He has very few of the attributes required of a modern midfielder. No pace, no ability to beat a man, limited tackler, no aerial presence or strength in congested areas. He's an excellent striker of a dead ball but I wouldn't choose to build a team around his one strength and have to account for his weaknesses.
18 Jun 2023
585
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Take your attributes. Now assess Dominguez, who I believe that you like, using them.
Notwithstanding the fact that I'm not convinced that you understand what constitutes having, or not having, those abilities, nor what you are doing with them in a midfielder.
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Chelski are beating manshitty. I don't like them, but I'd like that result.
Shame all you middle eastern oil flat track fantasy football bullies got a penalty that you didn't deserve.
No idea what the current interpretation of the laws of football actually are, but it's probably something like let the teams who pay the most, or have the best lawyers, win.
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Is it anything like your particular objection to a striker who does a 7/8 job every week, while offering an 8/9 out of ten goal-scoring threat?
FWIW I’d forgive a lot to have JWP’s dead-ball ability in my half-decent team. He is stupidly good at it. But, if I wanted to win things I’d probably decide I wanted something more and that my team wouldn’t need what he offers. Similar, perhaps, to the choice I might make regarding my centre forwards.
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I didn't realise that Jobe Bellingham had gone from Brum to Sunderland. He was being talked about like the second coming of Bellingham and then gone.
So it was very funny when he scored against the Rooney Blues. -
No it's not, and I'll explain why.
With my objection to the striker that you suggest, my objection is style of play, and that he and only he plays. Not that he is in the squad, or even in the team. The objection is that no other strikers get opportunities, there's no plan b, no changing him when he's tired, or when he slows down and his legs are dead. He would be more effective, in my view, if he came on after a striker had bashed about the centre halves for an hour. But we will never know, because it will never happen.... probably because of some sort of branding/corporate asset reason. It can't be a football reason, because what we are doing is almost totally at odds with modern football use of strikers. It seems unlikely that the manager has suddenly decided to be innovative and free thinking to that extent in this area, when he exhibits no strategic or tactical innovation in other aspects of setup. It's either a massive bollock drop, an imposed instruction, or a tenet of belief more stupid than that the Anglican church is the one true carrier of gods word.
And it's getting worse, not better. We now seem to be elbowing out the one experienced forward, with the sort of movement, that has dug us out of trouble in tournaments before. Who is in great form.
Hopefully it wont be a problem, his glass ankles will carry him at full speed deep into the spring, and he wont have to outpace anyone quicker than the Moldovan back line to take up his position at the back post.
Again we are not talking like for like. The question isn't who he should replace in the team, but should he be on the bench as an option rather than one of those extra defenders that we definitely don't need, and definitely wont use? As we haven't so far.
To me it seems quite weird that we are prepared to completely change the way that the whole team plays, in order to get in a lamppost who is good at set pieces, but not find a squad place for a player who can provide guaranteed laser guided set piece delivery, if we need a last roll the dice late in a knockout game. Rather relying on players who chunk it in the general direction, with all the cutting precision of a blunt and rusty spoon. It would be a little more understandable if the manager showed any appreciation of the other player who
can kick, and is world class, but it seems not.Of course it's possible that Ward-Prowse insists on wearing flip flops to dinner, and thus cant be allowed anywhere near St. Georges, but in pure footballing terms it doesn't make a lot of sense to not include the most accomplished dead ball specialist in the history of the premiership, just on the off chance, given that we set up that way.
The being in the team comparison was a different issue. I was curious about Russ's like for Dominguez, and his attributes, but his dislike of WP and his attributes. Because it absolutely did not fucking compute.
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Messageboard mischief aside, I think you’ve got to be an idiot not to find a place on your international bench for JWP.. at least when you don’t have anyone close to his particular ability, which England haven’t had since goldenbollocks.
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Exactly.
As Tricky said, not so succinctly, Gareth sets up to play for set pieces, for either Maguire to head goalwards or win a penalty by Kane collapsing under someone's heavy breathing, so why doesn't he pick someone who can take a set piece far, far better than Kieran Trippier, who gets shoehorned in for such a reason.
England's problem is Gareth insists on building the team around Kane and Maguire, to the detriment of better players and a more progressive style of play. -
I'm not quite sure I understand the comparison, given they're quite different players who are in their respective teams to do quite different jobs.
Also, when it comes to the England conversation I'm curious who you're dropping for Ward-Prowse.
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In the squad, probably Jordan Henderson. But Trent also has pretty decent set piece delivery and offers more in open play so there would only be certain games where Ward-Prowse was a starter.
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I don't think it's difficult to find room in the squad for him, but he's nowhere near a starting XI for me. And I'm struggling to think of a situation in which he would be a game changer from the bench.
I'm quite happy to accept Tricky's premise that for all his goals, the world of football has moved on from Kane-esque centre forward play. But I think it has equally moved on from Beckham-esque wide midfield play, and in an XI where we started out last game with Foden / Bellingham / Rashford in front of Rice and Phillips, I'm struggling to see where WP fits. Phillips is the obvious one to drop but you're changing formation to replace him with WP, and frankly I don't have a lot of interest in changing formation and potentially nullifying any of those three in order to accommodate a set piece specialist.
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The initial discussion of JWP was when you said that you didn't like him, and in the context that was in relation to forest. Yet you had said that you did like Dominguez. So I was curious how your head made sense of that.
That was then conflated with putting JWP in the England starting lineup, and a comparison between him and Kane. I've never said that JWP should start, merely that he should be in the squad if we are setting up to play with an emphasis on dead ball situations. Which we are.
At this point I would like to observe, that it's playing Kane and Maguire and around those attributes, that you need good delivery to maximize your chances. If you don't but instead utilise movement instead of structure, as I would prefer, then you don't really need any of them.
.... and around we go.
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On this, we are in agreement.
Still not sure about the JWP / Dominguez comparison. I think that what Dominguez could bring and what he is currently bringing is an interesting conversation, because much as I like him I don't think he's looking great at the moment, but I don't think his attributes are really comparable to WP's. Although maybe he is a great striker of a dead ball? Would be interesting to see as Morgan is struggling a little at the moment, although I suspect the best striker of a dead ball in the current starting XI might be Toffolo - at least if the aim is to pick someone out.
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Something for the JWP lovers and haters:
www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/14/james-ward-prowse-set-piece-mastery-football-west-ham
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Kasper Schmeichel sounds like he's going to Sheffield United. Not sure he's a big upgrade on Foderingham, who I quite like.
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Foderingham has been making some gaffs lately. Been at fault for a few crucial goals. Fans will be pretty pleased at Schmeichal coming in.
