Typical story of a transfer fee weighing heavy around his neck, if we'd signed him when OOC I seriously doubt people would be picking him out. Was excellent at times last season. Certainly in a different class to Pitts IMO, who is seeing nothing like the same level of criticism.

Pitts won't be on anything like the money Westerman is on, hence expectations of Westerman are much higher.

He has played well in the past for us without doubt. It seems to me that to become a really good player he has to improve his consistency. I don't think he reaches the level he is capable of consistently enough. The likes of Sinfield/Westwood/O'Loughlin reach a high standard week in and week out. If Westerman wants to be a top player he has to get to a consistently high level of performance. He's nowhere near that yet.

Which is stupid. The fact he is on more money does not mean he can carry the team. We have a combination of missing and average players holding the team back, which also makes it harder for good players to produce the goods. His form last year leads me to be inclined to give him more time. I think he and Seymour are similar stories, with better players around them we may see more from them, as at the minute they are suffering from trying too hard.

He's been poor and needs to improve to have a future at the club. Gives away too many penalties and has been average at best IMO

at the end of the day i know we cant blame injuries for poor runs of form but i dont think any teams star players can peform to the best of their ability when we have so many 1st team players out.

we keep looking to the few 'big name players' that are currently fit, i.e westerman, briscoe. with a fully fit squad the responsibilty can be shared around more.

Regarding penalties, it's again another thing he's being criticised for that is true of most of the team, so I'm not sure why he's being picked out for it over others. He's actually averaging less penalties per game than Tickle, Moa, Houghton, Horne, Martin, Nicklas, and Heremaia, and is only ahead of Pitts and Crooks by a very narrow margin. It's a team-wide issue, not just him.

Fan's want to see his ball playing ability, you won't see that with him playing 13 in our system.

Like you say, his big money wage and few means high expectations. He definatley gets criticised more then most when, in reality, he's done no worse than anyone else.

As for looking not bothered, I personally think that's a load of . He shows lots of passion to me and is very vocal. I would love most of our players to show his enthusiasm.

Totally agree. You can count on one hand how many of our players have played well most games. He's not one of them, but he's certainly not been amongst the worst either.

I also agree that he's putting the effort in. As I said earlier about him and Seymour, if anything they're making errors at times from trying too hard. Some of the penalties actually come down to that.

i don't think he's a scapegoat. for 100k i'ld expect him to be dominating matches up front, like ellis will do next season. he should be winning man of the match awards, not drifting through games all too anonimously
this is the price of being an expensive signing, expectations are high. there's still time for him to justify his fee and rep, but he's going to have to produce very soon

5 or 6 games into this season there were quite a few on here bagging briscoe. he's stepped up to the plate big time, westy needs to do the same

I never understand this, it's not his fault.

We could go and pay a million for Ben Cockayne, wouldn't mean he's worth it.

never said it was his fault - merely saying that a player on a big transfer fee is subject to high expectations from the fans. its a fact of life

Why? We paid a bigger fee for Tansey than we did for Jason Smith.

I like Westy, his first 4 or 5 games last season he was a bit poor, and for me people have only remembered those games; even when he's played well. I thought he was one of our better players yesterday, and created 3 or 4 half breaks down our right side which Tickle would never have done.