Been as careful as I can to apportion the positions to where Dyer played the most in each game - he has a tendency to drift as you know. Wide includes games where Nobby was replaced by Glass early doors and Kieron pushed out wide and the forward ones refer to all games where Dyer played with one recognized front man (Wimbledon away last season for instance).

	Wide	Central	Forward
Wins	16	7	5
Draws	9	1	4
Losses	8	11	9
Points	66	44	40
For	1.67	1.84	1.22
Against	1.03	1.79	1.83

This is taking into account all competitions. The extraordinarily high goals for ratio when he plays in central midfield is due to a certain 8-0 scoreline. Make that a 1-0 and it drops to 1.47. All the same, our defence and results are buoyed by him playing on the flanks rather than adopting a central berth. If you want to know how much better we do in those specific games where we played Dyer right and someone else left, I'm afraid it is an unrepresentative sample - but then you already could have guessed that.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Answers

yeah but

he only plays wide when there is someone good (ish) palyer in the middle. He has never played in the forward with a recognised forward next to him in the middle.

He hasn't played wide with Shola in the middle.

And I'm pretty sure, nay certain, he's never played centrally with Dyer on the wing so it is representative.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

That's a bit harsh on Shearer; I'd recognize him as a striker.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001