I thought Pienaar would be great for us, but he was dismal. Then went straight back to being a quality player as soon as he hit the ground with Everton.
Big problem with any formation is lack of goals from Modric. Similarly Parker has contributed zilch in terms of goals-he scored a few last season. In general we don't score enough 'thunderbolt goals' from outside the area ala BAE against Everton.
"he simply doesn't fit into our sysyem with the players we have." Is that his fault, or are we playing the wrong system? In fact, do we actually have a system? If we have a "system", it seems to be hoping that one of our creative players can conjour up something special. We certainly don't seem to work off the ball like most Prem teams do, we don't see our mids making runs in behind the defence. Apart from when Bale makes a barnstorming run forward, we seem to want to work the ball forward slowly (maybe so Luka and VDV can keep up) and turn everything into a set piece.
I think Kranjcar is the best like-for-like replacement for Modric we currently have (or possibly Pienaar could do it - he is certainly not a Bale/Lennon type player)). If Huddlestone was fit I'd quite like to see him alongside Parker in certain matches as he has different strengths to Sandro. But however you look at it we have five or six decent central midfield players and only 2 decent wingers so we can't rely on 442 when we have injuries. As for Defoe - as I've said before - his record actually shows he is an inconsistent goal scorer and he offers nothing much else. To be consistently in the top four in the PL we need to be one of the ten best teams in the world, which means we need 2 or 3 of the top 50 strikers in the world, including one of the top ten. Defoe doesn't even come close to this standard.
Regardless of whether you believe Defoe's good enough for where we want to be, he's clearly a more effective player than Dos Santos, as is Pienaar. The South African's problem seemed to be that he likes to cut inside a lot, allowing the full-back to overlap, which denied space on the inside for van der Vaart and Modric to work in. That's exactly what Bale's doing now.
PNP - "The South African's problem seemed to be that he likes to cut inside a lot, allowing the full-back to overlap, which denied space on the inside for van der Vaart and Modric to work in." So probably not a good idea to pick him in the same side as Modric and VDV. That's part of the problem with 'Arry - he doesn't pick "teams", he picks a group of players. The idea of dropping, say, VDV so that Pienaar might be more effective just wouldn't occur to him.
Pienaar always seemed less keen to get forward with us, not sure if he was instructed to or he just hasn't had the confidence with us.
YV - I think it's becasue we don't really move forward quickly enough for him. His best moments for Everton are when they win the ball in their own half, then break forward as a unit. He has a good eye for a forward pass, and a good eye for the spaces to move into, and has the pace to get there. Thinking about it, he's a bit like Jenas. Likes to do most of his work off the ball, would like to play an easy pass in his own half, then not see the ball again until he gets in the penalty area.
If the op changes "3rd" to "4th", I'll reconsider my previously stated opinion. Arsenal vs. Chelsea could be critical in deciding whether Chelse or Newcastle get 4th.
Exactly - it worke well to create space and opportunities for Baines at Everton, not so well with Benny at Spurs. Pienaar would work if we played Bale at left back, or switched him to the right flank with Walker.
You have every right to laugh. I started this thread in the arrogant assumption that we'd be able to beat Norwich, at the Lane. Silly me.
The Goon/Chav game is sandwiched between the 2 Barca games, I expect Arsenal to comfortably win that one.
