Thetownend.com

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He has had a season and a bit now, we have seen him play good. But i think today i have had enough of watching his crosses go into the stands and his first touches go 2 miles in front of him.

He can be a decent player and should be a better player.

Discuss

I've hardly been to the CG since Shakes' arrival but it seems to me he's just a one trick pony - pace.

His movement isn't the best and his touches/kicking is worse.

its a hard one johno,his work rate is second to none positioning wise he is good and he tackles back as good as anyone else and i honestly dont think you will find a better winger in the league who can do those jobs he does..

on the flip side his bad points are to easy to notice as i think he COULD be a amazing winger.my one hope for him is that he has only been pro just over a year and can only improve(i hope)

ince will come in and weston will go on the right i think.

shakes tracks back well, he can run at players and wins quite a few headers when defending but the plain fact is he cannot cross, end of!

I think Wise will make him work hard on crossing and shooting. If this pays off he wil be perhaps the best winger in Lg2. Otherwise it may be necessary to drop him in place of Weston.

I for one would prefer to keep him in the side and hope he improves but at is a tough call

Shakes has improved on last season. I think his touch and control is much better. How many times do you see him mis controlling it and it bouncing off the pitch these days?

If his final ball was better, he would be a very good winger. Same with his finishing.

I have seen improvement in his game....still needs to work on the final ball though

he's still only, what, 21? he'll improve. he's getting into the right positions and could quite easily have had a hat-trick today.

first touch is woefull and cannot cross the ball,but tries and runs his heart out and his positional play is exellent.

johno has it right exept i doubt he will get much better. you cannot teach someone to control a football or cross it.
 we're top of the league and won every game so until we lose i wont  slate him to much as he aint costing us games.YET!

do you not think his first touch has improved since last season Arriba?

not at all.

really?

I dont remember him failing to control the ball and the ball rolling off the pitch at all this season, where as it happened all the time last season.

I think there has been some improvement with his control.

But he didn't because his first touch is piss poor and always takes the ball about 6 foot away from him.

Not one cross went to a Swindon player today. Couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo comes to mind.

no just rolling to an opposing player.same as always

i dont think he should be in the team, he played better than usual today but shouldnt be starting

Shakes is awful. It's simple really, he doesn't know what to do when the ball is at his feet.

I admit he works hard, but he doesn't have the basic skills required to be a professional footballer.

All shakes does is run fast and win corners. To be fair, he does give 100%, but that shouldnt gurantee a starting place every week. Once we add a few more midfielders, i cant see his name being on the starting line-up.

It's a frustration alright. 80% of the time he is woeful when it comes to end product.. But he worries opposition with his pace.

He gives 100% and by definition you can't ask more than that from him. If he gets dropped fair enough, but I don't have a problem with him in the team

i think he's ace. i do think he's another confidence player and we've seen him improve this season, just gotta hope as the team gets better and starts to get the ball into good positions for him to run at people or cross the ball he'll follow and get better and better.

if not we should shoot him

When we win I couldn't give a flying fuck how any of them play. We've won our 5th on the trot. Lets enjoy it. We all know RS is shit but at the moment I couldn't care fucking less.

no he's not. i refer you to my previous statement

are people slating him for miscontrolling the ball in midair with the keeper coming at him full pelt?

he's not the most naturally gifted footballer and his crosses have improved a bit but with the ball at his feet he's not too bad, tricky, pacey and beats his man.

should have scored today but on the plus side, he's getting into the right positions.

tricky as he fools himself,pacy as he's to fast for his own good,and beats his man when his touch is so heavy it decieves everyone. usually results in a corner after a woefull cross.
only reason he hit the bar was because he miss hit it!would have cleared the town end!

are you that keen on having an argument arriba?  8)

nah as i'm right :wink:

i disagree!

argue then

i did. my thoughts are well documented in this thread.

i would like to clarify i wasn't offering you an argument, i was just asking if you were being obnoxious for a reason?  :mrgreen:

He's just so unassured.Pity

he's probably so nervous cos he reads arriba's posts  :cry:

i like the endevour of shakes,its just everything else thats lacking

you're saying he's not even a nice person? do you know him? god you're a bastard aren't you

yep

you make me want to cry

please do

:cry:

Shakes should have had a hat trick today, like Wise said, he needs to calm down when in front of goal.  If he had scored a hat trick today you would have all been saying how wonderful he is.

Shakes shot that hit the bar today was superb and he was simply unlucky.

His final ball does need work but his ability to tackle, give 110% and get into some good positions I think proves him good enough to stay in the team.

I think he has so much potential and if Wise keeps working on it like he has been doing (hence the improvement from last season) he will be a fantastic winger.

final ball is missing not everything else,he has parts in his game that others dont thats football.you cant hide the fact that his pace and hard work has allowed the team to take a breather now and again

He needs to make more runs down the wing and it is then up to the rest of the team to pick them out. The positions he gets in are brilliant and if he can somehow learn to compose himself in front of goal he will be lethal breaking through or going round the back of defensive lines

Seeing the Shakes shot onto the bar on "The Championship" made him look like Ronaldihno getting it slightly wrong, it was superb.  8)

So he's not great with the crosses. Pook's not good with the passes, Vincent is rubbish at pace, and Roberts can't handle champagne - they've all got their faults.

