Dribble said:
Lescott is a brilliant Premiership performer but as stated above, barring injuries he wouldn't get into Utd's or Chelsea's 1st choice defence.
Purely as a footballer, Lescott's control and passing ability are limited in comparison to other top end defenders and the only upside to that is that he keeps it simple or just hoofs the ball up front and away from danger BUT to no-one in particular. He's playing to the best of his ability, but he doesn't add anything attacking-wise to the team like Puyol, Pique, Pepe etc.
Between Lescott & Hart, we keep conceding too much possession because of poor distribution. Terry/Luiz/Alex and Ferdinand/Vidic are footballers who can defend and control possession and if we want to move to the next level, we can't allow sentiment to stand in our way. If we did rely on sentiment, Onuoha & SWP would have been mainstays in our team this season.
Richards was in Saturday's line-up purely on merit and not because he's an academy product or because we've done 'OK' recently with him in the team! Richards has been one of the top 3 RB's in the Prem this season & TBH, I can't think of anyone who's performed more consistently, so based on this I wouldn't see the need not to continue with him as 1st choice RB with Zab as back-up.
As for Lescott as a regular starter I think in footballing terms we could do better, but he'd be a more than able option from the bench if he'd be happy playing that role which I don't think he would.
Damn! You say what is on my mind better than I can think it. That is painful to admit my friend :)
Let me just finish up by saying, Jan Vertonghen is our man!
-- Mon May 16, 2011 10:30 am --
citysince88 said:
Mate we play 38 league games a season now three games where he's solid defensivley is not really impressive. But I am quite happy for him to be given more time. The fact is though we need another left back unless you want to be relying on bridge provide competition and cover, how confident would you be to see him come off the bench if Kolorov got injured ! in fact don't answer that one mate I think i know the answer lol.
The reason I said we need another creative midfielder is becase silva is the one that can pick the lock of the most stubborn defences, I wouldn't deny we have some others that can create but not to that same degree, if we can some one of that ilk then we really have to try.
Actually he played in 31 games, and 20 League games. And he was solid defensively in most of them. But I point to the last 3 league games (Blackburn, Everton and Totenham) for recency's sake. Not as an attempt to find his best 3 games. BTW none of the 3 can be considered his best game. All it shows is an improvement he hasn't gotten credit for because he continues to make dump decisions on offense. His movement, speed, positioning and temperament have all been phenomenal lately. Even though his offense is still grossly suspect.
As for your question, well that is why I want us to buy Jan Vertonghen. Because he is a perfect co-partner for Vinny, and he can play LB if Kolarov gets injured and Lescott can come in and play CD. Vertonghen is the only defensive player we need to add to complete our defensive roster.
As for Creative midfielder, I am not disagreeing with you that we need one. Just saying what you said about not needing another CD can be said of any position. So really we need to improve our squad to challenge for the CL and Prem League. We are 12 points behind a weakened United this year. So clearly improvements are not a luxury but a necessity if we are going to close the gap any further. Considering United intends to improve their squad too, we can not rest on our position.
Lescott wouldn't start for any top sqaud, and he shouldn't start for us. That is just the reality of playing at this level.
