RedTillImDead

I agree Stevie did have a good season on the right but could he not have eclipsed his haul of 23 if he had been playing behind Torres for the entire season last year rather than only the back half, I think he could but I suppose its woulda coulda shoulda. I like the direct link between Torres and Stevie myself, when they operate together we look so much more dangerous and their ability draws the defences around them and frees up space for our wide players to create or score. I suppose it comes down to what combination you think will deliver the most effective results Torres and Stevie or Torres and Keane and whether one combination compromises the balance of the team in some other way. What I dont understand is why we signed Keane instead of going after a top quality wide midfielder and leave Stevie where he was. Surely the notion of continuing with the formation we used to great effect over the second half of last season was considered at some point so why not strengthen the right side of midfield and continue to with the direction we where taking which for mine worked better than any other we tried last season. Perhaps attempts where made to sign players to improve this formation(4231) and when those advances failed Rafa went in a different direction. But from what I have read Keane and Gareth where on Rafa's radar before last season finished. I appreciate the siuation we are in now with the players we have(once Babel and Masch are back anyway) playing Stevie on the right is really our only option now.

Now all we need is a right winger who will work hard as hard as Dirk but have the guile and creativity to beat defences and present a genuine threat night in night out. IMHO we will never take the next step while we continue to use makeshift options instead of genuine position players. Sure there are times when you need to swing players to alternative positions but this should be in the case of injuries or international duty not week in week out for an entire season. It worries me that our lact of genuine wide midfielders continues to go unaddressed in the transfer market. At the moment our best natural wide right player is Jermaine Pennent and he is supposedly being sold in the next week or two. If we do play Stevie on the right we waste one of our best central attacking options, if we play Keane on the right we are still playing a striker in the midfield and thus not solving the problem. We could go Babel but he has shown that his best work is done on the left or upfront so again we would be settling for a player who is out of position. Yossi can play on the right but his tendency to cut back inside affects ours width and when Babel plays on the left he tends to cutback inside more often than not as well thus reducing our width even more. I wonder as to the direction of our squad and our behaviour in the transfer window, for mine we should have been chasing a wide midfielder like crazy(maybe we did and missed out, i dunno) instead we signed a decent striker(keane) to play alongside and behind Torres when we already had Stevie doing a superb job in that position, the position that I have wanted him to play for us for years. The we spend the rest of the summer chasing Gareth when we are chock full of versatile central midfielders already. I dont want to say I know better than Rafa...I dont....I have never managed a soccer team my coaching experiance is in Basketball and Aussie Rules Football at amatuer level. I just dont understand the direction he is taking the squad. I am open to theories so please elaborate

This game really highlighted how much we need more wide attacking options, I thought Kuyt had a terrible game, several times he had clear oportunities to shoot and yet he chose to pass to a man under pressure who had no chance to score. Clearly he is lacking in confidence, he was slow to move the ball and his touch was awful at times and he really compromised us going forward when we where in threatening positions. I thought Yossi had his moments but far too often he tried to cut back inside which became predictable in the end. I did like the look of Dossena, he had a reasonable game when he wasnt bombing long balls and given further time to adjust to the team and the league I think he will be a good player for us. On the whole far too many hit and hope long balls from our defenders. I found myself begging for the boys to grab hold of the ball and hang onto it and just steadily build up the pressure which they did in the last 10 mins of the 1st half and most of the 2nd half leading up to the goal. Xabi certainly had a positive influence once he came on and was among our best players for sure. I also thougth Keane had a couple of good touches and will improve as his understanding with the other attackers improves. 3 points is 3 points and i'll take em anyway we can get em, hopefully this game helps Rafa pitch his case for more attacking persoal in the next 2 weeks

People on this forum said I was crazy when I said as much a month ago(fair enough I am crazy) I have to say I like Keane and Barry as players and are certainly welcome additions to the squad but I thought that the addition of a out and out winger to give us more width would have been a priority over another central midfielder. The sale of Crouch certainly meant we where one forward short and Keane is a much more effective player than Crouch will ever be so i think we traded up even if I think that there where better forwards we could have made a play for. Anyway as of right now we are looking at a rotation of Kuyt, Babel, Yossi, Pennant and possibly Barry as our attacking options in wide positions. Two of those are forwards first and formost the other two can stay wide but tend to cut back inside more often than not which diminshes our width and reduces the room for Torres, Stevie and now Keane to work in. The last we now look unlikely to obtain anyway. I gather that Rafa has a diffrent formationon on the go for this season and I trust his judgement so I hope he prooves me wrong.

Couldnt agree more, we have a decent draw the first three games we really need 9 points in the bank by the time we meet United at home in the fourth round. If we can win at home v the Mancs we are a good chance to be top of the table or at least equal top with perhaps Arsenal and Chelsea who also have a pretty good opening draws. Got all my fellow Reds fans coming round for tonights game, kicks off at 2am here in Oz, been hammering Fifa 08 this week in anticapation of tonights game gonna be pretty dissapointed if we lose. Havent dropped a game on fifa 08 since i updated to this season squads, Keane and Kuyt are on fire for me lets hope the same goes in the real thing. Hope you all enjoy the game

How long to go?

My folks are travelling to the UK, love to be going myself, gotta get ova b4 the move to Stanley Park anyway I have asked them to get me a Carra #23 in long sleeves can anyone tell me the best place to go in London to get one so I can direct my parents. They are elderly so nothing too crazy Cheers

And how else should it be? Should we live in a world where you must qualify to hold an oppinion about anything? Christ nobody would be saying a thing to anyone.

