Are we seriously judging midfielders on who scores the most goals? Ignoring that the team voted for Quinn as their player of the season and that Quinn plays every game when he's fit along with Meyler because they're two of our best players. Hasn't Frank Lampard got about 20 goals this season yet he's always on the bench for Chelsea? Ashbee was our best midfielder for about 8 years and only ever scored once or twice a season.If I could be arsed I could find any number of examples of the best midfield player at a team not always being the one who scores the most. Apart from anything else, the fact that Koren played half the season up front makes the argument invalid. But it's Koren so it doesn't matter. He's just, one of those names...
Good post. ^^^ this. Well said. Quinn has been oustanding this season overall. Like the team he has gone off of late but Brady and Quinn work well as a pair normally just like Meyler and Elmohamady on the right. We have a team that can ALL(Stockdale apart) score on any given day. In fact all the outfield players who will start the game have scored this season at some point.
Personally, I like to judge a player on how he's performing and as far as the last few games are concerned, Quinn hasn't performed at all. In fact, on Saturday, he was the worst player on the pitch by quite some distance. I don't think for a minute he'll be dropped, but there's no question that he's one of the players that's faded badly at the end of the season.
If anything Koren has become a target for the boo boys who see him as a bottler. Equally Quinn can do no wrong in some people's eyes despite being very poor for quite some time now so the insinuation Koren is above criticism baffles me. Granted Koren is lightweight and is next to useless in a battle but so is Quinn. He does however weighs in with goals which, IMO, is very important for an attacking midfielder. Mentioning Ashbee just cheapens your argument because he wasn't expected to score goals, he was a defensive midfielder and you know that. When you're top striker is injured it's pretty important that your attacking midfielders chip in with goals and Quinn hasn't done that anywhere near enough, again IMO. I've repeated myself there, boring bastard that I am. You just know Quinny will score the winner tomorrow and make me look a ****, or bigger **** than usual. Here's hoping.
After quinns last goal against burnsley, Quinn said in interview that Bruce had been nagging him about not scoring enough and that he hoped he could crack on and bag a few more. With the midfield 3, the outside 2's job is to get forward, support, assist and score. Koren has the most assists and goals of any of our midfielders (although has spent time playing up front, maybe one of our boring bastards like Ricardo can figure out who's done more per game played in midfield between the pair).
The only two positives I see with Koren is that 1- he's one of the veterans of our teams in some ways 2- he can create a pass/goal every now and then (not as often as some are implying, especially in 2013) my negatives is that, he is a midfielder and offers no other attributes a midfielder should have... Can't tackle, can't header, can't track back, can't run past players. That's how I've seen it for a while now. he's only there in the hope that he pulls it out the bag when no-one else can but otherwise he's effectively making us a man weaker.
Koren is not now, or ever has been, and won't ever be a tackling midfield player. Koren supports the strikers, sets attacks up and scores goals. In a big game like this we need him. He has been below his best this season playing up front and in his favoured position. He bottles tackles, he bottles headers - but he can win a game on his day. For this one off game we need players who can do that. (Win games not bottle it I mean!!)
