Well a grounding defeat yesterday to our local rivals makes you think about where we are at as a club. I have not seen any footage of the game, frankly I cannot bear to watch it, but from everyone's opinions we were pretty lacklustre and deservedly lost the game to a team who wanted it more. So where are going wrong after what was a pretty promising start to the season? Defensively : We have leaked way to many goals this season. Our normally rock solid defence has been out of sorts this season. The addition of Reither has been a plus though and he and Riise do look quality both defensively and going forward. So why so many goals against ? Schwarzer has had a few too many ' moments ' . He is undeniably a quality keeper but may be his agility and quickness of decision making is not what it was. Centrally we have not been consistent. Two things, we have not had consistent run of centre back pairings and Jol seems to prefer zonal defending from set plays. The defenders have to improve from set pieces. Summary : Jol must decide to continue or not with zonal defending. If he does then we need some fresh players who understand how to play this way. The 2 H's are quality defenders but have struggled with zonal marking. Schwarzer needs competition asap, Stockdale to return or a new keeper brought in. Midfield : Duffer has been Mr Consistent again and seems to defy his years. Dejagah has had moments of quality, as has Kaka. Frei needs game time to improve his game. Centrally, losing Diarra coincided with our lack of form. Sidders and Bairdinho have been solid but combined are not what Jol wants in the middle of the park. I hate to say it but Richardson has been dire and I cannot see what he brings to the team, Jol has yet to get any quality from him yet. Summary : We lack quality in the centre of the park. Diarra and Sidders can play the holding role very well but it is vital we get at least 1, if not 2, players who can see a pass. In short someone to replace to Murphy. Dembele was a loss but Murph's going is the biggest player we have struggled to replace. Strikers : Berbatov has been absolutely class but when Ruiz is not there we do not play to his strengths. Ruiz finally showed what he can do but injury is blighting his time in a FFC shirt. Petric is a classy finisher and should be cover for Berba. Rodders has struggled to find his form for us so far but his performance against Newcastle showed he can be good. Summary : Potentially we have a great front line. If Ruiz is fit and Berba is playing we all know what can happen. We need someone to play in the hole, a new buy or we try Frei in there. An outside thought is to give Kasami a go in there. He seems to want to roam all over the pitch so this could be his role. Manager : Jol is imposing his style of play on the team now, but it has to be said that losing Murph's and Dembele and Dempsey was a crippling blow for him. I do not know whether it was his decision to let them all go or if the club took that decision. Likewise, I am not sure if he was involved in the lack of replacements brought in, not sure what funds were made available to him. I believe in his ability as a manager and still maintain it is refreshing to see us playing attacking football. Looking at our transfers in, I can only assume that funds were not too available and if they were it was too late. Whilst this blip in form is frustrating I acnnot heap all the blame on Jol and think the players have to stand uo and take some of it. Although the lack of ambition yesterday could imply that the players are not feeling good at the moment. He has a tough job on his hands and hopefully funds will made available for him. Club : What is the club's projected aims ? Bringing in Jol showed the club are serious about moving forward. He is a quality manager with great respect in the football world. Reducing the age of the team is a major concern for the club if we are to move forward longterm. The club has a tricky situation here. We have had some success with our youth teams so the club must want to see some of these players progress but at the same time they must also inject quality right now. Careful buying must be made and if the right players come up I am sure we will spend some money. With a transfer revenue of £26,000.000 and a profit of £17,300,000 the money is there. Summary : We have to invest in a keeper or give Stockdale a proper chance. A centre back is a must as is 1 or 2 good passing centre mids. Someone to play in the hole is also a must or again we use the youngsters we have. Jol is the man for the job and I feel if we keep hold of him for 4 or 5 years we will see some exciting times at the Cottage. Our under 18's are progressing amazingly so they will provide us with quality in that time. Whilst it is majorly frustrating for us to lose to our rivals we have to remain focussed and it was not too long back that we were praising the team for it's quality football. Injuries and an element of bad luck have blighted us recently, football is a ' funny old game ' and you can be assured we will come back fighting. Keep the faith and Believe. In Jol we trust, COYW
Good post Froggy, I very much agree. Couple of things... We have, though. H&H have been together in every game apart from Brede's suspension. The issue is either lack of form or tactics that they're not used to. I think they need serious competition though, somebody like Douglas would shake things up. It was neither, really. Murphy got an offer of an extra year from us but Blackburn offered him two years, so he went there. The old 1-year thing is club policy for players over 30, and in line with the strategy to reduce the average age of the squad. Dembele had a clause in his contract triggered; nothing we could do about that, or the timing. And we all know about Demps. Jol had been trying to get CMs in over the Summer, we had bids for Nolan, Boateng from Dnipro and the Brazilian playing in France (I can't think of his name for the life of me!) amongst others but they all got knocked back. He's also been bemoaning the lack of quality in the middle all season. I think he might wait until the Summer to bring in the guy we need, but I'm certain he'll be in the market for somebody in Jan. Agree with the Ruiz cover. Like you say, try Frei there or even Kasami. Sadly I think Patjim's time is up.
