I find him a very bland player, never eager for the ball, never grabs a game by the scruff of the neck, up and down movement, rarely beats anyone, rarely makes clever runs, do one twos, intricate play, gamble, spray a long pass. He's technically sound but I don't think he uses it enough to warrant a place on the bench, he's a very dull player. Utility player is just a polite way of saying they are not good enough.
I didn't intend anything negative about Elliott Bennett. We can debate whether he is good enough to qualify as a squad player in my sense; I happen to think he is good enough, but he needs to be played in his best position(s) and on a regular basis, i.e. for selected games within a rotation system. Maybe we will be a bit short of being able to do it this season, but if CH gets in the majority of the players he is targetting the squad will be far stronger than last season and the pool of "regular but not ever present first teamers" will be much larger.
but then, you wrote him off before you'd even seen him, didn't you, as you did with pilkington too - something to do with facing 'monkeys' each week? once your mind is made up you won't change it, despite him having a very good run of performances over a six month period in 2012. bennett is a decent squad player. he is not crap, he can do most of the things carrabuh claims he can't, he just isn't as good at them as snodgrass which is why he is now benched. i watched him completely destroy swansea at the liberty a couple of years ago, almost single handedly - doing all the things carrabuh mentions he can't do. he doesn't do it enough though
generally plays left back (although i've been informed he is better as a winger), very, very quick. good going forward, defensively ok. not sure positionally to be honest whether he is good or not - haven't seen enough of him to be sure
Olsson is a class player who has 15 caps for Sweden, scoring 4 goals. With excellent pace, he plays more as a wingback and can play on the left wing as well. IMO, this would give another option from Garrido, who plays more like a conventional FB. Also, I would prefer a left-footed player there rather than Whittaker or Naughton playing on the 'other side' in place of Garrido. I wouldn't class either Olsson or Garrido as a 'squad player' as, like others, I think City should now be moving beyond the 'squad player' mentality.
If he could do the things I said, he'd be playing week in week out because we don't have any players who can do all the things I stated. I'm glad you brought the monkeys thing up because you steadfastly defended that league, I've since seen a comment on the Football writer saying how you watch a lot of it but admitted it was poor quality. I don't think he had a good six months at the end of 2012, I'm quite happy to change my mind if they put in the performances, I changed it about Turner (although i was hardly against the signing) and Ruddy. I never changed my opinion of Morrison because even when he scored a few you could see he couldn't play. I not a massive fan of Pilkingtons, he's very up and down but he certainly contributes with good performances and goals when allowed to do so.
Slowly but surely it'll happen. I think we've got a formation we want to play consistently now, and last season we only really had 11 players to play that way properly, who were PL standard. This summer we'll expand that to perhaps nearer 14-16, so that we've got options on the bench who can actually change a game. Next summer we'll hopefully have a full bench of that quality.
Glad to see someone recognises that football is played by two sides and sometimes the opposition hold the better cards .........
My goodness Supers - you're the first fan I've seen who's said that. He was playing in the 'Hoooahan' role in the 2nd half and provided the pass which led to the 2nd and 3rd goals!
Not sure if anyone else saw this? @AgentUEFA: Norwich are looking at Blackburn pair Jordan Rhodes and Martin Olsson #rovers #NCFC Olsson I had heard about but surely Rhodes would be big money now? I got this by the way from the football social website, no idea who agentuefa is, or how reliable they might be! The Rhodes bit does sound a bit like adding 2 and 2 together to get 5!
Some Spanish Twitter accounts are saying that we have agreed a fee for Diego Capel, but that he would rather go to Spain.
Hull are on the verge of signing Curtis Davies AND Charlie Austin for a combined amount of around £6.5 mil. Good business by the tigers.
I mentioned this one a couple of pages back. Google reckons he's "only" on around £30k pw. If that's accurate I'd love us to make an attempt.
Seeing as Austin was valued at around £8mil by his club last summer (I think), that's very good business. Surprised we weren't more interested in Davies really, but seeing as I'm yet to see us truly linked with a CB, does that mean Bassong, Turner, Bennett, Martin and Ayala are deemed enough? On Rhodes, his value is going to have plunged, and he probably wants out too as he'll not be a PL player for a long while at Blackburn. He'd no doubt take smaller wages to do it too. £6-7mil + Vaughan for the pair?
