Why Worrall over Katic ?

I think Katic is the better of the 2, but looking at today's game and the game against the Austrians Worrall being a bit more physical might have been the better choice. Hearts and the Austrians were both physical teams and Worrall is a big guy, I think that might have been in the managers thinking.
 
CaptainObjective said:
At the time, it was debatable whether they should have been playing. They deserve their slots as it stands. Worrall however is a red flag given Katic has been outstanding. Having competition is absolutely irrelevant and pointless if your performing well and being dropped for no reason. Katic must be raging and rightly so.

Wrong, it was a good few number of weeks ago when I suggested Middleton deserves a run. Since then Kent has upped his game and is performing well. How consistent he can be remains to be seen. I made a comment about wanting Halliday on instead of Ejaria after the Livingston game. That was my thoughts during that game. Nothing unreasonable about it as Ejaria was appalling.

Katic is the more complete defender. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. You will struggle to find anyone who thinks otherwise. That in itself is telling.
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Except Gerrard. People seem desperate for intrigue. A manager makes footballing decisions. It would seem bizarre for SG to decide Villarreal, Vienna and Hearts were the games to get Worrall's minutes in for the sake of it.

You mentioned Middleton ahead of Kent last week:

"I'd say Kent has been useful in recent games but you could argue Middleton should be playing ahead of him. Ejaria on the other hand...when you start wanting Halliday to start ahead of him - look out, the alarm bells are going off."

https://www.followfollow.com/forum/...st-the-manager-and-players-today.48856/page-3


Anyway.
 
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Gerrard is working the squad very well, weighing up the opposition and then using the players who are best suited to that particular game in his judgement.

Also does anyone seriously think that Gerrard would have taken a player on loan with the stipulation from the parent club that his place must be guaranteed, not a chance.

Gerrard is his own man who will make his own decisions in the way he sees things and so far he isn't doing too much wrong.
 
Some Bears just absolutely need to have a whipping boy eh?

No Windass here to abuse any more. Early doors Kent and Ejaria looked like they could fill the whipping boy hole but they're now regarded as two of our best players so that fecked that.

Step forward Joe Worrall now I guess.
 
I keep seeing folk saying that Worrall would be more suited to the physical side of the game today

An injustice to Katic who hasn’t shirked a challenge yet and infact ended up with a split head last month due to not holding back from a header
 
bilkobear said:
There may have been an element of this.
Big Joe is a very decent defender, but there is no doubt in my mind that Nikola is a better footballer in most departments.
Joe just might have it strength wise.

I don't know why Katic is out of the team at the moment, but I think Gerrard has always wanted to ensure he doesn't burn such young players out and that Nikola played an awful lot of football early in the season.
I have a wee feeling that Stevie the Ger will know what he is doing.
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Why play ejaria and Kent so frequently considering there youthfulness and inexperience?
Think it’s obvious there’s a contractual issue for Worrell getting the nod over an inform Katic.
 
Worral has played well but at the end of the day he is a loan player , Katic has done nothing wrong and if both are playing well which they are then the player who is signed to the club should play
 
gersandproud said:
Stevie G described Katic as the baby of the side - I believe this was a reference to his age

Stevie G also made a derogatory reference to Pedro's decision to push McCrorie as a 1st choice and future international - presumably believing it was too early in his development to expose him this much

IMHO these 2 quotes from our gaffer offer a clue - that maybe he sees Katic in danger of burning out & may have decided to rest him for the moment

If correct - then it makes sense to me & could also mean that Katic could return all the stronger

I know there are other players of a similar age that are being played more constantly at the moment - but maybe they'll be rested later as well - avoiding problems like lack of stamina before it happens ?
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Yeah, those are good points actually and I agree with your take on it.

I think Stevie G has a very definite idea of how he wants to develop and improve some of our younger talent and will be very careful of running them into the ground while also keeping them hungry.

The recent dropping of Katic is an example of this I think. Niko has played a lot of football in his first few months here and while he has been incredibly impressive, it will be the first time in his career that's he's ever experienced such a busy schedule of successive games. So maybe it could be a wise call to give him a few games off and thoroughly bed in Worral as our third option CH (who we will undoubtedly need as the season continues).

And as we've seen from their press conferences together, the gaffer and Katic both clearly have loads of mutual admiration / respect so I firmly believe Katic will still be absolutely committed and we'll see him still play loads of games for us in the season ahead.

