By their own standards, Stevie and Didi had awful games. Our poor passing and control in the midfield area just proved to me how much we miss Xabi Alonso. He's the one guy you can put your house on to not give the ball away. Yes, the big 3 are ahead of us but primarily in terms of strength of squad. It is important to acknowledge that the gulf is not as huge as it is made out to be. That is why IMO we must sign a new midfielder who will strenghten the overall team. Oh and BTW, get off Dudek's back. He's a good keeper, just has a damn blasted jinx agaisnt the Scum.
4th spot in the League must now be our priority. To me, any further progression in the Champions League is a bonus. Looking at the remaining fixtures, if we could get 33 points from our remaining 15 games, we will get 4th. I'm confident of that. Having just watched the Everton-Boro match, they're two poor teams who are going to drop a great number of points between now and the end of the season. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves for the injuries we've had, and more importantly, after the transfer window shuts, Rafa needs to stop tinkering with the side. He needs to identify a first eleven that will play regularly till the end of the season. It's no wonder we've been struggling for any kind of consistency when the team personnel and formation has been constantly changed.
Squad assessment:
Keepers- As I have already stated in several threads, I still maintain that Dudek's a good keeper. Rafa was defending him today in the press so I would assume he will play until the end of the season. Then in the summer there will probably be a number of keepers available such as Schwarzer, Cudicini, Van Der Saar for low prices. At present, Rafa should really try and get someone on loan to cover for Kirkland. I rate Kirkland but eventually we are going to have to consider cashing in on him because he doesn't play enough games. Whatever happened to the Carson bid anyway?
Defence
What was noticable yesterday was that we played with 4 centre backs in defence. OK, Finnan was injured, but once he's back I assume Hyypia and Carra will be back in the centre. You could see he wasn't all that comfortable with his positioning playing right back. Pellegrino had a decent game yesterday and I thought Sami won everything in the air. Generally speaking, I don't think he's got the credit he deserves this season. Coming to LB, when the squad is fully fit, Riise should be natural first choice there. Having worked tremendously hard on his defending I think he's one of the best in the league in that position. Traore has improved tremendously but he's a centre back, and anyway, don't let those brilliant last ditch tackles fool you. A good defender should never allow his man to beat him in the first place, especially on the blind side. Although Traore does a job defensively, he is highly unbalanced, can't cross the ball and uses the ball very poorly and hesitantly. Our attack often loses momentum due to him. One thing's for sure, in the summer we need to be looking at bringing a couple of defenders in with PACE because it is something we are sadly lacking. Youngsters such as Raven, Whitbread, Medjani may be the long term answer but I haven't seen enough of them to comment.
Midfield
The next couple of weeks are vital in this area if you ask me. If we do have transfer money left, we need to splash it on a midfielder not a striker for the CL. As I've said 4th spot is our priority not the CL. If you look at the options, Routledge and Malbranque are both reportedly available. Routledge is a good player with pace and crossing ability but he is 'potential' at best which is always a risk. As for Malbranque, I've always rated him. He's been consistently one of the best midfielders in the PL for the last 3 years and is too good for Fulham. People retort with some nonsense saying we need to save cash to sign SWP. Reality check- We can't afford SWP without investment. Also, what makes anyone think SWP would choose us over Arsenal?
Steed would give us width, energy and creativity. He can even play CM and cover for Xabi and Stevie's absence in the CL. Please don't come back by saying we need better than Malbranque. This guy gets close to 10 goals and 10 assists a season. For 5 mil, that's value for money. Worst come to worst, we'll have got a very good squad player. The fact is we just have to get someone NOW. This will not be a panic buy.
Attack
Moro showed some lovely touches yesterday despite not being match fit. He will prove to be one of the most significant signings this club has made in years believe me. Baros played well but he's still developing and has a long way to go before he can be considered "top class". Having said that I was one of the guys who questioned his ability to score 20 goals this season. So far he's scored 11 so he's on the right track. I think Moro and Baros will form a great partnership, given a run of few games. Also, when Cisse gets back we will hopefully see the player who never really came to the fore before his injury, mainly due to being pushed out into a wide right role. Pongolle and Mellor will also prove to be vital squad members as the season progresses so this area is looking rosy. There was talk of Anelka (who I rate very highly) but that seems highly unlikely now.
All in all, just an honest assessment of where we are at the moment.
Walk On!
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