I've stayed away from the forum for a few days. I was as disappointed as I've been in many a year in us against Bolton, and I just couldn't stomach discussing it. It's not that I don't think some posters are justified in their reactions, I just didn't want to hear it to be totally honest. Now I've had a chance to calm down though, I thought I'd try and get a bit of a level headed discussion going about where we are, and we need to be. How successful have we been, where do we go from here? I'd ask posters to try and leave pre-ordained agendas at the door here, and for once lets honestly assess things .
Firstly the signings under Kenny.
Clearly Suarez and Enrique are both unqualified successes, I don't think anyone would argue with that. Then though we have Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adam. They represent an outlay of 80 million quid give or take a mill or two here and there, and they have contributed very little. We can argue till we are blue in the face about whether or not they are good enough to pull on the shirt, and in fairness to them all of have had decent games, but ultimately the return so far isn't nearly good enough. All four in my eyes either need to improve significantly before the end of the season, or they must be considered questionable buys at best or poor at worst. Only Adam could hide behind the "ah well he was relatively cheap so he's only a squad player anyway" line, the rest were big money and as such we are entitled to expect some impact. Unfortunately the last three managers have made too many poor buys (although in fairness to Benitez he made some excellent ones at first) and it's costing us big time.
Now as far as the signings are concerned, it matters not a bag of chips if anybody said in advance they didn't think they'd work out before we bought them. The point is we have the players now, and Kenny has the job of making them work to somewhere near the best of their ability or moving them on. So what is the best of their ability?
Carroll: For me he has gone backwards and is continuing so to do. People saying "I always said he wouldn't be any good" may well have had a point, but surely nobody can dispute the player we are seeing now is a shadow of the one we bought. The one we bought was a beast of pent up aggression, bullying defenders and winning everything. IMHO Carroll needs to get back to that or f*ck off. He needs a rocket up his arsehole does the lad and no mistake. No more pats on the shoulder, he needs to want it more pure and simple. Yes we can supply him better, but good strikers are a pain in the @rse to play against regardless of service.
Downing: I'd give him a go centrally, a little like Martin O'Neill did with Milner. He needs a rocket up his jacksy n'all though, looks like he's going to church not going to play football. I'm surprised he gave his bird a right hander, not that I'd condone that obviously but I thought it would more likely be the other way around. He needs to get his backside into the box when it's off the other flank (like he did for Villa when he scored against us) and he needs to work harder when we haven't got it.
Henderson: Soft as sh!te. Needs to get his foot in, needs pinning up against a wall by his throat and asking if he really wants to make it or not. Bags of talent, but not good enough to be able to float through games like he thinks he can without getting his kit dirty. He's talented, but he's nowhere near so gifted as a Modric or a Silva, and BOTH of them put far more work in than he does. Another rocket up the @rsehole needed here. He ought to score regularly and cause goals to be scored regularly, as well as getting some important tackles in.
Adam: Started well but the own goal and missed penalty have destroyed him. Currently an absolute liability, and if he doesn't pull his finger out of his erse we should sell him at the end of the season and get our money back.
The team as a whole:
Yes we need time to "gel", and yes Rome wasn't built in a day. Yes Kenny is the king, and yes we all love him. That doesn't mean though that there's a blank cheque of patience, a blindfold which makes people oblivious to sh!t like we saw the other night. Kenny either needs to get this lot playing, or f*ck them off and start again. It's a horrible thought, but lose our next two and we could win feck all again and finish 7th again. Having spashed the big cash, that would be a poor effort. I would certainly have called it if Benitez were in charge (I did when he steered us into 7th two seasons ago) and I called it when Hodgson did the same.
No more of this bullsh!t, lets have the same pride for the shirt as the fans have. That is the very least we demand.
« Last Edit: Jan 23, 2012 02:48:28 pm by JD »
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