What to do with Bale?

[JollyHappy]

Having seen how he played for the first 60 mins against Sunderland at left midfield, keep him at left back for now!

 

[jimbo]

I think ulitmately he should become an attacking midfielder, and an awesome one at that.

 

[llamafarmer]

I thought the 2006 world cup was the fullback's tournament and it showed how hugely important they are in the modern game. Bale can be one of the best in the world, so hopefully he will mostly play there, but I don't think it will harm him to spend some time at left wing as well.

 

[jamesc0le]

should be in an interchanging central midfield 3 of bale zokora modric with instructions to hit the left flank also. in this event ohara could be deployed at leftback with gio or jenas ahead of him.

 

[Bristol Coys]

for me bale should play anywhere on the left side, depending on the situation/opposition. A great player to have in the team, if he's playing LB and teams give him special attention it will free up space for the rest of the team.

dictating games from LB shows what a quality player he is. And with wales, even at this young age he's shown the ability to be like gerard with liverpool, and by that i mean inspiring his teammates to get a result or taking it upon himself to make the crucial difference. .

Good post! To have a left back that can also maraud forward when a team put 10/11 players behind the ball is a great assett to the club. People also seem to have forgotten how good Hutton is going forward. With a solid DM the full backs should have a degree of licence to alternatively go forward, particularly when teams play 1 up.
The future is bright the future is lilywhite

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

Im going to be different ad say play him LB and LM both, at the same time! Hear me out... Judging by his performances its clear hes full of energy, pace and does both attacking as well as defending. Hence consider the following formation:

Gomes

Hutton ... Woody .... King ..............

.................... Zokora ............. Bale

Bentley ........ Jenas ...... Modric ..............

Pavlyu ..... Bent

This is essentially a 4-4-2 (4-1-3-2)? formation with Bale at LB, with a midfield of Bentley Jenas Zokora and Modric, i.e. Modric on the Left. Now initially i was completely against Modric playing on the left as i feel he loses his main threat there and hes most effective playing down the centre in a very forward role. However when we're going forward and attacking, with Bale just behind him Modric can drift inside and play a more central role with Bale moving from LB to LM and providing the width. Zokora can then cover the space that is left behind Bale and close any gaps left by the movement.
​

 

[PT]

And we only paid something like £2m plus a write off of some fee or other still outstanding from them.

 

[jamesc0le]

Gomes

Hutton ... Woody .... King ..............

.................... Zokora ............. Bale

Bentley ........ Jenas ...... Modric ..............

Pavlyu ..... Bent

​

that looks quite nice..

no wait, rubbish! no gio!?




Gomes

gunter ... Woody .... King ..............

......corluka.....Zokora .......Bale

Bentley ......Giovani . Modric ..............

Pavlyu .....


fixd

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

Somethings gone wrong there ^ . lol

No Gio only because ive tried picking our strongest but most likely team when everyones fit. Jenas will start. I think Gio and Lennon will be used as Impact subs until they become more fexible players.

 

[scat1620]

And we only paid something like £2m plus a write off of some fee or other still outstanding from them.

Don't think that's right - the fee agreed when we bought him was £5m up front, and then up to another £5m (to total £10m at max) depending on various clauses (like appearances and success) that none of us are totally aware of the details of.

We then agreed to pay an unknown amount (less than £5m, obviously) to Southampton in exchange for effectively scrapping all those extra clauses: Southampton got some money to help their cashflow, and we 'paid off' any potential future monies for Bale, ensuring that our payments on him are now completely finished.

So overall we've paid an unknown amount that is definitely more that £5m and less than £10m for him (no one knows exactly how much, but it's probably going to be closer to £5m than £10m since Southampton needed the cash now), and we won't have to pay another penny for his transfer. And at anything less than £10m, I think we have an absolute bargain on our hands: wahoo!

 

[Kendall]

wasted at LB imo, he is a creative force on the left side and can wander in too

 

[Spurger King]

Until we get a high quality left-back to replace him, he needs to stay in that position.

