do you want us to sign David Bentley?

[Unrighteous]

Let's put it this way... We sell Pennant and have Kuyt/Bentley for that right forward position; We'll have two players without dynamic pace.

 

That also leaves us with a left flank of JUST right Ryan Babel with Yossi Benayuon to back him up(who is better off coming off the right flank).

 

Let's face it. We have an extremely thin left flank and a wealth of options on the right.

 

Finnan, Arbeloa, Carragher for right back. Pennant, Yossi, Kuyt, Ste for right forward if needed.

 

We have Torres, Babel, or maybe Nemeth as advanced striker.

 

Babel... or Babel... for left Forward. We could play Voronin there but half of the apes on this board would rain fire from the heavens if we kept him and sold that waste of space Crouch.

 

Left back? In theory we are deep, except Riise is pants and Aurelio is often injured. Insua could definately do a job, if he is ready.

 

Crouch, flat out, does not fit into this formation as he has no ability to beat players and will rely on Babel to cause a pacey threat. We'll be toothless down the middle and on the right with him for cracking open a well-organised defence.

 

CM, we are deep. Period. No need to go through it all. We are also very deep at CB now: Skrtel, Hyypia, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, etc.

[PaulMcC]

Let's put it this way... We sell Pennant and have Kuyt/Bentley for that right forward position; We'll have two players without dynamic pace.

 

That also leaves us with a left flank of JUST right Ryan Babel with Yossi Benayuon to back him up(who is better off coming off the right flank).

 

Let's face it. We have an extremely thin left flank and a wealth of options on the right.

 

Finnan, Arbeloa, Carragher for right back. Pennant, Yossi, Kuyt, Ste for right forward if needed.

 

We have Torres, Babel, or maybe Nemeth as advanced striker.

 

Babel... or Babel... for left Forward. We could play Voronin there but half of the apes on this board would rain fire from the heavens if we kept him and sold that waste of space Crouch.

 

Left back? In theory we are deep, except Riise is pants and Aurelio is often injured. Insua could definately do a job, if he is ready.

 

Crouch, flat out, does not fit into this formation as he has no ability to beat players and will rely on Babel to cause a pacey threat. We'll be toothless down the middle and on the right with him for cracking open a well-organised defence.

 

CM, we are deep. Period. No need to go through it all. We are also very deep at CB now: Skrtel, Hyypia, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, etc.

 

So who would you like us to sign?

[Unrighteous]

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

[PaulMcC]

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

 

I think we'd all be happy with someone like that.

 

No one has ever mentioned anyone that everyone agrees with tho.

 

Wonder if Farfan could do a job.

[Unrighteous]

Farfan is definately pacey. How is his delivery? I can't say that I've watched him often. Just noticed him a few times.

[Unrighteous]

I think that pace and skill what we absolutely must focus on bringing into our squad.

[PaulMcC]

Not too sure.

 

I used to think he was crap then watched him a few times and his touch looked better than i thought it would be (i had him down as another Cisse) and he was pacey and direct.

 

Only seen him a few times tho.

[Unrighteous]

I dunno... I just think that we need more pace first and foremost...

 

Even Riise wouldn't be absolute crap if he was fast.

[Paul]

I think Bentley's one of the most intelligent players in the Premiership (in football terms...) and he'd do very well for us. Most of the criticism of him on here seems to be made a) by people who have barely seen him play and b) by people who think any British player not already playing for Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd is automatically not good enough for us. Or both.

 

All this stamping of feet about "pace and power" reminds me of the kind of thinking which had Emile Heskey in our team ahead of Jari Litmanen.

 

I certainly haven't seen loads of David Bentley, but I have seen enough to form an impression of his game. I agree with your assertion that he's intelligent and I also think he's got good feet. However, the stumbling block for me is his mobility. I certainly think he would be a much better option than Pennant, but I'm far from convinced that he'd become a third match-winner, which is what we should be looking for if we're going to sign forwards.

