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Posted:
Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:14 pmby grayghost
Lennon is a great player but not world class but because he is English we would have to pay world class money. That just not rafa style but i do agree with you he is fantasic and should start for england on the right and drop Lampost.
Posted:
Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:57 pmby Emerald Red
dutchman wrote:metalhead wrote:bring Gerrard back into the centre and give him his prime footballing years in his best position. We need to fill his right side midfield place with someone of equal/similar ability.
For me, there is only one player that plays similar on the right side as Gerrard and that's Joaquin, with the obvious only real difference is that right wing is Joaquin's natural possition. His running, passing, and tackling style is almost a carbon copy of Gerrard's. Rafa would do well to snag him away from Velencia.
Posted:
Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:06 pmby dutchman
Emerald Red wrote:dutchman wrote:metalhead wrote:bring Gerrard back into the centre and give him his prime footballing years in his best position. We need to fill his right side midfield place with someone of equal/similar ability.
For me, there is only one player that plays similar on the right side as Gerrard and that's Joaquin, with the obvious only real difference is that right wing is Joaquin's natural possition. His running, passing, and tackling style is almost a carbon copy of Gerrard's. Rafa would do well to snag him away from Velencia.
Good shout - however I really should have said similar or equal "class" to SG not necessarilly the same type of player - lots of people are in favour of a genuine, pacey winger and I'm all for that if the quality is there.
Posted:
Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:17 pmby wrighty (not mark!)
Sod it, let's go for 2 quality wingers who can score goals. For sure, Kuyt hasn't scored as many as he has in the eredivision or wateva the dutch prem is called:D but I feel that he and crouch would benefit from the likes of quaresma and joaquin/simao/lennon blistering down the flanks. It makes me drool........
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:10 amby eds
Lando_Griffin wrote:eds wrote:Rafa needs to sort the signings out this summer or he will be shown the door in 2008/2009..................
Don't talk utter sh*t.
I'd rather "talk s/h\i\t" as you say then be happy wallowing around in actual s/h\i\t finishing 3rd or 4th yet again and being happy about it.
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:26 amby Lucky
Good thread! I do agree that we need a few more great players to strengthen our team, but there is another problem that we must solve: our away performances.
I don't think many of you would say that we had done a good job for our away matches in this season. I checked the statitic data and found that up to now we only got 17 points from our away matches, compared with 35 points for Man United, 32 points for Chelsea and 23 points for Arsenal! The home performances are very close between the four teams. We got 36 points, Man United 37 points, Cheleas 34 points and Arsenal 32 points. Obviously if we want to play well in the league matches, we have to do much much better for our away matches. That's something which really makes a difference and which we really can not afford to mess up.
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:01 pmby stmichael
grayghost wrote:Lennon is a great player but not world class but because he is English we would have to pay world class money. That just not rafa style but i do agree with you he is fantasic and should start for england on the right and drop Lampost.
lennon still has to work on his end product for me. it's ok being able to dribble and beat players for fun but if you've got no end product at the end of it then it's pointless. to use an example, i'm no stuart downing fan. i'd pay to watch lennon over him any day, but as a striker, i'd prefer to have downing putting balls in for me over lennon anyday of the week. same as manure in the nineties. giggs was far more exciting to watch than beckham, but as a striker you'd prefer to have beckham putting crosses on a sixpence for you.
still a great prospect though and can play on either side. only cost a million aswell. would probably move for ten times that though.
just on a sidenote, watched berbatov last night for tottenham. the guy's absolute class, and if we do sell crouch as expected in the summer, i'd move heaven and earth to get this guy. he's grace any of the top 4 sides imo.
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:22 pmby Redman in wales
stmichael wrote:just on a sidenote, watched berbatov last night for tottenham. the guy's absolute class, and if we do sell crouch as expected in the summer, i'd move heaven and earth to get this guy. he's grace any of the top 4 sides imo.
i've been saying that for a while. the guy's awesome. He score all types of goals from all over the place, and even makes things himself.
And this is his first season in the league - when other players are 'just getting used to thing'
Unfortunately I very much doubt Jol will let him go. He cost them £10.9mil in July 2006 - but right now with eto'o/villa/torres comannding fees upwards of £25mil - I'd definately pay £16/18mil for him especially as he's proved himself in the premiership
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:16 pmby stmichael
Also, our deep lying central midfielders result in deep lying strikers. The man who runs the show in terms of our football is undoubtedly Xabi Alonso - and he does most of his work inside our own half. As a result we're forced to rely on lay offs or flick ons by our forwards in order to get into the final 3rd. Wingers are of course the other option, and our right side is dangerous with Gerrard, and Pennant who has shown improvement in terms of beating his man and getting us into attacking positions, but we lack this quality on the left.
