Pennant & Zenden - Mediocre or Worse Than That?

[Neil Young]

I'd trade Garcia, Zenden and Pennant for Hleb and Van Persie all day long.

Garcia or Hleb is a close call IMO.

Van Persie's a cut above I think.

[Fiddy]

Pennant at least has youth on his side and has shown glimpses of talent in the past so I'm prepared to give him a bit longer even though I wasn't exactly enamoured when we signed him...Zenden on the other hand I've always thought was ****e, he did have one decent season for Boro playing AM but nothing I've seen in the rest of his career has made me think he's even remotely good enough for a top four side.

[Ron_Mexico]

zenden has played for some big clubs: barcelona, Psv, Liverpool, the boro and some ****ty little club called chelsea (paid £7.5 million for him lol)

he started as a winger and has moved central since hes lost his pace i guess...could be why he runs around like a headless chicken and is piss poor at tackling. right now his only function is to fill space and to give our good players some time to rest

[Mumsafan]

Kinell Rash you've surprised me there. Totally agree with all of that

I was thinking along the same lines. He seems a bit awestruck

[dww]

zenden has played for some big clubs: barcelona, Psv, Liverpool, the boro and some ****ty little club called chelsea (paid £7.5 million for him lol)

he started as a winger and has moved central since hes lost his pace i guess...could be why he runs around like a headless chicken and is piss poor at tackling. right now his only function is to fill space and to give our good players some time to rest

I think Zenden is a fine squad player. He is better than a lot of people give him credit for but he isn't pushing for a first team birth. I thought he has done a good job as a fill in player for us, and considering he has never had a run in the team I think he has played pretty well at times.

[Parm]

Well, in my opinion....

Reina
Finnan
Carra
Hyypia
Agger
Riise
Sissoko
Alonso
Gerrard
Garcia
Kuyt
Crouch

We have plenty of the players of the right standard, and a decent number who are thereabouts, but it is noticeable that not many of them are primarily attacking players....

We have Gerrard, Garcia, Kuyt, and Crouch. (4)
Man Utd have Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney, Saha, Solskjaer. (6)
Chelsea have Sheva, Drogba, Robben, SWP, J Cole, Lampard, Ballack. (7)
Arsenal have Henry, Fabregas, Hleb, Rosicky, Ljungberg, van Persie. (6)

Our paucity of genuinely consistant quality attacking players makes it difficult for us to produce over the course of a whole season. It places a lot of pressure on the 4 players of ours mentioned.

Fortunately a lot of our goals come through quality passing and we do have many good passers of the ball. But at the same time quality flair players is something we're lacking a little. Hopefully we can add players like Bellamy and Pennant, even Kewell, to that list of ours in time but it remains to be seen. Until we get more players in that category we have to be mean in defence and make sure we consistantly attack well as a unit because we don't have enough players who can pull a rabbit out of the hat when things are not going too well.

[dww]

Not sure SWP should be on the list seeing as he never plays and when he does he comes across a bit scared these days. I think was great for City, but has done sod all for Chelsea.

I guess we have to hope that Pennant and Gonzales sort themselves out in the next few months and then we will be on a par with the other teams.

[Kopite75]

I think Zenden will improve as the season progresses. Let's remember he had a knee reconstruction last year didnt he? Not 100% what his injury was but I thought it was a knee. If that is the case it usually takes a year after the knee operation for recovery and a player is not really 100% until 14 to 20 months after the reconstruction to get back to the condition prior to the knee being hurt. If this is the case he should be running into some form Late NOvember, December so I expect some improvement and maybe just being hopeful.

[Morph]

It was cruciate knee ligament damage, not sure if that makes a difference

[anfieldanfield]

Zenden mediocre.

Pennant worse than that.