Villa to sell Luke Young on the cheap

[Risso]

How many of the other top 6 teams in the Prem play strapping centre halves at full back to counter teams like Stoke and Blackburn?  It strikes me as a bit small time.

[peter w]

How many of the other top 6 teams in the Prem play strapping centre halves at full back to counter teams like Stoke and Blackburn?  It strikes me as a bit small time.

And yet, fitness permitting, many would have been happy to see Bouma back at left-back.

[spangley1812]

This isnt a Carlos witch hunt, he is a good central defender but he is being played out of position and it is to the detriment of the rest of the team

[TheSandman]

How many of the other top 6 teams in the Prem play strapping centre halves at full back to counter teams like Stoke and Blackburn?  It strikes me as a bit small time.

And yet, fitness permitting, many would have been happy to see Bouma back at left-back.

Because he used to be a centre back?

He was a striker before he was a centre back or left back.

[eastie]

Far be it from a cuellar witch hunt , he is a top class centre half and I feel sorry for him as he deserves to play in his. Est position, carlos cuellar is a top class player and it's not his fault his manager plays him out of position.

[jembob]

Cuellars distribution is so poor it often breaks up our attacking play and gives away possession putting us on the defensive, his defending at right back has improved a lot but I still would prefer a right back who can defend and add something going forward and for that reason luke young is a much better all round right back than cuellar.

I agree to an extent but lets not turn this into a cuellar witch hunt. I think that against teams such as united and arsenal who have good wingers but do not 'park the bus' cuellar is probably the better option. Break it up, give it on. The deficiencies in a situation like this was the lack of a genuine creative CM (milner was good but i think he needed a full season there to be top class). Similarly he was a good option against aerial teams such as stoke and bolton. The problems came against teams like wolves and west ham when L Youngs superior dribbling, passing and crossing skills would have probably made the difference. Cost us the Champs league place IMO

I totally agree with this. Everybody is going on about creative midfielders but I think that a creative RB is equally important. Letting Luke go is a mistake in my view however we should ensure that he is replaced with a player equally as good but I can't see MON pulling that off.

[Risso]

How many of the other top 6 teams in the Prem play strapping centre halves at full back to counter teams like Stoke and Blackburn?  It strikes me as a bit small time.

And yet, fitness permitting, many would have been happy to see Bouma back at left-back.

Lots of players adapt well to different positions.  Bouma played as a left back just as much as he did a centre back as a young player.  It's a bit different from asking a centre back at the age of 28 to learn a new position.

[spangley1812]

Cuellars distribution is so poor it often breaks up our attacking play and gives away possession putting us on the defensive, his defending at right back has improved a lot but I still would prefer a right back who can defend and add something going forward and for that reason luke young is a much better all round right back than cuellar.

I agree to an extent but lets not turn this into a cuellar witch hunt. I think that against teams such as united and arsenal who have good wingers but do not 'park the bus' cuellar is probably the better option. Break it up, give it on. The deficiencies in a situation like this was the lack of a genuine creative CM (milner was good but i think he needed a full season there to be top class). Similarly he was a good option against aerial teams such as stoke and bolton. The problems came against teams like wolves and west ham when L Youngs superior dribbling, passing and crossing skills would have probably made the difference. Cost us the Champs league place IMO

I totally agree with this. Everybody is going on about creative midfielders but I think that a creative RB is equally important. Letting Luke go is a mistake in my view however we should ensure that he is replaced with a player equally as good but I can't see MON pulling that off.

Excellent posts and in replacing Young he will be spending money that would be better off used on buying the 2 midfielders and 1 goalscorer that
we need

[paul_e]

I think I must be the only person in the country who thinks Cuellar did a good job and didn't deserve to be dropped, but then neither did Collins so it wasn't a simple decision to bring Luke back in.

Without being on the training ground day in day out it's difficult to know whether Luke did enough to earn his place back but my guess is that he didn't.  You've got to remember the guy had an awful couple of months in pre season/early season that could easily have still been on his mind when he started back in training which led to him not giving 100% and MoN therefore not playing him.

Too many people are willing to lynch MoN over the right back situation without having the full facts.  That he can spot a good full back and play them how we all want is clearly shown by Warnock, so lets give him until august 31st to see if he can find a right back on that level as well.  (for what it's worth I'd love to see Lichaj get a run if he doesn't get someone in as I've been very impressed every time I've seen him).

[achilles]

The bottom line is that Luke Young is easily in the top 6 right full-backs in the premiership and we are literally going to give him away!

[mattjpa]

I really dont get the whole out of position thing. I remember a discussion during the world cup when england were lambasted for being too rigid and not being able to adapt in different positions ie gerrard right, rooney number 9/10. But if you look at the amount of players MON has tried to change or played out of position there have been a fair few. Off the top of my head:
L.Young left back
Downing Right wing
Cuellar right back
milner CM
Petrov holding MF
Reo coker Right back.

Fair play, id say half of them have worked out. he does try it alot though!

[SoccerHQ]

I think I must be the only person in the country who thinks Cuellar did a good job and didn't deserve to be dropped, but then neither did Collins so it wasn't a simple decision to bring Luke back in.

Without being on the training ground day in day out it's difficult to know whether Luke did enough to earn his place back but my guess is that he didn't.  You've got to remember the guy had an awful couple of months in pre season/early season that could easily have still been on his mind when he started back in training which led to him not giving 100% and MoN therefore not playing him.

Too many people are willing to lynch MoN over the right back situation without having the full facts.  That he can spot a good full back and play them how we all want is clearly shown by Warnock, so lets give him until august 31st to see if he can find a right back on that level as well.  (for what it's worth I'd love to see Lichaj get a run if he doesn't get someone in as I've been very impressed every time I've seen him).

Young's stats in the run of games he had last season were very good, better than with Carlos at RB.

Before Xmas, he started games against Bolton, Burnley, Spurs, Manure, Hull, Sunderland and Stoke before being dropped soon after. We conceded three goals in that period.

Then a month later when Warnock got injured, he played 4 games at LB at home to Arsenal and Manure and away to Spurs and Fulham which I'd say was our toughest quartet of games grouped together last season. We conceded one goal in that period.

We're losing a good full back.

[spangley1812]

I think I must be the only person in the country who thinks Cuellar did a good job and didn't deserve to be dropped, but then neither did Collins so it wasn't a simple decision to bring Luke back in.

Without being on the training ground day in day out it's difficult to know whether Luke did enough to earn his place back but my guess is that he didn't.  You've got to remember the guy had an awful couple of months in pre season/early season that could easily have still been on his mind when he started back in training which led to him not giving 100% and MoN therefore not playing him.

Too many people are willing to lynch MoN over the right back situation without having the full facts.  That he can spot a good full back and play them how we all want is clearly shown by Warnock, so lets give him until august 31st to see if he can find a right back on that level as well.  (for what it's worth I'd love to see Lichaj get a run if he doesn't get someone in as I've been very impressed every time I've seen him).

My issue is that playing Carlos @ full back affects us going forward and we have no "outball" on the right and Ashley/Stuart have no support as Carlos will not go over the half way line....if he play Lichaj thats great and no problem but I cannot see that happening

[spangley1812]

Another thing is that as we can see from the Milner
situation MON will go public if he thinks he is in the right, so if Luke is this big problem ie wont travel to Ireland, poor in training, poor attitude or whatever MON's problem is with Luke why hasnt he come out and told the world..............

[usav]

The bottom line is that Luke Young is easily in the top 6 right full-backs in the premiership and we are literally going to give him away!

That is the bottom line and it is a ridiculous state of affairs.