Kozak or Bent?

[Dave]

We lacked the player, and still do, who could work between the compressed lines of the opposition back four and midfield five.

I'm not saying that our creative players were faultless or that we never had any problems at all.

But I still maintain that we'd have been better off with Milner and Young creating chances for Bent than Ozil and Fabregas creating chances for Heskey.

[eastie]

We needed somebody more mobile and consistent in front of goal than Carew. As good as he was for us, he is not a patch on The Beast.

We needed a natural finisher to put chances away - I'd have taken bent far ahead of Carew , gabby or heskey to score the goals.

[LeeB]

We lacked the player, and still do, who could work between the compressed lines of the opposition back four and midfield five.

I'm not saying that our creative players were faultless or that we never had any problems at all.

But I still maintain that we'd have been better off with Milner and Young creating chances for Bent than Ozil and Fabregas creating chances for Heskey.

I'd disagree with that Dave, because for all his faults Ivanhoe would at least create chances for them too.

[LeeB]

We needed somebody more mobile and consistent in front of goal than Carew. As good as he was for us, he is not a patch on The Beast.

We needed a natural finisher to put chances away - I'd have taken bent far ahead of Carew , gabby or heskey to score the goals.

It's not as simple as that though mate, we had enough trouble getting up the pitch against the likes of bastard Hull and Portsmouth, christ knows what we'd have done if Bent was the target man.

[N'ZMAV]

If you have Ozil supplying Heskey with 10 chances per game he'd at least have bagged one. It's the supply we lack.

[N'ZMAV]

Also, we seem to hoof it quite a lot. That's why Bent was deemed surplus to requirments.

[eastie]

If you have Ozil supplying Heskey with 10 chances per game he'd at least have bagged one. It's the supply we lack.

We lack the supply now , but with Milner downing and young we had the supply - look at bent when he arrived and thrived on downing and youngs service to him - he is never going to deliver in a team set up the way we are now.

[supertom]

If you have Ozil supplying Heskey with 10 chances per game he'd at least have bagged one. It's the supply we lack.

We lack the supply now , but with Milner downing and young we had the supply - look at bent when he arrived and thrived on downing and youngs service to him - he is never going to deliver in a team set up the way we are now.

Bent would only have need 2-3 chances a game to find the net. We were never that bad back then that we wouldn't have created that for him. Carew and Gabby did very well but some games could miss hatfuls and in Gabs case fluff one on ones.

Bent would have been the 20 goal forward to push us up a level back then. We had two strikers who'd get you 10-15 a season, which is decent, but not quite enough.

[SoccerHQ]

MON pretty much always played 4-4-2 unless there were injuries upfront.

I believe we could've gone with Gabby and Bent upfront or indeed Bent and Carew (although that combo would've been a tad shy on workrate) with Gabby playing on the right as he played numerous times in the MON years.

Bent could've even played upfront on his own as he did for Sunderland that season where he scored a lot of goals for a much poorer team than ourselves.

Heskey would never have been signed in my mind and easy with hindsight but nor would Downing either when Bent was moving for a similar fee.

When you look at the teams we were competiting with at that time, there's no question we were understocked in the forward department.

[Ads]

Harewood and Heskey.

*Shudders*

[Chipsticks]

MON pretty much always played 4-4-2 unless there were injuries upfront.

I believe we could've gone with Gabby and Bent upfront or indeed Bent and Carew (although that combo would've been a tad shy on workrate) with Gabby playing on the right as he played numerous times in the MON years.

Bent could've even played upfront on his own as he did for Sunderland that season where he scored a lot of goals for a much poorer team than ourselves.

Heskey would never have been signed in my mind and easy with hindsight but nor would Downing either when Bent was moving for a similar fee.

When you look at the teams we were competiting with at that time, there's no question we were understocked in the forward department.

If we'd had Bent in the side we definitely would have hit 4th place in 2009. I wonder what position we'd be in now had that happened? We would likely have kept hold of Young, Downing, and Milner, and the financial boost would have prevented the near collapse we saw in the following 3 years and would have given us enough money to build a strong back-line as strong as the midfield.

[eastie]

MON pretty much always played 4-4-2 unless there were injuries upfront.

I believe we could've gone with Gabby and Bent upfront or indeed Bent and Carew (although that combo would've been a tad shy on workrate) with Gabby playing on the right as he played numerous times in the MON years.

Bent could've even played upfront on his own as he did for Sunderland that season where he scored a lot of goals for a much poorer team than ourselves.

Heskey would never have been signed in my mind and easy with hindsight but nor would Downing either when Bent was moving for a similar fee.

When you look at the teams we were competiting with at that time, there's no question we were understocked in the forward department.

If we'd had Bent in the side we definitely would have hit 4th place in 2009. I wonder what position we'd be in now had that happened? We would likely have kept hold of Young, Downing, and Milner, and the financial boost would have prevented the near collapse we saw in the following 3 years and would have given us enough money to build a strong back-line as strong as the midfield.

Yes had bent arrived and not heskey how very different things might be today .

[Dave]

I wonder what position we'd be in now had that happened?

I expect we'd have been either spanked in the qualifying round against somebody like Marseille or Schalke, or we'd have puffed on through to be spanked in the group stages.

Sneijder or Ribery running at Warnock and Collins? Doesn't bear thinking about.

[Ads]

I wonder what position we'd be in now had that happened?

I expect we'd have been either spanked in the qualifying round against somebody like Marseille or Schalke, or we'd have puffed on through to be spanked in the group stages.

Sneijder or Ribery running at Warnock and Collins? Doesn't bear thinking about.

O'Neill would have done what he did best and bought a new back four.

[LeeB]

I wonder what position we'd be in now had that happened?

I expect we'd have been either spanked in the qualifying round against somebody like Marseille or Schalke, or we'd have puffed on through to be spanked in the group stages.

Sneijder or Ribery running at Warnock and Collins? Doesn't bear thinking about.

O'Neill would have done what he did best and bought a new back four.

That wasn't as good as the one he'd replaced.