Wingers.

[Dames]

Has it become a trait of ours to never actually player proper wingers?

Can't remember the last time we actually played left and right midfielders in thier respective positions at the same time.

Now we've actually got some half decent wingers and we just stick them in the reserves and continue to saunter on without no proper width or balance to the team.

And with Megson in charge i don't see this problem being solved very soon with his love of cramming as many defenders into a team as possible.

[Wezleylowski]

Has it become a trait of ours to never actually player proper wingers?

Can't remember the last time we actually played left and right midfielders in thier respective positions at the same time.

Now we've actually got some half decent wingers and we just stick them in the reserves and continue to saunter on without no proper width or balance to the team.

And with Megson in charge i don't see this problem being solved very soon with his love of cramming as many defenders into a team as possible.

I have never seen either of the two new wingers play so i cannot comment, but from reports of them i have heard Kaebi and Ferreira are more than capable of playing in this league. However as you say Meggo loves to play boring defensive football so i am afraid we will never get to see the pair in action. Would love to see Kaebi in action though.

[Ozwin]

I reckon unless Stearman gets injured Kaebi won't play for a while. It's a shame because everyone likes to look of him and he's a big player for his country so it just seems like common sense to be playing him.

[Thracian]

Has it become a trait of ours to never actually player proper wingers?

Can't remember the last time we actually played left and right midfielders in thier respective positions at the same time.

Now we've actually got some half decent wingers and we just stick them in the reserves and continue to saunter on without no proper width or balance to the team.

And with Megson in charge i don't see this problem being solved very soon with his love of cramming as many defenders into a team as possible.

Real wingers are a scarce breed. I was tallking to a football insider yesterday and he said clubs often turn down really skillful footballers - especially individualistic types - because they want easily manipulated potential automatons.

They want, to use his words, people who will do as their told and fit into the pre-conceived method of play.

Wingers represent risk. They take people on but might lose the ball and put their own side under pressure. This all goes way back to the ill-conceived Allen Wade bible on football coaching which said never take players on when you can get a 2 v 1 situation and eliminate the risk.

What it didn't say was that when real wingers like Ronaldo or Giggs, Matthews or Finney, Thompson or Callaghan took people on at speed they disrupted some of best defences in the world, defences which would rarely otherwise concede at all.

And if they have competent defenders behind them and backing them that there is no great risk in losing the ball in the attacking third of the pitch where such work should mainly be done.

The move away from wingers has reduced the excitement in football but, more than that, it has been made, in my view, to further protect indifferent defenders. Stoke yesterday was an example.

People had said what a good side they were. But they looked awful to me. Not all their players looked fit. They were big but slow and ponderous.

We, of course, didn't have a single player who could take anyone on at pace so we never found out how slow.

We give ourselves such handicaps...

No wingers, no-one with real pace, no free-kick specialist, no invention from free-kicks, no midfielders who can shoot, no clever passers who make goals consistently, no attacker who competently and consistently wins the ball in the air, no near-post specialist. Who the hell oversees our decision making? Little wonder we're down near the bottom of the League - again.

Because we've had the same glaring problems for years and no-one seems capable of addressing them.

[ronnup]

Harsh Thrac. Reckon we've get potential hence stoke not getting a snif for ages in second half. But time and time again we had the ball and acres of space and no-one driving towards the box. I was desperate for someone to run at em, but like you say. Who?

[Trumpet]

Ferwhatever wasnt in the reserves, might start tommorow?

[Geo V]

Ferwhatever wasnt in the reserves, might start tommorow?

I was thinking the same thing.

You only have to look at the Premier League to realize that some sides have a real lack of width never mind the Championship. There isnt that many class wingers about who can also track back and far too many managers play the safer option and play central players out wide like Spurs do with either Malbranque or Taino on the left and Arsenal do the same with Hleb. Wingers arent that important in modern day football if you have talented and intelligent players around with good full-backs but unfortunately, not many clubs can carry it off like Arsenal can.

[DanTheFoxBhoy]

Didn't Mandaric state a while ago that he himself was targeting the wide players? Wouldn't Mandaric be pressuring Megson to include them in the team?

[Geo V]

Didn't Mandaric state a while ago that he himself was targeting the wide players? Wouldn't Mandaric be pressuring Megson to include them in the team?

I think a chairman can have a moan at a manager if he asks to sign a player and then refuses to play him. However, none of these are GM signings so MM cant really say anything. As much as rumours get brandished about regarding MMs power in the transfer market and stuff that relates directly to matchday, I think its 99% knads and he doesn't make any noises on situations like team selction at all.

[DanTheFoxBhoy]

I think a chairman can have a moan at a manager if he asks to sign a player and then refuses to play him. However, none of these are GM signings so MM cant really say anything. As much as rumours get brandished about regarding MMs power in the transfer market and stuff that relates directly to matchday, I think its 99% knads and he doesn't make any noises on situations like team selction at all.

You reckon? Wasn't there supposed to have been an element of that in the Milan-Martin stand off?

