What would you do?

[Hoppo]

I think The Baggies are playing the same game as us. Arsenal wont upset their wage structure for anything either. I would like to know where we go in the summer when another couple of high earners are off the wage bill. When do we stop cutting?

[timeoutbigbar]

N'zogbia did start off as a left back but he was poor defensively.  He was sold to Wigan as a left back if I remember rightly, and a pretty poor one at that.  Wouldn't ideally play him there, as I'd prefer he was in the team on the wing when he's fit.  Lichaj and Cuellar should probably given the nod as first choice full backs, but I really can't see Hutton or Warnock being dropped.  Hutton is a McLeish player and after dropping Warnock last week and the comments he made, I don't think he'll do it again.

[Greg N'Ash]

Six years in to Randy's glorious reign, and we're talking about N'Zogbia at left back, and Heskey or Delph in central defence. Christ on a bike.

Delph at CB was a suggestion by our old friend the Gnasher, so can be filed with any number of his other pearls of wisdom in your nearest convenient bin.

well i said it was leftfield and really its desperation to get something out of a player who's been useless or else its another 6m down the tube with all the rest of MON's 'gems'. Anyway it's not much more mental than paying 10m for a winger and playing him at fullback like some are suggesting

[ozzjim]

Greg, a winger that played the first 3-4 years of his career at full back, so not really that out there as a suggestion! He is even still listed on Football Manager as a left back/ winger ;-)

Delph, a short arsed midfielder, more attacking than holding, as a centre back is a bit more men in white coats.

[Greg N'Ash]

well it is, but Delph has to be good at playing somewhere surely?. I mean even with our limited options in midfield AM has still seen fit to shove him off to leeds. Playing N'Zogbia at left-back rather begs the question why did we buy him at all for 10m, when we could have saved our money and just bought a decent left-back.

[paul_e]

I suggested nzogbia as left back a couple of weeks ago.  I'd give the following a go:

given
cuellar dunne clark nzogbia
gardner bannan ireland
albrigton gabby
bent

with keane coming off the bench after an hour and lichaj to replace gabby and push nzog forward if we're struggling, the pull the wingers deeper to protect the full backs and push ireland/keane into 'the hole'.

The line up relies on the midfield trio playing keep ball and making space for each other which is why I've gone for the 3 players capable of doing that.  I think Mazrim said earlier on the thread the key until we can get some replacements in and build a proper defence is to keep the ball away from them.  The current 'style' of letting the opposition have 60% possession clearly doesn't work, it's the failure to realise and address this aspect that has left me convinced McLeish is taking us nowhere good.

[CorkVilla]

Bring back Olaf!

[nigel]

At the moment I feel Bent might be a luxury we can't afford. I would try and get Andy Carrol from Liverpool, simply because he puts it about more than DB.

Would Carrol have scored that chance yesterday ?  Errr I dont think so!  Have you not see Carrol's scoring record since he joined LFC and this season?  If we had him, we would be in the bottom 3 for sure.
What makes you think we cant afford him?

You're right, Carrol probably wouldn't have scored that chance yesterday, he may have scored the first time though  The other side of the coin is, would he have been caught offside 4 times?
Don't get me wrong, I like DB, but, when we signed him we had Young and Downing firing in quality for him, oh for that now. And I'm certainly glad we had him last season.
We haven't got that this season. He's a poacher, and a good one at that. He's not a player who'll get busy, and I just feel that quite a lot this season it's been like playing with 10 men.
Carrol is being played differently to how he was at Newcastle and I just think that he'd give more to the team.
I agree his scoring record at Liverpool hasn't been good, but he's quality and it will happen.

[paul_e]

At the moment I feel Bent might be a luxury we can't afford. I would try and get Andy Carrol from Liverpool, simply because he puts it about more than DB.

Would Carrol have scored that chance yesterday ?  Errr I dont think so!  Have you not see Carrol's scoring record since he joined LFC and this season?  If we had him, we would be in the bottom 3 for sure.
What makes you think we cant afford him?

