Players available on a Bosman this summer. We interested?

[yanno]

Of course we need the best calibre of people in key management positions. But then the communication between the DoF and coach is crucial.

Example: Carrick was a playmaker who Jol coached into a top class holding C/DM. Carrick will always be an ordinary tackler, but Jol helped him with his defensive positioning so he could use his reading of the game to jockey players away from our goal etc. So, Jol's team was built around a C/DM who could protect the back four and creatively dictate the tempo.

Carrick was then sold (the reason is irrelevant). For Jol's team to carry on playing the same kind of football, we needed a C/DM who was an excellent passer of the ball and who could protect the back four through his reading of the game, discipline and positioning.

We ended up buying Zokora. Now, Zokora has his strengths - particularly his speed, athleticism and great fighting spirit. But he's not a creative passer like Carrick. And his reading of the game gets better the deeper he's playing (so he's had some of his most effective games when he's been playing as a spare CB able to step up and break up opposition attacks). One thing that's for certain is that Zokora will never be able to dictate our attacking tempo in the way that Carrick did.

So, if we were going to replace Carrick with Zokora, we were going to lose a lot of creativity in CM. This was a problem that was neither addressed nor solved by Jol or Commoli. Whose fault was that? We don't know for sure, although it's been rumoured that Commoli was very keen on signing Zokora. But once you play Zokora alongside Jenas, we were always going to be lacking in creativity in CM.

And although Huddlestone has shown glimpses of great ability, he's not shown us that he can provide that CM creativity on a consistent basis. Yet.

None of us know for certain, but my best guess is that Zokora was very much a Commoli signing. And the end result was that the coach's style of play was severely disrupted. Ultimately, both Jol and Commoli have to take responsiblity for the fact that Carrick was never adequately replaced.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

You may of understood and in their own right, most have been good players. But surely even you'll have to admit, recent player purchases in terms of suitability for our needs have more to do with our failure to progress over the last 2 years than the coaching. No coach or director of football will get it right all the time, even the best in both fields. It's hard to believe many, if any, other top coach could have beaten our 2 top 5 finishes with the squad we had. Ramos is surely proof of that. But it isn't hard to believe we could have done a lot better in the transfer market. Take Redknapp's buying of Distin, Diarra and Muntari. Had we brought those 3 players instead of Kanoul and KPB, don't you think we'd have gone very close to the CL this season? Given our previous seasons results, it's hard to imagine we wouldn't of. Comolli has done some good work and i definately see a role for him at the club, but 'm glad he has now been given a lesser role and more responsibility is on Ramos as concerns transfers.

Lets rule out Diarra, as by all accounts Comoli wanted him but Arseanl refused to seel to us. (Didn't we also try to make Muntari part of the Defoe deal ?)

Joey, if you look back I have said that there have been many occasions when I have wished we had signed a different player. But I understand the logic of the signings that were made. As far as Distin goes, I wouldn't have minded him at all, but (and I will dig it out when I have a minute) I read an article where Jol said that "THEY" could have gone for Distin but felt they would rather have a stand-in for King (believing Kaboul was the perfect peg for that hole). In the same article Jol states that Dawson was his player of the season last year. This suggests to me that at best Distin would have been stand-in for King. Distin would have wanted big wages - free transfer - and would have made signing a big wage ageing player just to understudy a not very cost-effective solution. We can also clearly see that Kaboul is probably already as good a footballer as Distin - just not as good a defender. Although again for the money he would be on I would want Distin to be better than what he is frankly. So while I can see a case for Distin I think the problem was a) Jol's liking for Dawson and c) the logical way the problem was approached.

What also exasperated the Kaboul situation was that Jol insisted on pairing him and Dawson and even put Bale next to them on occasion. Dumb leading blind leading deaf.

And as an inetresting quirk, isn't Redknapp reputedly after Kaboul ??



And for what it's worth think Pompeys defensive solidity is as much to do with the ultra defensive 451 tactics as it is to do with their defenders.



It's avery complicated argument Joey as keep stressing with signings like Kaboul, we don't honestly know how much imput each person had in the process. I have said I don't agree with every Comoli signing, but what I am certain about is Jol's admiration for Robinson and Dawson. And I definately can't find the logic in that thinking.