Not ONE left footed midfielder in our first team squad

[Iver]

I don't know who is to blame for this but it is utterly unforgiveable that a team with serious title aspirations starts the Premiership without any quality left footed options in the midfield.

 

Last season I cringed when we missed out on Heinze, at the prospect of an injury to either of our first choice centre halves, and look what happened (take nothing away from Sami Hyypia who surpassed expectations), but you would have thought that as a club we would have learned our lesson.

 

To challenge for the title you need two quality options in every position on the field.

 

We do not have even one single genuine left sided midfield option to offer balance, never mind width, and Barry would not offer width.

 

Aurelio is primarily a left back, or arguably best deployed as a left wing back, he is not the answer, and he is injured in any event, and chances are that may well remain the case for the rest of the season.

 

Although both good players when used in their best positions, the tie in midweek showed that we will come up sadly short if we are relying on the likes of Kuyt and Benayoun in the wide areas - Yossi was pitiful on the left.

 

Wait one minute, I hear you say, the transfer window does not close until the end of August.......

 

Fair enough, but the season starts tomorrow, and the way United and Chelsea have set the standard EVERY SINGLE POINT DROPPED IS CRUCIAL.

 

So even if we do get Barry or an alternative other left sided quality option in by the end of the window, (preferably one that would offer genuine width in my opinion), the damage may already be done in that we could have already dropped 4-5 points that cost us our title challenge.

 

I can totally identify with Rafa's frustrations if Ballague is correct when he states in his article on his website that one of the reasons why Rafa was tempted to walk is the "gaping hole on the left side of the midfield".

[Gunga Din]

sack somebody quick.

[Kahnee]

sack somebody quick.

 

Iver?

[Rimbeux]

Did Arsenal in the time of Pires?

[Gunga Din]

Iver?

 

 

no, we'll burn him, sack parry and rotate Rafa back to spain. it'll be for the best

[Alonso]

Isn't Plessis left footed?

[Iver]

sack somebody quick.

 

This is not the purpose of my post - I am not looking for heads to roll, well certainly not Rafa's, I just cannot comprehend how, for all the players we have, and all the quality elsewhere in the squad, we are so pitifully short of options for left midfield.

[DazzlaJ]

Iver knob on my forehead

[Guest perdix]

I don't know who is to blame for this but it is utterly unforgiveable that a team with serious title aspirations starts the Premiership without any quality left footed options in the midfield.

 

I can totally identify with Rafa's frustrations if Ballague is correct when he states in his article on his website that one of the reasons why Rafa was tempted to walk is the "gaping hole on the left side of the midfield".

 

didn't the a*** win multiple titles with Overmars and Pires on the left of midfield, neither of whom are left-footed ?

 

to me, as a leftie myself, I'd like to see lefties out there but it's a nice-to-have rather than a must. There's an argument that a more talented rightie is a better option than a less-talented leftie, talented lefties being at a premium due to only 1-in-10 players being left-footed

 

that said, I'd like to see Petrov in red and running at messrs Neville, Bosingwa and the fella with the funny hair...

 

 

as for the gaping hole on the left side of midfield, Rafa has had 4 years to do something about it. What did we get ? A bizarre faith in Kewell coming good. A promising youngster that didn't work out in Gonzalez. A no-hoper washed-up hasbeen complete waste of time, space and 5 million pounds of wages in Zenden. More strange faith and a farcical passport f-up in Leto. Then, over £10m spent on Babel, who is mostly right-footed and doesn't really look at home out there, and it's difficult to see where Rafa does see him fitting into the jigsaw. Then he deprives himself of an option by sending one of the most exciting young players the club's had for a decade or more, a McManaman that can actually shoot, out on loan to Blackpool where he is clearly doomed to failure. There was Simao of course, but we were right not to get held to ransom at the least minute there. We had to let that slide. Of Rafa's £10m+ transfers that went through or didn't, I reckon that was the one that was the most likely to have had a disappointing outcome performancewise anyway.

 

Not a pretty picture is it really.

[Gunga Din]

This is not the purpose of my post - I am not looking for heads to roll, well certainly not Rafa's, I just cannot comprehend how, for all the players we have, and all the quality elsewhere in the squad, we are so pitifully short of options for left midfield.

 

 

i think there is a general shortage of left sided midfielders in general, i certainly cant think of too many who were available in the summer. i think with how we are set up, having a right footer there capable of beating a man and cutting inside wont be the end of the world

[Iver]

Hiliarious.

 

If I had a quid for every time I heard that one, I would have bought Barry myself and donated him to the club.

 

Is the point that I am trying to make in my post really bad enough to merit being ridiculed??

 

As a lifelong fan of over 30 years I am expressing my worry that this might scupper the best potenital chance we have of challenging for the title in almost 20 years.

