Revolution or Evolution?

[Guest LFD]

I see some different opinions on the forums regarding the squad. Some seem to think it is still good enough to be top four, some don't.

 

Now with the new ownership and almost inevitable new manager coming sooner rather than later - I am interested to see what people would like to see occur:

 

1) Revolution - Lots of changes to the squad.

 

2) Evolution - Two or three top buys.

 

I think the new owners, once decided on which man they want to lead us in the long term will ask him what he needs and try to back those ideas. That is what they are suggesting they will do anyway and have done at the Redsocks.

 

I mean really we have a lot of players who cold be improved upon - at least ten. But we can't feasibly bring in ten top signings and maybe it would be better bringing in three top signings to help Torres, Gerrard, Reina etc and this would allow other regulars at the moment to be more squad players.

 

In reality we need a centre back who is dominant in the air, a left back, a defensive midfielder to compliment Meireles, one or two wingers, another striker... the list can go on and on.

 

People say they don't want to see a Man City approach, but then moan about certain players not being good enough or indded the squad not being good enough.

 

So what do you want to see?

[Pony Princess]

I'd like to see two or three well thought out purchases and a morale boost to the better members of the current squad. A world class striking partner for torres and a defensive midfielder to try and replace the huge gap that Alonso left. A full back to replace Cara in the near future would be superb too. Have to see if Johnson gets his act together but might need a right back too :/

[Liquid football]

I evolve but i dont revolve

[Pony Princess]

I evolve but i dont revolve

 

smell my cheese you mother!

[Guest LFD]

We have a lot of unflushable turds in the squad though. We could do with a buck rogers toilet to get rid of them on the first yank!

[INTORRESTING]

a cb, lb,rb cover, a diarra , 2 wingers and 2 strikers.

[G Richards]

If the team was set up well and full of confidence then we would be miles better. I think Hodgson is the immeidate problem.

 

After that we need five top signings to start to dream again. For my money we need Defour or similar to go into the midfield; Dzeko or equivalent to help Nando; Mata or equivalent to give us some width and pace; Taiwo or equivalent to give us the left back we need; and Shawcross or equivalent/better, to come in and be the central defensive lynchpin.

 

If we can get two in January and three in summer I would take that right now.

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

Evolution, definitely. Instil a bit of belief back in the team, try to get them playing cohesive attacking football to teh strengths of the best players in the squad, and start to blood some of the youngsters, they were bought for a reason, with a bit of belief and some good direction - they could hardly do any worse than those who have been playing the last three months. Give them up until January to see who we have who is up to playing at this level - do we need a new centre mid or can we look to Muriel, cole, spearing and shelvey? Who have we got available to play wide?? Can Pacheco interchange with Gerrard in the hole behind nando? The young centre back - is he in the aerial mould of Soto? Kelly & Johnson should easily cover right backGive some of the kids a serious run for it, write the season off with regards to must qualify for Europe, blood them, and see where we go, it could mean the money to be spent in january is targetted at the real problem areas - left back, left wing and striker it would appear to be but until we give them a crack we could end up stifling the young players who given a chance could only improve things, with a bit of luck and guidance they could do far better than some may think.

[Ian Sea]

I think we're kidding ourselves if we think the squad is anywhere near good enough. I'd only be gutted to see Gerrard, Reina, Carra and Meireles leave to be honest. The others could all go for me. I've been a big supporter of players such as Torres, Agger, Johnson, Kuyt and Maxi etc but on what they've produced in the last 18 months, they aren't good enough and I'd be happy to see the back of any of them. That's not to mention utter rubbish such as Lucas, Poulsen, Babel, Ngog et al.

 

In reality we're not likely to see a mass exodus however. I think it'll be a slow process, partly because I don't see NESV splashing a shit load of cash on an entirely new squad anytime soon and partly because it'll be impossible to shift half of the shite we're lumbered with.

 

So basically I think we need revolution but we'll get evolution.

[billypilgrimnz]

Our squad is full of players without a great deal of technical skill, creativity, or consistency.

 

 

Players that definitely need to be kept as starters:

 

Reina

Gerrard

Torres

Cole

Agger

Meirelles

Johnson

 

That's a decent spine there.

 

These players need to be kept and used in suitable games to build experience:

 

Shelvey

Kelly

Wilson

Ayala

Pacheco

 

These players would be useful as cover, but don't really care if they leave and replaced by others:

 

Carragher

Skrtel

Ngog

Kuyt

Aurelio

Soto

 

These players should probably go:

 

Maxi

Paulson

Konchesky

Jones

Babel

Spearing

Lucas

 

Who we need - starters

 

A left back

A centreback

A midfielder (to complement Meirelles)

A right winger

Either a left winger or an attacking midfielder who can play in the hole

 

Who we need - back-up

 

An attacking option (LW/RW/AM)

Plus any improvements on the Carra list above.

