The Mail Bag
Telegraph ratings/strikers
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Normally, those ratings that they gives for players are very bland; you normally get between 4 and 7 for just turning up and if you get a hat-trick you may score 9.
My eyes were drawn therefore to the Telegraph this morning where three of our players got a 3 ? Distin, Arteta and Anichebe. (Sorry, but this data does not seem to be online so you are just going to have to trust me.) I couldn't see a single player anywhere else getting a 3 so to have three of them tells quite a lot.
My main point, though, is about strikers. Given our lack of resources, it is a miracle actually that we will finish in the top half.
I would get rid of all our strikers and start again, contracts permitting... and it is a real shame about James Vaughan but it is not going to happen.
At Peterborough, there is a real livewire called Craig Mackail Smith; we could get him for £3m. I thought the DJ looked menacing for Blackpool too at the weekend.
I know we haven't got any money so I would fund it by selling the over-rated Rodwell. That should bring in £15m and off we go. I know Moyes will invest it wisely...
Jonathan Tasker, Posted 16/05/2011 at 08:32:36
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As for Rodwell, I'm a non-believer of this star we have on our hands. He has had the best part of 3 seasons to show it, and I can't think of many (if any) games where he has stood out, unless it's for being by far the worst, most ineffective player on the pitch.
I'm sick of these NOTW type revelations. Particularly the Wickileaks one that my Dickileaks.
Off topic a bit but the year we won the League in 1970, Alan Ball got a 10 in nearly every paper for a game at Wolves which we won. I've still never seen 10s and never a performance like it since; what a fucking player that lad was at that time ? or should I say from 1966 until then (actually he was amazing before then).
I actually think that we probably have had more chances created this season than many before, it's just that nobody has been scoring them. I am not going to check on that though.
23 attempts on goal!!! Seriously! How did we not score!!!
I'm struck by what this season could have been if we'd spent something last summer and bought a decent striker. I agree with the orriginal post, we need a wholesale clearout of our strikers and just start again!
Propelling the ball forwards such that it ends up nearer Row Z or the corner flag than the goal, or is blocked by a defender 25 yards out when it has travelled only 2 yards, are not AoG in my book.
Everton are the only side I have seen that can not only go one week without an AoG but manage it week after week!! Seriously, as an attacking force ,we are woeful; EVERY Prem side attacks with more purpose and pace than us.
Before anyone enlightens me about our glorious passing game that comes to the fore every now and again, I have only witnessed it taking place 25 yards either side of the halfway line with the last third of the pitch a 'Do Not Enter' zone, thus completely ineffective.
Our club is a graveyard for strikers because of the Ginger One's Neanderthal tactics, it's embarrassing to watch. He'd make Thierry Henry look like Bernie Wright if he had to work with him.
I'm sure someone will remember sometime under his tenure that it wasn't so, but after 350+ attempts can you remember 5? Really??
Obviously slight hyperbole on my part re the striker hybrid (perhaps matched by yours with the 23 attempts).
My serious point is that it is damn hard to be an effective striker up on your own, on the half-way line, back to goal, with people punting the ball aimlessly as our defenders regularly do.
It isn't by chance that we are feared at set pieces. We are better at planning for those than at building gradually from the back and providing decent service to the strikers. On another thread recently I quoted Derek Mountfield praising Sheedy and Steven to the skies. He said he would never have got his 14 goals that season without the service.
It is a different point but we also seem to ask our strikers to play out of position (do you remember what AJ said when he left? And how effective was Gary Lineker playing on the right for Barcelona)
Ray (4) ? these revelations are of no interest to me. I couldn't care less personally if players were making it regularly with German Shepherd dogs, so long as they were scoring equally well on Saturday. The point is that I think the expose might have affected him slightly ? that plus the injuries. He certainly hasn't been the same since.
I thought it was typical this season that Saha had his longest spell in the team when he was playing at his worst; he scores a couple ? then gets injured.
My point is though, if that rumour about Milner + cash for Rodwell is true (it probably isn't) then I think it could be good for us. Regardless of whether or not you think we SHOULD sell Rodwell, Milner could certainly be a great addition. He'd have to take a giant pay cut though.
I agree our current strikers are not the greatest in our history (no Dixies here), and I think you are right, a Lineker would have scored more even in our team and with our tactics.
My particular bugbear in the Moyes era is the big hoof from the back to nobody in particular, thus giving the ball to the opposition again, who can then build an attack.
I'll bore everyone again by quoting Cloughie: "The opposition cannot do anything, if they haven't got the baaaawl".
At Leeds there was a real livewire by the name of Beckford, who we could get for nothing.
Doh, we did and he is Shite!! Third Division standard, so why spend £3 million on some similar standard / level player when we have not go a pot to piss in?
Was the song by The Verve based around you? "The drugs don't work"...
I'm really struggling with this statement.
Beckford is and was a gamble which may or may not pay off from next season. Moyes has already stated he did not expect Beckford to feature much this term and I agree with that. Next season will tell whether Beckford will come good, not this one.
I do fully agree it's not just down to the strikers ability that has cause the team trouble however I'd lay the majority of it squarely at their feet (and I bet they still miss!!)
We have no width, no pace and no guile combined with an inability to tackle and a lack of goalscoring abiility.
Taking Tim Cahill out, who I do not consider a MF player anyway, who do we have that could contribute 8-10 goals a season which should be a prerequisite these days?
Who de we have looking for the ball when Jags or Distin has it? That is why they hoof the ball.
Arteta used to be good at holding the ball... in fact, he would always draw a foul if he thought he was under pressure, but, since his injury, he is a shadow of the player he was.
Phil Neville couldn't hold a glass of water.
Fellaini is unfit half a season every year but is still our most potent MF player.
Seamus has been found out but is probably the most potent in front of goal.
Ossie has refound his scoring boots but is too easily "eased" off the ball.
I won't even mention Bily because he is not even Premier League standard.
All-in-all, I feel we need a major shakeup in MF with a quality pacy goalscoring wideman the order of the day.
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1 Posted 16/05/2011 at 14:28:36
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Instead of the same people with the same goalscoring problem, we'd just get a different set of people with the same goalscoring problem. We need to deal with the tactical and service problem as much as we need to change some of the people.
I hate the constant sideswipes at Rodwell. He is going to be one hell of a player. He has been injured; he is still learning his craft; and his head probably isn't right as a result of the NotW revelations (I think he was texting that he wanted some lipstick on his dipstick or something of the sort).
As a player, Rodwell oozes class, he has a great future, and we will be damn lucky if we keep him.