[Guest Silkky Skillz]

Would rather see a two footed player a la J Cole who could switch with the other player on the RM.

[Rimbeux]

Hiliarious.

 

If I had a quid for every time I heard that one, I would have bought Barry myself and donated him to the club.

 

Is the point that I am trying to make in my post really bad enough to merit being ridiculed??

 

As a lifelong fan of over 30 years I am expressing my worry that this might scupper the best potenital chance we have of challenging for the title in almost 20 years.

 

 

I think you've taken the manager pushing a few buttons too literally, the 'problem' and the Barry thing is not about solving the left, unless of course you are the CEO who thinks the money should be spent on the left, not in the middle...

[Guest perdix]

As a lifelong fan of over 30 years I am expressing my worry that this might scupper the best potenital chance we have of challenging for the title in almost 20 years.

 

we look short anyway

 

even if we brought in Robben (best propah left-sided player I can think of) and he could stay fit for 38 games and we could ignore the fact that he's a ****, we still look short of a title side to me

 

it's not necessarily even about quality, it's the self-belief gained from having already won it before. That's what us and Arsenal (only 2 players left from their last title side I think) are up against.

[Alonso]

i think there is a general shortage of left sided midfielders in general, i certainly cant think of too many who were available in the summer. i think with how we are set up, having a right footer there capable of beating a man and cutting inside wont be the end of the world

I think there have been a few we could have gone for just that we've had our sights set on Barry. Kieta went to Barce, VDV to Madrid then there's Veloso who might be availbale. As for wide players there's Silva (ok he's staying at valencia now), Capel, Mata, Downing and Riera.

[Barnesy_10]

to be honest it does feel like wehave wasted alot of time and resources with the Barry situation where all along we have known the price.... we are now hours away from the start of the season and I don't think we have utlised this transfer window the way we should have.

Not sure what we could have done... Keane is a great signing.... But how long have we harped on about wingers on here.... its deja vu every year... and its still not happening... but who is available? I hate saying we should get a winger without being able to name one we can feasibly get financially.

[Crazy Horse]

It does seem odd to me that we've spent a fair amount of money over the past couple of years and still don't really have a balanced squad. I'd have thought we'd at least be somewhat covered in all areas of the pitch, not just centrally. But that's probably why I don't manage or own a football team. Number 19 is obviously just around the corner.

[Rimbeux]

It does seem odd to me that we've spent a fair amount of money over the past couple of years and still don't really have a balanced squad. I'd have thought we'd at least be somewhat covered in all areas of the pitch, not just centrally. But that's probably why I don't manage or own a football team. Number 19 is obviously just around the corner.

 

 

I think there are a couple of factors,, two or three times we've gone from doing it on a budget to spending out and back again as the general way of spending, and also I think we reached a dead end going after the squad and way of playing Rafa started us on and the realities have made us change course.

[Maldini]

I don't know who is to blame for this but it is utterly unforgiveable that a team with serious title aspirations starts the Premiership without any quality left footed options in the midfield.

 

Last season I cringed when we missed out on Heinze, at the prospect of an injury to either of our first choice centre halves, and look what happened (take nothing away from Sami Hyypia who surpassed expectations), but you would have thought that as a club we would have learned our lesson.

 

To challenge for the title you need two quality options in every position on the field.

 

We do not have even one single genuine left sided midfield option to offer balance, never mind width, and Barry would not offer width.

 

Aurelio is primarily a left back, or arguably best deployed as a left wing back, he is not the answer, and he is injured in any event, and chances are that may well remain the case for the rest of the season.

 

Although both good players when used in their best positions, the tie in midweek showed that we will come up sadly short if we are relying on the likes of Kuyt and Benayoun in the wide areas - Yossi was pitiful on the left.

 

Wait one minute, I hear you say, the transfer window does not close until the end of August.......

 

Fair enough, but the season starts tomorrow, and the way United and Chelsea have set the standard EVERY SINGLE POINT DROPPED IS CRUCIAL.

 

So even if we do get Barry or an alternative other left sided quality option in by the end of the window, (preferably one that would offer genuine width in my opinion), the damage may already be done in that we could have already dropped 4-5 points that cost us our title challenge.

 

I can totally identify with Rafa's frustrations if Ballague is correct when he states in his article on his website that one of the reasons why Rafa was tempted to walk is the "gaping hole on the left side of the midfield".

 

Who is Arsenal's left-footed midfielder? We've been pissing in the wind for the last few years, what difference does one more make?

 

didn't the a*** win multiple titles with Overmars and Pires on the left of midfield, neither of whom are left-footed ?

