Top/'Big'-4 quality

[Fidel Castro]

Given - great shot stopper, average goalkeeper. maybe there is a reason he was stuck at newcastle all his career? So NO
Micah - promising talent, potentially top-4 material. At this moment in time NO
Toure - regular at Arse, they've always finshed top-4 so I'd say YES he is top-4 material.
Lescott - looked pretty good at Everton, but Everton aren't top-4. Squad player yes first xi NO
Bridge - squad player yes, first team NO, just look at his chelski career
de Jong - looks world-class one week and poo the other week. difference between him and our rivals 'holding midfielders' is that they also contribute going forward. MAYBE
Swp - see Bridge
Barry - see Lescott
Bellamy - works his bollocks off. Love him, but he wasn't good enough at Liverpool. Is he good enough for us if we want to push for a top 4 spot? squad yes, first team NO
Tevez - do scum miss him? difficult to say with the form Rooney is in, but I'd yes. So YES he is top-4 class.
Adebayor - proved at Arse he is good enough. YES.


I'm pissed but trying to be as unbiased as I can be.
I know I've missed out Kompo, Ireland, Petrov etc etc but you get my drift. Maybe we are just overrating our players? Just a thought....

[Lees Alter Ego]

Interesting. thing is if we did it for the scousers then Im sure theyd have less "top 4" players than us so its just not as easy as listing them. Its having that winning mentality. As its going at the moment i cant see anyone else getting fourth other than fucking liverpool, pains me to say it but its true. Villa had it pretty much in the bag last year but bottled it, cant help but think that experience will see the cunts through, I REALLY hope im wrong though

[Tokyo Blue]

You see, it is this kind of assessment which totally misses out on the "team" aspect of the game. Being a team is more than just having top class players, a fucking lot more, as we saw from Hull on Saturday.

I have just asked myself a couple of questions about the current crop of players. Do the players' skills and abilities compliment each other? Do we have pairs or groups of players who work better with each other than without, as in Dunne and Distin, Rosler and Walsh? Is the whole of the team more than the sum of its parts?

The answer for me to all these questions is no. I see this as the problem, not the individual ability of the players on the field.

If you look at the "Big 4", they don't buy just whatever top players are on the market. They get the right man in to do what is needed for the team. They look at how that player fits in with what is already there. Have we been doing that? I suspect that since Sven joined we have been looking to bring in whatever players we can that are an upgrade on what we already had and then trying to sellotape them together into a team. It will work to a certain extent - it will get you to sixth-ish - but to reach the real heights we need to be a lot more careful about who comes into the team.

[MHiggi]

Spot on Toyko. I think we've seen enough to realise Tevez and Adebayor aren't working together, we still have no idea what our first choice centre-back pairing is, we haven't got a good full-back/winger combination on either side and the midfield is a complete mystery. That doesn't mean the individuals are necessarily bad players (or good ones), more that they don't compliment each other in the formation they're being asked to play.

[Wooders]

I think that was the problem with hughes's transfer policy last summer - with all the cash he wanted he lacked imagination and put together a disjointed team - maybe there was pressure from the board to sign superstars like tevez and adebayor but at the moment, I agree, they don't compliment each other - surely this can be fixed in training though?

Theres a lot of speculation in the press that the axe will fall in the squad over the summer

[john@staustell]

Tokyo is right about the 'team'. Some of SCUM players arwe pretty poor on their own, but as a team they dont half click at times.

Not sure I agree about Toure though, I think his best days are gone. Looking for a new commanding CB in the summer.

Johnson will be in for SWP, so we dont give it away so much, and Johnson scores a lot, which I am confident he cantranslate to the Premier.

Bellamy WAS good enough at the Dippers, just had a problem with golf clubs and stuff.

[Vhero]

Given - great shot stopper, average goalkeeper. maybe there is a reason he was stuck at newcastle all his career? So NO
Micah - promising talent, potentially top-4 material. At this moment in time NO
Toure - regular at Arse, they've always finshed top-4 so I'd say YES he is top-4 material.
Lescott - looked pretty good at Everton, but Everton aren't top-4. Squad player yes first xi NO
Bridge - squad player yes, first team NO, just look at his chelski career
de Jong - looks world-class one week and poo the other week. difference between him and our rivals 'holding midfielders' is that they also contribute going forward. MAYBE
Swp - see Bridge
Barry - see Lescott
Bellamy - works his bollocks off. Love him, but he wasn't good enough at Liverpool. Is he good enough for us if we want to push for a top 4 spot? squad yes, first team NO
Tevez - do scum miss him? difficult to say with the form Rooney is in, but I'd yes. So YES he is top-4 class.
Adebayor - proved at Arse he is good enough. YES.


I'm pissed but trying to be as unbiased as I can be.
I know I've missed out Kompo, Ireland, Petrov etc etc but you get my drift. Maybe we are just overrating our players? Just a thought....

I agree with the whole list mate I do think Bridge on his day can be top 4 which is a shame as he just doesn't turn up more than he does. I like what you said about Bellamy as I totally agree as good as he is right now there is no way he can keep it up for long because of his age and really he is pushing the limit of his skill. He has even admitted that. Not that it's a bad thing as right now there nobody else I would rather have on that wing but what does that say about our team?

[john68]

Teams win trophies...I'm with Tokyo

[Ted Hughes]

Teams win trophies...I'm with Tokyo

I'm with you two too.

The list of players who are 'good enough' could be completely different if the poll was taken a month from now & we'd won a few games. Also, half the players in the rag's squad would do nothing if we tried to fit them in our team yet they can win game after game because of their teamwork, intelligence & most of all; their attitude & mentality. When that went missing they were beaten by Leeds but unfortunately we helped them recover it.