Dempsey up front please. Watching BZ play recently has highlighted that we need a fresh impetus up front. For me, we need someone who has BZ's strength and aerial presents and someone with AJ's ability to find space and attack the line of defence. Surely Dempsey has both of these qualities. I would love to see : Schwarz Kelly Hangeland Hughes/Senderos Riise Danny Etuhu Frei Dembele Ruiz Dempsey I think this is a nice balance, although as much as I want to see Frei start, I know not alot about his ability to defend and with Riise being a bit slow that could be an issue.
I too would like to see him up front, but the Liverpool game made me realise that he is the only player willing to have a pop from 25-20 yards, and usually gets them on target. If he moved further up the pitch we would have almost no goalscoring threat from midfield.
I know what you mean Bandit. The only thing I would say though is that when we play BZ up front we have very little movement from him - we do not draw centre backs away from a central position. With a player like Demps, who would be running the channels, there would be extra space created for the midfielders to run into. I think that it is crucial for the system we play to have that space open up. He is also one of only 2 goals poachers we have with AJ. One thing you know with Demps is that he will gamble and take the opportunities that say BZ is too deep to get to.
I don't think Dempsey plays the target man very well. He's tall, but he doesn't like playing with the defenders to his back; he usually ends up with his butt on the soggy pitch, pouting while the rest of the game goes on around him. BZ is five times better at that position. AJ, too, is better, using his pace to create space for himself. I've never seen Dempsey as an effective front man.
