It was a big problem last season with Parker, and before him it was a bit of an issue in Shearer's last year or two. We had a captain that, arguably, shouldn't have been playing every game for us but was undroppable due to his captain status and the apparent problems dropping him might have caused.

And, low and behold...



The same thing could be about to happen with our new captain, Geremi.

Emerged as the obvious choice in pre-season due to his good form, experience and natural calmness on the ball and apparent good attitude and influence in the dressing room.

But, as everyone gets fit in CM I wonder if Geremi is going to be someone we want in our starting line-up.

Not a natural DM by any means, works hard but doesn't get about the place and break up play to the level that Butt does, and doesn't seem to have a natural ability to assess danger and protect the back 4 accordingly.

Not a box-to-box player either and his passing and creativity isn't particularly outstanding so not a playmaker. Useful to have in midfield as he's generally pretty decent at everything, without being really outstanding at anything in particular.

If Emre gets fullly fit and playing well (massive question marks over that tbf) I'd have him in ahead of Geremi every day of the week.

Will Sam drop him if needs be? I'd like to think so.

What happens then though? Deputy Captain?

Barton seems a good bet, always gonna play when fit you'd imagine and it'd give him some responsibility without going the whole way.

Big Sam will not be afraid to drop anyone if its needed.

After a brilliant pre-season his form has dipped a bit. I don't think he's playing poorly as a few have suggested, rather just average. When Barton, Butt, Faye, Emre and Smith are all vying for those two or three positions then there may be times when he's not worthy of a first team place.

Problem is there's no outstanding, undroppable player in our squad (yet). There are even calls to drop the likes of Owen and Given. One might yet emerge, but it could cause a stir taking the captaincy off Geremi permanently.

I guess Sam will have to try and play down the significance of the armband early doors.

i'd drop butt.
we'd lose something in set pieces if geremi was omitted

he can and should be dropped on occasions.

he is a decent player, but not exactly our gerrard, terry or the shearer of old tbh. So i hope sam will have the nerve to do what is right for the team, and i think he will!

Just thought i'd rock the boat and add 79% of Geremi's passes were accurate. The highest out of our whole midfield.

I'm sure these are the sort of stats Big Sam will be looking at and analysing.

Didn't see the match on Saturday myself but I thought in the previous games he really didn't try anything adventurous and most of his passes were safe, efficient ones. That's fin if you're a holding midfielder, but we can't be playing with two of them and I think Butt does the job better.

i just don't rate butt really.. usually loses the ball, passing is average- i just think geremi brings more to the table. not much worse at tackling either..

Did Sam ever drop Nolan at Bolton?

Agree with KaKa I think Geremi is much more effective than Butt and it was interesting last week that it Was Geremi that was holding whilst Butt broke further forward as opposed to the reverse against Villa. I thought against Villa and Barnsley it was noticable how we tried to play from the back as opposed to hitting long balls into Viduka like we did against Villa. Granted Villa were the best team of the three and that Capaca only played the last two but to me Geremi has been solid and the best of the central midfielders.

On a side note I think Sam needs to have a word with Butt and Smith about staying on their feet - get them to watch Capaca.

We won't need Geremi and Butt, when Emre and Barton are back and in my opinion Butt is better in the holding role.

Geremi may do his work quietly, but that doesn't mean he doesn't do any. Geremi had the highest pass accuracy in the midfield in the game against Wigan (79%), and he also made more passes than any other player in the team (70, which is more than twice Butt's 33). Furthermore, he won more balls than any other player in the team.

Got all that from the Telegraph .

I think Butt is underrated going forward. He seems to get himself into good positions when he ventures forward, should be encouraged to do it a bit more I think/