 

I reckon my instincts about players are reasonably good and certainly my first impressions of Bellamy, Pennant and Benayoun, who were all signed from Premiership clubs, were born out. I just don't think he's good enough to dramatically improve us in the way Torres has - because that's the level of impact new attacking players will need to have if we're ever going to challenge for the title.

[spider-neil]

I certainly haven't seen loads of David Bentley, but I have seen enough to form an impression of his game. I agree with your assertion that he's intelligent and I also think he's got good feet. However, the stumbling block for me is his mobility. I certainly think he would be a much better option than Pennant, but I'm far from convinced that he'd become a third match-winner, which is what we should be looking for if we're going to sign forwards.

 

I reckon my instincts about players are reasonably good and certainly my first impressions of Bellamy, Pennant and Benayoun, who were all signed from Premiership clubs, were born out. I just don't think he's good enough to dramatically improve us in the way Torres has - because that's the level of impact new attacking players will need to have if we're ever going to challenge for the title.

 

 

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?

I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.

if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

[Paul]

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?

I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.

if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

 

You know what I want: two top class full backs with pace. However, I don't think we can afford even them with £30m debt to service, nevermind buy forwards as well. If the status quo was changed and we did have big money, I wouldn't spend it on David Bentley - we need better; if the status quo is maintained, a forward is not the priority anyway. Ergo, we shouldn't sign David Bentley.

[spider-neil]

You know what I want: two top class full backs with pace. However, I don't think we can afford even them with £30m debt to service, nevermind buy forwards as well. If the status quo was changed and we did have big money, I wouldn't spend it on David Bentley - we need better; if the status quo is maintained, a forward is not the priority anyway. Ergo, we shouldn't sign David Bentley.

 

I think even with our huge loan to service we can get alves and lahm (if they want to come here) and bentley, who we sell though is key.

[Anubis]

Silverlining - why do you have a username that espouses optimism, when in fact you are consistently negative about everything? Just wondering like.

 

Oh, and while you may be a nice person in the flesh, you're coming across as a bit of a twat on here. There's no need for the rush to insults.

[Unrighteous]

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?

I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.

if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

 

Bentley has been doing well and he's an intelligent player but we'd have to ONCE AGAIN change fucking formation to suit him because he'll cause us to limits options on the right flank without offering some decent pace. If signing him is our big saving grace then we are further from 19 than we all assume.

[Duff Man]

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

 

Don't understimate the value of good hair.

[silverlining]

Bentley has been doing well and he's an intelligent player but we'd have to ONCE AGAIN change fucking formation to suit him because he'll cause us to limits options on the right flank without offering some decent pace. If signing him is our big saving grace then we are further from 19 than we all assume.

 

This isn;t directly related to Bentley's quality (or lack thereof), but while I do love to see us signing players like Torres and Mascherano, we can't really expect to have players like Gerrard and those two in EVERY single position.

 

It just isn't that feasible.

 

Now, before I get burnt at the stake, in no way am I suggesting our squad and first team XI is good enough yet, but castigating the likes of Bentley simply because he isn't at the level of Joe Cole/ Quaresma/ Robinho/ Ribery/ whoever is unfair and unrealistic.

 

There is NO TEAM in the Premiership that has blisteringly superb players in every position. Arsenal have Eboue and Flamini in their first XI. We'd hardly fall over ourselves to buy them. Chelsea still can't find a top-quality RB and give the lumbering Alex games. United won the title last season with a half-fit Saha after selling their world-class finisher. They played Fletcher now and then. Carrick gets plenty of games.

 

Look at the last truly great team we had, way back in the late 80s: Ray fucking Houghton at RM.

 

So that's why we need to be cognisant of the fact that it's the *team* that wins you titles, and no team can have a superstar, multi-million pound talent in every single position, in every single game.

[Unrighteous]

Don't understimate the value of good hair.

 

We can always ask Dave U to have a talk with the new signing.

[Tom R]

Don't rate him at all. It's only cos he's English anybody even notices him.

[Zippy]

This isn;t directly related to Bentley's quality (or lack thereof), but while I do love to see us signing players like Torres and Mascherano, we can't really expect to have players like Gerrard and those two in EVERY single position.

