I would add at every level, even Giggs has his off days. Walcott is not on the ball every game, Nani is brilliant or pants, Jarvis at Wolves does not shine in every game but whilst they all work hard their job it is predominantly as an attacking force not a defensive one. It's unreasonable to ask a creative winger to be a better defender than they are an attacker and in urging them to maintain a disproportionate level of defensive cover you nullify their forward threat.
There is a lot of bollocls talked about Cotts still. When Cotts was off his game - he was off his game and he was subbed, so what? That's what you have a bench for. When he was on his game, though, he could destroy teams and virtually won us points where no one else could because as a creative winger he made that vital difference in those games (e.g. Pigs home last season - first half he was unplayable). Now we have got rid of most of our creative, pacey players it's not surprising that we cannot create anything from wide positions and we are the lowest scorers in the league. If you don't play with wingers then you need the full backs to bomb forward and provide width. We have absolutely nothing in that department so we are stuffed both ways.
Yeates is inconsistent but he is the only option we have. He must be played as much as possible and if he is having an off day then change it. Ward used to have pace but seems very reluctant to play wide and take players on. He doesn't work very well in the centre without a striking partner to fend off from and if you are playing 4-5-1 (Blackwell and Speed) then there is no point Ward even being in the squad.
We need a tall, athletic central midfielder (Doyle too similar to what was there already unless someone is being offloaded) with some real presence (a player like Olafinjana at Cardiff e.g.) - Willo is not that player - who can take the game by the scruff of the neck and control it. We need some quality out wide (a player like Sinclair at Swansea) who can make things happen either on their own, on the break, or by feeding quality into the forward pair. We still need some pace at full back or we will keep on conceding becuase we cannot stop crosses reaching the six yard box. We also still need someone who can put the ball in the back of the net (assuming the ball gets there) someone like Kevin Phillips, an experienced head who still has it to offer at this level (Bent was probably all we could afford I suspect).
Lastly - we need a fookin miracle.
