Marc-Antoine Fortune - Southend view (1 Viewer)

[Caravan]

Southend tried to sign a good many players over the summer - in particular we were looking for a better class of striker than we had last season but target after target weren't interested in coming to the club - many chosing to go to clubs in the same division which is not what you want to see.

So when MAF was on trial at the club there were many people who saw the possible signing of a 35 year old man let go by Coventry City as a sign that Southend United were in some trouble for the coming season.

And for a while MAF could only get time on the pitch as a 10 or 15 minute substitute for a team that was losing heavily away at places like Rochdale and Scunthorpe.

MAF's break come through injury to other players ............ and he has grabbed the chance by the scruff of the neck. He holds up the ball well, chases down the channels, gets past defenders with little tricks and shrugs of the shoulder or gets brought down in dangerous areas.

So far the signing of MAF has been excellent - so much so that he has been given a contract extension.

I just wondered what you thought of him whilst he was at Coventry and what was the history behind him being shown the door.

The Caravan Man

 

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[ConnorDevine]

Certainly didn't see any of that, basically a poor mans Tudgay in my opinion, and I don't hold Tudgay in especially high regard

 

[skybluesam66]

Caravan man from southend
Are you Freddie?

 

[covcity4life]

I never thought he was as poor as some on here though personally.

 

[rob9872]

He was piss poor but would be first on the team sheet versus the shower of shit we have this season.

 

[malkitccfc]

All he did was hold the ball up & it took him a minute to turn.. saw no footballing ability in him whatsoever.

Would go down as a Coventry City great if he was part of our current squad

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

He looked unplayable on one day, performance against Shrewsbury at home comes to mind.

However that was about the only game he showed up. 95% of the time he looked like a poor Sunday league footballer, and I'm not one to just throw about phrases like that. His touch was absymal, the legs had gone, he turned as slow as a truck and one of the worse finishers I've seen at the club. He was so bad that our fans resorted to mock chanting of 'Fortune, Fortune' every time he completed a successful pass or did something other than being total shit.

Most city fans were glad to see the back of him, I don't think we've missed him and I think he would make us even worse than we currently are.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Based on what I've watched I'd still say Tudgay is better than him and I reckon Tudgay is about national league north/south standard now.

 

[skybluetony176]

It took him a long time to get going. He did a lot of holding the ball up but not a lot else until the last handful of games where strangely enough we picked up some form again and started winning some games. Based on his last few performances you could say he would have been a difference here this season, based on all his other performance's you would sat he'd be typical of all of our players pretty much this season.

 

[MAFF]

The man's a god.

 

[ajsccfc]

He was like Yakubu if we got about 20 more minutes out of Yakubu.

 

[Nick]

Haven't you got Nouble too?

 

[Grendel]

Mowbray in his infinite wisdom played him most of the time as a left sided player helping to cover opposition attacks.

 

[CovisGod]

In every game I saw him play, and it was a fair few last season as I had a season ticket....

Ball passed to Fortune, Fortune turns his back on defender and shields the ball for an eternity, either losing it or passing it back to the person who gave it to him.

Never looked threatening to me, just a very cautious big man up front.

Wasn't for me

 

[Caravan]

Interesting set of replies and shows why you said "good-bye" to him. We play him upfront as part of a standard 4-4-2 by the way.

As I say this season so far, he has been mainly excellent. Scored a few goals too but overall his finishing is not that great - he lacks a powerful shot but at least he tests the keeper a few times. And MAF seems incapable of playing for 90 minutes - although to be fair his work rate is such that he plays as if he has been told that he will be brought off in the last 15/20 minutes or so.

Not sure if you will see him tomorrow - he was our best player on the pitch against Bristol Rovers and then substituted when we were 2-0 down. I suspect MAF will be a scapegoat for our team's lacklustre first half display and will be on the bench with Cox and Ranger starting up front.

And yes we have Nouble - he has had 2 subs appearances so far and has failed to impress in those short minutes. I think he was signed as cover for Ranger when he was suspended and the club were unsure if Ranger would be playing for us again.