It's Christmas time! Wouldn't it be nice to send the players a present to try to lift their performances from Boxing Day onwards? Who should get what?
Faubert: A heart! Perhaps if we sent him along the Yellowbrick Road, he might find one!
Stanislas: A start on the right side of midfield so he can use the foot God gave him to cross with and not the one Zola seems to think he can use!
Dyer: A new body.
Ashton: A legal action against Curbishley for playing him before he was ready.
Spector: Carrying his West Ham form on to the international stage. We have to beat the USA first game up in the World Cup!
Green: Velcro for his gloves, a ladder to help him reach crosses and a nasty streak. Why does he allow oppoents to stand in front of him at corners?
Upson: If he stays, a place in the England squad for South Africa. If he goes, a return of his injuries woes!
Tomkins: A DVD of England v Brazil 1970. Watch Bobby. THAT is how you defend!
Ilunga: A memory. Perhaps then he might start replicating his performances of last season.
Parker: Rooney's field of vision. Scotty has a great heart but he does miss a pass too often to be a genuine England player. And then there is his goal scoring...
Jimenez: A Ryanair flight back to Milan.
Cole: A starting position for England in South Africa after a fantastic second half of the season.
Franco: As for Cole, only substitute Mexico for England.
Noble: An extra yard of pace and self belief.
Diamanti: Goals that are five feet wider and five feet higher for when he shoots in open play!
Da Costa: The faith of his manager.
Behrami: An injury free 2010.
Collison: Lampard's scoring record in the Prem!
Kovac: A dream move to Real Madrid. Well Faubert nearly pulled it off!
Perhaps then, Zola might get the best present of all, survival in the Premiership!
12 comments:
HF, I get the feeling Stan prefers to play on the left, in Ashley Young style. Zola should be strong enough to overall though but maybe he'd rather play a youngster where he feels comfortable.
ZOLA must obviously be aware of his players abilities and weaknesses,where they are most effective and so on.But playing players out of position or not in their strongest position really is counterproductive.But I an sure ZOLA has enough savvy to know this.
Essex,
I think even though he is right footed, he is considered a left winger and I think he prefers that. At Southend he played on the left wing. On most sites I've read about him, he is referred to as a left winger.
There are managers who do tell players to play in different positions and can mould them into a whole new player e.g Wenger with Henry. But, in my opinion I think Stan will be more suited to the left so he can cut in and shoot with his good foot. I think putting him on the right will make shooting more difficult and though it may make it easier for him to cross, sacrificing his shooting chances are not worth this move in my opinion. Hopefully, by watching the likes of Ashley Young, Henry, he will improve.
Maybe Zola wants to concentrate on improving him on the left to see if he can be successful rather than swapping him at such a young age when he hasn't even had that long a go on the left wing.
Of course, we dont know if Zola has tried him on the right in training and the conversations they've had. For those reasons I'm less inclined to see Stan playing on the left winger as reason for Zola making a poor decision.
So Diamanti, Collison and Stanislas all want to play on the wrong flank do they? For years we have been looking for a left footer to play on the left wing for England for a very good reason, it gives balance. Watch Stanislas try to tackle or carry the ball out of defence when on the wrong flank and you will see why this is all a nonsense. You quote Young, I give you Lennon who is ten times the player on the right than he is on the left!
HF,
I don't know about Diamanti and Collison mate, I was just talking about Stanislas. I haven't seen Diamanti or Collison referred to as right and left wingers respectively, anywhere. Stanislas is referred to as a left winger.
And if Stanislas does want to play there, then for him, it is not the 'wrong' flank, it's the right one, because that's where he is comfortable. The point I was making by mentioning Ashley Young is that not all left wingers are left footed and not all right wingers are right footed. This is an oversimplification, especially to assert that balance cannot be achieved by using a left footer on the right or a right footer on the left.
