Understandably, all the talk has been of forwards for the past two months. I'm as pissed off as the next man as to the Keane/Berba outcome.
We've lost a quality pair of forwards. No argument. However, they were both pretty awful in their defensive duties (Keane loved shirking a challenge, Berbatov even worse). This put pressure on our somewhat lightweight midfield - and our lightweight defence and not incredible goalkeeper.
We've replaced Chimbonda and Robinson - source of many goals conceded. Woodgate has come in for Dawson and Hutton is clearly a decent player. Losing Lee is a mistake but we also have Corluka in the mix.
O'Hara is disciplined and able, Huddlestone a year wiser. And, as you may have noticed, Modric likes a tackle.
As for Zokora, he is no defensive midfielder but as another poster put it perfectly "a fucking handy player to have around".
And our keeper, Gomes. He is quite possibly our signing of the summer for me. I really rate him. He's like a better verson of Bruce Grobbelar in his prime.
I predict that our defensive record will be considerably better than our last two seasons. We'll be less of a pushover, concede fewer soft goals and wondering where we lost points from. I'm thinking Newcastle home defeat 2 seasons ago (3-2). Fulham away last year (3-3). Games we should have won but managed to get out-fought in somewhere - especially late on.
Darren Bent (and Pav) may not set the hearts racing but they run the channels, pull defenders around and keep the midfielders busy. And they score goals. Bent in particular is fantastic at running off the ball. It's not sexy but sex was the last thing I thought about when Diomanse Kamara scored that last-minute injury time overhead kick against us. Is about points boys and girls - and we have players with a proven record of scoring (Pav, Bent) and creating (Bentley, Modric) goals ably assisted by the likes of Lennon, GDS etc.
We may not score as many as the past two seaons but - mark my words - there will be a few 1-0s chucked in our favour as well.
If our 1st choice defence stay fit - we finish 5th. If not, we'll still be better than last season. And I daresay we have a fair chunk of cash burning a hole in our pockets. Not a bad transfer window - just a shite last day.
Cheers.
We've lost a quality pair of forwards. No argument. However, they were both pretty awful in their defensive duties (Keane loved shirking a challenge, Berbatov even worse). This put pressure on our somewhat lightweight midfield - and our lightweight defence and not incredible goalkeeper.
We've replaced Chimbonda and Robinson - source of many goals conceded. Woodgate has come in for Dawson and Hutton is clearly a decent player. Losing Lee is a mistake but we also have Corluka in the mix.
O'Hara is disciplined and able, Huddlestone a year wiser. And, as you may have noticed, Modric likes a tackle.
As for Zokora, he is no defensive midfielder but as another poster put it perfectly "a fucking handy player to have around".
And our keeper, Gomes. He is quite possibly our signing of the summer for me. I really rate him. He's like a better verson of Bruce Grobbelar in his prime.
I predict that our defensive record will be considerably better than our last two seasons. We'll be less of a pushover, concede fewer soft goals and wondering where we lost points from. I'm thinking Newcastle home defeat 2 seasons ago (3-2). Fulham away last year (3-3). Games we should have won but managed to get out-fought in somewhere - especially late on.
Darren Bent (and Pav) may not set the hearts racing but they run the channels, pull defenders around and keep the midfielders busy. And they score goals. Bent in particular is fantastic at running off the ball. It's not sexy but sex was the last thing I thought about when Diomanse Kamara scored that last-minute injury time overhead kick against us. Is about points boys and girls - and we have players with a proven record of scoring (Pav, Bent) and creating (Bentley, Modric) goals ably assisted by the likes of Lennon, GDS etc.
We may not score as many as the past two seaons but - mark my words - there will be a few 1-0s chucked in our favour as well.
If our 1st choice defence stay fit - we finish 5th. If not, we'll still be better than last season. And I daresay we have a fair chunk of cash burning a hole in our pockets. Not a bad transfer window - just a shite last day.
Cheers.