Berra hid behind stand out performances alongside him - he was always the number 2 central defender.
The club need to make the hard (easy) decision to bench him and go with the Halkett/Souttar partnership, and let's not pretend, those 2 will be the National teams main defenders for years to come.
Berra prior to his injury was unreal, his reading of the game and tackling were brilliant and he never lost a header. Since his injury whatever pace he had is gone and it's affected his reading of the game big time.
(09-01-2019, 10:51 AM)Felix Wrote: Berra hid behind stand out performances alongside him - he was always the number 2 central defender.
The club need to make the hard (easy) decision to bench him and go with the Halkett/Souttar partnership, and let's not pretend, those 2 will be the National teams main defenders for years to come.
I agree with that.
Not questioning his defending but as a football player he is ridiculously poor. It's not a new thing. He's actually making more effort not to launch it but it's panic stations every time he has the ball. I feel sorry for him as he clearly isn't fit.
(09-01-2019, 10:55 AM)Arthur Morphan Wrote: Berra was outstanding last year. Let's not go overboard when an ageing players legs have went. It happens to all of them.
In 2017/18 but not last season, the signs of decline were clear after he came back from injury.
The harsh reality is a player like Berra does not age well. It's quite depressing to see it unfold so quickly as he was an solid, strong defender who never failed to play less than 30 games a season from 2007 until last year. Time comes for us all.
09-01-2019, 02:10 PM (Edited 09-01-2019, 02:10 PM by Morph.)
(09-01-2019, 01:36 PM)Snake Plissken Wrote: In 2017/18 but not last season, the signs of decline were clear after he came back from injury.
The harsh reality is a player like Berra does not age well. It's quite depressing to see it unfold so quickly as he was an solid, strong defender who never failed to play less than 30 games a season from 2007 until last year. Time comes for us all.
Fair enough, he was still a good CB for us I would have said last season though but not as good as season 1.
Berra was never given time to recover after any injury, he was back in the squad almost immediately and at that age it's going to take its toll. He has run through brick walls for us in his second spell and has put his body on the line, not going to slate him as he gives it everything but this is the problem with players at that age.
Eventually it will happen to Naismith too although at least with him it looks like we've went the other way and tried to protect him as much as possible with niggles. Berra could've broken his leg and he would've been shoved back in as soon as the stookie was off.