If this was the case, Downing would be ahead of the likes of Milner, Cole and Gerrard for the left of England's midfield, but he won't be because we have right footers there who can do a better job.
As for his tackling, you yourself said he wasn't a great defender anyway and that defending's not his game.
Lennon, he is a glorified runner. Stanislas and Young are footballers that have many more strings to their bow. They have a much better first touch than Lennon, better shot and crossing ability, though I admit Lennon's has improved this season. Lennon can only do one job (kick and run fast) and he's not even very good at that which is why Capello hasn't made his mind up for the right wing and Beckham is still being picked for England squads. A fit Walcott would be ahead of Lennon anyway, in my opinion.
My basic argument is that if Stanislas wants to be a left winger, then he wants to be a left winger, whether he is right footed or left footed.
The point is Stani, Diamanti has been played on the right despite being left footed and both Stanislas and Collison used on the left despite being right footed. Even Etherington, the most one footed footballer this side of Heather Mills-McCartney, was tried on the right by Zola. This isn't player choice it is Zola's obsession. For Chelsea he relented and Collison was moved to the right and Diamanti to the left and suddenly we had shape and balance.
HF,
I was talking specifically about Stanislas but in regards to Collison and Diamanti; Collison I would not play on the left wing, I agree. In fact, I wouldn't play Collison on either wing, central midfield for me. He is too good a midfielder to be out on the wing. Diamanti, I would play in the hole but if I was forced to put him on the wing it would be the right. The reason is same as before, so he can utilise his left foot shooting.
Also, sometimes when a manger just needs to put his best 11 out there, wingers usually make way and central midfielders take their place. For example, if we had Behrami, Parker, Noble and Collison all fit, the only way to pick Collison would be left wing probably. Ok, that's not his best position but do we drop him because of that? It's a difficult one. I think a few of Collison's appearances on the wings were under such circumstances i.e, we couldn't afford to drop him but central midfield was taken up.
Zola's preferred midfield also lacks natural width Stani. You should not pick your best players, but your best team. The problem with the Nani / Zola management team is that players have been bought as individuals, not to fit into a jigsaw. Look at Stoke where Etherington and Beattie were bought to do a job: Etherington to cross for Beattie to score. We have too many central midfielders and should not play them all together and we do not have ANYBODY who naturally is suited to playing wide left, naturally being somebody who can cross using his left foot and who has the pace to take on and beat a full back.
Yes I agree HF, but that is just one style of playing i.e with wingers who run down their flanks and cross for the big man in the centre. We haven't played this for ages and maybe it won't suit Zola's little intricate triangles.
I'm not saying that wing play is a bad style of football; I've been harping on about buying Adam Johnson ever since Middlesbrough got relegated, but maybe Zola doesn't wanna play that way. And to be honest, and I want your opinion on this, with the lack of numbers we get in the box and the shortness of our midfielders, maybe running down the wings and crossing would be a waste. Maybe we're more suited to playing through a team.
As was shown at the weekend, even Chelsea struggle to play through teams. The one time they lloked dangerous was when Drogba pulled wide. If yoy ignore half the width of the pitch, a quarter either side, it is obviously going to be more difficult to get the ball into goalscoring positions. I accept that Zola doesn't want to play with wide players but Zola is wrong. The inticate triangles get us nowhere. How many shots did we have on goal in each of the last three games? Not enough!
HF, you don't have to ignore the sides of the pitch, you can use them with this style of play too. With the lack of numbers we get in the box, I'm not certain we'd get anymore shots on goal if we reverted to conventional wing play. Our crosses would be easily dealt with.
There was a time we were shaping the team to play the two wingers system. It was when we had Deano and Cole with Etherington on the left. Faubert was brought in to provide this option on the right. It would have be nice, don't get me wrong, it makes for swift attacking play, but various factors meant it was never to be. We now don't have those type of players.
Stani mate, the point of getting to the byline is that it sucks players into the box. At the moment, we have no natural width so rarely even get near the box!
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