LuckyLloyd wrote: » Right on. Adam hasn't been world beating, but we didn't pay £20m for him.
Sir Gallagher wrote: » I think the praise of Enrique goes a bit overboard, for me he takes too much out of the ball and a lot of the time his end product is lacking. Beating a couple of players at the halfway line is grand but what you do after that is more important. I think Johnson is much more threatening going forward as he gets into much better positions unfortunately his defening is muck, something which i can't fault Enrique on.
Cartman78 wrote: » Seriously though - I think we should be looking in January for a proven goalscorer
Kess73 wrote: » Fair enough what you said about his attacking abilities, but he was bought as a left back, and as a defender he has been very good for us. His ability to get forward etc is just a bonus on top of his excellent defensive qualities in my eyes.
Bowlardo wrote: » Hindsight is a great thing but would it not have made sense to sign Demba ba and Seb Larrson last summer...were they not both Free transfers?Both are solid premier league performers.
jesus_thats_gre wrote: » I can imagine the comments that would have been made if we were in for them.
rarnes1 wrote: » In fairness, last year Andy Carroll was having the sort of season Ba is having this year.
~Rebel~ wrote: » Demba Ba to be honest, i'd have been very happy with on a free last summer. Looked very good in an awful west ham team (much better than Keane or Carlton Cole did). He wouldn't have been as exciting a signing as he looks now, but he had certainly shown enough to warrant a chance. Seb Larsson alright, I would have been bemused by last summer, particularly since for most of the summer it looked like we'd have a midfield of Gerrard, Aquilani, Mereiles, Lucas, Henderson, Adam, Spearing and Shelvey.
wrote: I think Johnson is much more threatening going forward as he gets into much better positions unfortunately his defening is muck, something which i can't fault Enrique on.
Mr Alan wrote: » His defending is not muck.
Big Knox wrote: » Sorry to jump in here but yes it is. Not consistently muck but his defending as a whole is poor. He played ok last night but our last few games he has been very dodgy with the defensive side of his duties. He is caught out of position way too often and his ability to defend 1v1 situations is a serious problem as players get around him far too easily. Personally I would much rather see Kelly getting game time, he is already clearly the better defender of the two and with more game time he will improve getting forward. That should be a fullbacks natural progression not the other way around...
rarnes1 wrote: » I was one of Johnson's biggest critics but he's come on leaps and bounds under Kenny imo, and his all round game is excellent.
Iang87 wrote: » no i phrased that wrong sorry. His defending hasn't been terrible,its just not been great all year although it was never going to be. He is much better with skrtel, maybe he feels he has to do a bit of covering when carra plays to allow for carras loss of pace. (thinking out loud here)
ricero wrote: » what i feel were lacking and should be addressed in the January transfer market is a winger in the same sense and style as nani. our wing play is far to slow of late and not enough cutting in and taking shots or taking a man on.
Turtyturd wrote: » Babel was about Nani's level.:pac:
LuckyLloyd wrote: » I'd just like to note something with respect to the season so far. We have 30 points from 17 games. We're essentially 4 points short of where we want to be (34 points to be trading at 2 pts per game). That 4 point shortfall can be traced back to any of a few games where we were the better side but couldn't convert clear chances. I do think there are tactical / personnel deficiencies in how Kenny has managed things so far, but on the whole we aren't a million miles off where we want to be. There is also no doubt whatsoever in my mind that we are vastly improved relative to where we were this time last season - and all without the services of a still very good player at this level. It's frustrating, but it could be an awful lot worse.