Why is he being excluded. Not just a Monk thing, not just a Curtis thing, but now a Guidolin thing too. Some one has mentioned the Everton game was crying out for a Montero/Barrow to come on to relieve pressure and put it back on Everton which is exactly what I was thinking. It didn't happen. Why is he out of favour?
It's a strange question that I've asked a few times recently. The only thing I could think of is that he's not producing in training/not showing the right attitude? I suggest that because Barrow has leapfrogged him in the pecking order.
Something certainly isn't 100% right. Routledge leapfrogged him first, Barrow second, and even Emnes has come on ahead of him in one or two recent games too. Can't be doing it in training, and certainly isn't doing his defensive duties well enough when on the pitch. When you're in the position that we're in, team organisation and defensive solidity is everything. You have to earn the right to play football when you're at the bottom. If we start to work our way up the table to safety, you might see that Montero starts becoming prominent again. I get the feeling that he's the type of winger that is a little bit of a luxury - an awesome player to have if you're a mid-to-top team that does most of the attacking in most matches, but he's not really the type of winger you need if you're in the relegation scrap. Still a good player to have in our squad, but you wonder how much being dropped has hurt his confidence. Still early days in Guidolin's reign though - there'll be conversations with all the players in the coming weeks no doubt, and Montero may well be in Francesco's plans for the future.
This doesn't really explain why he is not being used as an impact sub after 60 or so minutes when games are getting more open. He would have helped to peg back Everton on Sunday wouldn't he?
I reckon we're selling him and don't want him to get injured. If he's not gone when the window closes I reckon we'll start to see a bit more of him again.
If that is the case, I don't think we would get top dollar for him at the moment. If he was to be sold, what do you think his value is at the moment. Al ot less than the start of the season I would suggest.
I'll have a stab in the dark...hmmmm, it's January, £10-12m? but what would I know If we could get that much for him, selling could make sense. We're not using him after all. Routledge, Ayew and Barrow all ahead of him. Emnes in the wings (arf!), Siggy could play on the left as an inside forward in an emergency. Or how about a like for like bit of business? Montero leaves for £10m (Signed him for about £4m? Overall £6m profit for the club) Sinclair in for £2m (Sold him for £6m after signing him for £500k in the Championship....Overall £3.5m profit on the player for the club) In the context of this season though it is £8m profit and a reduced wage bill with the following wingers for the run in; LW = Sinclair/Ayew/ Routledge/Emnes RW= Barrow/Ayew/Routledge/Emnes Makes sense to me!
I can see the were not using him thing. Not sure where the £8 million profit is from though. As for value, £10 million is good, but maybe if he gets back in the team his value would go up by the summer as we storm up the league.
In my opinion, not really. We knew our midfield was going to get deeper and deeper and, to be honest, having Montero on in those last 10/15 minutes wouldn't really have changed that. He wouldn't have been able to hold the ball up if we'd left him on the halfway line, our midfield was so deep he'd have had no support on counter attack if we'd hung him out wide, and he just isn't good enough defensively to put on in that kind of situation (albeit Ki and Taylor were being roasted by Coleman and Deulofeu anyway, Monty wouldn't have fared any better and would've provided less defensive cover than Ki). We went balls-out for the super defensive approach to hold them off. If the score was 2-2/1-1 or if we were losing, fair enough - but given we had the lead, putting on more attacking players when we're away and expecting an onslaught would have been foolish in my opinion. Too much at stake to fight fire with fire away from home with a team as full of dangerous players as Everton. Also, Coleman was put on to attack, no matter what changes we made - Everton were 1-2 down and had to go for it. Putting Montero on when you know he's going to spend 75% of his time defending can't really be classed as smart. If anything, we needed someone like Gomis on to give us a target and some hold-up play to allow our midfield to push up. As I mentioned before, Montero just isn't the guy you need when you're grinding out nervy wins and hanging onto leads (of which there will be more of this season) - he's great for changing a game if you're losing/drawing and setting you on the front foot when he starts, but I don't feel he's a player you rely on to dig deep, block crosses, track runners and make last ditch tackles when you're clinging onto 3 points. Looking back, I do feel Guidolin made the right call not utilising him and Barrow in this instance (I wanted them on the pitch at the time, but it made sense to save the subs for late on to bulk up). However, that's the first game under Guidolin, there is every chance we'll see him implemented against West Brom. We can't really judge after one game whether Guidolin is a fan of Montero or not.