 

It just isn't that feasible.

 

Now, before I get burnt at the stake, in no way am I suggesting our squad and first team XI is good enough yet, but castigating the likes of Bentley simply because he isn't at the level of Joe Cole/ Quaresma/ Robinho/ Ribery/ whoever is unfair and unrealistic.

 

There is NO TEAM in the Premiership that has blisteringly superb players in every position. Arsenal have Eboue and Flamini in their first XI. We'd hardly fall over ourselves to buy them. Chelsea still can't find a top-quality RB and give the lumbering Alex games. United won the title last season with a half-fit Saha after selling their world-class finisher. They played Fletcher now and then. Carrick gets plenty of games.

 

Look at the last truly great team we had, way back in the late 80s: Ray fucking Houghton at RM.

So that's why we need to be cognisant of the fact that it's the *team* that wins you titles, and no team can have a superstar, multi-million pound talent in every single position, in every single game.

 

You're right but that team had John Barnes on the other wing. We have enough good players IMO but we have too few top players who can consistently hurt the opposition. It is clear that we need at least one more genuine match winner and Bentley whilst a good player isn't at that level IMO. I am sick of watching us play without a genuine top class wide player it makes us predictable and at times easy to defend against. If Babel was definitely ready then I would happily have Bentley as he does have some very good attributes but unfortunately Babel looks very raw - inconsistent first touch, variable confidence, often chooses wrong option, unable to last 90 minutes etc (That isn't a criticism of Babel by the way it is just an acknowledgement that he has alot of developing before he is at the level we need).

 

So for me if we have a raw inconsistent young talent developing on one wing we need a player who can be relied upon to help us win tight games on the other flank.

[JMARKH]

This isn;t directly related to Bentley's quality (or lack thereof), but while I do love to see us signing players like Torres and Mascherano, we can't really expect to have players like Gerrard and those two in EVERY single position.

 

It just isn't that feasible.

 

Now, before I get burnt at the stake, in no way am I suggesting our squad and first team XI is good enough yet, but castigating the likes of Bentley simply because he isn't at the level of Joe Cole/ Quaresma/ Robinho/ Ribery/ whoever is unfair and unrealistic.

 

There is NO TEAM in the Premiership that has blisteringly superb players in every position. Arsenal have Eboue and Flamini in their first XI. We'd hardly fall over ourselves to buy them. Chelsea still can't find a top-quality RB and give the lumbering Alex games. United won the title last season with a half-fit Saha after selling their world-class finisher. They played Fletcher now and then. Carrick gets plenty of games.

 

Look at the last truly great team we had, way back in the late 80s: Ray fucking Houghton at RM.

 

So that's why we need to be cognisant of the fact that it's the *team* that wins you titles, and no team can have a superstar, multi-million pound talent in every single position, in every single game.

 

Ray fucking Houghton? What? He was a good player

[silverlining]

Ray fucking Houghton? What? He was a good player

 

I didn't think so.

Most of the crowd at Anfield didn't seem to think so either.

 

He was blessed to play in that team. BLESSED.

[JMARKH]

I didn't think so.

Most of the crowd at Anfield didn't seem to think so either.

 

He was blessed to play in that team. BLESSED.

 

I agreed with Dalglish

[PaulMcC]

Bentley's a good player too.

 

Houghton had amazing players around him.

[El Rojo]

He's a good player, and crucially a dead ball expert.

 

Depends on the price but most seem to be turning him down because his name isn't Ricardo Julio Del Fantastico II and he doesn't have a youtube clip with six different angled replays of one average goal with obligatory strobe effects and a bad Europop backing.

 

An improvement on Pennant, in that he actually scores goals.

 

The pace thing is being overstated. He's no Henry, but he's doesn't seem as much of a slouch as Dirk.

[OnizukaEikichi]

should be bottom of the shopping list just like Pennant was last time. The last time we didnt have any choice coz we were poor like fuck. Well, we might truly end up with bentley if the 2 cunts dont leave and rafa dont have much of a transfer budget.