Safri - a tough question for you all

[San Miguel 0]

First of all - I love the way Safri plays and I think he is one of our best players

but does anyone think our honest opinion of him, and how good he is, is blurred by the fact that we are all still stunned by his wonder goal over a year ago?

Safri has 2 problems for me - 1 - that his fitness is so poor, but hopefully this is something that will improve naturally, especially since Morocco aren''t in the World Cup so, like most of our team, he has the summer off

the second problem is his position - is he a defensive midfielder, a central midfielder, or an attacking midfielder. He''s good all round I guess you could say and its everyone but him that is to blame for our terrible midfield. It seems to me he needs a, dare I say it, Francis-esque player in front of him to play at his best and we just don''t have one

Hughes and Robinson aren''t that type of player, and there is some argument that they are not ANY type of player anyway!

Etuhu looks better going forward an I hope next year he can become a replacement for Francis, which we do need. (that''s Francis in the 1st half of our games of course!)

this season when Safri has been on the pitch he has tried to go forward as much as possible, which has left our fragile defence exposed and cover like Robinson and Hughes haven''t been quick enough to get back. Is Safri''s future with us as an attacker or defensive midfielder?

There was talk of Safri being sold in the summer but I cannot see it happening, "Morrocan all over the world..."

[ZLF 274]

but does anyone think our honest opinion of him, and how good he is, is blurred by the fact that we are all still stunned by his wonder goal over a year ago?

 

I assume this is the tough question?   Not for me it isnt.    I have always viewed him as the holding midfielder; the one the back four should be looking to give the ball to for forward passes out wide and to the strikers and the one who sits back reading the opponents moves.

His fitness is a concern as is his desire to collect a card from the ref every other game,  however as a midfielder he is head, shoulders and more above any other at the club.  We do need to get an attacking midfielder to go with him and two wide midfielders to offer protection down the flanks and we will finally be competetive again - get the flanks covered and perhaps Etuhu could be the attacking part?  

[nik wyer 0]

I cannot agree with your post i`m afraid.

especially your two faults,

i disagree that his fitness is a problem, the one problem he has is the fact that he is prone to injury, thus never giving him a decent run of games to get up to match fitness.

yes he is a deep or holding midfielder, but that for me is not a problem, he breaks up countless atttacks, and with his sublime passing he sets up many counter attacks.

i personally would be devestated if he were sold.

[Rossi 0]

i''ve said it plenty of times before so i am just re-iterating

every team has a player that plays exceptionally well, a game turner perhaps, but more often than not the team as a playing force is slightly hindered by playing to the strenghts of one person, becasue their strengths are so good and unique

norwich''s problem is that we have one too many of those type of players - one is enough, at least in the starting line up

safri offers a few exceptional things, the main one being a quality and flair player who is built like the proverbial brick outer house, who loves a tackle. Normally such players tend to be a little wimpy, but not our Saf.

the downside is that he isnt massively mobile and is 100% a holding midfielder - no massive issues there either other than it would be handy to see him closer to backing up attcking plays, not just creating them, but never mind.

the main issue is that we have another person who is in the team and also potentially makes us weaker whilst in other ways making us stronger - hucks.

having a left winger who doesnt track back and mark means that the midfield have to do more work to cover that gap, again no problem if your midfield is particularly mobile, but of course Saf isnt. By playing both you then need cover who can get stuck in, run all day and generally do the dirty stuff. Unfortunately, at our level more often than not they cant actually play football to the desired level (hughes,, Etuhu)

Saf is a very strong bloke mentally and isnt the sort of player to just drop his head and give up, pride means a lot to him, so he has always tried to do what is required of him, despite it being unrealistic when looking at his strengths and weaknesses. Whenever he has done it he''s been injured.

To get the best out of Safri, he needs to play in a midfield 5, where he can drop off to recieve the ball without inviting other teams midfielders / forwards on to him to give him time. When attacking the midfield breaker is then replaced by Safri as a midfield 4 if you like. Then of course the obvious questions arise such as, if we are to have a ''free player'' then shouldnt that be Hucks, and would the Norwich public accept playing 4-5-1, with such a little bloke up front? Surely Earnshaw was purchased to play next to someone of the Sutton ilk (although knowing Norwich it will be Horsfield) and keep to a 4-4-2. Ina 4-4-2 you need a central midfielder who makes late runs with a scoring record, and one that runs all day and gets stuck in, Safri is neither of those options.

Thats the dilemna!!! Hope it helps

[Syteanric 1]

youssef Safri is an excellnt player.

 I agree with those that say he is injury Prone.. thats unfortunate and sadly not much can be done.

 when he plays though he makes a difference, he can tackle, pass, has a mean shot. Ok so he might not be the tallest player but he uses his strength to good effect.

 He''s clearly defensive as he doesnt end up in the box.. usually hangs around 30-40 yards outside the area... this allows him to lob it back into the box, bring it forwads perhaps or even smack it...

 Yes his goal against Newcastle was good but thats what defensively minded players tend to bbe good at.

 Look at the cup final and Stevie G. a defensive midfielder with all the traits, and he can score from distance...

jas :)

[Hugh Jarse 0]

A good player but should be seen as a squad player, who can be used to  make a reasonable difference when fully fit, which would be about 10 or 12 games a season

[streakey 0]

A good player but our Darren Anderton .Mr Sicknote mark 2.

[Cantiaci Canary 558]

No he is not over-rated because of the wonder goal he is highly rated because when you watch him play he is one of the only (if not THE only) Norwich players who have time on the ball, think and can play well weighted and careful passes.

Much of our failure this season rests on his absence.

OTBC

[EadiesRight Foot 0]

Re: another post comparing Safri to Stevie G in relation to "defensively minded players" - how on earth do you count a midfielder who scores 20+ goals defensively minded????

Was this irony? I dont think that if Safri WAS fit he would have made much of a difference, cause we didnt really use our midfield this season ;-)

I think we can all see that Safri is one of our better players, but not irreplaceable. He is very injury prone, and rarely completes a game without going into the notebook of the ref. Compared to the likes of Robinson, Hughes + Ethuhu, he is twice the player. Still think we should be a central midfielder and use Safri for cover - not for his lack of ability, but for his lack of match fitness due to injury.

There is no point trying to make Safri a focal point of the team when we know he is going to play only 60% of the season, and finish most games early. Which is a shame, cause he is quality.