This is what I mean by our defensive midfield sucking one of our strikers deep to fill in the hole that is left. For me having quality wingers out wide that have pace and comfortable with the ball at their feet is important, but if we are going to continue playing a defensive midfield you need someone that has brillant ball crontrol, excellent first touch, has the ability to beat defenders through quick thinking and has the vision and skill to play that killer through ball. Kuyt has the potential to do this but his control leaves a lot to be desired at times.
Posted:
Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:28 pmby woof woof !
Redman in wales wrote:stmichael wrote:just on a sidenote, watched berbatov last night for tottenham. the guy's absolute class, and if we do sell crouch as expected in the summer, i'd move heaven and earth to get this guy. he's grace any of the top 4 sides imo.
i've been saying that for a while. the guy's awesome. He score all types of goals from all over the place, and even makes things himself.
And this is his first season in the league - when other players are 'just getting used to thing'
The performances of Berbatov and Martins blow a big f'ucking hole in the "give him time , he's gotta get used to the premiership" arguement .
Maybe some players do need a season to adjust , but these two lads have shown that if you have the heart it doesn't always take an entire season to step up your game .
Posted:
Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:09 amby crazyhorse
I agree in the case of Berbatov - but Martins does not look that great to me..
Posted:
Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:58 amby red_guy
crazyhorse wrote:I agree in the case of Berbatov - but Martins does not look that great to me..
Definitely. By the way, Martins not that convincing. He's just a better version of Cisse.
Posted:
Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:44 amby tubby
Even if we did get Villa or Torres how do we know they could be capable of doing well and scoring a lot over here?
Torres isnt a prolific scorer as it is in Spain and although I like the look of Villa I cant help but think he will turn out to be another Morientes situation.
Posted:
Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:39 amby Ace Ventura
bavlondon wrote:Even if we did get Villa or Torres how do we know they could be capable of doing well and scoring a lot over here?
Torres isnt a prolific scorer as it is in Spain and although I like the look of Villa I cant help but think he will turn out to be another Morientes situation.
Why ? please elaborate.
They are totally different type of players with different attributes.
The only similarity is they are both spanish.
Posted:
Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:27 pmby stmichael
When thinking about summer transfer targets it seems that everyone assumes we'll be after a "20 goal a season striker". I'm not sure.
For a start, I don't think Rafa has ever built a team with such a player in and he seems to like players who can do everything rather than just sticking the ball in the back of the net.
However, I think we already have at least one 20 goal a season striker in the squad. Both Bellamy and Kuyt could achieve this figure quite easily but I don't think their roles allow them to.
Our midfield often sits deep and plays very close together - particularly when Alonso and Sissoko (Or any other holding midfielders are in the team). This tends to mean that out strikers are isolated and have to come deep to get the ball - or in Bellamy's case, drifting into wide areas. This for me, isn't the job of the strikers. There is a case for the strikers holding the ball up, but I think our forwards spend too much time outside the box doing the work that our midfield should be doing.
Instead of playing with two holding midfielders, I think we could be a much more effective side with a link man in the team. Someone to play higher up the pitch, allowing the strikers to take up positions in the box.
It's not uncommon for the ball to be played up to our strikers and for them to hold the ball up and play it wide, but when the ball gets into a wide area there is nobody in the box to cross to. And in addition to that, how often do we break forward only to see 2 players in the box and 2 central midfielders around the half way line, when instead one of them could be arriving into the box?
I don't think signing someone like Villa would necessarily mean we'd score more goals. If our strikers are doing a strikers job and a midfielders job they are never going to get into the positions we want them to. Our strikers finishing is far from perfect, but no striker is going to score 100% of their chances.
Kuyt's return is not bad this season, and neither is Crouch's. When you consider how much ground they cover and how much energy they put into games leading to them rarely completing 90 minutes, and thus having less playing time, it is also going to be harder for them to score.
Can anyone else see where I'm coming from? Might we get more from our strikers if Rafa does away with the two, relatively defensive holding midfielders and settles for just one, allowing us some extra creativity in midfield? Especially when playing at home.
There is a suggestion that none of our current strikers are those who can lead the line and that they would be more suited to play with an out and out striker, but I'm not so sure this is the case. All of our strikers can score goals and their chance conversion is not as bad as it may seem. Kuyt scored goals for fun in Holland and there are times when he's got into positions you'd expect from a goalscoring striker, but maybe our style of play and the demands we put on our strikers are affecting his goal return? It is easy to highlight one or two supposedly clear cut chances that are missed. Both Kuyt and Crouch could have scored more goals but have still done relatively well this season. It's nice to think we could have a striker who could score a goal from just 1 chance but that's not realistic. Maybe if we are going to demand so much from our stikers then we do need someone is extremely clinical, but maybe the answer is for them to work less and get on the end of more chances instead?