You have to wonder why we bought Reid, wasting crucial money on yet another centre back. We already had Upson, Gabbidon, Tomkins, Ben Haim and Da Costa to wear the central defenders' jerseys, so why buy yet another mediocre centre half?
Imagine the outcry there would be if an England manager named 6 centre halves in his World Cup squad and only one specialist for each of the right back and left back berths. Of course, Dapela would not have taken up a place in the 25 man squad, being just 19 years old. Instead, we shipped him out and left ourselves with just Spector to cover Ilunga.
The midfield also looks short of goals. Pinning our hopes on Dyer to stay fit seems foolhardy in the extreme, but when he is injured, who is going to play wide left? Boa? He is the midfield equivalent of Spector! Stanislas? God help us! Barerra, with Faubert or Behrami on the right? Possibly. But Diamanti offered something special - goals; and goals win matches.
I admit to knowing next to nothing about Obinna. I'm told he has pace but how good is he in front of goal? Time will tell.
Anyway, there's no going back now. We've got what we've got. So, who plays against Chelsea? I fancy 4-3-3 set up like this:
Green; Jacobsen, Gabbidon (I would pick Da Costa!) Upson, Ilunga; Noble (or Behrami), Parker, Hitlespurger; Dyer, Cole, Obinna.
Willl that team be good enough to keep us up? God I hope so!
Oh, shut up.
ReplyDeleteImagine the outcry had it been Zola doing this HF!
ReplyDeleteThey bought Reid for the same reason they bought Barerra. They're hoping to sell on for a profit. It is high risk though because the player could get injured or as may be the case with Reid, not actually be all that good.
Da Costa is an international class defender but Grant doesn't give him a game?
Gabbidon and Da Costa should be our centre backs. Upson should not be here.
Will Green recover from his op in time for the game?
ReplyDeleteTrue. It might be fun to see Boffin in goal! There's a danger that Drogba might smash his test tubes with one of his shots however! Well Drogba and Malouda and Lampard and...
ReplyDeleteI think everyone should flood their fantasy teams with Chelsea players :) I've got Drogba, Malouda and Cashley. All set for goals galore.
ReplyDeleteLampard's injured too HF.
As for Boffin; young (22), big frame, looks good if a bit camera-ish....could well be our best signing HF!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrsijRj4mA8
Fear I have is that someone told Gold, Sulli and Grant that they can have Boffin and they thought they said Buffon! Actually, I'm surprised the OS didn't try that one and put it down to a typo.
The worst part about the Diamanti sale is that it was looking like he would be a perfect fit for our system this season. In the 4-3-3 he could be the advanced midfielder of the centre three, and in the 4-4-1 he'd be perfect right behind Cole (imho anyway) - we wouldn't actually be playing him on the flanks anymore (and especially not to the right). More so than just goals, having a player like Diamanti roaming outside the box simply gives the defenders more to worry about and without that we're far to simple to defend against (which is quite evident).
ReplyDeleteI do disagree with you in wide-left being a problem-area, though. We have Dyer, Barrera, Stanislas and Boa-Morte (hopefully not) who can play there, and moving Barrera to the left shouldn't be too much much of a problem with the Signing of Obinna.
No, with injury related problems I believe we have far worse concerns. Mainly that we only have two fullback(as you touched upon) and the fact that we only have two-ish offensive minded midfielders.
With Hitzlsperger and Collison unavailable, we're stuck playing with the magnificent Parker/Noble combination. We could move Dyer in, but what are the chances he won't be suffering a chain of hamstring related injuries this season?
I do think we made a good signing in Jacobsen, though. I actually believe he is quite underrated, a true professional at least. The flip-side of that, is of course that there's absolutely no chance that he'll be staying fit for the season since he is extremely unlucky with his injuries - he'll fit right in!
I'm beginning to think the overall strategy has been to hope that Carlton Cole suddenly turns into Drogba, that Barrera is actually the next big thing, and that we won't have any injuries at all. Seems realistic enough...
I think I wrote a bit too much there. Oh well.
Upson is under appreciated at West Ham. You don't know how good he is until he's not playing and suddenly there's space at the back (look at the bolton game).
ReplyDeleteI always find Da Costa nervous to watch, it always feels like there's a mistake in him, he is not "international class"...
I'm guessing this won't be a very popular comment on this site...
I dont see why you are writing off Piquionne HF. He has looked smart for us.
ReplyDeleteAgree on the Reid deal though. Had we known ~6m could be our total summer spend we shouldve spent that on fullbacks/attack.
What really enrages me is West Brom getting Schwarzer on a free. There was a veteran who can play in both mid and defense!
Lampards injured and wont play
ReplyDeleteI agree we should of kept them both, but if nobody comes in for our deadwood Spector, Kovac, Noble etc, we have to sell someone and there was more to these deals than meets the eye. Grant is going to play 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1 however you look at it) so we have cover at right back with Ben Haim( played there Chelsea and Man city), Behrami and now Jacobsen. Plenty of options in midfield and forward positions, so only area I see us struggling is left back. Team Green, Behrami, Gabbs Upson, Ilunga -- Hitz, Parker, Dyer -- Barrera, Cole, Obinna. Subs Team Boffin, Jacobsen, Da Costa, Reid, Ben Haim / Spector --- Noble, Kovac,Stanislas ---Faubert, Big Mac, Piquionne. So when you look at it we have a fairly balanced squad now with options in all positions.
ReplyDeleteAh, YouTube Stani, where Faubert looked like Jairzinho!
ReplyDeleteSome good points Bill. Unfortunately, I saw Barrera against Oxford and he was not impressive. I would rather have Etherington wide left personally.
0048, agree about Upson. I thiink Da Costa looked the best option as his partner at the end of last season though.
I've seen Behrami play at right back Dutch, he looked better suited as a centre forward! I wonder if he will kick a ball between now and January personally. He aint going to be happy that we didn't agree to give him away to Roma!
ReplyDeleteAs for balance, we don't have enough goals in the team. I can't see Dyer lasting and so Noble comes back into that midfield, at least until Collison is fit.