You're right, Carrol probably wouldn't have scored that chance yesterday, he may have scored the first time though  The other side of the coin is, would he have been caught offside 4 times?
Don't get me wrong, I like DB, but, when we signed him we had Young and Downing firing in quality for him, oh for that now. And I'm certainly glad we had him last season.
We haven't got that this season. He's a poacher, and a good one at that. He's not a player who'll get busy, and I just feel that quite a lot this season it's been like playing with 10 men.
Carrol is being played differently to how he was at Newcastle and I just think that he'd give more to the team.
I agree his scoring record at Liverpool hasn't been good, but he's quality and it will happen.

I don't understand this at all.  Bent will score us goals, even this season his record is good, he isn't the problem, he's one of the few people who is doing the job he's in the team to do.

The major issue in the squad, as I've been saying for months, is our complete inability to retain possession.  Our players are always looking for the ultra safe option, which invariably leads to the ball ending up at the feet of the keeper with the only option to punt it up field.  When this then doesn't stick to Bent people start to call him a passenger.  We need to spend a huge portion of our time in training working on pass and move, making triangles and giving the player on the ball options.  Once this becomes second nature the difference on the pitch will be huge.  If we start this now we'll know by the summer which players aren't capable of adapting to it and we can get rid of them and bring in replacements.

[Dave Clark Five]

I find most keepers hate a ball passed back to them. Look at how many make a hash of the clearance.

[hawkeye]

I would seriously consider having Bent on the bench, as much as we say it isnt his fault his ball retention is awful, and he privides no outlet, he does not run the chanels to give us any outlet at all, so the opposition just keep coming back at us. We should have the players to enable us to carry the Bent threat but we dont.

[nigel]

At the moment I feel Bent might be a luxury we can't afford. I would try and get Andy Carrol from Liverpool, simply because he puts it about more than DB.

Would Carrol have scored that chance yesterday ?  Errr I dont think so!  Have you not see Carrol's scoring record since he joined LFC and this season?  If we had him, we would be in the bottom 3 for sure.
What makes you think we cant afford him?

You're right, Carrol probably wouldn't have scored that chance yesterday, he may have scored the first time though  The other side of the coin is, would he have been caught offside 4 times?
Don't get me wrong, I like DB, but, when we signed him we had Young and Downing firing in quality for him, oh for that now. And I'm certainly glad we had him last season.
We haven't got that this season. He's a poacher, and a good one at that. He's not a player who'll get busy, and I just feel that quite a lot this season it's been like playing with 10 men.
Carrol is being played differently to how he was at Newcastle and I just think that he'd give more to the team.
I agree his scoring record at Liverpool hasn't been good, but he's quality and it will happen.

I don't understand this at all.  Bent will score us goals, even this season his record is good, he isn't the problem, he's one of the few people who is doing the job he's in the team to do.

The major issue in the squad, as I've been saying for months, is our complete inability to retain possession.  Our players are always looking for the ultra safe option, which invariably leads to the ball ending up at the feet of the keeper with the only option to punt it up field.  When this then doesn't stick to Bent people start to call him a passenger.  We need to spend a huge portion of our time in training working on pass and move, making triangles and giving the player on the ball options.  Once this becomes second nature the difference on the pitch will be huge.  If we start this now we'll know by the summer which players aren't capable of adapting to it and we can get rid of them and bring in replacements.

Paul, I'm not actually arguing with you, I agree with everything that you're saying about Bent. I've been waiting years for a true striker to come along.
All I'm saying, perhaps not well enough, is if we're going to keep him we've got to play his game and I don't think we do.

[ktvillan]

What Paul_e said.  Without Bent's goals we'll be down before we know what's hit us. You can't expect him to win long punts from the keeper, he just isn't that type of player.  Gabby doesn't win them any better when he plays there.  We pretend to pass it around but ultimately it almost always ends up back at the keeper for the hoof.

Plus we need a whole new defence, preferably players who can display signs of intelligent life, know how to stay on their feet and have some positional sense and ability to read the game. I'd certainly get Lichaj in asap to see what he can do, maybe Stevens too.   As for Clark, good on the ball but I have a feeling he's just too slow to make it as either a top class CB or defensive midfielder.

[PaulTheVillan]

I think we need to drop Warnock, Collins & Hutton.

Stevens, Clark, Dunne & Herd/Lichaj surely can't be any worse?

[Mazrim]

Bent is our main goal threat. Do people seriously want to drop him? Unbelievable.