I'd love to see him as our left-wing-Welsh wonder kid, but left-back is a difficult position to find quality players to fill.

Also, to stop him jumping ship we need to brainwash the kid to believe that Man Ure are the F.C of the beast...well that's how I usually refer to Fergie.

 

[SpurSince57]

Ive been saying it since bale joined and had his first few good games.

Much like berbatov, man utd "were interested", but seemingly put off by paying a large fee on someone un-tested in the best league.

They have let us buy him and have clearly seen he is top quality, great left peg, and an uncanny ability reminscent to that of giggs to dribble in/out and between defenders.

Man Utd will be after him sooner or later, I just hope this time spurs do all they can to hold onto such a talented and great player. World class - no doubt.

Maybe we should just worry about crossing that bridge when we come to it. Might as well worry about him being on the end of a horrendous career-ending tackle, being run over by a bus or struck by lightning, or joining the Children of God or something.

Sorry, this sort of talk is just too girly for me.

 

[liamc23]

oops. I said DC. I meant Levy.

Here is the rub: This is probably Giggs last season. Which may equate to it being Bales last season with us :-(

Man U have Nani as Giggs;s replacement.

 

[craig4589]

wasted at LB imo, he is a creative force on the left side and can wander in too

I don't think he is wasted at LB at all.

He is the best defensive option we have down the left side, and if we look at last season, we need to be far more solid defensively to really compete at the highest level.

Bale will still get forward a lot from LB and help the LW (Gio), by overlapping him and when Gio comes inside, he can almost play as a LW. When in attack we can have the settled 4-4-2, with Bale coming up from LB; or when we really want to apply pressure or get a goal, Gio can roam inside and just behind the front two whilst Bale holds the LW position.

Essentially, I feel that Bale is slightly better than Gio at LW. However, Bale is significantly better at LB than the other options we have. The combo of Bale/Gio is the strongest.

 

[alextheyid]

What do Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United all have down their left side?

An excellent, pacey, attacking fullback. Cashley, Clichy, Evra.

What one player best characterised Ramos' Sevilla side?

An awesome, rampaging right back, Dani Alves...

play him at fullback, give him license to overlap, and a dedicated holding midfielder to fill the space if we lose possession and he will make goals.

:stupid: danielneeds u da man...u have put it perfectly!:stupid:

 

[guy]

im pretty sure manure will give us a couple of seasons at least before going after our next great player.

Bale is awesome, what a player we have on our hands! Im not too fussed as to where he starts games as we all Juande will change players positions/formations during games.

 

[SpurSince57]

A bit early to say conclusively, but so far he has looked much improved defensively from last season. He's really beefed up and his tackling and positioning seem to have got better.

BAE and Gilberto, the jury's out on. No problems with BAE's tackling and willingness to get stuck in (in fact he was altogether too willing when he was assaulting Ljungberg at the Death Star nearly two years ago); it's his positioning and reading of the game that are the problem. But he can put in a great cross so let's not write him off, shall we? Ditto Gilberto, although you've got to say he seems to have had problems with the pace of the English game.

I'm not convinced that defensively any of them is an improvement on Leapy, but offensively Bale at least is a massive plus.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

I take it no one watched the Russia game then?

He was at his best playing as virtually a 'number ten'.

I've changed my mind on him. Yes, he would be an awesome left back, but he is simply too good attacking, he gets into wonderful areas, gets crosses in both from deep and beyond the final man, and drives into the box.

Doing the latter from left back is tricky, so for that reason, I'd say he has to be left wing. And pushing up into a 'front 3' when we're chasing the game.

Say we're 1 down or chasing a win with 10-15 mins to go. This is probably our most effective formation:

-----Defender---Defender-----
Hutton-----Jenas-----BAE/Huddlestone
-----------Modric----------
Bentley/Lennon--------Bale
-----Bent--PuvlyooCHENka-

 

[brakefluid]

I reckon we shhould try him out at goalie..... :roll: