Reassessment

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If we agree that Jenas fills the central midfield role we were all crying out needed strengthening, what is the next area YBR should be focusing on?

Attack. Carl Cort's on his way back, Shearer's playing as good as he has for a long time, Bellamy is electric and Shola shows promise. We also have Chopra making progress.

Midfield. Jenas, Speed, Robert, Solano, with Dyer a few weeks from returing isn't bad. Acuna and McClen as back up centrally. Bernard wide left. Perhaps wide right could do with strengthening, although Dyer and Robert could play there.

Defence: If we manage to buy Distin, we have a powerful left back/central defender. Hughes has made the right back berth his own. But there's not much cover, especially with Griffin injured all the time and Barton having gone. Elliot is average. Quinn seemingly less than average. IMO this is the next area to focus on.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

Answers

Jesus we always seem to be buying right/left backs!

I'd still like a tough tackling, distributive midfielder.....or even a Jaap Stam type defender....

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002


Getting some good cover and LB and RB is probably the highest priority, though I'd put some kind of commanding MF presence only a half-step down the list. Could Jenas be that presence? Supposedly he's already got leadership quality, but does he have a strong enough physical presence?

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

I thought JJ was supposed to be more of a defensive m/f as opposed to Dyer's more attacking m/f

Gav - we're always buying LB's because we've not been very good at it in the past

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

JJ looks a bit on the slight side. At the signing his tie was bigger than him. Agree we need a big bloke in there somewhere, a Batty with a bit of skill/vision. ie not Batty.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

Domi was a decent left back until he decided to turn traitor.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002


There was an inetersting article in the Time sthis morning. although it was only semi-serious, it was on about Spurs being a cup side because they were impatient in nature and wanted instant sucess rather than the longer slog of a premiership campaign and building a side capable of competing in it. Spurs have always had a lot of the same failings as us in that respect. Perhaps we suffer the same impatience? So is now a time to keep on spending to consolidate our CL credentials or of keeping a level head and focus on the future? No reason we can't do both, but we don't want another boom and bust cycle and we don't want to get ourselves into the Leeds situation where everything is hanging on getting into the CL each season. It's as ever a balance of waiting for youngsters with talent to come through (Chopra, Caldwells), or be bought early (Jenas). I don't think we should be looking at the GBP 15M plus glamour signings.

(Permission to change my mind at a drop of a hat depending on if and when we start talking about a top player coming in the close season?)

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002


Permission granted Pete.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

Terry, Jenas is slight, but feeling is that he's not fully developed yet. (Perhaps a feeling the club doctor had? ;-) ). He's 5'11'' so not a midget and certainly taller than Batty.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

Looking at our players and their average ages, we already seem to have a top side which could be together for a while, which to me is the basis for longterm success. I'm actually happier now with the playings we have than I've been for years, probably including the KK era.

We need cover, of course, but Like Mysterious I think the only type of player we actually need for the side is the hard bastard midfielder, such as Keane / Battywithskill. Speed partially fills this role, but if the going gets tough JJ or Kevin won't manage a Viera or a Keane battling with them.

Otherwise, let's celebrate! A young team, going places, with a rosy future.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002


We have some good young players coming thhrough and we have already bought other good oung players in Cort, Dyer, Jenas and Bellamy. What we haven't got is the depth of experienced players. Some of these younger ones have played plenty of first team games but we will need to start bringing the others through at least onto the bench if we want them to become the next big thing and gel.

A problem I feel ManU have is that when they did bring all the youngsters through they have a team that can continue to play alongside each other for between 7 - 10 years. This is now causing problems for the youngsters they have now trying for first team opportunities and we now see that they are ending up selling the players on. I agree this then means they are making money on them but they now have to bring through a player who wasn't quite as good, or buy as they did with Forlan.

It is a tricky situation but with all the quality youngsters we have we should bring through rather than buy at the moment. Isn't one of the Caldwells used to playing full back?

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002



Farcelino was making a few forward runs on Monday night. Perhaps he could step up into midfield sod off back to Spain and get wor money back.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

I hope he was advised to continue running on out of KP and onto the first ferry home.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

If (big if) we get into the CL, I think we'll have to look at new defensive resources seriously.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

For LB, I rather like the look of that Soton kid, Wayne Bridges? I think. Seems to be better at defending and going forward than most LBs in the premiership. And he's young, 21 if I'm not mistaken. He will probably cost alot but it would be nice to have a real gem at LB than what we had in the past.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

Wayne Bridge is a great prospect, but I reckon he'd be at least £7m, simply because Southampton would want to hold out for as much as they can get.

Is it worth taking the risk with another Wayne though?

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002



His name may be a bit ee-ba-gum but Danny Higginbotham at Derby has looked a very good young prospect

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002

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