[Ian Sea]

The thing that our squad lacks for than anything is football intelligence. Whatever happened to signing players with good footballing brains? You can count on the fingers of one hand the players in our squad who have good footballing brains, and one of those is a fucking goalkeeper.

[RedIndian]

Our squad is full of players without a great deal of technical skill, creativity, or consistency.

 

 

Players that definitely need to be kept as starters:

 

Reina

Gerrard

Torres

Cole

Agger

Meirelles

Johnson

 

That's a decent spine there.

 

These players need to be kept and used in suitable games to build experience:

 

Shelvey

Kelly

Wilson

Ayala

Pacheco

 

These players would be useful as cover, but don't really care if they leave and replaced by others:

 

Carragher

Skrtel

Ngog

Kuyt

Aurelio

Soto

 

These players should probably go:

 

Maxi

Paulson

Konchesky

Jones

Babel

Spearing

Lucas

 

Who we need - starters

 

A left back

A centreback

A midfielder (to complement Meirelles)

A right winger

Either a left winger or an attacking midfielder who can play in the hole

 

Who we need - back-up

 

An attacking option (LW/RW/AM)

Plus any improvements on the Carra list above.

 

Agree with most of this except:

- Keep Ngog (still young and can develop) and Kuyt (experienced and very useful in certain games)

- Jones has to be kept. Unless we want to waste more $$ on another backup keeper!!

 

And to answer the main question of the thread........what we got at the end of last season was Pulution, what we need is a Rafalution :whistle: but Evolution will do for now. I know he is gone and I should get over it, but if you see my # of posts, I should be give some oppurtunity to express myself for a while atleast...

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

The thing that our squad lacks for than anything is football intelligence. Whatever happened to signing players with good footballing brains? You can count on the fingers of one hand the players in our squad who have good footballing brains, and one of those is a fucking goalkeeper.

 

I think there's plenty of intelligent players there, they just need to be played in a system that suits them, getting Torres to try and play as ayard dog big man up front like Duncan Ferguson is naive as fuck - doesn't look at any of his attributes as a player. Buying joe cole who signed to play through the centre and sticking him out left is again fucking stupid, same with muriel out right.

 

Funamentally we have a decent first team at least to play decent pressing football, the trouble is they are being asked to play like sheff wed under howard wilkinson.

[mypost]

I'd take a few 1-0 wins for starters. The "attacking football" demand can wait until we have the players and the confidence to do it. We have neither right now.

[cochcaer]

I'm not too fussed about players but want to see a revolution in our approach to the game and leave behind the pragmatism and caution of recent managers and get back a simple passing game with a degree of flair. Stop worrying about what the opposition might do and impose ourselves - tho I don't mean KK style negligence of defending. Also players that possess pace and basic skills rather than a 'good engine' and inability to trap a bag of cement.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

The thing that our squad lacks for than anything is football intelligence. Whatever happened to signing players with good footballing brains? You can count on the fingers of one hand the players in our squad who have good footballing brains, and one of those is a fucking goalkeeper.

 

You can firmly point the finger at our current manager, and the our previous manager's last season for that.

 

This squad is decent enough to challenge for the top 6, it would have been top 4 if we still had Alonso and Mascherano, I would even say top 2. No matter what happened, the current manager should be getting the best of the squad, not the worst.

 

There is a hell of a lot of goalpost moving going on since July, the squad was good enough with a new manager coming in then, so why not now? And I would like somebody to answer that as everybody seems to be avoiding answering that question. (Not sepcifically you Ian by the way)

 

The players do not believe in the current manager, they did not believe in the previous manager. It stinks but that is the way it is.

 

Also our more experienced and quality players need to start showing a little more on the pitch.

 

And will people stop fucking writing off Torres, even when he was injured under Rafa, he was still scoring goals, because Rafa's style brought the best out of him, Roy's is killing him.

 

There is zero confidence in that squad, and that is currently down to the current manager, his staff and his senior players. Exactly the same as last year.

 

Even Pepe looks indifferent. A manager should not be allowed to come in and fuck up world class players in the manner that Roy is.

[TheResonator]

We're playing with dick-all width. Every time one of our wing-backs gets the ball the nearest advanced central player has to sprint out to the touchline where the space is, and usually picks the ball up with their back to goal moving towards the touchline. It doesn't matter who we have as long as we keep playing like that; things won't get much better.

