If only we had spent 20 million on a decent striker this summer!

[Woobus]

Agreed.

I guess we're just better off spending millions on average players and not giving these multi-million pound youngsters ago.

And quite frankly, if Nemeth doesn't fill Fredo with confidence, I'm a bit concerned.

I suppose this is were the negative vibe comes through, you dont seem able to compliament a player without slagging of another player.

[Sarb]

I suppose this is were the negative vibe comes through, you dont seem able to compliament a player without slagging of another player.

How do you mean? It's clear we've bought some average forwards when we've spent millions on players in our youth set-up. I think it's a valid point

[Woobus]

How do you mean? It's clear we've bought some average forwards when we've spent millions on players in our youth set-up. I think it's a valid point

It may be a valid point in your eyes, but it doesnt mean it isnt negative. You backing Nemeth up seems more of a way to attack Keane and other players, well to me anyways.
Now Nemeth is back from injury hopefully we will get to see him get some game time for the 1st team, he looked lively in pre season and really knows how to hit a ball.

[Parm]

We haven't replaced Crouch this summer. Our squad has no target man with the capability of playing with his back to the goal, which is essential in order to break down deep defences and string passes through the middle. Nearly all of our efforts against West Ham have been from hopeful crosses because Kuyt and Keane aren't strong enough strikers to act as pivots.

What we need isn't a finisher like Owen, we need an alternative for Torres, not necessarily with pace, but a strong target man who can compliment Gerrard's forward runs and is good in the air. Heskey is actually a good shout, I'd support the move, or someone like John Carew.

We need a good plan B. We only have a single plan A- Torres.

having seen most of the responses, I'd have to agree with you mate. A strong centre forward would allow our midfield to real give support and break into the box. IMO there is no point just sticking Keane/Torres upfront on their own and thinking that they will win the high ball or the majority of headers into the box, that's not their strengths.

[Sarb]

having seen most of the responses, I'd have to agree with you mate. A strong centre forward would allow our midfield to real give support and break into the box. IMO there is no point just sticking Keane/Torres upfront on their own and thinking that they will win the high ball or the majority of headers into the box, that's not their strengths.

But we are a better team than one that plays long balls. Early in the season we were passing it round well and using Reira a lot. Only recently we've lost our way and started hoofing it long at times. Don't think we need a big target man. Think we need to play to our strengths and play football on the deck

Woobus, I've not singled out a player. I thought Keane would be a good signing for us but not at £20m. Like it or not, N'gog, Voronin are average and for me Nemeth has shown more potential since he's been here than them two.

We've wasted a lot of money on strikers when we could have strengthened the right wing. That position has needed strengthening since Rafa has been here and it's costing us to be honest.

Does Keane offer more up front than Kuyt would if he played there? I don't think so. So we could have saved £20m if we wanted to play 2 up front, promoted Nemeth, moved Kuyt into the middle (in his position) and bought a winger

[hamshanks]

Zaki - scoring free for Wigan full of confidence and won't break the bank

[smphotog]

I seem to remember a mr crouch getting off to a slow start and then scoring quite a few useful goals for us.....



Lets cut the lad some slack.

[rage]

I seem to remember a mr crouch getting off to a slow start and then scoring quite a few useful goals for us.....



Lets cut the lad some slack.

crouch cost what 7 million. the expectations on keane are far far greater

[Woobus]

Does Keane offer more up front than Kuyt would if he played there? I don't think so. So we could have saved £20m if we wanted to play 2 up front, promoted Nemeth, moved Kuyt into the middle (in his position) and bought a winger

I have been a lot more impressed with Kuyt out on the right than up front this season, he adds an extra man in the box when we have been attacking down the left hand side and allows Arbeloa more of a free roll attacking.
I really dont think we have seen the best from Keane due to Torres being out and no partnership has been allowed to form.
We could have suffered a lot worse if we had of used 20 million on a right winger. Up front due to injuries we would only of had Kuyt and N'gog fit for most of the season and no way could we be certain the right winger would have been a success.
We also have Hamill and El Zhar kicking at the door of the first team so hopefully wont need to spend big in that position if they kick on.

