figure that out), but is now seemingly sticking him out wide.

adkins just needs to pick his preferred system/style and then get players playing in their best position, and ideally the best players playing in their best positions.

Based on what we have I'd go with a 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 with a midfield three of Hammond or coutts, reed and Baxter (maybe basham instead of reed depending on the opponent) and a front 3 of Adams, sharp and Done. If we need more physicality later in the game then get sammon up top instead of sharp.

All the above are then playing in the position best suited to them, and it's a system that can fit them all in playing in their correct positions.

Then you have JCR as an impact player coming off the bench on one of the wings.

It will also provide the back 4 with a bit of potection and allows Harris and freeman or brayford to push on.

As Adkins keeps reminding us in his tedious interviews, it's a simple game. Okay Nige, make it simple then and stop faffing about.
 
1889 said:
Ability wise, Jose Baxter is a class above anything else at the club and this year he seems to be fitter and more focused than he has been. He is really working hard and is obviously passionate about winning, I would hope his efforts would be infectious but it seems a large number of his teamates have been vaccinated :(

I personally believe without him we would already be several places lower in the table
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As one who stuck up for Baxter over the months, even to a small degree over the drugs thing, I now take this post as the joke that's intended. Irony makes great humour.
 
How long is Jose's contract? Have we also got the impact of him realising that the good times might not last if he doesn't pull his finger out?
 
Even Sitwell's faintly praising Jose so he must be playing well :)

I saw this thread and thought uh oh tin hats required. This is about the 5th or 6th Jose thread I've seen since I've been on here and I guess it's because he divides opinion more than any other player. I've said it many times in those other posts but I like Jose, he's not Roy Keane, but he plays with his head up, has the ability to turn and switch play, is easily the best passer of the ball at the club and I'd say he's been putting some work in too. He's not too good at tackling but I've seen some good covering and blocking from him in recent home games.
 



1889 said:
Go on then WWF, give us a clue ? :confused:
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It'll arrive with Sitwell's next post on here I should think.

I suppose three months can be a very long time in football, in particular on these pages, but I suppose it's plenty of time for Jose to resurrect from anathema to all conquering hero.

What's the saying, " the greatest comeback since Lazarus"?!:)
 
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