Until you look at the table.
"But where would we be without Parker?" his advocates will demand? Maybe not bottom is the obvious reply.
"But where would we be without Parker's goals?" comes the retort. Maybe not bottom is again the reply.
"But Parker has been our best player all season!" fires back the Parker bandwagon. And that, my friends, is precisely the problem.
Now, I admit that Parker's goals have amazed me so far this season because his record has been so poor in the past, but again, we have to say, so what? We are still bottom. For all his drive, for all his goals, for all his heart on his sleeve passion, Parker's presence and style of play may just be stopping us from progressing as a team.
That needs some explaining I accept. Well first off, you have to ask where the team and squad are weakest. Most would agree that we desperately need a quality left back and a goal scorer or two. Parker's goals have been remarkable for another reason too - no other bugger apart from Piquionne is scoring!
Now, I still find myself wondering where we might be in the table had Parker gone to Spurs and Keane and O'Hara had come in the opposite direction. Might the team not look a little more balanced?
If that deal had proved impossible, had we eked out £10million for Parker, might we have been able to play the market and signed players to plug the obvious holes we have in the team?
And just as important, might the team have developed a heart outside of Parker's chest if he wasn't at the centre of affairs? For all his drive and passion, he does run up a lot of blind alleys in a game. For all his goals, he does make some dumb choices when the ball breaks to him just outside the box, with the decision to let fly clouding out any bigger picture of the pitch. For all his ability, he does lack that extra ounce of class, yet the team use him as if he is the new Maradona.
Capello doesn't pick Parker for a reason. He has a poor tackling technique and concedes free kicks unnecessarily in dangerous areas of the pitch. Nor is his ball retention brilliant. And this "patch" apart, he doesn't score enough goals either.
If Parker doesn't play today at Anfield it will feel like a Hammer blow. But if we got a result without him, would Grant DARE to pick a side without Scotty the next game he was available? Not a chance in hell! Parker is now bigger the team, bigger the club, bigger than the manager. And the trouble is, Parker isn't Gerrard or Lampard or Terry or Rooney, Parker is just an averagely good midfield player who covers a lot of ground. And for that, we are paying him £4million a year in wages.
Had we sold him, where would we be now? Well it couldn't be much worse, could it?
18 comments:
Needs a big change in players.
Sell Upson, Green and Parker and do what Harry did and sign as many players you can get your hands on with the money on the hope a few of them get you out of relegation.
I doubt Capello doesn't pick him for this reason, I think he is stubborn. Just look at Barry, who in their right mind would persistenly pick that peice of crap that clearly isn't working? Capello bought into the whole Heskey being good crap, the Lampard and Gerrard combo will work crap, so surely he should buy into Parker being the joint best central mindfielder in the country at the moment crap. What a crap manager!
This is a stupid arguement HF. You never benefit from selling your best players, let alone english ones who are REQUIRED for the new 25 squad rule.
The argument that somehow the market last summer was an opportune time to sell is speculative at best aswell. There isnt a raft of new players of similar skill set to what there was 6 months ago anyhow.
If we got rid of Parker youd be whining about us using the money to sign 3 more behramis anyway.
Serious question, have you been to any games this season ?
I am guessing the answer is no as no one who has gone regularly this season could possibly describe Parker as average
This is a really poor article & to be honest i won't even bother reading the sarcastic reply that will ultimately follow this comment, i will just refrain from reading this drivel in the future
Idiot. Average midfielder? He is the best defensive midfielder in the league on current form.
Capello does not pick him because he is now 30 and has a short passing range. Those are the only two reasons.
Why do yo constantly blog for the sake of argument? No-one likes you, not even your wife.
Guys, take a look at the table and explain how things could be worse had we sold Parker. Please don't point to his goals, they have only secured us 2 points anyway. How many might Keane have scored by now? How many might parker's replacement have scored? I suggested Gera, a natural scorer from midfield. O'Hara also scores a few. How many goals might have been prevented by a quality left back? Certainly the second goal scored by West Brom! And the first Birmingam goal (Ilunga was playing Jerome onside)!
Footnote. Parker is NOT the best midfield player in the country. NONE of the stats support that. Nor is he the best defensive midfielder in the country. He conceded far too many free kicks with tackles like the one above. Birmingham scored their second goal from a free kick conceded by Parker just outside our box. He also did it against Chelsea (goal scored)and Blackpool (no goal resulted). He already has 3 yellow cards this season, two more and he is suspended. And he was lucky not to be booked against Blackpool.
Too many people see the passion and mistake it for class. Just like the Behrami Appreciation Society that formed because he ran around a lot. Hoddle and Brooking were the best English midfielders I ever saw, and neither were huff and puff merchants, they picked passes, they didn't run up blind alleys. 1151 is defending Parker but admits he has a short passing range! Brilliant!
Hammersfan would pick Barry T.I.S
Not based on performances this season I wouldn't. I might pick Noble though! Or Cattermole. Or Rodwell. Or Nolan.
HF you know fcuk all about football or west ham. your a muppet. by the way your beloved spurs are getting stuffed again by the arsenal.
HF, firstly let me commend you, as you are always entertaining, sometimes with razor wit, sometimes with insight and sometimes with utter rubbish, but always entertaining. When I travel on business alone, with little else to do, chatting with you whiles part of an evening away, often friendly, often argumentative it depends on the anonymous persona I decide to take, but generally engaging. However you are at your most irritating when despite your claim not to censor (except obvious unacceptable content and rightfully so) you do not post an entry if you find the response not to your liking, probably as the comment strikes a chord. Yes, it was me interacting with you last night regarding definitions of morons and your apparent conquests of 25 year olds, so why not post my comments this morning?
Anyway keep up the good work. I'm sure you'll post something to say how sad I must be, but there again we have had long conversations in the past regarding the Holy Lands, Abu Dhabi, Scousers and the like, so it must make you much the same. Speak to you soon from probably, rather perversely, one of your biggest fans!!!
lol Cattermole is officialy the worst most disgusting excuse for a footballer.And you are mistaking age for class with Rodwell.
1349, by all means criticise me and the blog, as you have here, but please contribute something else in your post. I deleted five from last night, one of which may have been yours, that did not relate in ANY way to the forum topic. I have had a number of emails from regular visitors, like yourself, who are expressing a genuine sense of tedium with the mindless insults.
Personally I felt my moron comment was appropriate because the guy was claiming to be a journalist when he obviously was not. Nobody who spells like that woulld find employment in journalism.
To others, the same applies. Comment on the blog by all means, but personal insults, comments on my family and threats will no longer be posted. If you can't find ANYTHING intelligent to say, don't waste your time posting a comment. Simple. Your contributions have become mind numbingly tedious.
And 1349, I'm glad I entertain you on your business trips. Register an ID and I willexchange comments with you as much as you like.
1342, I watched the game. Did you catch the final score?
oh ffs this is becoming a joke kovac and cole looks like liverpool will have a field day
Idiot - look what happened today without him - worse than ever.... you are a plank of the highest order.
No sir, you are the idiot. Parker wouldn't be able to take on Liverpool on his own would he? We needed the Parker money to rebuild, that's my point. Today proved the point!
I work in the accounts department and you don't need maths any more... calculators and computers are enough apparently - and I suspect that goes for spell checker and journalists. I think the guy was very eloquent in his approach and in his judgement of your post and more importantly of you.
You work in accounts so what do you know about writing?
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