 

We need a new left-back, and maybe a player like Elia to run one of the lines (which is predicated on having a set-up which actually encourages players to run the lines). We need a fast centre-back who can dominate in the air. A back-up for Nando would do no harm, and a centre mid with good range and positional sense would be helpful.

[H7K]

You can firmly point the finger at our current manager, and the our previous manager's last season for that.

 

This squad is decent enough to challenge for the top 6, it would have been top 4 if we still had Alonso and Mascherano, I would even say top 2. No matter what happened, the current manager should be getting the best of the squad, not the worst.

 

There is a hell of a lot of goalpost moving going on since July, the squad was good enough with a new manager coming in then, so why not now? And I would like somebody to answer that as everybody seems to be avoiding answering that question. (Not sepcifically you Ian by the way)

 

The players do not believe in the current manager, they did not believe in the previous manager. It stinks but that is the way it is.

 

Also our more experienced and quality players need to start showing a little more on the pitch.

 

And will people stop fucking writing off Torres, even when he was injured under Rafa, he was still scoring goals, because Rafa's style brought the best out of him, Roy's is killing him.

 

There is zero confidence in that squad, and that is currently down to the current manager, his staff and his senior players. Exactly the same as last year.

 

Even Pepe looks indifferent. A manager should not be allowed to come in and fuck up world class players in the manner that Roy is.

 

I agree 100%

[Trucker Paddy]

January we must get s winger a striker and centre half, in the summer all bar about 8 of the 1st team squad I'd make available for sale, new mentality required for our team and that's not gona happen with the majority we have. We need quality not shit to go with 8 or so decent first teamers and promising young players

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

First of all Hodgson has to go: that is the only way we will get quality players AND get the best out of them.

 

Sadly, none of our current CBs are good enough. They are good but either too injury prone (Agger), not dominant/ physical enough (Agger and Skrtyl), or too slow (Carra and Kyrgiakos). Shawcross and Cahill would be expensive but some money might be recouped from selling the 3 CBs and using Carra as cover. Wilson might need more time to develop but we wouldn't be the first team to have to throw a youngster in for a few games during an injury crisis. Admittedly, the defence would be a little light on first teamers but we wouldn't be stuck with large numbers of similar, under-performing high paid stars.

 

As for midfield, Lucas and Poulson need to go and players like Defour, Flamini and Moussa Sissoko who offer more than defensive qualities should be considered. A progressive manager probably wouldn't want two 1 dimensional defensive midfielders in the side at the same time. Turan and/ or Mata for a wide position; maybe playing Johnson left-wing would save some money

[Best Believe It]

I'd agree with Skids, but there needs to be both an evolution of playing style and a change in personnel to deliver this. We need to get back to the pressing, aggressive style played towards the end of 08/09, and that can only be facilitated by a strong defence that can play a high line. For me, that means replacing Skrtel with Agger and replacing both full backs, unless the new boss can get Johnson playing as well as Bob was at the very least. Left back is clearly a joke at the moment.

 

Carragher will need to be replaced at some point soon with someone who is strong in the air and positionally very good - especially at reading the game. Whoever the next Sami is, that's who we need.

 

We would also need a stronger midfield - Meireles is fine as far as closing down play in the opposition half goes (something Xabi was good at) - but we clearly need someone in front of the back four.

 

Then you look at the three behind Torres - currently that would be Cole, Gerrard and Kuyt. I'd say at the outside we need one top class player to play there and then someone who can come in for Torres.

 

So both a change in style and four new first teamers.

[Guest LFD]

Our squad is full of players without a great deal of technical skill, creativity, or consistency.

 

 

Players that definitely need to be kept as starters:

 

Reina

Gerrard

Torres

Cole

Agger

Meirelles

Johnson

 

That's a decent spine there.

 

These players need to be kept and used in suitable games to build experience:

 

Shelvey

Kelly

Wilson

Ayala

Pacheco

 

These players would be useful as cover, but don't really care if they leave and replaced by others:

 

Carragher

Skrtel

Ngog

Kuyt

Aurelio

Soto

 

These players should probably go:

 

Maxi

Paulson

Konchesky

Jones

Babel

Spearing

Lucas

 

Who we need - starters

 

A left back

A centreback

A midfielder (to complement Meirelles)

A right winger

Either a left winger or an attacking midfielder who can play in the hole

 

Who we need - back-up

 

An attacking option (LW/RW/AM)

Plus any improvements on the Carra list above.

 

I agree.

[Red Hot]

Our first priority for me is a class central defender who is solid in the air. A leftback who can defend. A wide player with pace and a classy centre midfield player.