by Redman in wales » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:41 am
Good post.
And yes, yet again for about the 3rd season in a row, we've found ourselves wanting 2/3 quality players.
My feelings are much the same as most who have already posted above.
Priority 1 : Striker - a make-something-out-of-nothing striker:
imo
eto'o - will stay at barca,
torres - is hyped too much.
Villa - would be alot of money (which i think the americans would actually fund, as they've done it in the past in the U.S.) but the question is, would they let him go? and would he come here if they did?
Maybe we have to look at quality strikers without the stigma attached to them - Berbatov and Martins have both been mentioned in another thread. Personally I would love to see Berbatov here. Other posibilities might be Defoe (has his critics but has still scored 22, 22, 9, 16(so far) over the last 4 seasons) Milito (17 goals in 24 games in spain), Klaas Jan Huntelaar (could be intesting having an all dutch strike force) Klose... plus many more which I can't think of right now.
(incidently Pongolle has 9 goals in 14 games at the mo, but I doubt he will return now, espec with Voronin coming here)
Priority 2 : Left Winger
Kewell's sick note, Gonzo isn't good enough yet, Aurellio/Riise are more wingbacks, and Garcia is..... well Garcia.
We really do need quality on this wing.
I can't think of many at the mo, but Quaresma - from what I've seen of him - is a player in the ronaldo mold - and can play on either flank. (Chelsea are after him apparently - but they already have Robben, J.Cole, and SWP and rarely play with 2 wingers due to accomodating Ballack/Lampard/Essien/Makelele, so if they do buy him, one of them will surely leave - and I wouldn't mind a cheeky bid for joe cole if they do buy another left winger)
Priority 3 : Right Winger
I'm a big fan of wingers as opposed to right midfielders, and would much rather see gerrard in the middle with Alonso, with a dynamic right winger, who can also score goals.
------
To put it another way: goals come from 3 main areas:
Strikers
Wingers
Attacking central midfielders
When the strikers aren't scoring (for example utds 3 strikers are equal in goals to ours) - a team has to rely on wingers and midfielders. utd have giggs, ronaldo and scoles, chelski have robben, lampard, Jcole and SWP.... we have gerrard, sicknote and garcia.
Strikers dont score in every game. therefore:
We need a central midfielder that will get us at least 10 goals a season as well as around 15-20 goals in total coming from our wings. Right now that is all coming from one player: our captain. Alonso/mash/momo are not really the attacking central midfielder type who will go and get that amount of goals, so the mantle rests with Stevie G as our attacking midfielder scoring equal to lampard/scoles etc. We then need 2 wingers who will also help the strikers out. Utd have giggs and ronaldo chipping in the goals. We dont have anyone that fits that mold.
.... basically through all that dribble above (i think i lost myself when writing it, and may well edit it in the morning) - i agree with the synopis of needing a striker and a left winger desperately and a right winger if the right deal comes along.
Oh and if Palletta doesn't improve, we may need another central defender (unless Arbeloa can play there) because any injury to Carra/Agger would mean Hyypia playing every game for the duration of the injury-which could be a while, and I'm not sure he'd be able to do that next season (he'll be 34 in oct)
Last edited by
Redman in wales on Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.