Now this is just an opinion and probably stupid, but I've been thinking about YKD and WB recently. I'm sure most of the women on here have as well but my thought are completely different.

Anyway, Dyer has said that he would speak to YBR with regards to his real position, and that he's just too versatile (quote Keegan), now it's pretty obvious that England need a couple of full backs and so I think that Dyer will want to be playing as more of a right back this year. And With Domi, who loves to go forward, I think we'd have a perfect couple of wing backs, quick and able to get back. Now that leaves a question mark over Barton. What about centre half/sweeper, in the Dumas role. He has the ability and reads the game well.
I could see Robson playing a back 5 next year with Dyer and Domi as wing backs, Speed, Bassedas (probably) and Solano in the middle with Shearer and Cort up front (read the next item for my thoughts on Cort). This would give us a\ bit more dimension than we had last year and the ability to mix it up with a 4-4-2.

What do you think?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Answers

Dyer can't defend to save his life and leaving Speed on his own in central midfield is asking for trouble. I can see Barton, Griffin and Domi sharing FB duties, but the midfield will be a complete mystery. Solano, Bassedas, Speed, Lee? Dunno where Keiron fits in at all, maybe he gets to hold the camera when their all in the bath.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

>>maybe he gets to hold the camera when their all in the bath<<

Do you mean Chris Camera?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

...and his sister Candida.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Dyer is potentially the most exciting and creative player we have...I wudnt put him at full back ;-) I hope he gets more opportunity in wat he says is his favourite position- central midfield. Im sure all the booze+sex over the summer has toughened him up!!

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Not sure what the answer is, but this really is a key question. If the guy can't command a definite position in the Toon team then he will naturally have problems getting into the England side.
He looked uncertain and hesitant playing at WB for England, doesn't look strong enough to play in central m/f, and his finishing hasn't been good enough to play him up front - in any event, the purchase of another big 'un in CC shows how BR intends to continue playing with two big guys.
My guess is that BR will use YKD to provide pace up-front by playing him behind the front two - in the proverbial 'hole'. This will enable him to play either 3-2-2-1-2 (or 5-2-1-2 if you prefer it), or 4-3-1-2, viz:

Harper/Given
Hughes....Howey....Dabs
Barton......................Domi
Solano....Speed....Bassedas
YKD
AS.....CC

OR,

.....Harper/Given
Barton...Dabs...Howey...Hughes
Solano...Lee...Speed...Bassedas
YKD
AS....CC

(Praying over formatting!)

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I wouldn't be surprised to see Dyer used from the bench quite a few times this season. Speed's goal contribution is not to be sniffed at, so Bobby'll be wary of playing him too defensively. Could well see Lee, Speed and Bassedas in a midfield together, with Solano. Dyer coming on for Lee when he begins to tire.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Clarky, I reckon we'll clean up with that 12 man fomation :-)

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Softie,
There's no way any team of mine will get out-numbered in midfield.
Actually, I'd heard Rob Harris was refereeing and thought I might just get away with it!

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Not to mention the 2 keepers! ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Steph, I think you'll find that's the universal symbol for 2 half decent keepers. Perhaps the Human Genome Project has found a way for us to graft them together into one brilliant one.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Not to worry clarky, panic over, I notice you have inadvertently written 'Howey' at centre half....that's not very likely to happen now, is it? :-)

Have you noticed how our little mackem absentee is one of the players whinging about being tied to a contract? Thick pillock will be dropped like a hot potato if they scrap the transfer rules! 18k per week and seen less often than Nessie! Who benefits in that equation?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Well if Nobby's doing to be doing his regular disappearing act off to play for Peru, then that's when Kieron can start to fit in. It's either wide right or in the hole, but either way it means losing another wide player - no way can we only have one central midfielder. Unless of course Bassedas turns out to be a box-to-box player rather than wide left. I honestly don't know where he's going to fir in either because I've heard so many conflicting stories about where he plays.

Kieron's needs to work hard this year - a lot of effort this season will be the making of him.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Same dilema that's been bugging me lately.

The midfield seems so inbalanced at the moment, that it's hard to project who is going to play and where.

I think most will agree that the defence is more than likely to be:

Barton, Dabizas, Goma, Domi.

Or some other permutation that includes Howey and/or Hughes in the centre of defence. With Griffen as the sub full back.

