Mark 'expert' Lawrenson Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Arghh.. Premier league is slightly stronger than the MON days.. Don't you think??? No, I don't think it is stronger now, Man City and Chelsea are but what about Villa Newcastle Man Utd Arsenal they had far stronger squads back then. Man City and Chelsea's squads are another level but there are a lot of very average teams in the Prem now. I do agree we will need to strengthen though should we go up.
weller54 Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Think the league is stronger in as much the 'smaller ' clubs are spending BIG!.. Look at Hull!... They've had to do this to compete and it's what we'll have to do too to survive!.. Do we honestly think the likes of konchesky, Morgan, Dyer, Nugent, wasileski, Wood, Hammond, King can make the step up at their stages of their careers??... Deserve the right to have a go!!?.. Perhaps there's an argument for that, but hand on heart... Are they honestly good enough at this level??
Mark 'expert' Lawrenson Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Interesting discussion, I have said we will need to strengthen. Hull have spent money but going back to 96-97 Middlesbore got relegated having spent loads on Emerson Juninioh and Ravenelli, I still believe overall the Premier was stronger back then, like I said earlier Man City and Chelsea have above and away the strongest squads ever in the Premier league, but the rest outside of the top 6 are really pretty average. For instance Newcastle back then had Albert, Beardsley, Batty, Ginola, Shearer , Ferdinand, Asprillia etc Aston Villa had Bosnich, Staunton, Southgate, Yorke, Townsend, Draper, Milocevic players these teams can only dream about having in their current squads. The league was stronger back then imo.
Oxfordfox83 Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Arghh.. Premier league is slightly stronger than the MON days.. Don't you think??? No. The top 6 have stronger second teams than the rest of the leage's first teams, but overall I think you'd find the teams in the 1998 Premier League would mostly dick on their current equivalents. I think the point of the thread has been lost-players with similar styles to their forebears. You can't judge whole career achievements because these guys are mostly very early in their career. Would it be wrong to say Mahrez is as good as Weller? Obviously, we've hardly seen him play. Is it wrong to say he isn't as good? Equally yes-we just don't know yet. What's interesting is that we don't seem to have many similar players to MON times. Konchesky and Whitlow might be the closest in styles of play, perhaps Impey and de Laet and Lennon/James, but the game plan we had before is totally different. We currently don't have dangerous set pieces/goal scoring CBs, we don't have precise crossers, we don't have poachers and clever, slow CFs, and we don't have an attacking fulcrum like Muzzy. We do however have pace throughout the team, tricky wingers, and the ability to score from a range of different positions. For me, our biggest shortcoming if we compare the sides, this season at least, is our defence. We are a Walsh, Elliott or Taggart away from being really tight, and I hope that's a priority in the summer. Last few games, it looks like Was has the spirit, but his best days are behind him. If we could find a lad like him but 26 years old I think we'd be a really tough proposition next year...
weller54 Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Kasper v Shilton De Laet v Kaamark Konchesky v Rofe Morgan v Elliot Wasileski v Walsh Drinkwater v Sammels James v Izzet Knocky v Weller Dyer v Glover Vardy v Lineker Nugent v Worthington
billyfox1 Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Whilst everyone is discussing making wholesale changes I thought I'd compare MON's team that won the play offs to the team that won the league cup a year later and finished 9th in the prem. Amazingly out of the 14 man play off final squad only Kalac was not at least a squad member the following season and 10 of the 14 man squad played a part in both games. Play off squad: Poole (Unused sub in league cup) Grayson (Started both games) Watts (Not in league cup match day squad but still a squad member) Walsh (Started both games) Whitlow (Started both games) Parker (Started both games) Izzet (Started both games) Lennon (Started both games) Taylor (Used sub in League Cup) Heskey (Started both games) Claridge (Started both games) Subs: Robins (Used sub in League Cup) Kalac (Sold after play offs) Hill (Not in league cup match day squad but still a squad member) The only additions to the league cup match day squad were Kamark (who was an unnamed squad member for the play offs) Prior & Keller who were both signed in the summer. No one outside of the football league would have even heard of many of that starting 11 that won the play offs but a lot of them ended up being part of our greatest ever team.
LC/FC Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 Whilst everyone is discussing making wholesale changes I thought I'd compare MON's team that won the play offs to the team that won the league cup a year later and finished 9th in the prem. Amazingly out of the 14 man play off final squad only Kalac was not at least a squad member the following season and 10 of the 14 man squad played a part in both games. Play off squad: Poole (Unused sub in league cup) Grayson (Started both games) Watts (Not in league cup match day squad but still a squad member) Walsh (Started both games) Whitlow (Started both games) Parker (Started both games) Izzet (Started both games) Lennon (Started both games) Taylor (Used sub in League Cup) Heskey (Started both games) Claridge (Started both games) Subs: Robins (Used sub in League Cup) Kalac (Sold after play offs) Hill (Not in league cup match day squad but still a squad member) The only additions to the league cup match day squad were Kamark (who was an unnamed squad member for the play offs) Prior & Keller who were both signed in the summer. No one outside of the football league would have even heard of many of that starting 11 that won the play offs but a lot of them ended up being part of our greatest ever team. Good post.No one in that team were household names till we took the step up. Unknown quality that surprised all. The step up provided the stage to show we were good enough. Now some idiots here won't even let that team of MON probably take a chance at the prem without whole sale changes it seems.
bovril Posted 27 February 2014 Posted 27 February 2014 O'Neill was brave to effectively revamp McGhee's team of late 95 (which was going up but would have come straight back down again) and bring in players like Lennon, Izzet and Claridge that took a bit of time to gel but were better suited to the Prem. I like to think that the players Pearson has got in have also been with one eye on the top division.
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