On paper, Russell Martin is the perfect Premier League centre-back. Photogenic, speaks well and is the model professional that young players can look up to and his teammates can respect. But then we get down to his defending ability. Although he was selected in the Championship team of the year last season, much to the astonishment of more than a few Canary fans, Martin made regular errors at the heart of the Norwich defence. However, they were more often than not overlooked by the fact that we outscored the opposition so his mistakes went unnoticed and uncriticised by the majority of the City faithful.
The problem we had last season was that Martin didn’t have serious competition for his place in the team. As captain, he was guaranteed to start and the fact that the competition he did have consisted of the underwhelming Jos Hoovield, Ignasi Miquel, Michael Turner and Carlos Cuellar meant his place was never really in doubt. Add that with Sebastian Bassong’s absence in the first half of the season meant Norwich lacked good quality options at the back so we essentially had to make do. Even after making the mistake for Ipswich’s equaliser in the play-off semi final first leg, Martin looked out of his depth.But we ultimately won over the two legs and then beat Middlesbrough convincingly at Wembley to reclaim our place amongst England’s elite so all was forgiven and everyone went on their summer holidays satisfied that the job was finally done.
However it wasn’t. Certainly not for the transfer committee anyway who seemed to have been granted an extended summer break themselves by the time it took them to bring in the reinforcements we so greatly needed. But even after seven summer signings later and with the quality at the back even more depleted following the departures of the aforementioned Turner, Cuellar, Miquel and Hoovield returning back to Southampton meant Norwich were left with just three senior centre-backs for the new Premier League season. Only Andre Wisdom,a right-back from Liverpool, arrived on loan to add to the wafer thin Norwich defence. So Martin started the season with a flurry of goals from the back which seemed to distract from the fact that his general defending play was average at best.
Now, this isn’t a dig at our captain because he has been a fantastic servant at the club but he isn’t a Premier League standard centre-back. His determination and love for the club is second to none, if you cut him he will bleed yellow and green and for that he is a rightful fans favourite. Earlier this season, Martin travelled back and forth from Liverpool to Norwich to watch his baby boy being born in the early hours of the morning to then fly back up to Merseyside and score Norwich’s equaliser in their 1-1 draw having had little to no sleep. But this doesn’t excuse the fact that Martin must be reverted back to the right-back that used to bomb forward on the wing and score the occasional goal.
More recently, Martin was sent off against Manchester City for a deliberate hand-ball to stop a certain goal following John Ruddy’s mistake. This has opened the door for fit again third choice Ryan Bennett to get a run in the team following a watching brief for the majority of the season, having only appeared in cup matches and only sparingly in the league. He took Martin’s place last weekend against Swansea in which Norwich ended a four match winless streak in the league to win 1-0 and secured a first clean sheet of the season too. Now, it would be unfair to say that Norwich secured that clean sheet because Martin wasn’t playing. But it is a coincidence that the only other one this season was in the 3-0 victory over West Brom in the Capital One Cup, a game in which Martin also didn’t play in.
Ruddy has come under all sorts of criticism in recent weeks following inconsistent performances so why does Martin seem to dodge the bullets? I love our captain as much as the next Norwich fan but the club comes first and the jury on Martin at centre-back is certainly out. Norwich face Chelsea and Arsenal after the international break and Martin will be expected to return from suspension. Both games will be a stern test for Norwich’s defensive unit but if Bennett does retain his place and impresses then Martin’s place in the team may be in serious danger. At right-back he was a solid 7/10 every week, you knew what you were going to get from him every game. At centre-back, he’s turned into a liability.
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