Towards the end of Warnock's time, we seem to have realised that physical attributes were key in modern day football and most of the signings reflected that - Davis, Nade, Hulse, Kilgallon, Stead etc all had at least one of pace, strength or height.
I don't think having a team of athletes means you have to play long ball stuff. The best Arsenal sides under Wenger have been full of 6 footers who were all quick.
Blackwell's words seem to suggest he agrees with this, it's just (as so often with him) that his actions don't back it up and he'll say whatever suits. His retrospective 'targets' being a prime example - last year the target was revealed, always after the event, of being steady progress up the table. This year, when we were in the upper echelons of the table after the Watford game, Blackwell's tactics had differed and the aim was now to be in the top few after 3 games. Shouldn't we just aim to always be top of the league?
Anyway, I digress, of the outfield players last night we had the following physical attributes as I see it:
Walker - strength, pace and, arguably for a full back, height
Taylor - maybe height at a push
Morgan - strength but not quick and not particularly tall for a centre back
Kilgallon - quick, reasonably tall but not very strong for a centre back
Treacy - tall-ish
Howard - none
Montgomery - decent strength
Ward - quick
Henderson - strong and tall
Evans - OK strength and OK height
If you compare that with some of the sides we put out in the Premier League season, it falls well short (pardon the pun)
I agree 100% Coops! The one thing that really bothered me prior to signing Howard was that our midfield showed no signs of obvious physical attributes - all were in the side due to there ability (supposed or actual) on or off the ball e.g Quinny and Tonge as ball-playing, creative midfielders, Monty as the 'destroyer'. However, any combination of these three would result in us playing two short, presense-lacking midfielders with no out and out strength. We then sign the exact same sort of player as Tonge (imho) to replace him in Howard - again lacking presense, strength, pace or height.
Quinn is short, lacks presense, is weak and isn't fast but quite energetic.
Tonge and Howard are good on the ball, terrible off it, both lack energie, pace, height and strength - pretty essential in this league and especially in our system wouldn't you say?
Monty has reasonable strenght, is energetic and tough in the tacke but lacks height and his ability on the ball is limited (although decent enough in the role he has).
We has Speed for a short time which gave us some height and strength but no pace.
I thought we may have found a decent option in Willo, but alas he's soon injured and we're back to square one.
I was really mixed about Howard when we signed him, and despite some seemingly being extatic about him, I just saw him as a poor mans Tonge. Unfortunately, it seems like this has been proven correct, and we are still left with no height, no pace, no presence and limited strength.
Personally I can't wait for Willo to recover, as i really think he might prove to be a decent option to ammend this, but until such time I just can't see how we can solve this problem. The last guy who even comes close to having some of these attributes is a certain Mr Leigertwood, who was deemed 'crap' by most at S2 - they weren't totally wrong, but he certainly provided something we have since been lacking in this position.
Last night we desperatelty needed some height and pace in midfield, and even before Howards booking and eventual substitution you could see the need for Quinn to replace him - atleast he provides some energy and off-the-ball running which meant he could chase the Leicester midfielders who had run rings round Howard for a good 45 mins.
What i would give for an Olifinjana-type in our midfield, someone with height, power, presence, is 'box-to-box'. But I don't see many viable options out there unfortunately, which is why we will persist in our current tactics and 451 away from home!
UTB!
