Parker's failings were obvious for all to see against Blackpool. His foul on Adam that led to the goal, albeit via free kick, corner and dreadful defending and goalkeeping, said it all. The guy is brainless I'm afraid. Yes he plays with great passion, but he lacks football intelligence and has too many technical flaws in his game into the bargain.
It may take a few games to fully expose him but sooner or later Parker will attempt a pirouette and will lose possession, leading to a goal conceded. And sooner or later, he will dive into a tackle on the edge of our box, as he did against Blackpool, and hand a prime goalscoring opportunity to the opposition on a plate!
And what will England get to balance out the risk factor? Parker's goals have dried up, as they were always going to. His rushes of blood are at their very worst when he spies the opportunity to shoot. He and Boa both are more danger to somebody sitting in the Bobby Moore Upper than to the opposition goal. And how many goals does he create? How often does Parker actually deliver a killer pass? I don't have the stats to hand but Noble is the one who splits opposition defences with his passes, not Parker.
So what does Parker bring to the team? Energy, drive, commitment, passion - great English footballing qualities but the very aspects of our game that we have in abundance anyway. Gerrard gives you all this, and he scores goals into the bargain.
Some see Parker as the defensive anchor but that is not his game. He doesn't sit and hold, if he did, our centre backs would not be so easily exposed and he wouldn't have to make so many of his tackles from behind. The holding midfielder role requires intelligence and discretion. Forward forays must be limited, the primary responsibility is to shield the back four, allowing your full backs to support the attack whilst still providing sufficient defensive cover. That isn't Parker's game. And anyway, Parker can't tackle - he dives in stupidly - so you don't want him anchoring the team in the first place.
For all his qualities, Parker is a large part of the problem at West Ham. He is the "main man" but doesn't have the quality for that role. His poor goalscoring returns put an inordinate pressure on the others in the side and his failure to hold his position or work in tandem with his central midfield partner, mean that we are always vulnerable to counter thrusts from the opposition. Add in the fact that he is short so is a liability when defending corners, and you can see why he has been largely ignored at international level throughout his career.
Tell me, if he wasn't good enough aged 25, 26, 27, 28 or 29, why is he going to be good enough aged 30? Capello SHOULD be building for the next World Cup but, because he is going anyway, isn't interested in looking that far ahead. We will still be paying Parker £83,000 a week as a 34 year old, but does anybody seriously think he will be in a World Cup winning team at that age? Not a chance!
2 comments:
the holding midfield anchor role is to break up the opposition attacks then play the ball out whether its a killer pass or jus ta pass out to the winger or th estriker t ocounter attack but parker makes the team very unbalanced and noble is more suited to this role and noble has outshone parker countless times this year so in my opinion if theres two players in our team who deserve a full england squad call up its Noble and maybe tomkins
Lol, this post is hilarious and just goes to show that the internet is full of blogger blowhards with more letters in their URL than there are cells in their brain.
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