‘Talking Points’ is a new feature that will be introduced to the blog for this season. Every Monday we will take some major ‘talking points’ from the week’s news at Peterborough and throughout general football and give our opinions on these matters. This is where you, the reader, come in though. We will try to make our comments controversial, they are our views, and we want to know whether you agree or disagree with our opinions. The nature of our other pieces don’t encourage comments, or at least give you the chance to talk about things other than the match and this is something we feel the blog is missing; some reader interaction. This feature will not work without you commenting so we would massively appreciate it if you would join the debate.

THIS WEEK’S TOPICS:

• Nana Nai or Nana no? Does Gary Johnson need to buy a new left back before the close of the transfer window?
• Split up the Mac-Attack? After three goals in his last fifteen league fixtures is it time Craig Mackail-Smith is given a spell on the bench?
• Home sweet home. Ahead of our game at Plymouth what is the answer to our away jitters?
• The general football debate. Is it fair that team’s with financial difficulties such as Cardiff and Crystal Palace are able to pay excessive wages on the likes of Craig Bellamy and Edgar Davids?

THE DEBATE – Should Seth Nana Be Dropped?

After signing from Chelsea in the summer, with supposed Champions League interest from FC Twente, much hype surrounded Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi, or Nana for short, but after two consecutive abject performances it has to be time Gary Johnson dropped him. Personally, I become worried every time he is defending it is clear that his positional sense is non-existent, perhaps due to a lack of experience, but he  is a real worry. Johnson has replaced him at half-time in consecutive games now with Tommy Rowe, who appears to be the main back-up for this position, slotting in, and performing well, but once again I don’t believe Rowe is a left-back. He is a winger but will struggle to get into the team with competition from George Boyd in that position.

There is one option though that Johnson hasn’t tried. Charlie Lee. Lee excelled in this position in the second half our promotion campaign in 2008-2009 with his performances gaining him the player of the season award for the second consecutive year. In my opinion Lee has to be the first choice replacement for Nana, who as good as he is going forward, needs to be dropped.

Of course we do have one other left-back at the club in Scott Griffiths. He, however, has been loaned out to Chesterfield, where the fans seem to of taken to him. Was it right to allow Griffiths out on loan? Griffiths, for me, was similar to Nana in the sense that his positioning was equally awful. He was regularly wrong sided, albeit at a higher level, and found himself making goal saving challenges because of this.

THE DEBATE – Do We Drop C-M-S?

If any other striker at this football club had only scored 3 goals in 15 league games I would be expecting him to be on the bench. Such is the reputation Mackail-Smith has amongst fans very little pressure has been but on Johnson to try out, new signings, Dave Hibbert or Lee Tomlin.

In my opinion Mackail-Smith hasn’t looked himself of late and a short spell on the bench may do him some good; he will at least know that his place is not one that will always be his. We can hope that his goal against Huddersfield will give him the confidence to rekindle the form that he once had at this level but giving him a rest may be the best option at the moment.

Having said this, the fact this side has scored 12 goals in 4 matches shows how much attacking prowess we do posses. George Boyd and Aaron McLean have been fantastic so far and to be fair to Mackail-Smith, despite lacking confidence, you cannot say his performances have been poor. The only problem is with this goal-scoring record it just goes to show that for all the running he does he must become more clinical. Is 3 goals in 15 games enough to warrant a place in the starting line-up? For me, it isn’t.

THE DEBATE – Why Are We So Bad Away From London Road?

Two wins away from home all season is appalling. That was our record last campaign. This year we expected better, perhaps it was the class of the opposition that was causing us to lose, but our first away match ended up with us losing 5-1 to Bournemouth. A terrible result, especially when you consider the fact that we should be chasing promotion. So how do we change this then?

I honestly can’t pin-point an answer to this problem. Going defensive plays away from our strengths and ultimately plays into the opposition’s hands but we simply can’t go ‘gung-ho’ to try and win the game; there has to be an element of defensive mindedness on our travels in the way we set-up.

Personally, I can never understand why some teams struggle so much away from home. I’ve never bought into the idea of ‘home advantage’. Yes, you have more fans but how many times, especially in the lower levels, do the away fans create a better atmosphere than the home supporters. Surely the noise levels of the fans, although they can be a positive factor, can’t be the difference between a team looking like title contenders and a pub-team, can it? My opinion is that home advantage is a psychological thing, the only thing that changes for the visitors is the surroundings and with the quality that we posses it shouldn’t be such a massive issue as it is proving to be.

THE DEBATE – Should Clubs With Financial Difficulties Be Stopped From Signing Players With Huge Wage Demands?

A few months back Crystal Palace fans would have been fearing the worst. It didn’t look as if they would have a football club for much longer but fortunately they were saved just hours before the club would have been wound up. After coming out of administration and selling on Victor Moses to raise some much needed finances. Edgar Davids, yes the Edgar Davids, arrives at Selhurst Park. One would imagine that it wasn’t due to the attractiveness of the area or the fact that a few ‘Palace’ fans took time out to Tweet him but the fact that they were the only club that would pay the wages that he wanted to be on; even after two years out of the game. In the same week another club with winding-up petition’s looming over them, Cardiff City, announced their signing of Craig Bellamy from Manchester City on loan with ‘The Bluebirds’ apparently paying at least £20,000 a week towards his wage. How exactly can either club afford this calibre of player?

Portsmouth are another club that are an example of a team that spent way over their budget. Yes, it brought success, but at what price? They are now struggling to field a side and look destined to drop out of the Championship this season.  Football clubs can get away with things that any other business can’t; any other type of business in Portsmouth situation would have been shut-down a long time ago. Is it right that this club’s can just continue to spend and spend to buy some success knowing that, in all likelihood, they will get away with just a points deduction in the future?

It’s all over to you now. We want your opinions on these topics. It’s as simple as filling in the anti-spam box at the bottom of the page and commenting. Once I have approved one of your comments you will no longer need to wait for your comments to be moderated and they will appear on the blog straight away.