Good post Froggy! The loss of our 3 midfielders was critical! Ruiz has come on well but needs the consistency to show it. And while we've got Diarra but he has been limited, Richardson has just not got started. Sidders and Baird are ok, but not together; we need another spark. Up-front, bringing in Berbatov was an inspiration, but still not quite enough to make things good. MJ, no doubt, has a plan for MarkS. either with Stockdale or TBA. I continue to have confidence in MJ as a good manager to take us back into the top-half of the table (we seem to have better second-half of the season). Frankly, there are a load of other Prem.clubs with bigger problems!!!! C O Y W
A brilliant summary Frogman. In total agreement. Richardson has shown nothing to say his inclusion is merited. It seems we do well when he comes off!
Really good post Froggy. Full agreement with what you say, but it wonât all get sorted in January unfortunately. Your comments about the âmidfieldâ are spot on, and in the short term this is obviously the critical area. [By âshort termâ I mean January onwards - gosh knows what we can do till then !] I found it interesting that you and the others hone in on the loss of "3 midfielders". Not so much who they were but the fact that normally all three would play and all three were excellent at reading the game, as well as being able to hold the ball. At the moment we donât have one player with those attributes, although Ruiz and Diarra come close. We might be okay if we could rely on playing those two plus another but of course we wonât/donât have that option. If you add to the equation GeraScoresâ point that âSidders and Baird are ok, but not togetherâ the conclusion has to be that we need at least two new âproperâ midfielders and who donât constantly move the ball sideways and backwards. One player who could fit in is Jordan Henderson. He is not a glamour player but he is intelligent, diligent, and at 22 years old could bring the correct kind of energy to our aging (at times ordinary) midfield. If the stories are true he turned down an exchange deal to us in the summer but has become more of a bit-part player under Rodgers, so may now be open to the move to get guaranteed first time football - and the opportunity to play behind someone like Berbatov. Whether Liverpool will drop significantly on the £16m they paid and make him affordable to us, is however a very big question.
Having not seen our last few games i can only comment 2nd hand. I believe we got off on the wrong foot when we did not get a quality replacement for Murphy,who jol had a good idea he was leaving well before the window closed. The 2 Dees moved on late in the window so choices were limited. I may appear a fatalist but i can se Hangaland going,and we getting some old duffers quality wise, like Richardson,Rodelega Kasami. I all so fear points wise, over our next 3 matches I hope when I return in Jan I am not watching the last rights of our premiership life.
Defense: One thing for me that Jol has to solve along with defending free-kicks and corners is, he likes the team to build up play by passing out from the back, but teams have cottoned on to this and if they press us high up the pitch, we are forced to pass back to Schwarzer, who's kicking accuracy is poor, and 80% of the time we lose possession. Midfield: As most people know we have lost our creative players, and the middle of the Spine of our team, Dembele was the creator and Dempsey the attacking midfielder behind a striker. Ruiz has filled a gap, and has created 7 assists in the games he has been fit, but I still prefer him in the Dempsey role behind Berbatov or Petric than the Dembele role. But after that neither Richardson or Karagounis, have shown any form that suggests that they are the answer. Baird and Sidwell have limited talent in creating, have done well but are inconsistent more Defensive midfield. Diarra can be good, but injures have stopped him forming a partnership, and will he go to the African Cup? So a lot needs sorting. Can Jol rely on youngsters Kacaniklic and Frei to produce consistently ? Of the wide players Duff has been the most consistent, Kacaniklic has played well, but not every game and can be a passenger when it comes to defending. Dejagah looks good but again hasn't had a good run out yet, his defending against Newcastle was woeful. Rodallega out wide doesn't do it for me, he might have the speed but he has no end product. Strikers: For me the best up front is Berbatov with Ruiz playing just behind and linking midfield. If Jol plays two up front then for me it's Hugo and Petric, with Berbatov and Ruiz as the midfield link but we have to sacrifice the wide men in Duff and Kacaniklic. What to do ? With Riether injured (How Long?) and Riise not defending well with no cover, both these have to be addressed in January. So if Ruiz is going to be a constant injury worry then Jol will either have to give Frei more game time and be patient or buy in January. Personally I'm not convinced with Hugo, I feel sorry for Petric as he hasn't gelled in a partnership with Berbatov, but does score goals, so need another class striker for Hugo. Can't see it happening, as I think Jol will look at Central midfield more, as I think he believes in Hugo. But in the summer Jol needs to take a good look at the Spine of the team GK DM AM ST.
I think central midfield needs to take priority over replacing Hugo, I even think thinking of replacing Hugo at this point in time is the height of knee-jerkery anyway. When will we play the 'class replacement' when Berbs and Ruiz are fit? Hugo and Petric are good squad players and that's the role they play. We have a decent first-choice attack, but we don't have a decent first-choice centre midfield.
I beleive Fulham are playing Chelsea under 18 this Wednesday at MP. it will be interesting to see how Cauley Woodrow shapes up against the highly rated and very talented Deano Conroy.
