Andy Carroll is a decent player. He did well for Newcastle last season and is a full England international.
He doesn't do it for me as a Red's striker just yet. He did score in a dour Merseyside derby but that was ..erm.. last month.
Everyone's singing Suarez's praises (I'm giving him 5 more matches before I start bickering on how he doesn't score enough) and this makes Andy look even worse. KD has given Andy a run in a few games by playing both of them in a 4-4-2 and this has resulted in home draws against newly promoted sides. Normally I'm an advocate of two upfront at home then the lone striker away from home but it doesn't seem to be working for us at the moment. It's got to be time to play a lone striker at home and flood the midfield in a bid to dominate possession and create more chances. It also has to be said that without Andy the ball is played on the ground much more and the team looks more threatening and fluid (flash back to the game against Fulham last season and Chelsea this weekend)
Arsenal are a side who I think play the 4-5-1 with aplomb. Agreed they've got RVP who has been a monster goal scorer. RVP isn't your typical lone striker though and in some ways he reminds me of Suarez. He's skillful and also looks to play with those around him hence his healthy assist record.
The question then becomes which midfield five? It's got to be two wide players and three in the middle. It now depends on if you want to play two holding midfielders and one attacking/creative midfielder or three in the middle that can interchange. My ideal setup will be Kuyt and Bellamy out wide, Adam, Lucas and Gerrard in the middle. With Gerrard currently out, I'll probably need to have Henderson in (ouch). Hendo is not a terrible player I just don't think he's ready yet. Maybe the price tag doesn't help but he hasn't looked half as convincing for 'Pool as he did for Sunderland.
Everyone keeps saying we've got a better squad than last season. It's surely a more expensive squad but I'm not convinced about the depth especially in the attacking midfield position. Aside from Stevie G and perhaps Hendo there's nobody else. It makes you wonder why we let so many guys go out on loan. We could have done with an Aquilani or even a Cole (don't laugh! he's doing swell @ Lille) at the moment.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Early surprises..and..Missing Amodu
A look at the top Euro leagues reveals the following unbeaten teams - Barcelona, Juventus, Man City and Newcastle. No typos there. Eleven games into the season and Newcastle Utd are unbeaten and sit third on the Premiership table. The Toon army also has the best defence in the league. Up front, Demba Ba has supplied the goals and already has two hattricks. I watched them this weekend thinking they might stumble against Everton but the fact that they held on to win impressed me. Their next three games are against the two Manchester teams and Chelsea and how they fare in those games will be an indicator of what their season may become.
Dropping down a division and Southampton have taken the Championship by storm. It's not very common for a newly promoted side to be this dominating but the Saints have come marching in. I like the way they've gone about winning games by scoring goals for fun.
Levante was my top surprise up until the last couple of games when they led La liga. Back to back defeats have however brought in a dose of reality and it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back.
Missing Amodu
Joni Mitchell couldn't have said it better - Don't know what you've gone till it's gone. Nigeria's failure to qualify for next year's Nations Cup must make the country regret letting Amodu go last year. Amodu qualified the country for two World cups - 2002 and 2010 but never had the privilege to take any of those teams to the actual tournaments. In both those years he took the team to third place at the respective ANCs which was deemed not good enough and he was subsequently sacked. Now we can't even make an ANC. Shocking!! It's a pity nobody "consulted" me before the NFA hired Keshi. I would have told them Amodu is "your man", he can get the job done.
All this ex-players-turned-coaches are gradually proving to be not good enough and only time will tell if Keshi can deliver. For me I'm going to hide my head somewhere and relive Amodu pulling off the great escape in Sudan. Here's a man who led the team to an unbelievable 4-nil away win. Now that's the kind of coach we need. We just don't get away wins these days. Oh well what's on the telly this weekend; International football ... Euro playoffs (palm rubbing)
Dropping down a division and Southampton have taken the Championship by storm. It's not very common for a newly promoted side to be this dominating but the Saints have come marching in. I like the way they've gone about winning games by scoring goals for fun.
Levante was my top surprise up until the last couple of games when they led La liga. Back to back defeats have however brought in a dose of reality and it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back.
Missing Amodu
Joni Mitchell couldn't have said it better - Don't know what you've gone till it's gone. Nigeria's failure to qualify for next year's Nations Cup must make the country regret letting Amodu go last year. Amodu qualified the country for two World cups - 2002 and 2010 but never had the privilege to take any of those teams to the actual tournaments. In both those years he took the team to third place at the respective ANCs which was deemed not good enough and he was subsequently sacked. Now we can't even make an ANC. Shocking!! It's a pity nobody "consulted" me before the NFA hired Keshi. I would have told them Amodu is "your man", he can get the job done.
All this ex-players-turned-coaches are gradually proving to be not good enough and only time will tell if Keshi can deliver. For me I'm going to hide my head somewhere and relive Amodu pulling off the great escape in Sudan. Here's a man who led the team to an unbelievable 4-nil away win. Now that's the kind of coach we need. We just don't get away wins these days. Oh well what's on the telly this weekend; International football ... Euro playoffs (palm rubbing)
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