Akpan

Have to agree. Akpan just needs to focus himself, get fit, show desire - simple. As you say, the ability is clearly there, but the desire seems to be lacking. Really, he should be absolutely dominating this league and be one of the nailed on starters for us. However we have never really seen that version of him.

 

Wyke was shite? Aren’t you embarrassed?
Are you actually a L**ds fan taking the piss?

 

Part of me does wonder whether the whole playing Akpan thing was all part of Bowyers man management. He knows he’s not performing to the level expected/he’s capable of. Play him while the transfer window was open & tell him to perform & see who comes in for him. If he impresses and gets interest he can leave if he wishes.

Now that seems to have failed he’s out of the team as the window is shut anyway. If he isn’t even in the squad he’s less likely to attract any interest leading up to the January window. The incentive is there now to fight for his place back and get himself noticed.

 

Not great for a midfielder, weaknesses passing and tackling for goodness sake.

No succesful tackles this season, just one dribble and 2 fouls conceded.

 

I'd also question whether or not he's good in the air, as well as his desire to dribble.

Aside from that, all positive.

 

Congratulations to Hope on the birth of his daughter. Looks like he's pushed his missus out of bed so he can take all the credit

 

Are we sure its his? He hardly ever gets into the box for City.

 

Seriously had enough of Akpan.

Few goals have deluded ppl into thinking hes changed.

Normal service resumed yesterday hes so lazy jogging about. Has zero game awareness.

You wouldn't want him fighting in the trenches with you. You'd turn round constantly thinking where is he.

When we went down to 10 yesterday he needed to step up. Instead we may as well been playing with 9.

He gets praise for doing the minimum expected which is putting in minimal effort.

Up there with worst city players to wear the shirt. And yes I'm aware there has been a ton of bad ones.

 

That was a below the belt comment!

 

And yet hes still a better option than anything else we have until Palmer is back

 

Agree with most comments but he is probably the best of the trio of him, Anderson and Devine so unfortunately a bit of a shoe in. He's sometimes okay but rarely better than. Any little classy touches always seems to be quickly followed by a mistake or sloppy moment.

I hope Cooke can take the cup match as his suspension. We need better than Akpan + Devine / Anderson for league games (not really arsed about the cup) and that's been proven earlier in the season.

Just hope reports of Palmers recovery being ahead of schedule pan out. We need him back in. If we can do some canny business in January is like to think we can get Akpan off the wage bill.

Given that he was considered q big signing in league one and played at championship level he's probably one of the higher earners too.

In summary awful signing ane can't wait till we've got rid

 

I'd be very surprised if we can get Akpan off the wage bill in January. He'd have to take a sizeable wage cut for anyone in L2 or L1 to be interested in taking him. And even a big wage cut probably wouldn't tempt any takers, given how poor he's been with us. I fear we're stuck with him until his contract expires.
He's so frustrating. There are times when he'll spot and execute a really top draw pass or show a bit of clever footwork. But they're just glimpses amid a sea of aimless wandering about, poor tackles and general lack of interest. He's definitely been a bit better in recent weeks but it's a very low bar.

 

I think a lot will depend on how soon Palmer is back. If it's before Christmas and he gets back into the starting 11 ahead of Akpan, we might be in with a chance of offloading him. Then again, he might just be happy to sit his contract out until the summer, given no football club is ever again going to offer him the sort of money he is on now.

 

But who do you think would be interested in taking him? Regardless of the wage issue, he's shown very little in almost a season and a half. I'm struggling to imagine what sort of team would want a mostly lazy, mostly non-tackling central midfielder to improve their prospects in January.

 

We'd have said the same about Josh Wright before his move though but Orient fans, I imagine, are very happy with him.

 

January is a time of desperation, particularly come the end of the month. There may be a club somewhere panicking enough to risk taking him on loan until the end of the season

 

Palmer has been sh&te for us so far. A massive let down.

Look this Akpan thing is getting a little silly. I thought he played just as well as anyone else. No stand out players yesterday really. We won 2-0.

What do some of you want?

 

Akpan's the classic example of a player who made a bad start and unless they have ten 'incredible' (to use Pep's favourite word!!) matches, they will never be treated fairly

Let me state, right now I don't think he's outstanding and would put even Reeves ahead of him if fit.

However, can we please stop re-writing history to suit negativities.

IMO he was no worse than Cook yesterday (imagine the abuse on here if he'd been the one sent off ) - neither were actually that bad. We were up against a team that have four or even five ball playing midfielders and hence they were overrun

This laughable derision of him, as though he's barely better than Devine or Anderson is ridiculous and based on last season

The facts per match this season (from https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/22/Show/England-Bradford ) are that

1. His pass success percentage is on par with Palmer's. Cook is significantly better than both
2. He completes only slightly less passes than Cook, but far more than either Anderson or Devine. Palmer wallops all of them on this stat
3. Churlish to mention, but he of course outstrips them with goals
4. His tackling stats are poor

i.e. far more closer to Cook and Palmer tha Devine and Anderson and hence 'deserves' their more fair minded comments

Instead we get constant abuse about his character, i.e. "You wouldn't want him fighting in the trenches with you. You'd turn round constantly thinking where is he". I wouldn't worry about him "in the trenches" with me any more than I would Cook, Palmer or Devine. I'd realise that he has a languid style which isn't the same as the more fist pumping one that Cook or the energetic Palmer.

But ultimately, getting back to footie, I'd realise (as I did last season) that he's not a defensive midfield player and hence wouldn't be insulting his character, when he sometimes fail at this

Hence my initial comment, i.e. given the number of creative players we have - he's low down on the list, we need a more defensive midfield player if we're playing Cook and three of Oteh, McCartan, Connolly, Prichard or Ismail

Meanwhile, given that he's in the team through injuries and we are second, it'd be good if we supported his 'improvement' rather than want to prove he's still the same docile oaf of last season

 

I overheard a Crawley staff member outlining the difference between us and them +- we get an injury, we just bring in an experienced midfielder like Akpan.

Needless to say, Akpan used to be one of Crawley's best players.

It's like us going to Sunderland, and they just casually bring a million pound striker like Wyke on.

It's all about levels, and for the right wage, Akpan would not be short of L2 suitors.

Given the level he has played at, he may also have L1 suitors

 

Sure, I get that there are clubs that Akpan has played at where he did well - Burton for example. I suppose I imagined that clubs looking for an effective, experienced midfielder, to help them avoid relegation or aid a promotion push, would do their homework on how he's played since he's been with us and then swiftly move elsewhere. Hopefully desperation overrides logic and that's not the case.