His workload is one of the best in the team (along with Roberts) and his tackling back when he makes a mistake is superb.

I can't really fault the bloke, and he's one of only 3 players to have played all 6 matches so far this season. He can only get better.

He's a winger though, he needs to be able to cross. It's all very well getting into positions and making runs, but if there's no end product, it's pointless.

A bit of competition for Shakes can only make him better, probably, maybe, I think.

I'm fed up of the amount of time he simply fucks up. That header. The one on one where his first touch shinned it to the keeper. There really is no excuse.

Shakes has been good this season but theres no doubt he needs to improve his finishing and crossing

I like ricky shakes because he goes well fast.

I like Ricky....I'll always like a player who tries 100%,  even if they're a bit limited.

 If Ricky was the finished product he wouldn't be with us.....

good point reg, i used to love (and hate) sabin because he was useless but tried his best.

there is. he's not left footed (the one is the first half). the second half one i think he just lost his bottle. and the header he caught too cleanly

Extracts from
"Bennetts book of nonsensical excuses - Volume 2"

Get some liver down your neck - you clearly haven't enough iron in your blood to feed your brain with oxygen.

surely i don't have enough for 2 volumes? unless the first is just lots of pictures...

i just think we should praise him for getting into positions where he can score, ok he's kacked up but he'll come good

on seeing shakes' shot that hit the bar again, he definitely didn't mishit it. he struck it pretty sweetly.

perhaps he's left-footed but doesn't realise  :D

His decision making is pretty poor as well, for instance in the second-half when he put yet another cross over the bar, the perfect ball to play was along the ground towards the penalty spot.  

I actually think the shot that hit the bar was a bit of a fluke, and his touch really did let him down on Roberts ball.  The header I wouldn't blame him for at all.

I still don't mind him being in the team though, and I think he'll create and score a few goals simply through endeavour this season.

I just think how many more goals we'd score with a winger who could cross...

A good touch is usually natural and people like shakes will always have a shit one. Yes he has pace and can track back to do his defensive duties. But with his abysmal crossing, and woeful finishing he should be a reserve.

i think the answer would be minimal.

monkhouse crossing- we'd have peacock outnumbered and then shakes at the far post. roberts outside the area

shakes crossing (if it came in  :soapy tit wank: ) - peacock out numbered and then monky and roberts outside the area

Jamie Curteon=Scored Goals but didnt want to be hear
Ricky Shakes= Makes mistake but trys his heart out 110%
Shakes all the time.

Shakes is really beginning to frustrate me. Surely Wise has noticed how bad his crossing is?

you'd hope so. Couldn't brown have a go out on the right or something? or is brown just left footed? i dont have a clue.

we play long ball most of the time. i don't think we'll see the best of shakes or monkhouse until we can start to pass the ball about, so by the time we're in the championship probably

To be fair to Wise they have played a lot more football this year than in recent seasons. Definitely an improvement! But at this level you are never going to see slick passing and close control for a whole game, the hoof is inevitable.

oh i agree. we're playing hoof ball with some style! compared to last season it's jaw dropping.

I think we've played some damn good football at times.

still we haven't got another out and out right winger have we?

monky can play on either wing

i think he's shitter than shakes

there aint alot in it,dmr.

tis true

give shakes a chance, i reckon he'll improve and that can only happen if he's learning on the pitch

how can Monky play on the right, he's left footed.

As I said I think Shakes general play (apart from crossing) is improving. So I've now got some faith in him.....but we do need another right winger and have done since the start of last season.

shakes is ace. whits has adopted him as his pet player, and i think its doing him the world of good. he tries, every game i've seen since the start of last season, he's tried and tried and tried.



plus he's got a cool name. FACT.

I still think we shpould play Fola on the right, he is hardly likely to start up front for a while and he is lightning fast and can actually pass/cross the ball.

Shakes shot on saturday was a fluke. He might of meant it but he cant even shoot / cross with his "better" right foot let alone his left.

His crossing is annoying, but on the other hand he works harder than 95% of wingers so effortwise you cant really have a pop at him. I also think hes one of the fittest players in the squad.

We do need another right winger though.

Crosses in the stands... or the goal ala Barnet!

Aaron Lennon can't cross his legs but he's a shu-in for the right sided position for England at some point. Henry was the same at Juve but unlike Arsenal they couldn't harness his potential. You'd be gutted if he disappeared down the road to City, Rovers or the Pox and became an Henry-esque goal machine!!

Ricky is still develping. He's ten times better this year than last, has pace to burn and is regularly getting in the right scoring positions to-boot. With maturity and experience should come composure. With composure will come one hell of a player. For me, that's not too far away.

Putting all the usual frustrations with Shakes aside, what I like about him is his ability to simply just make something happen. Much like Roberts he's able to lift the team & the crowd in quiet spells of a game by turning, running and getting beyond defenders.

Not sure he will continue to be a regular starter once Wisey finishes putting his team together, but personally reckon Ricky's deserving of more time. A confidence player who is still learning the game, if he keeps up his work rate and continues to develop, he could prove to be a real asset in this league.

Only his second full season with a proffessional side, and if he continues improving in the manner in which he has so far we could have a right gem on our hands next season.