Re: £8m profit He was signed in the summer of 2014. He was a squad member already at the start of this season. If we sold him for £10m and replaced with Sinclair at £2m that would be £8m profit for the season. Similarly, Shelvey was signed when Laudrup was manager and a squad member already at the start of this season. His sale has made us £7m (£6m when you take Liverpool's cut out) profit on him as a player....but in the context of this season it's a cool £12m in the 'Out' column if we don't replace him this window. If we only bring in Sinclair this window and sell Montero on top of Shelvey....we are £20m up in terms of the transfer pot and about £50-60k a week lighter in terms of the wage budget (£800k+ saved over the remainder of the season. This sort of business makes perfect sense to me.
In our best point total ever in the Premier last season , Routledge started 27 Premier League games with Montero coming off the bench .Montero was really making an impact coming off the bench , so much so that the media really talked him up .Teams were inguiring about him , posters on here were talking crazy money if he went . This season , Monk started starting him , Routledge sat on the bench and things went south .The more time Montero started , the more teams figured him out and he was not as efficient as he was as a super sub . Ultimiately , after 25 starts, 22 subs and a single Premier League goal .....he was back on the bench .Routledge started starting again , and things picked up.. Monk started over starting Montero early this season , he should have kept going with the Routledge starting and Montero subbing like last season imo , maybe give him more starts in his third season . I found it a bit ironic that early this season I called Montero a one trick pony . After Monk was axed and Curtis took over , Curtis started Montero one game and promptly took him off after 45 minutes , Curtis's reason was that he wouldn't do his one trick down the sideline and kept cutting to the inside . Damned if you do and damned if you don't basically .Poor Montero was just trying another trick . Watford have shown interest this window , and we've said we need 10 million .I'd like to keep Montero and use him as a super sub till the next January window , Shop him around and if we get big money sell him , if not start giving him some starts .
I agree with BK. I don't think Montero can hold the ball up and when he loses possession it puts us on the back foot right away. Barrow is actually a much trickier player I think. Montero has his role in our side though, but if we are holding on to games he won't do much in the way of defensive duties. On the other hand, I've seen Barrow track back and make tackles.
I think he has the tools to be a great player for us alongside Barrow on the other wing, He is fit enough and adaptable enough to bring a more defencive roll to his game when needed and if told to play more that way im sure he would be good enough to take that on to the field ? He can add unpredictability to his game if as said he is sussed out by other defences because he has the pace to trick them with more than 1 trick ! We have been crying out for a winger that can cross accurately too and he has put a few beauties into the box since he`s been here and could improve that aspect for us imo. A good manager could make him lethal for us with new tactics and knowledge inprinted on his footy brain, his value could soar ! I am a big fan of Monty incase you did`nt notice After seeing what he can do for us in his first games here ala Arsenal etc.... Obviously there is a time and place in the game to use his speed n skills, either from the start if we feel we can power through teams or later on if we need a more defencive set up against tougher teams, or to play catch up late on, but i think he`s not very far off the finished article that will be first on the team sheet if given more time and coaching to get there ?
He's clearly a luxury that we cannot afford to play until we have at least a 10 point buffer with the drop zone, and that's his fault for his lack of interest in the defensive side of his game, I think he's more than a one trick pony, his goal against Oxford shows us that, but he needs to understand that in the premier league you need players that can track back and do the dirty work as well............