Milan will get mighty pissed if bad team selections lead to poor matchday performances, and his own targets are being neglected.

[Geo V]

You reckon? Wasn't there supposed to have been an element of that in the Milan-Martin stand off?

Milan will get mighty pissed if bad team selections lead to poor matchday performances, and his own targets are being neglected.

I dont want to go too deeply in the MM/MA spat again but if Milan was the type of chairman that digs his heels in, we would have had Fowler here instead of spending £2m on DJ and Hasselbaink would have been here and maybe the likes of MF may have been sold to make way. People may want to like to think that MM signed loads of players without the managers go ahead and has some demonic ideas on managing the team himself and doing everything but its blatantly obvious that is not the case to me.

[DanTheFoxBhoy]

I dont want to go too deeply in the MM/MA spat again but if Milan was the type of chairman that digs his heels in, we would have had Fowler here instead of spending £2m on DJ and Hasselbaink would have been here and maybe the likes of MF may have been sold to make way. People may want to like to think that MM signed loads of players without the managers go ahead and has some demonic ideas on managing the team himself and doing everything but its blatantly obvious that is not the case to me.

Milan also seems to agree with you as far as this article goes:

A confidentiality agreement prevents Mandaric from going into detail about why he decided to replace Allen with Gary Megson, but he denies that the split was triggered by his desire to interfere in team selection and transfers. “That is absolutely wrong,†Mandaric said. “Gary Megson has been here for three weeks and I have only been to the training ground once.â€

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle2570473.ece

[Geo V]

Milan also seems to agree with you as far as this article goes:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle2570473.ece

If the press want to insinuate certain things to make peoples views blinkered, they will. MM has been made out to go from our saviour who is pumping money into a poor performing club to a greedy money grabbing control freak. Its usually the tabloids who start the ball rolling as it sells papers and unfortunately some narrow minded people believe this crap despite the fact that MM has backed his previous manager in MA and some of his now questionable recruiting. MM obviously entrusted people like McKay and Fuccillo for the short while he had them here and arguably they had something to do with some of the signings but all in all, I dont belive MM is the ogre that he is made out to be.

[Raj]

If MM was the control freak that some people/media make out he WOULD have ensured MA had bought FJH like it or not.

He may want to keep an eye on what players are being bought in and have an input but he's not stupid enough to buy players when managers aint gonna use them is he???

[dandannieldanok]

Where has Shaun Newton gone all of a sudden, I know he has been crap in the few games he has featured in but surely he is worth another go under a new manager and new system.

[manchester_foxes_fan]

Real wingers are a scarce breed. I was tallking to a football insider yesterday and he said clubs often turn down really skillful footballers - especially individualistic types - because they want easily manipulated potential automatons.

They want, to use his words, people who will do as their told and fit into the pre-conceived method of play.

Wingers represent risk. They take people on but might lose the ball and put their own side under pressure. This all goes way back to the ill-conceived Allen Wade bible on football coaching which said never take players on when you can get a 2 v 1 situation and eliminate the risk.

What it didn't say was that when real wingers like Ronaldo or Giggs, Matthews or Finney, Thompson or Callaghan took people on at speed they disrupted some of best defences in the world, defences which would rarely otherwise concede at all.

And if they have competent defenders behind them and backing them that there is no great risk in losing the ball in the attacking third of the pitch where such work should mainly be done.

The move away from wingers has reduced the excitement in football but, more than that, it has been made, in my view, to further protect indifferent defenders. Stoke yesterday was an example.

People had said what a good side they were. But they looked awful to me. Not all their players looked fit. They were big but slow and ponderous.

We, of course, didn't have a single player who could take anyone on at pace so we never found out how slow.

We give ourselves such handicaps...

No wingers, no-one with real pace, no free-kick specialist, no invention from free-kicks, no midfielders who can shoot, no clever passers who make goals consistently, no attacker who competently and consistently wins the ball in the air, no near-post specialist. Who the hell oversees our decision making? Little wonder we're down near the bottom of the League - again.

Because we've had the same glaring problems for years and no-one seems capable of addressing them.

no free-kick specialist Sheehan

no midfielders who can shoot Clemence and Weso

we just need a few more quality players

[Dames]

Where has Shaun Newton gone all of a sudden, I know he has been crap in the few games he has featured in but surely he is worth another go under a new manager and new system.

NO!

We've given shit chance after chance and its fooking landed us where we are now.

[Geo V]

Where has Shaun Newton gone all of a sudden, I know he has been crap in the few games he has featured in but surely he is worth another go under a new manager and new system.

MA was quite open when he said he had only given him a one year deal and that he needed to prove to him that he can still do it. Unfortunately, despite an apparently superb central midfield performance in the reserves , he has done fudge all when it matters which is the first team. Despite that criticism, I`d still prefer to play a more naturally right-side player in a 442 than the mix and match bag of selections that we have seen before us over the last few weeks. We are shapeless and thats why we don't win football matches IMO.