Whilst its great to have competition within a squad for places across the pitch I'm also starting to look at it as a bit of a curse. Does it mean that all our players are of a similar level ? i.e. good championship players, but at best PL squad players. Does it mean that even at this stage in the season AN still hasn't worked out what his best team is ? Are changes just being made to keep players on their toes or because AN has favorites rather than for tactical reasons. Whilst some changes seem to be made for good reason others seem very illogical. For example why did Martin start ahead of Bennett ?
But what we perceive as our best team will almost certainly vary person to person, so AN's "best team" is likely to be somewhat different to each of our selections. Ijust hope Grabban isn't in it.
Our best team will be different depending on who the opposition are. If we are playing a team with a beast of a centre forward then Bennett has to be in it to match up physically. similarly if we are facing some nippy little sods then maybe Rusty is a better shout (although maybe not on this season's form). Against someone like Mertesaker a quick forward may do better than a battering ram. Some teams we may need two DM's, others maybe not. The whole point of having a squad is that you can adapt your personnel and tactics to the situation in front of you. We also have to factor in form - we have quite a few of what I would regard as our better players not really cutting it this season - Ruddy/Martin/Bassong being the three most obvious culprits.. Redmond has been very up and down - scores goals and creates chances but also makes a lot of poor decisions and can go missing for huge chunks of a match. Wes has gone from brilliant to invisible. Tettey has generally been decent but made some howlers as well. As previously pointed out we don't really have a starting XI who are markedly better than other squad members. Possibly with the exception of Brady we do not have one player who is head and shoulders above the others vying for a starting position and I definitely include Bassong in that as I feel that he has looked very shaky this season and the fact that he is an almost guaranteed starter says more about our weakness in that position than his performances. It is also damn difficult in this league and a big step up fro the players. I'd like to see us have a more settled side but I don't think we have players good enough to absolutely stamp themselves in permanent ink onto the team sheet.
Then pray explain Martin's recall at Bennett's expense in the starting line up versus Lukaku on Saturday? One reason perhaps that it did become a 'game of two halves'?
I can't and that was rather my point. If our best XI is deemed to include Martin at centre half then by sticking rigidly to that formula we played the wrong man in the wrong game and by sticking to a best XI we would be doomed to repeat the mistake.
Interestingly though it seems that Bennett coming on was not a tactical switch as I had assumed - Wisdom was injured and is out for a few weeks by the sounds of things
It's a shame for Wisdom as he was starting to grow and become more consistent, I can only hope that it does not result in a recall for Whittaker and that we go as was in the second half on Saturday. If I see Whittaker in the starting XI on Saturday I'm going to angrily tear up my imaginary team prediction coupon in a fit of pique! Bah!
Interesting comment General and I really hope that AN will start with the same back 4 as finished the game on Saturday. I would prefer not to see Whittaker play for us again - yes, he's quite good going forward, but defensively .......
Martin's deluded opinion worries me, he has convinced himself that his a good centre back and before anybody gives it that bullshit argument that Gordon Strachan rates him there, Ireland were in the same group and qualified with Toblerone feet Richard Keogh at the back! He thinks he was only moved to the right on Saturday because Wisdom picked up a knock, I severely hope that was not the case. The midfield worries me sometimes like there are games where I fail to see what Howson or Dorrans actually do but they're always included in the team, Gary O'Neil for example plays a blinder against Arsenal but is dropped to the bench against Watford. It always feels like we're missing a player in midfield most games, I think we have the personnel there unlike defence and upfront but we never seem to utilise it properly. I know we are not down the training pitch and do know about half the goings on behind the scenes, but there is a lack of consistency with our squad as well as on the pitch.
My take on things concerning Redmond. When Jarvis was fit Redmond faced competition for a starting place and responded with some excellent performances. Since the injury to Jarvis he has had no such competition and his performances have fallen away. Coincidence? Or lack of professionalism? What news on his injury. Jarvis that is.
Would be great to start with the same starting 11 for the next game. Jerome was great against Man U and our back 4 again look much less nervous with Martin in his rightful place at RB.
Interesting GE - if you read on the thread http://www.not606.com/threads/how-long-do-we-give-him.283098/page-25 from post 497 to around 502, we were saying aboout Redmonds poor perfromances of late - then yesterday, he gets MotM from BBC and today in the Sunday Fail!!!
Yes and we all have 'off days' - perhaps he needs the rest of the team to be performing fairly well for him to shine. I'm just hoping that he won't be lured away on January.
I'm not that nervous of this happening. I still see him as another young player with bags of potential, who hasn't really realised it yet. He got MotM on saturday, but he's not exactly pulling up trees in many games. He is in and out of our team and we are struggling at the bottom end of the PL, who is really gonna give the sort of money we would want on the evidence of his form this season? If we were to get relegated then it would be another matter! Bah!
My take on the OP is that AN has kept his promise to choose the squad tactically while also choosing players on merit. The fact that we don't have a 'best team' as such is a positive in my opinion, as it means we have quality players on the bench who are hungry for a chance. Rudd, O'Neil and Bennett have all taken their chance well and worked hard to keep their place. Brady and possibly Tettey are about the only certain names on the team sheet but that doesn't suggest that the rest are 'squad players'. I'd say that easily 20 players are at least lower half of the PL players and that means AN has difficult choices to make. Howson, Mbokani and Mulumbu all looked very lively and effective when they came on and the fact that Jarvis is now back in training may indeed have forced Redmond to 'up his game' on Saturday.