Up front we should stick with Shearer and Cort with Ferguson and/or Gallacher to play off the bench.

That leaves a midfield to be chosen from Solano, Dyer, Gavilan, Lee, Speed and Bassedas. Personally I'd go for the following midfield:

Solano, Speed, Bassedas. .........Dyer...........

with Lee and Gavilan on the bench.

And when Solano is lost to internationals, move Dyer and Bassedas out wide and bring Lee into the centre with Speed.

The one positive about having Barton and Domi as the full backs, is that they are very capable at getting down the wings and joining the attack. Barton is a decent crosser of the ball, and we have seen that Domi can jink infield and put through defence splitting passes.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Aaarrgghh. Dyer should have appeared on the next line after Solano, Speed, Bassedas. in the position behind the strikers.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I think you're probably right with the last assessment and I'm sure we all wish we could have a bit more balance. Hopefully Bassedas will turn out to be a Bobby sensational buy and we'll have no worries.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

You lot are dreaming if you think Speed and Lee in the middle together will do anything this coming season.

They will be run off their feet. I have not been too concerned with keepers, defenders or strikers. It will be our midfield that lets us down.

I think Cort is a bonus, I think the 2 keepers are equal to any 2 keepers in the league, except for manures 2. I think we have a fair amount of good defenders. These combinations of Dabizas/Hughes/Goma/Marcellino/Whoever are all of a muchness, all interchangeable because they are all about the same standard.

The defence gets put under pressure because the midfielders are not doing their job, the strikers do not do their job because the midfielders and defenders cannot give them the ball.

Having Solano/Dyer/Domi as the "creative" midfielders last year showed that they were not enough, not their quality, but their availability and consistency. Lee and Speed are yesterday men, passed it! All the top sides have Internationals, (Current) not going to be or were.

TINWY. When we have 5 quality midfielders week in week out we will be able to compete and win against ALL the top clubs.

It will take another 2 seasons for us to be in that position. This year to become a solid side, next year to be an attractive side and the following year when players want to join us!!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I think in a four man midfield we cannot afford to have three of them as creative attack mided midfielders. No matter who plays at least three of them should have defensive responsibility.

Newton Heath conceded bucket loads last season by playing Scholes in the middle, fortunately for them they were able to score more than bucket loads to win matches. We haven't the players at the back to be able to cope with that lack of cover, nor do we have a Roy Keane figure in the midfield.

The two central midfielders in a midfield of four must expect to scrap for every ball and the only players we have who I am confident can do that are Speed and Lee. I will hold judgement of Bassedas until, like everyone, I find out what sort of player he is.

If your playing 3-5-2 then you can afford only one man snaffling in the midfield because you have support from defence and the wing backs. Lets face it if 6 men can't hold out the attcking team what is the point in playing. (obviously the strikers and other two midfielders do theit bit but they are primarily attackers.

The problem behind most of this is at the moment we have three right wingers in Dyer, Solano and Gavilan. Three central players in Speed, Lee and Bassedas (?) then that's it so the permutations are always going to be in doubt.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I wouldn't be surprised to see us linked with a move for Alex Nyarko from Lens, who Everton are supposed to be buying. We must have watched him a few times in our pursuit of Dacourt.

Dacourt is a def mid, Bassedas does not appear to be. Is Bobby still in the hunt for a def mid?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Nothing to really back it up, but I reckon Bassedas is more a player in the Batty mould (albeit with flair and passing ability) and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Cordone playing on the left wing, when he comes on. The signings seem to make more sense then.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I have to say that in the long term we have to be looking at Dyer as an all round midfielder and not a niche player, we can't afford it nor can England. He just needs to learn a bit. Currently I feel you can play Dyer or solano in a three man central midfield but not both. So you'd be looking at

Dyer/solano Lee Bassedas/Speed

Scrapping yes but most of all it's about control.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

This one was exactly 20 messages long...

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000

Before it said there were 19 posts, then softie added one and now it's down to 15??? What's going on?

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000

Maybe the cache of old posts is being cleaned out?

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000

It's literally knocking out the messages from 7 days ago in date order. It doesn't delete them, but will prevent a thread from being on show in the New answers section if there have been no answers in the last 7 days. You then have to go into the categories to find it.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000