Pace or Technical Ability?

[SwissBlade]

Far too much bitching and negativity on here at the moment. Too many people wanting to criticise the club for not splashing the cash because the Strikers aren't good enough or the midfielders can't play football, but people are afraid to criticise Speed for asking to team to play in a way that doesn't seem to be effective with the players that we have (not my words, but the words of those that think the players aren't good enough).

Speed has made reference to getting more pace in on the wings. But I don't agree that pacey wingers are the priority. We have Yeates and Ward who are pacey, but can't deliver a decent ball into the box between them.

Personally I think the team is crying out for Halford, but I doubt we can afford him since we're skint. But I think we need technical ability to put the ball in the place where Boggy/ Ched/ Cressy want it and not where the wingers can hopelessly lump it.

Keef didn't have much pace, but on his day and he delivered the goods he was great to watch.

So, who has a good arguement for pace over technical ability on the wings and who is in agreement with me that we need a technically gifted player?

Also who's available in this league or below (or on the cheap from the PL) who could do a job for us.

Finally for the sake of my sanity, please don't turn this into a negative thread with comments like "it doesn't matter who we sign Ched won't score in a million years" or "We don't need more loan players" try to keep it constructive

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I think the two aren't mutually exclusive. At Ajax players have to be able to complete a sprint in a certain time to make the junior academy.

Pace used correctly is extremely hard to defend against but there is no point if you can't control a ball or deliver a good ball into the danger area.
Look at David Bentley who is extremely technically gifted, but doesn't have the pace to threaten. He is still a good player (attitude aside) but he doesn't have the pace to make it at the top level.
Beckham is often the obvious example of a player not blessed with pace, but he had enough.

Halford like Bentley (albeit at a lower level) has tonnes of ability but no pace, and a question mark over his attitude. No pace and a good attitude can make it but Halford doesn't have the attitude required.

 

[SwissBlade]

Totally agree Bob, but I think if we're heading down the blinkered road of looking for pace as a priority then I think we'll be no better off.

We've had pacey players over the years like Littlejohn and Kabba but their blades careers didn't last too long because they didn't have much else (only my opinion)

Lenners mentioned elsewhere that regardless of what we have behind the strikers we need pace, impact, skill and dynamism up front, but whilst I agree we need that on the pitch, it doesn't have to be a striker.

Impact players that we've had over the last 10-15 years like Whitehouse, Pesch, Saunders, Nuddy and even Lord Michael Brown to an extent were not the fastest over 30 yds, but had pace when needed and had a combination of the other things.

In a way, players like Beckham, Halford and Bentley have all the other attributes, but all could/ can turn a game.

With Halford, he's only really performed for us and Colchester, other than that he's always seemed to lose his way.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Ability on the ball first and foremost but pace is what we desperately lack.

Their striker on Saturday was quicker to the ball than our defenders, goal. Boggy had a one on one with the defender and although he did get a shot in, had he have been able to outpace the defender he would have been in on the keeper. Two simple things on Saturday but fairly obvious to see the problem. We were very pedestrian in our build up and gave them plenty of time to get back in position making it much harder to break them down.

We need to get Wardy more involved as to me he's wasted out right as he doesn't think like a winger and beat a man. On his game, he cuts in and causes problems but that's not really happened at all this season. The problem is we're comfortable to play against at the moment and pace is what upsets defenders and puts them on the back foot.

 

[Tuns]

You need a balance of pace, power and athleticism in your team in the modern game.

It doesn't have to be on the wings but through your team you need at least a sprinkling of players who have those attributes amongst their strengths and it's fair to say that we don't. AMongst other things it leaves you weak to attack with pace and weak defending against moves that have paceand power.

Look how the modern day centre half has changed compared to a few years ago. It's one of the reasons Jags and Cahill (and to a lesser degree Killa) are suited to the modern game and also how many top teams have forward with pace and power in their forward line.

As a centre half I'd rather play against Ched than Suffo!

