When gerrard comes back.....
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:41 am
I'd really like to see him playing on the right, especially if we're going to be playing 4-4-2 on a more regular basis.
I make the point because the way I see things at the moment, Lucas and Mereiles have to be the two in central midfield because they're showing all the signs of becoming a formiddable partnership. Lucas has come on leaps and bounds (I even put him forward as a potential candidate for stand in captain in the captaincy thread) and Mereiles you can see is a class act who will only get better and was a snip at £10.7m imo. Playing him out wide earlier in the season was just insane.
Whether it would happen is another matter though given Gerrard's power at the club and the fact that he's made it pretty clear that he wants to play central midfield. But lets face it, you can't justify him playing in there at the moment and the Gerrard-Torres partnership lets face it has struggled for a while. You could say that was down to lack of genuine service in the Alonso mould but it hardly helps when our style of play has been woeful at times and not benefited the team as a whole.
Playing him out there wouldn't mean he'd be nailed to the touchline anyway. He could drift off that flank and leave more space for Johnson to bomb into. We all saw it to devastating effect in 2005/6 when he scored 23 goals and won the PFA player of the year playing mainly from that position. Even now, Gerrard would be the best in the country in that position aswell as he's such a brilliant footballer. He can go past players and his crossing is superb (except from corners). I love Dirk but as we saw at the weekend he can be extremely wasteful at times.
That doesn't mean bombing Dirk out the side though. I'd stick him upfront with Torres. Yes Ngog has done well in flashes but he's still a developing young kid and as we saw against Chelsea, Dirk really has an effect on our play when he's more central (the assist for Torres' first goal for example.
Reina
Johnson The Greek Skrtel Aurelio
Gerrard Mereiles Lucas Maxi/Cole
Kuyt Torres
Looks pretty good to me. As it stands you can't really justify Cole walking back into the team when fit because Maxi is probably in his best run of form since coming to the club at the moment.
Of course it may all be academic as we may still play 4-2-3-1 more often than not but nevertheless I'd still like to see more interchanging between the "3" behind the main striker if that's the case. Sadly, I can see a situation whereby Mereiles will be pushed out to the right again which would be absolute madness, but on the positive side at least it would satisfy Sky's tiresome "Gerrard must play in central midfield" agenda.
Funnily enough I was saying the other day that in an ideal world we'd be playing 4-3-3 because the players we have suit that formation down to the ground, although we could still do with a decent left sided forward (Jovanovic is clearly not the answer).
Thoughts?
I make the point because the way I see things at the moment, Lucas and Mereiles have to be the two in central midfield because they're showing all the signs of becoming a formiddable partnership. Lucas has come on leaps and bounds (I even put him forward as a potential candidate for stand in captain in the captaincy thread) and Mereiles you can see is a class act who will only get better and was a snip at £10.7m imo. Playing him out wide earlier in the season was just insane.
Whether it would happen is another matter though given Gerrard's power at the club and the fact that he's made it pretty clear that he wants to play central midfield. But lets face it, you can't justify him playing in there at the moment and the Gerrard-Torres partnership lets face it has struggled for a while. You could say that was down to lack of genuine service in the Alonso mould but it hardly helps when our style of play has been woeful at times and not benefited the team as a whole.
Playing him out there wouldn't mean he'd be nailed to the touchline anyway. He could drift off that flank and leave more space for Johnson to bomb into. We all saw it to devastating effect in 2005/6 when he scored 23 goals and won the PFA player of the year playing mainly from that position. Even now, Gerrard would be the best in the country in that position aswell as he's such a brilliant footballer. He can go past players and his crossing is superb (except from corners). I love Dirk but as we saw at the weekend he can be extremely wasteful at times.
That doesn't mean bombing Dirk out the side though. I'd stick him upfront with Torres. Yes Ngog has done well in flashes but he's still a developing young kid and as we saw against Chelsea, Dirk really has an effect on our play when he's more central (the assist for Torres' first goal for example.
Reina
Johnson The Greek Skrtel Aurelio
Gerrard Mereiles Lucas Maxi/Cole
Kuyt Torres
Looks pretty good to me. As it stands you can't really justify Cole walking back into the team when fit because Maxi is probably in his best run of form since coming to the club at the moment.
Of course it may all be academic as we may still play 4-2-3-1 more often than not but nevertheless I'd still like to see more interchanging between the "3" behind the main striker if that's the case. Sadly, I can see a situation whereby Mereiles will be pushed out to the right again which would be absolute madness, but on the positive side at least it would satisfy Sky's tiresome "Gerrard must play in central midfield" agenda.
Funnily enough I was saying the other day that in an ideal world we'd be playing 4-3-3 because the players we have suit that formation down to the ground, although we could still do with a decent left sided forward (Jovanovic is clearly not the answer).
Thoughts?