 

to me, as a leftie myself, I'd like to see lefties out there but it's a nice-to-have rather than a must. There's an argument that a more talented rightie is a better option than a less-talented leftie, talented lefties being at a premium due to only 1-in-10 players being left-footed

 

that said, I'd like to see Petrov in red and running at messrs Neville, Bosingwa and the fella with the funny hair...

as for the gaping hole on the left side of midfield, Rafa has had 4 years to do something about it. What did we get ? A bizarre faith in Kewell coming good. A promising youngster that didn't work out in Gonzalez. A no-hoper washed-up hasbeen complete waste of time, space and 5 million pounds of wages in Zenden. More strange faith and a farcical passport f-up in Leto. Then, over £10m spent on Babel, who is mostly right-footed and doesn't really look at home out there, and it's difficult to see where Rafa does see him fitting into the jigsaw. Then he deprives himself of an option by sending one of the most exciting young players the club's had for a decade or more, a McManaman that can actually shoot, out on loan to Blackpool where he is clearly doomed to failure. There was Simao of course, but we were right not to get held to ransom at the least minute there. We had to let that slide. Of Rafa's £10m+ transfers that went through or didn't, I reckon that was the one that was the most likely to have had a disappointing outcome performancewise anyway.

 

Not a pretty picture is it really.

 

Jesus, Petrov is probably the laziest player in the league at the moment and Hammill is nowhere near ready.

Edited August 15, 2008 by Maldini

[jonnyc]

didn't the a*** win multiple titles with Overmars and Pires on the left of midfield, neither of whom are left-footed ?

 

to me, as a leftie myself, I'd like to see lefties out there but it's a nice-to-have rather than a must. There's an argument that a more talented rightie is a better option than a less-talented leftie, talented lefties being at a premium due to only 1-in-10 players being left-footed

 

that said, I'd like to see Petrov in red and running at messrs Neville, Bosingwa and the fella with the funny hair...

as for the gaping hole on the left side of midfield, Rafa has had 4 years to do something about it. What did we get ? A bizarre faith in Kewell coming good. A promising youngster that didn't work out in Gonzalez. A no-hoper washed-up hasbeen complete waste of time, space and 5 million pounds of wages in Zenden. More strange faith and a farcical passport f-up in Leto. Then, over £10m spent on Babel, who is mostly right-footed and doesn't really look at home out there, and it's difficult to see where Rafa does see him fitting into the jigsaw. Then he deprives himself of an option by sending one of the most exciting young players the club's had for a decade or more, a McManaman that can actually shoot, out on loan to Blackpool where he is clearly doomed to failure. There was Simao of course, but we were right not to get held to ransom at the least minute there. We had to let that slide. Of Rafa's £10m+ transfers that went through or didn't, I reckon that was the one that was the most likely to have had a disappointing outcome performancewise anyway.

 

Not a pretty picture is it really.

 

Christ, if Hamill is doomed to failure at Blackpool, I'm sure he could just walk into the Premiership and shine

[stonty]

Isn't Plessis left footed?

 

 

 

Yes he is

[RedTillImDead]

People on this forum said I was crazy when I said as much a month ago(fair enough I am crazy) I have to say I like Keane and Barry as players and are certainly welcome additions to the squad but I thought that the addition of a out and out winger to give us more width would have been a priority over another central midfielder.

 

The sale of Crouch certainly meant we where one forward short and Keane is a much more effective player than Crouch will ever be so i think we traded up even if I think that there where better forwards we could have made a play for. Anyway as of right now we are looking at a rotation of Kuyt, Babel, Yossi, Pennant and possibly Barry as our attacking options in wide positions. Two of those are forwards first and formost the other two can stay wide but tend to cut back inside more often than not which diminshes our width and reduces the room for Torres, Stevie and now Keane to work in. The last we now look unlikely to obtain anyway.

 

I gather that Rafa has a diffrent formationon on the go for this season and I trust his judgement so I hope he prooves me wrong.

[Will]

A no-hoper washed-up hasbeen complete waste of time, space and 5 million pounds of wages in Zenden.

Oh do f*** off

[Mondavi]

Then he deprives himself of an option by sending one of the most exciting young players the club's had for a decade or more, a McManaman that can actually shoot, out on loan to Blackpool where he is clearly doomed to failure.

 

Not a pretty picture is it really.

 

Not sure why he should be doomed to failure. He played well last week by all accounts, and I'm sure he'll develop well playing week in week out. Worth noting that Blackpool asked for a season long loan and we turned them down, it's just 6 months initially.

 

I think he's closer than most think to getting a chance, and is being managed well. Last season wasn't the year he was supposed to have at Southampton, hopefully will be better for him at Blackpool. He's replacing the former fans favourite, now at QPR, and won them over in 45 minutes, don't think his time at Anfield is finished at all, and neither do I think throwing him in right now would help.