You should be concerned, we saw last year how quickly the owners moved in on Klinsman when we werent travelling as well as they wanted. Since that time they have spent up and further improved the squad so I would hope Rafas new signing help us to get the job done or Rafa could be out of a job by the middle of the season. I am not advocating his removal I wouldnt have any one else but our owners have shown that they have little patience for failure and with the further support they have now provided the pressure is on Rafa to deliver the goods. I would think most of our fans see Keane as an OBVIOUS net improvement over Crouch rather than the otherway.

I would be happy with improvement, as someone else said if we can win the games against the low level teams that we drew last year and win our home games against chelsea, arsenal and man u we should be there or there abouts come april next year. our squad and starting 11 is the best its been in recent times so I dont think it is unfair to expect a more sustained challenge for the premiership and in all competitions really. I'm sure the owners will be looking for improved performance given they have spent 50 mil on players in the last 12 months.

forgot about trhe olympics hope our boys come back injury free

Pepe Arbeloa/Carra/Agger/Dossena Masch Babel/Gerrard/Barry Torres/Keane Bench Kuyt N'Gog Pennant Yossi Aurelio Finnan Skrtel This is dependent on us signing Barry which appears to be a done deal from what I have been reading. For mine there should be no need for two holding midfielders against Sunderland we may even play 3 at the back or give the fullbacks plenty of licence to get forward. We need to be winning 3 or 4 nil against the lower teams this season and killing off games in the first half too many times we failed to finish teams off last year and it killed our league challenge far too early last season.

Thanks for posting up those goals matey, most appreciated Like the look of N'gog

Surely if Barry was Rafa's primary target he would have paid the 18mil Villa wanted and got his man rather than quibling with Villa over an extra couple of million.

I agree and we need to watch our backs, a poor start to the year could see us not make the top 4 this year. Teams like Everton, and Portsmouth are now both knocking on the door having developed pretty decent squads so a top 4 finish is likely but far from guranteed with our current squad. I feel the sale of players is fundamental to the financial balance of the club but these sales shouldn't come at the expense of the depth of the squad which only creates more pressure when injuries strike. Clearly Rafa feels he is getting enough backing to meet the requirements of the ownership or he would be managing a different team. For mine tho he appears to have to settle for the next best thing alot of the time especially in the transfer market. His significant purchases of the last couple of years in Torres and Masch, Babel and Skrtel have been successful and demonstrate his ability to work within budget constraints and still deliver decent results. I suppose it comes down to whether we are prepared to settle for 3rd or 4th in the league with the odd cup win here and there or whether we want to make a significant challenge in all competitions year in, year out. Regardless of what i read on all these websites I dont beleive Barry and Keane where Rafas number one targets this summer, more like a case of "these are who I would like and these are who I can afford"

Do we think there is another player to come yet in addition to Keane or are we done in TM? Back 4 Masch Babel Stevie Dirk Torres Keane Would love another wide player Dirk just isnt consistent enuf for mine

A solid professional and a proven epl player lets hope he scores as many goals for us as he did for Tottenham. I'll be intrested to see exactly where Rafa ends up playing him. 19mil seems about right to me

Good idea not to get to wrapped up in specific expectations I think, myself I'm looking for improvement and for our team to take a step forward. I want to see improvement in our away form especially versus the lower level teams where we seem to lack the ability to finish off games. Too many times last season we failed to capitalise on early goals and let teams back into the game. I also want to see improved home form against the top teams ie Man U & Chelsea Improvements in these areas should see us make a more long lasting challenge for the league

Really interesting interview with Quaresma the interviewer pulls no punches and gives us an insight into Quaresma's views on the game and how he feels he contributes. Pretty dissapointing from a player of his talent tbh, seems to lack the drive to step up and really deliver on his potential, that or he is no good at interviews. I'd still have him tho I think Rafa and the team would whip him into shape quick smart, no way Stevie or Carra are gonna stand for his look at me crap. Maybe a pay for performance contract would be suitable on a 10mil transfer. If he dropped his expressive bs and worked hard within Rafa's system he would be one of the most unstoppable players in the league.

So a player who can do everything that Keane can do and more is not suitable as a partner for Torres but Keane is?

I agree there is more to a players performance that just scoring goals but if this is the case why was everyone calling for Kuyt to be sold last season when we wasnt scoring goals or Crouch even. I rate a player on the on field performance too that is why I put Berbatov infront of Keane everytime.

It is possible but is Torres going to be at his most effective playing as part of a 3 striker setup?

Average goals per game is an important stat when you are talking about Strikers, they are employed to score goals so what else can we grade their performance on..

I dont see Keane as a bad signing, he is a good player and a better option than Crouch for sure I just dont think he is worth 20 mil. If we play him up front behind Torres where does Stevie play, we have all seen how effective he and Torres where together last season so why change a system that is working and move out best player to a position where he will not be as influential on the game. If we play Keane on the wing as some have suggested then we might as well keep Kuyt out there why replace one forward who is playing out of position with another forward playing out of position?

If you check the stats on the EPL website it shows that Keane and Berbatov both scored 15 a piece in the league last season while berbatov assited a score 11 times to Keanes 7. The pervious season I cant find all stats but Berbatov scored 12 in the league to Keane's 11. All time stats taken from the Spurs website Berbatov - 101 appearances for 46 goals - thats a goal every 2.2 games Keane - 254 appearances for 107 goals - thats a goal every 2.4 games How does this equate to Keane outperforming Berbatov?