Search the Community

We can all agree we had a disappointing end to the transer window last night, but when you have time to sit down and think about it and if you manage to focus on our on the pitch situation instead of our overall mess I actually think there are reasons to be optimistic. If you are asked to narrow down our main problems on the pitch last season to 3 things, what would they be and have we done anything during the summer to solve this problem? I guess this comes down to how you see things but it could be Insua`s ability to defend and our lack of ability to defend set pieces through lack of height in our team, it could be the similarities beween our CM`s and them not really complementing each other, it could be lack of goals from our left and lack of ability to go past players out wide, it could be our lack of back up for Torres or it could be Rafa`s tactics and cautious approach to the game or maybe our overall lack of pace in our team etc, etc.. For me I would point the finger at these three things. 1. Problem: Our combination in midfield with Lucas and Mascherano, these two players did not complement each other at all and them getting as much playing time together as they did is for me the main reason we did not get 4th last season. Solution: This summer we have brought in Meireles an unknown player for many, but for those of us who have had a good eye to Porto and Portugal for different reasons we will know that this player have the quality we need to again get the contributions we need to lift the team from CM. Meireles has the eye for the forward pass, his passing is great and he is not as static as what we have been used to the last year, Meireles will drive forward and he will get into the box even if this is not his main attribute, much like Alonso I think he will be able to find our attacking players in space early on and by this he will give ou game much needed fluidity. 2. Problem: Insua, the boy simply could not defend, not even the basic of getting goalside his player did he manage to do, the fact he was 1,50 also meant he did not help much when we tried to defend set pieces something that was a huge poblem for us last season. Solution: Getting Konckesky in, a superior player to Insua who has been part of a steady Fulham defence that conceded far less goals than us from set pieces. Konchesky will bring stability to our defence and even if he is not on top of anyones most wanted list, it would not surprise me if he gets back in the England squad after signing for us. When it comes to the third problem I`m not able to different between them, but for me it was our lack of cover when Torres was out injured and Rafa`s reluctance to really go out and try to hammer the "lesser" teams. The striker back up situation can be seen two ways. 1. We failed to bring in a striker yesterday so again we are short in this departement and has a huge worry for the coming season. 2. Babel has been told he will be used as a striker not a winger so thats like a "new signing" since Rafa hardly ever played him up front in his favourite position. We have brought in Jovanovic who can be used as a striker so thats even more back up, along with that N`Gog is one year older and Pacheco might be given a ew more opportunities this year and then we have Kuyt. When it comes to the approach bit and our reluctancy to go out and hammer the lesser teams I dont think we will see much of a difference between Rafa and Roy, but we can all hope. On top of this we have brought in Joe Cole and he will give us much needed creativity in the last third so if he can stay free of injuries I`m looking at this season with more positive eyes when it comes to on the pitch related matters. Maxi will also be here the full season so that should be another plus compared to last season. I`ve been let down by our peformances so far this season, but I think Meireles will make a huge difference to our game and together with Cole, Gerrard and Torres that should be more than enough quality and ability to give us something to be positive about for the coming months on the pitch.