[BG1973]

On Keane - he was bought as a link man type player. So far he has hardly played that role. He didn't get off to the best start, has missed a couple of sitters and Rafa keeps taking him off. End result - no confidence. When Torres comes back and takes a bit of pressure off Keane I hope we will see a different player. No point making cast iron judgements about him until then.


On what we need. Simply someone who can retain possession, pass the ball, and is not afraid to take players on. Someone with something unpredictable in their locker, someone who commits defenders thus opening up space.

Against west ham pretty much all our attacking players did was receive the ball and then pass it on, usually side ways or backwards. That won't work against teams who have no intention of attacking. The only real danger we created from open play was in the first half when gerrard dropped his shoulder, went past a player and then instead of picking somone out pulled his shot into the side netting.

Babel for me is limited but he could have played that role against west ham - for reasons only known to Rafa he bought on N'Gog instead.

We all knew our limitations before the season started though. We have a distinct lack of match winners when you compare us to chelsea and scum.

[barnes10]

we basically need to clone maradona. simple

[alexjamestodd]

http://www.splitscreen.us/2008/02/maradonna-vs-me.html

like this you mean?????

[-V-]

Iv been saying this for over a year.

Lisandro Lopez Prolific goal scorer and won't be mega expensive either

[BG1973]

we basically need to clone maradona. simple

too short.

[frank the tank]

I have been a lot more impressed with Kuyt out on the right than up front this season, he adds an extra man in the box when we have been attacking down the left hand side and allows Arbeloa more of a free roll attacking.
I really dont think we have seen the best from Keane due to Torres being out and no partnership has been allowed to form.
We could have suffered a lot worse if we had of used 20 million on a right winger. Up front due to injuries we would only of had Kuyt and N'gog fit for most of the season and no way could we be certain the right winger would have been a success.
We also have Hamill and El Zhar kicking at the door of the first team so hopefully wont need to spend big in that position if they kick on.

i agree with you here bud....also, i used to think that kuyt was more suited to the right in a more advanced way - like in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 but to be honest, when we have played 4-4-2 this season, dirk has impressed me no end...

to be honest, i reckon we are going a bit like chelsea fans if we jump on top of keane now - i reckon we should get behind him big time and give him the season to get it right.

Also, i would love to see us deploy keane alongside babel up front for a while because it might be interesting to see keane play in the role of second striker behind a very quick player. I reckon that one thing that rafa has to get right is that he needs to put keane in one position and one position only and then let him get 100% used to that position for 10 or so matches. Put it this way, robbie keane has played up front on his own with stevie behind him, up front with kuyt, behind torres all in the space of a handful of matches. I think both keane and, more importantly, the team will benefit greatly by sticking with the main players in set positions. Rotate them when we are two goals up!!! I know it was only west ham at home, but i still think that we might have unlocked the door if mascher played and alonso was the attacking midfielder and stevie as the link-man / second striker. When we changed it, then some of our main players - like stevie, keane, kuyt and xabi to a certain extent, had to slightly change their play..... even though it was only slight changes, it still had a little effect (maybe a bigger effect in keanes case)

at the end of the day, if you look at the best and most sucessful teams in recent years, every player basically has one job to do and perfects that job. Look at manU last year - all their players played the same roles week-in, week-out. Im not slating rotating personnel, because that is required to keep everybody fresh, but other than in cases of emergency, you hardly ever saw their players play in more than one position (maybe sometimes their wide players would switch during a game but that is about it)..... its the same with chelsea, the only times i can remember them playing kinda crap under mourinho and to a certain extent grant, was when essien played right back in an emergency.... i mean, you don't see the likes of lampard, ballack playing in more than one position.... i just feel that kuyt isn't going to have a whole lot of consistancy when he's playing a slightly different positon every week.... same with stevie G - I mean, in the last couple of years, his best form was probably playing off torres from xmas onwards last season. A lot of people seemed to make out it is because he was playing with a top top striker for the first time since owen left us but in reality, it was probably due to the fact that he was playing the role of second striker every week for about 20 to 25 games in a row.....and was able to get more consistant.....