And Worral was very good on Thursday night and decent again today so no problem for me with the big man's form. The prospect of going through the rest of the season with any 2 of these 3 as our CH options is fine with me, such s huge improvement on last year's Alves / Cardoso / Wilson / Bates omni-shambles.
 
There’s a perception of Worral that he isn’t a better player than Katic. Because he has taken the spot of a player who became a favourite very quickly. I think Worral is a better all round defender than Katic and he has played well the last 2 games. There’s a long season ahead plenty game time for everyone
 
Katic for me every game but it’s good to have depth in the squad if we want to go far in all competitions. JW is a good solid defender and we need to keep him match sharp
 
Gerrard selected Worrall ahead of Katic against Rapid Vienna and Hearts today and we've won both games 3-1.

What's the problem?
 
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MearnsUnionist said:
Gerrard sekected Worrall ahead of Katic against Rapid Vienna and Hearts today and we've won both games 3-1.

What's the problem?

Bit of a strange thread.
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It’s actually not strange at all to wonder why arguably our best centre back isn’t playing.
 
Big debate before the game today with my mates about Katic v Worrall.For the life of us we can’t understand how Katic has fell out of favour with Stevie G.Katic looks the better player and the Hearts CF gave Worrall a roasting at times today.Hey ho what do we know in Stevie G we trust.
 
Worral has been played twice in two games and it can’t be denied that it’s paid off- he’s done well in both of them.

None of us really know what the situation is so we can only speculate.

That being said, I am a big fan of Katic and if I had to pick would take him over Worral at this stage.
 
I much prefer Katic in there. It's good to have options I guess though. I'd start Katic, but I don't know as much about football at Stevie. :)
 
Burgh-Ger said:
We have loads of games coming up!
Having both match fit is essesntial! People wetting the bed at Warroll getting game time are crazy!!
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I don't think they are " wetting the bed".. but genuinely interested as to why the betteer of the 2 is being picked for the big games we have now. Nothing wrong with that.
 
BrooklynBlue said:
Except Gerrard. People seem desperate for intrigue. A manager makes footballing decisions. It would seem bizarre for SG to decide Villarreal, Vienna and Hearts were the games to get Worrall's minutes in for the sake of it.

You mentioned Middleton ahead of Kent last week:

"I'd say Kent has been useful in recent games but you could argue Middleton should be playing ahead of him. Ejaria on the other hand...when you start wanting Halliday to start ahead of him - look out, the alarm bells are going off."

https://www.followfollow.com/forum/...st-the-manager-and-players-today.48856/page-3


Anyway.
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It's still early days with Worrall. He's probably still catching up in terms of match sharpness. If he keeps playing and starts looking the part, Gerrard will be proven correct. It's just frustrating to see our own player playing really well and being dropped to accommodate a loanee. We are effectively developing another clubs player to the detriment of our own. Just woeful imo.

If Ejaria was dropped for Halliday against Rapid no one could have had a complaint. He was absolutely horrendous against Livingston. Given Middletons performance against Ayr one could argue he deserved at run out. These are not ridiculous suggestions by any means. I suspect both Kent and Ejaria will frustrate us as the season goes on as they are both young players and will be inconsistent. It will be interesting to see what happens when one of them doesn't perform for a few games. All will be revealed in time.
 
Few lacklustre moments from Worral yesterday it has to be said.

Trust our management team know what they are doing.

I’m choosing to look at it as a show of strength.

We’ve just won in Europe and beaten the league leaders while resting our first choice defence.

Get it up them.
 
Sir Walter said:
I keep seeing folk saying that Worrall would be more suited to the physical side of the game today

An injustice to Katic who hasn’t shirked a challenge yet and infact ended up with a split head last month due to not holding back from a header
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If Worral is physically stronger then in what way is it an injustice?
 
Katic is the better player for sure. He's also our own player, would much rather see us develop him with experience than increase the value of one of Nottingham Forest's players.
 
Worrall was muscled off the ball by their big striker in the first couple of minutes, only a great save by McGregor saved us. He lost his man in the first minute against Rapid as well. Would much rather have Katic in.
 
In my opinion katic is the better defender but I think all four central defenders will see plenty game time as the season goes on.
 
Worrall has a better range of passing id say and is maybe a little more comfortable on the ball.
Nice problem to have.
 
loyd_grossman said:
Worrall was muscled off the ball by their big striker in the first couple of minutes, only a great save by McGregor saved us. He lost his man in the first minute against Rapid as well. Would much rather have Katic in.
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It was Worrall who was beaten in the air for the Hearts goal as well.
 
