The Mail Bag
Juggling the Team
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As we head into another season with or without new transfers, Moyes faces a couple of real issue with regards to team balance in all departments.
Assuming for one moment that Lescott stays (which I don't think he will), we have Baines, Hibbert, Yobo & Lescott in the back four with possible cover from Rodwell until Jags recovers. We know that Hibbert on a good day is more than adequate to cope; on an off day... it's quite painful, so we need cover there. If Lescott goes, we could play with Yobo as a sweeper, with Rodwell in front of him, flanked by Baines and Hibbert. Pretty thin pickings though...
Midfield... ah well — big problem. Pienaar is a given on the wide side, Arteta is a given in the middle; then pick two from any of Osman, Cahill, Fellaini, Gosling, Baxter, Neville. Let's just say Neville could be an automatice replacement for Hibbert, leaving Cahill and Fellaini in the middle but neither is a wide player... The fact is both players are better going forward than defensive, so which to choose? Or does Vaughan come into the mix out wide?
Upfront... the Yak, with who? Saha? Jo? Fellaini? Whilst we have options, the balance doesn't seem right with the players and the positions we need to have them.
I think we may see some surprising sales, Vic and Vaughan, Lescott, Hibbert, Osman. Coming in? No-one 'til we sell someone. That's the pattern of recent years. I don't even bother with the transfer gossip... just chip-paper stuff.
I think we will be in better shape than last year but injuries are the killer. Without them, we would have been better equipped to win the FA Cup. But not enough of the right players in the right places... That's still our problem today.
Christine Foster, Posted 09/07/2009 at 00:28:16
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These two have been left behind and one can only hope are bench warmers at best next season.
We can achieve top 5 again if we play Cahill and Neville in midfield but, if we are going to progress, they both need to be left out — not sold, too important for that; Neville is a terrific influence and Tim should be kept as an impact substitute or auxiliary striker. Both though fall some way short of being good enough to boss midfield against the big boys.
Vic has the pace and power to unsettle any team and has impressed every time he plays on the right — Anfield, Stoke, Villa, Newcastle — until that challenge; the penny was beginning to drop with David Moyes... if he was going anywhere, he’d have gone by now.
Arteta has to go back to his deep-lying playmaker role; Rodwell would continue to improve next to him. Fellaini will be more disciplined and realise he’s not a centre-forward; Pienaar on the left...
The Yak worries me; a clinical finisher on the day, but not the hardest worker in the world. We need to remember he’d only scored 3 league goals before he was injured... and our results actually started to improve once we lost him. If DM can't get more out of him this time around, we need to look elsewhere.
Jo — if we get him — is no better than adequate. James Vaughan will never be the answer... that leaves the Tiger and, although he will continue to surprise defenders at set pieces, he will not trouble them otherwise.
Oh, and boy do we need a keeper!
With the players we have?
Not a chance.
And — oh dear — what will Mustafi’s equivalent of Peanut be? Skoda? At least it's a VW these days!
It soon becomes apparent that if we were to sign an attacking centre midfielder like Defour or even Moutinho, we may end up with two of our best players e.g. Cahill and Fellaini not in the starting 11. My point is that we need Arteta in the middle and therefore need to bring in a couple of pacy wide men as there has even been talk that Steven Pienaar’s best position is also centre mid... so what wide players do we actually have at the club? None!
Aww come on! He had a bad half in 40 degrees against a team that were simply better than us. Not long ago we were tipping him for an England call-up — now he’s a Championship player? If Moyes was overly worried about him he would not have sold Jacobsen. I’ve finally learned that Moyes is a better judge of a footballer than I am so let's cut Hibbo some slack eh?
The strongest 11 is still Howard, Hibbert, Jags, Lescott, Baines, Osman, Pienaar, Arteta, Neville, Cahill, Yak with Nash, Yobo, Rodwell, Gosling, Fellaini, Jo (if he signs), Anichebe & Vaughan as able back ups not to mention Coleman, Mustafi, Orenuga, Peterlin & Baxter as those trying to show what they can do. I agree we could do with a defender or two and a midfielder or three to add further strength to our squad but let’s not get carried away with the negativity
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1 Posted 09/07/2009 at 04:59:06
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And there’s (arguably) two first team players, and two fringe players that need replacing.
It all boils down to money. If Moyes had a fraction of what Hughes has, I don’t think he would turn us into a laughing stock by going for the best players in the world and throwing silly money in wages.
I think he’d quite simply go for his A-List targets each time. He’d still look for young talent — and he’d still look for a bargain in the lower leagues.
Therefore, the kind of investment required (on the field only) is probably a fraction of what other teams want, for the kind of player they go for.