Will one or two players really make us better?

[stemark44]

I notice that a lot of posters think that we are in a great position and if we get a striker and perhaps one other player that we will be ready to challenge again.

I am not so sure about us being in a great position.
We have always prided ourselves in having a strong English core but that's changed recently.

Lets be honest here,England are no great shakes as a team yet most of our English players will never see an England shirt again.

Lennon is probably a 4th choice.........possibly not even a choice if they decide not to play 4-4-2.

Dawson is probably a 6th choice ......given the emergence of Cahill,Smalling and Jones.

Huddlestone and Jenas .............are no longer even considered.

Crouch and Defoe ............with the emergence of Carroll and Wellbeck.....they won't see too many caps from now on.

Walker is the only one who might actually get into an England squad.

To me that shows that the quality within our squad has dropped considerably.

There are massive changes needed for us to really challenge for titles or even fourth place..........I am not sure they can all be addressed at this late stage.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

I used to think that we were maybe a couple of strikers away from challenging for and even winning a league title. Now I'm of the opinion that if we stick with Redknapp, your Adebayors and your Diarras are only going to paper over the cracks.

I was appalled and infuriated by the football we played last season. My mistake is taking things too seriously, I suppose.

 

[stevenurse]

a striker is absolutely imperative. So many times last season we looked toothless when in the final third. Now im sure the 3 we have cannot be as bad as they were last season but there are times that after 10 minutes you realise we arent going to score. The lennon thing the other day was an example. To put it simply, yes he held on to it for far too long but a winger in that position would expect the frontline striker to give him an option. The option didnt come quick enough from defoe and therefore he delayed far too long despite vdv being free.

for me our midfield has simply lost confidence in them too, and this results in poor decision making when forward. thats my view anyway

 

[Son_Of]

yes. not title contenders, but significantly better.

 

[littlemandefoe]

Which 3 players are in front of Lennon? On his day, he is one of the best wingers in the league and honestly, top 15 in the world. His pace is unbelievable...

 

[stevenurse]

maybe adam johnson, ashley young, stewart downing, walcott. Not sure id say top 15 in the world, certainly can be improved on but a very good player on his day. definately one to keep whoever we sign

 

[NEVILLEB]

Adebayor and Diarrhoea are a explosive combination

 

[mpickard2087]

I used to think that we were maybe a couple of strikers away from challenging for and even winning a league title. Now I'm of the opinion that if we stick with Redknapp, your Adebayors and your Diarras are only going to paper over the cracks.

I was appalled and infuriated by the football we played last season. My mistake is taking things too seriously, I suppose.

I wouldnt go as far as you JH, but certainly we are far more than just two or three players away from challenging or winning the league. Although a consistent striker would improve us significantly.

 

[antiloqus]

Which 3 players are in front of Lennon? On his day, he is one of the best wingers in the league and honestly, top 15 in the world. His pace is unbelievable...

Walcott & Milner both are. Wrongfully so, of course.

 

[Ribble]

Now how many of those English players are undisputed first choice for us?

Lennon - yes
Dawson - If Ledley and Gallas were both fully fit? No
Jenas - lol
Huddlestone - not any more
Crouch - sadly yes (currently)
Defoe - no
Walker - no

English players - You get the odd good find, but on the whole they're either a bit wank or ridiculously expensive. People wonder why there are so many foreign players in the EPL (well they don't because they've cottoned on, but the FA do because they're thick as shit)? The English youth system is a broken mess that's years behind most of the rest of Europe.

 

[mill]

Would've done last year, now as others have improved it'll take 3 or 4

 

[Maske2g]

I agree with Jon, our football in the league last season was more often than not pony, and often we were tactically inept. A new forward line would have made a difference, but not the the type of difference people think. The shape of our team when things aren't going well, at times is shabby at best.

4-5-1 is not good a good formation unless you have wingers that will come inside and get in the box more, and full backs that go beyond at every chance. Ours just aren't coached to do that.

 

[ThorntonSpur]

I will be quite happy if none of our english players play for england.

 

[louisg]

I will be quite happy if none of our english players play for england.

Me too

 

[dontcallme]

I think once we get our players fit we are more than capable of finishing in the top four.

Gomes or Friedel is a good choice of keepers.

Corluka, Walker and Hutton is fine right back and BAE with Bassong or Bale as backup makes us well covered for full backs. King, Dawson, Kaboul and Gallas might not make for a stable, world-class central defensive partnership but there's a potentially good partnership in there.

In midlfield we have Modric, Bale and VDV who I believe to be among the top midfielders in the league and come the end of the season I predict Sandro will be considered at a similar level. Outside of that we have Huddlestone, Pienaar, Lennon, Krancjar and Palacios.

I really believe that If we can get our core players back to fitness and we stick with Adebayor as a lone striker with VDV behind we can match Arsenal and Liverpool and might even be better this season.

 

[Ribble]

Yay, I can change "Crouch - sadly yes (currently)" to "Crouch - no"!

Happy days!

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Yay, I can change "Crouch - sadly yes (currently)" to "Crouch - no"!

Happy days!

Eh? Is he offski?

 

[Ribble]

Eh? Is he offski?

He's no longer a starter now Manu is finally here!

 

[jonathanhotspur]

He's no longer a starter now Manu is finally here!

A double celebration!

 

[marmite]

In reality we are a long way off the top 4/5. Take the game against Man Utd. In the first half we matched them, except that we were playing about as well as we could have been expected to play, and they were in about second gear. In the second half players of the calibre of Danny Welbeck, Anderson and Tom Cleverly blew us into next week.

We need 4/5 World class players now just to keep on the shirt tales of Man Utd/City/Chelsea let alone overtake them. (when i say world class, i dont mean Adebeyor or Diarra who are merely decent players)

We cant compete at the top until we get bought out by a sheik with a few billion to blow on players and wages, and a 70,000 seater stadium. Not to mention a couple of billion fans in the far east to buy a couple of shirts each a year.

We are getting left behind. We need huge amounts of money very very soon, otherwise we will simply not be able to pay the wages of champions league quality players. (Chelsea are offering modric £180,000 a week without blinking an eyelid, on top of signing Mata, and paying god knows what to 20 other players. City have just signed a player of Aguero's class without even needing to worry about how they will afford it. The wages they are paying him are down the back of their sofa. Yet we couldnt even afford his left leg)

Time to whore ourselves out i think.