 

[Bergen Blade]

It's about complementary skills. You need movement, pace, skill, creativity, work rate, organisation, etc, etc in a team. At our level we can't expect them all in every player, so we have to try to put together line ups with players that complement eachother to form a strong unit without obvious weaknesses.

Who was on the opposite side of Beckham in Man Utd's great side in the 90s?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

I know I mentioned pace before but the best balanced midfield we've had for many years IMO was Nuddy, Browny, Macca and Tonge and we had a variety of different players ahead of them including Chief, Pesch, Asaba and the only one with any kind of pace Kabba.

At the moment we currently have Monty, Britton, Ertl, Yeates and maybe Wardy. Yeates can be as unpredicatble as Nuddy (sometimes for the wrong reasons) and Britton can play the Macca role but we're sadly lacking a Michael Brown and the Tongy of 2003 down the left. None of them were particularly blessed with pace but ran at players and caused them problems which is something our midfield are not doing in any shape or form. I know Browny had a freak season goal wise but Nuddy was in double figures that season and Tongy wasn't far behind him. This is why the blend is so important and why I still think we're two midfielders away from having a chance this season and this would also help take the pressure off the strikers because I don't actually think they're as bad as their scoring record this season suggests.

 

[SwissBlade]

So the question is, who's out there that would slot in nicely.

Is Brown past it to play the role he played with us before? Same for Koumas?

 

[Bergen Blade]

I know I mentioned pace before but the best balanced midfield we've had for many years IMO was Nuddy, Browny, Macca and Tonge and we had a variety of different players ahead of them including Chief, Pesch, Asaba and the only one with any kind of pace Kabba.

At the moment we currently have Monty, Britton, Ertl, Yeates and maybe Wardy. Yeates can be as unpredicatble as Nuddy (sometimes for the wrong reasons) and Britton can play the Macca role but we're sadly lacking a Michael Brown and the Tongy of 2003 down the left. None of them were particularly blessed with pace but ran at players and caused them problems which is something our midfield are not doing in any shape or form. I know Browny had a freak season goal wise but Nuddy was in double figures that season and Tongy wasn't far behind him. This is why the blend is so important and why I still think we're two midfielders away from having a chance this season and this would also help take the pressure off the strikers because I don't actually think they're as bad as their scoring record this season suggests.

Warnock got it exactly right that season, and Tonge's trickyness and creativity when cutting in from the left was balanced by the unpredictable out and out winger Nuddy on the right. As you say we had loads of different options up front, yes Kabba was the only one with sheer pace, but Pesky's reading of the game and timing of his runs saw him get in behind defenders too. If Warnock wanted a bit more movement up front he picked the allrounder Asaba as target man, rather than the Chief. We also had the experience of Windass. We had a variety of attacking options that season, a great blend, while a line up like Saturday's will always struggle to score.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

So the question is, who's out there that would slot in nicely.

Is Brown past it to play the role he played with us before? Same for Koumas?

If you look at Browny since he left us he's been nothing more than a steady combative midfielder and in this division Britton can do that job. Finding someone to score 20 plus goals from that position is pretty much impossible although Whittingham managed it last season. Koumas is past it IMO.

The two we've been linked with Bannan and Halmosi would both do the job although Bannan seems to be in Houlier's plans, at least for the 1st team squad and seemingly wages are a problem for Halmosi. As many have said, this is an area we've struggled in for many years so there's no reason to believe it'll be any easier for Speed to attract the right player, particularly from the money side. We can only hope that he has contacts he can call upon, unless it's the usual spin, he says there's a few he's interested in but it's looking like patching up with the odd loan again until January and then wait and see although as ever, we shouldn't probably build our hopes up !

 

[SwissBlade]

I agree JimChim.

I think in many ways because attacking midfielders like Brown was or like Tonge tried to be and like Howard was bought for are in short supply and perhaps this is why we've been looking at wingers a lot more. Warnock, Robson and Blackwell all put a lot of focus on the wide men.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Keef's potless and still at Glentoran isn't he.

Would he compliment Wardy - or is he too old? And would he come back anyway? Not sure of the circumstances of his leaving (other than, IMO, he was the player to lose out most under Robson's incompetance)