I find it a bit of mystery tbh. Fair enough if Katic had a few shaky games you could see him being dropped, but that didn't happen. Went from one of the 1st names on the team sheet to sitting on the bench seemingly through no fault of his own ... I would imagine he must be scratching his head.
 
There must be some kind of minimum game clause in his contract and Gerrard is using this time to eat into that whilst getting three central defenders match fit. He has played really well though and although you can argue deserves a starting spot Katic didnt do anything to deserve being dropped.

The main reason id rather see Katic in the side ahead of him is that Katic is our player whereas Worrall is on loan and given the size of previous bids for him I dont think we can afford to keep him at the end of the season, whereas Katic is here for the long term
 
Chastu said:
did we win today?
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The most naive and short sighted response I’ve ever seen on here. So as long as we win, we shouldn’t be looking at what could be better?

Worral losses too many aerial challenges due to poor timing and seems to be like a headless chicken at times. Also, no striker should be allowed to go past someone like Ikpeazu did today.

I fear a bit of the English unity is in play here, with this back 4 being selected for big games. I have no issue with the other 3, but Katic is a better player IMO.

Goldson/Katic played 15, lost 1, 7 shut outs

Goldson/Worral, played 4, Lost 1, ZERO shut outs

Goldson and Katic we’re creating an aura of invincibility at the back. Worral has conceded in every game with Goldson.
 
I can’t understand why some on here refuse to believe the contractual side of it. Almost all loans have an agreement of number of games the players will play and if they don’t there is a financial penalty imposed, it’s pretty standard. What I think will be the bigger factor is Gerrard obviously has good contacts down south and that lets him sign some cracking loan players. If we don’t play them and end up in a scenario where the scum were last year, he loses that respect and opportunity.
 
Fu Manchu said:
Big debate before the game today with my mates about Katic v Worrall.For the life of us we can’t understand how Katic has fell out of favour with Stevie G.Katic looks the better player and the Hearts CF gave Worrall a roasting at times today.Hey ho what do we know in Stevie G we trust.
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He went past him about once.
 
Worrall has played well in last 2 games after shaky start to his Rangers career but for me it should be Goldson and Katic at the back. Katic is better defender than Worrall though both look to be good additions
 
midlandbear said:
The most naive and short sighted response I’ve ever seen on here. So as long as we win, we shouldn’t be looking at what could be better?

Worral losses too many aerial challenges due to poor timing and seems to be like a headless chicken at times. Also, no striker should be allowed to go past someone like Ikpeazu did today.

I fear a bit of the English unity is in play here, with this back 4 being selected for big games. I have no issue with the other 3, but Katic is a better player IMO.

Goldson/Katic played 15, lost 1, 7 shut outs

Goldson/Worral, played 4, Lost 1, ZERO shut outs

Goldson and Katic we’re creating an aura of invincibility at the back. Worral has conceded in every game with Goldson.
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Oh FFS, now it's racism.
Some right lunatics on this thread.
FREEEEEE -DUMB
 
Amato Turn said:
Absolute nonsense.

Katic may well be a better player than Worrall but what you've said there is rubbish.
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Katic played a lot of games at the start of the season, he is still young and will be back.

Perhaps the Manager just feels he needs a break.
 
I for one am ecstatic that Worrals getting a run. Pre-his exposure to the first team, we'd have been bricking it had one of goldson or katic been injured or even banned. Could you imagine going into an old firm with an untested youth making his debut in worral? Our nerves would transfer onto him. The weight of responsibility ready to crush him...

This way: the pressues not on worral. Its a reward for his good training. Its advertising the club to him if ever we get the chance to sign him, and if he does screw up the blames on Gerrard for making the call by choosing him instaed of Katic. Now so long as hes been communicating to katic too so that he understands this to keep them both happy, then its just another example of how we have a world class manager in the making!

I prefer Katic... but should we NEED to call on Worral when it really counts now, he and the fans will be considerably less nervous!
 
I think both are good defenders but I prefer katic.

But I thought the deal with Forrest assured that we gave him first team football ?
 
Worrall is very good and so is Katic and it’s great to have them fighting to get a start in the team for me Katic is number one but having someone like big Joe breathing down your neck is good
 
A1bertz said:
Worrall has a better range of passing id say and is maybe a little more comfortable on the ball.
Nice problem to have.
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Worral has some good attributes. His use of the ball is not one of them. Katic is a far superior passer of the ball.
 
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