the midfield and Jarrett

[Syteanric 1]

i cant understand how everyone is saying the Midfield is week.

for a start the only midfielder we have out is Saffers (admittedly Marney is 50/50 but im sure he will make the bench tommorow at least).

 People are worrying just because worthy has put Simon charlton in themiddle, but the fact is we have Jarrett, Marney, Hughes, Safri, Colin, McVeigh is still here and lets not forget the ''petrol station rumour mongeror'' himself Jim Brennan.

thats 6 midfielders, 4 in the center and 2 out wide (Colin and brennan) with the option of either hughes or marney wide then we have versatility all over the middle of the park.

 As for saying we havent got a creative midfielder, did anyone actually see Jason Jarretts passing vs inter milan???? he was spraying the ball out all over the pitch and he can run, tackle and score goals. he looks the part.

our midfield is actaully no bigger this season then it was last when we had Jonson, Francis, Holt, Mullers, McVeigh, Helveg

i see no reason to worry

jas

[NottsCanary 0]

Did you go Saturday? We had no midfield presence and that was only with 2 injuries.

We need a CENTRE MIDFIELDER* not a Left Back who had a good friendly game in there.

*Dickson Etuhu

[Syteanric 1]

unfortunately i wasnt there saturday.. my cousin conveniantly arranged his Wedding, in hampshire, for the 1st game of the season.

i still dont think we need to go spending money unnecessarily when we have the options already..and therews always the youth team, just because we have money doesnt mean we need to use it.

jas

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote]i cant understand how everyone is saying the Midfield is week. for a start the only midfielder we have out is Saffers (admittedly Marney is 50/50 but im sure he will make the bench tommorow at least)...[/quote]

Well the problem is Jas, that we have THREE recognised central midfielders.  Jarrett looks good but injury prone.  Safri is also injury prone, has the African Cup of Nations and Ramadan coming up.  That could leave us with just Hughes as our only recognised central midfielder at times add to that another injury to Marney or Hux (they will get a lot of stick in this league) and we will struggle! 

Also your list of midfielders contains players who will be played out of position (eg Charlton, Colin), add to that the fact McVeigh and Brennan are not exactly flavour of month, it''s not looking all that good is it.

[Saint Canary 0]

[quote]unfortunately i wasnt there saturday.. my cousin conveniantly arranged his Wedding, in hampshire, for the 1st game of the season. i still dont think we need to go spending money unnecessarily when ...[/quote]

What options?

Outside my ideal starting 4: Hux  Safri Jarrett  Marney.  I can only see Hughes, Brennan and Mcveigh as cover.  Not really a lot of options is it?

Whom from the youth team do you think is good enough or physically ready for this league?

[Trent Canary 0]

"People are worrying just because worthy has put Simon charlton in themiddle, but the fact is we have Jarrett, Marney, Hughes, Safri, Colin, McVeigh is still here and lets not forget the ''petrol station rumour mongeror'' himself Jim Brennan.

thats 6 midfielders, 4 in the center and 2 out wide (Colin and brennan) with the option of either hughes or marney wide then we have versatility all over the middle of the park."

A few points..

1 - Lets say we get a couple of injuries, we will struggle to fill the bench. Also with Safri going to the African nations cup then another one bites the dust.

2 - We are favourites for this league, and although Im not the type of fan thats going to start moaning when we dont beat coventry, I dont think the midfield is fit for a team of our quality and ambition.

3 - Versatility.. I hate that word. It tends to mean "Average player that cant get a first team spot, but is happy to fill in anywhere to get a game" I know thats a bit harsh, but the fact with Versatile players is that they arent good enough at a single position to be well known for it and hold down a regular place.

4 - With Francis I was very happy with the squad, now he is gone we lack any real goal-scoring ability in midfield. (Ignoring Hucks, as he is practically a third striker, but if he is injured then god help us)

5 - If Colin shows us he can do a good job in midfield then I would be more than happy for him to play their, as he sounds pretty decent.

Erm thats about it, if you disagree with any of the above then please do, as I said I''m not one to over-react, but it just looks as though we will have a very weak midfield given an injury or two (See Saturday for example). 

[NottsCanary 0]

[quote]unfortunately i wasnt there saturday.. my cousin conveniantly arranged his Wedding, in hampshire, for the 1st game of the season. i still dont think we need to go spending money unnecessarily when ...[/quote]

What would you rather have?

• Simon Charlton in midfield and 1.5million burning a hole in the back pocket
• Dickson Etuhu freeing up Charlton to play back in the defence, where he belongs.

I think you know it is the latter. Buy someone please Worthy

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But when we won the league we had Holt, Francis and Mulryne in the middle didn''t we? Surely Hughes, Safri and Jarrett are better than those three, on balance?

Unless you''re Chelsea, it''s hard to get quality players in with the lure of sitting on the bench (esp in the Championship!) And the ''what if they get injured'' line is spurious... that could happen to any position. There''s a certain amount of luck involved in staying injury free to achieve promotion.

And, I think you''ll find our first team squad (minus academy players) is the same size as pretty much every other club in the division... its the way of things now.

[Syteanric 1]

Safri will only go to the African nations if Worthington lets him surely. He could do an Alex ferguson and Veto him dissapearing for 2/3 months of the season, although the african nations does take place in January when the transfer window will be open again for any team strengthening.

 as for saying someone in the youth team may not be physically ready, well you could ask the same question of Both Jarvis'', Shacks, Hendo, or last season Danny Crow. i admit i dont see much reserve or youth football but some on here do and im sure can put forward 1 or 2 suggestions.

 as for Dixon Etuhu, would Preston be wanting to sell their prized asset to a promotion rival? Gary Mcsheffrey at Coventry might be a good buy, or even Kevin Cooper from the other scum (wolves) we know what he can do from his time here onloan initially, and he''d be fairly cheap as well id think, and probably wont featuremuch for wolves this season

jas

[Thirsty Lizard 3,215]

Fair to say that Cooper won''t feature for Wolves Jas. Not surprising though since he''s been signed by Cardiff!

[ZLF 334]

[quote]Safri will only go to the African nations if Worthington lets him surely. He could do an Alex ferguson and Veto him dissapearing for 2/3 months of the season, although the african nations does take pl...[/quote]

we cant veto a player from the ACN - if that happens FIFA can ban him from playiong for us until the tournament isfinsihed - so he may as well go. 

[Saint Canary 0]

I actually think the injury point is quite pertinent considering that Jarrett missed most of last year injured and has already been injured as a NCFC player.  Safri has been injured at least 4 times since being here for a year.  Also Safri will not be available during the African Cup of Nations (and no the club cannot stop him going!).  I really don''t think it''s a spurious argument if 2 out 3 players in one position have a bad history of injury and one will be missing for up to a month. 

[carpio 0]

Jarret had a horrendous leg injury last year due to a bad tackle. this year he has overtrained a bit but has worked hard to get himself right and looks like being fit for tuesday. Where is the link between 2 completely different problems to warrant being called "injury prone"?