Just Back

From Mullarkeys Wiki Page

He has been described as a "modern ball playing centre-back".[14] He "primarily plays as a right-sided centre-half, which remains his favoured position, although has also served as a defensive central midfielder and a right-back on other occasions".[13]

Perhaps we are just playing him out of position

Quoted from Norseman

From Mullarkeys Wiki Page

He has been described as a "modern ball playing centre-back".[14] He "primarily plays as a right-sided centre-half, which remains his favoured position, although has also served as a defensive central midfielder and a right-back on other occasions".[13]

Perhaps we are just playing him out of position

IIRC, he had an absolute mare at CB, and it cost us badly.

I still find it strange that we let Cropper go , he was at least the same level as Mullarkey but had that long throw weapon -- I found it puzzling that Hurst didn't use him more when he was fit that first season back as it would have been highly effective in league 2 I'm sure .

Quoted from Mappers

I still find it strange that we let Cropper go , he was at least the same level as Mullarkey but had that long throw weapon -- I found it puzzling that Hurst didn't use him more when he was fit that first season back as it would have been highly effective in league 2 I'm sure .

I still find it strange we let Podge go and Clive Mendonca and Kev Drinkell before that 🤔. Cropper was not a League Two standard defender.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I still find it strange we let Podge go and Clive Mendonca and Kev Drinkell before that 🤔. Cropper was not a League Two standard defender.

Any less a league 2 defender than Amos,Efete or Mullarkey though ?

He at least had a key atribute imo.

Cropper was a100% better defender than efete & to suggest he wasn't a better defender than mullarkey is laughable the problem he had was a poor injury record that's the only reason hurst let him go

Quoted from fishcake63

Cropper was a100% better defender than efete & to suggest he wasn't a better defender than mullarkey is laughable the problem he had was a poor injury record that's the only reason hurst let him go

Yep. So good that he doesn’t get a start for Barnet in the non league.

I think Efete is decent defensively due to his physical attributes. However, he's not good enough on the ball for the way which Artell (and Hurst before him, this season) wanted to play. I suspect he'll end up back in the National League next season, where he'll do a good job for somebody.

You don't see many specialist full-backs as tall as Mullarkey, or at least not successful full-backs, and it's not a coincidence. As good as those crosses were on Saturday, he didn't do nearly enough to try to stop them and, if a specialist full-back had been in the team, he would only have needed to stop one of them to give us the win. (OK, that's obviously simplifying things, but you get my gist).

I can see why Mullarkey might be good in a back three, given his attributes, but it doesn't look like that is Artell's preferred formation.

Unless somebody comes in during January, I suspect the defence will be make do and mend until the summer comes around.

Quoted from Mappers

I still find it strange that we let Cropper go , he was at least the same level as Mullarkey but had that long throw weapon -- I found it puzzling that Hurst didn't use him more when he was fit that first season back as it would have been highly effective in league 2 I'm sure .

Cropper, great throw and was hugely influential in our play off run, but he's never a league footballer.
It's no coincidence he's straight back in the national league. He's also made out of paper  

Quoted from 123614

I think some people sometimes forget we are a 4th Division side.

So are Walsall and all the teams above us.