but it seems to me that we need a whole new midfield. Rob lee (bless him) is past his best, Solano is too inconsistant and probably won't be around next year. speed is well....? fill in own expletive. Dyer is relied on too much. So much so that we have every chance of flogging him to death like we did to shearer. It seems like we have some capable defenders (except Wb, bless him)and so youth coming along quiet nicelyf, upfront we are two strikers short of having some adequate cover. As I have said on here before games are won in the trenches, in midfield with people like Batty winning balls, getting stuck in driving people on. I may be wrong but I think a midfied can by with two exceptional players and two relativley average players that have the ability to step but don't do it consistantly enough to be great.

Manure do it with Beckam and Keane, Arsenal do it with Vierra and ? Liverpool do it with Gerrard and Hamman, leeds do it with Bowyer and Batty. These lads make everyone improve.

Yet I don't see Bobby making any moves in the transfer market to bring any real quality in. Like I said I have no idea what I am talking about!!

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

Answers

I seem to have left out some rather important words, so improvise as you may. Anyone seen lost souls yet?? divvent its shit

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

midfield? bah... highly over rated players who bog everythin doon... play up the wings like YBR wants te.... but neee on the left....

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

I see yer point sparxx but what about when the other teams play through the middle and all we have is a bunch of pillsbury dough boys in the middle??

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

we line up a bunch of spineless South Americans to scream at each other in Spanish about how bliddy cold it is....

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

Apparently thats what bobby thinks will work. I heard he is on TV tonight wearing a red and white tie? someone tell me it was a wind up

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

red and white tie...now that's funny!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

right no more sherry after dinner!!!

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

When we were totally tactically niaive we had two wingers of differing styles, one speed merchant, one ball player, option to switch if it isn't working. We had lone centre forward with ball playing genius behind him. We had two midfield players one to destroy defensively, one to link left, right and centre and hurt the oppostion with his runs. Defence wasn't best defensively but was adequate . Goalie was okay

We have no forward of note, maybe a ball player. Maybe ball player would be better as whippet on wing. Need left hand winger. Destroyer just doesn't exist. Link man just doesn't exist. Defence is probably slightly better, but difficult to judge as they are overrun more often than their aged counterparts. Goalies not as good.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001

Oh Macbeth, how right you are. We were so Naive then, that manager didn't have any tactical nouse. The team was so disfunctional, it didn't know whether to attack down the wing or quickpasss it through the middle, not like now where we have a real plan of get it to the right wing & cross it to the ever-present striker who thrives on crosses.

It would be crazy to do this but if we got Sir Les on a free, put Solano on the right, Dyer as attacking Midfield, anchor it with Lee Clark (as part of the Goma deal I assume he's coming)- Cover them with Thompson from Cov -£4m pick up Ginola from Villa for £1.5m & Guppy as cover-£1.5m. Robbie Elliot on a free from Bolton, Quinn can cover & finally Dewberry on a free from Leeds.

Cost: £7m + the cost of a decent forward

Financed by - Speed £4m, errr Shearer £5m

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Where is all this rush to sign Thompson from Coventry from. A right winger is the last thing we need unless we wan't to be known as the best lop-sided team in the country. We already have the stadium, if we get any more unbalanced they'll have to underpin different sides of each half!

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

I agree with your premise Syme - our midfield is just not up to it, for various reasons.

We still have the eternal question "can Dyer and Solano play in the same m/f?" Unless they both play wide, ie. Solano on the right and Dyer on the left, my feeling is no, because playing these two lightweights means we then need to have to two strong ball-winners, leaving us perpetually lop-sided. The other alternative is to play Dyer up front along side a target man, a la Pedro, a real possibility but no one seemingly favoured by YBR.

The other major problem is in the middle, where we have RL and GS from the old school, and Bassedas and Acuna as BR's signings. In all honesty, I don't think any of them are good enough now to be in the midfield of a progressive PL team.
RL is still IMHO our best central m/f player, but he really should have been replaced 18 months ago. GS has had a poor season, and at 31 we should be looking to replace him. Sadly, I've seen nothing whatsoever from Bassedas to convince me he can make it in the PL, not even in flashes. Acuna is a decent squad player, but nothing more than that.
What really troubles me is that for varying reasons I believe we could actually start next season with the same four players - and with the inevitable outcome.

There is nobody likely to come through from the Reserves to minimmise this problem, and it's debatable whether Gavilan could effectively replace Solano.

Finally, we have the ongoing farce on the left of m/f. If the Club doesn't do something to finally sort out this continuing fiasco then someone should be fired, or shot.

IMO, the m/f should be entirely reshaped/restaffed.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001