Gareth Bale

that wasn't it at all

u were teamgerard in 2k7?

would take vidic over one of those guys in a rl centre back pairing, just to have the killer/player balance right

id try to disprove that old adage

It's like people think Barcelona graduate Pique would have been perfectly happy to have served as a backup to Ferdinand and Vidic back then

Fergie so stupid

ppl think that? even fitba fans?

lol cmon don't turn into of of 'them' you support a title winning club you don't ever reaally get to strop imo

piqué was one of the best dmids in spain at 20 y/o playing for zaragoza

hmmm, Fergie so stupid?

wth is anyone even arguing here

maybe Pique was the solution to Utd's midfield problems

oh

well

this is turnign into my kind of discussion

u need that modric kid in zagreb imo

Ballack was my dream signing back in the day

ballack was one of the ones, alright

before ballack, ronaldinho, tho tbf the kid you got instead turned out ok

It's Schweinsteiger now btw

hmmm

not sandro, modric no?

iiinteresting

i'm sure they're both very nice but this is dream territory

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2672360421_698d176bf4.jpg

look it's the Schweinsteigers arriving in sunny Manchester
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/81153539.jpg

now i'm dreaming

Piqué's been avowedly poor this season, hasn't he? Even read that Pep thought he needed to be dropped early on because that dangerous 'won everything already' contentment/lack of motivation was seeping into the side through him. I thought he could've closed down CRon on the first goal tonight too.

Otherwise let me reiterate 'wth is anyone even arguing here', why did this thread explode tonight? Also, jesus christ at Mme Schweini.

right now he is better at lw than am

for a kid who is usually described as modest and relatively unflashy, he does seem to be developing a more selfish and wilful tendency, so i can still see him playing centrally in the longer term

the best british players (apart from the actual best ie scholes) do tend to conform a force-of-nature type, gerrard is the best example and rooney when he is indulged, oxlade chamberlain is another of those players who 'could play anywhere' which usually means 'will play everywhere'

wenger has spoken of him as a future midfielder

i don't know how useful he could be centrally vs on the wing

i know it's a prestige thing that centre is the place to be, but he was never exactly starved on the wing.

on the right, he's not as good, because while he can cut inside or go round on the left to equal effect while only using his left, his right isn't good enough to give him two options when he plays on that wing.

his drive could be useful in the centre a la gerrard, i guess, but then gerrard brings a lot more physical relish to that position also, and a bit more 'engine room' style rather than bale's swashbuckle.

arry all but aadmitted today it's so he can play vdv and bale together, but tbh i'd rather vdv adebayor up front and leave the rw empty than lose the BAE/Bale/Modric axis of awesome from the left in this freeform system

yeah he doesnt have the same aggresiveness of gerrard or rooney but hes more athletic than those as well

i sort of feel it's inevitable that he ends up more centrally, or has to be forced to stay wide once he develops his sense of entitlement and irrepressible belief in his own irrepressibility

he's developed that and little else this season imo

tho if arry would like to experiment with three at the back against teams where we dominate posession but can't get nearer that thirty yards, BAE/Walker would be perfect wingbacks that could theoretically let Bale/Vdv operate as more inside forwards with a more implicit licence to cut in

the poor man's Valencia

― Number None, Saturday, 24 March 2012 14:31 (Yesterday) Bookmark

v pleased with yrself huh

you don't even know how drunk i was

good cut and pasting tho

Allowing Bale to basically bomb around wherever he wants is looking like Redknapp's worst call as Spurs manager. Leaves BAE very badly exposed against teams with pace on the right flank (exhibit a being letting even Theo Walcott look like a worldbeater).

If Bale was actually that good coming infield then it would be worth it, but, well, he isn't, especially when that's VDV's best position. If nothing else, there aren't that many amazing right backs in the Premiership and you want him running at them. It's also a waste of a fantastic crosser of the ball, especially when Adebayor's there. Except he starts drifting out to the left when Bale's not there. Letting Modric drift out there is even worse because he's much more effective in the middle.

Newcastle aside, we've basically stopped winning since we started pissing around with the front five. Lennon's injury hasn't helped either, given we're overstocked with attacking midfielders we don't actually have anyone else effective to play there, it's weirdly threadbare. Certainly not Kranjcar, he's better on the left where he's never going to get a game, and not VDV either.

Also Gerrard went to shit when he was allowed to do whatever the hell he wanted as well.

Actually what I'm most reminded of is all the dicking around people did with David Beckham's position, especially attempting to convert him into a central midfielder when he was the best crosser from the right flank in the world.

an excellent summing up

ya, 100% otm

misuse of krancjar as much-needed cover in lm/cm/vdv role is another seriously on-point criticism of arry this year.

not misuse there, i mean more 'failure to use' arry seems to think he's a rm instead which he patently isnt

sort of amazing how little time has elapsed between bale being considered too limited for left wing and now so good he has to be given a free role.

id have predicted a few seasons at least, but once he scored the goal vs norwich it was inevitable.

he might have the chutzpah for a free role but he doesnt nearly have the sense for finding space around the penalty area that gerrard developed. kakà was preternarurally adept at it, bale just runs straight into trouble.

gerrard /is/ better in a free role, his string of backpass assists for henry drogba and zidane showed how he never had the concentration of a great midfield player. bale has already proven he can be a great left winger so the haste redknapp has shown in playing him inside is kinda stupid.

but i imagine this is going to be a recurring thing now whoever manages him, unless he ends up with someone like mourinho who never seems more than superficially impressed by any player. most of them are former players and ( w/ the odd exception like mancini) pretty limited ones, maybe they see a huge talent like bale and sort of relive their own desired career arc vicariously. i thought it was quite poignant when ferguson said of ronaldos thumping headed goal vs roma that it was the sort of goal /he/ would have scored. if only he was cristiano ronaldo.

eh was he ever considered too limited for lw? not since he was considered too limited for spurs at all, which was always a misconception for anyone that had seen him tbh.

yeah he was bought as a lb and played there mostly at southampton before becoming reserve to ekotto. even when he first had success drafted in at left wing two yrs ago, redknapp still spoke of him as a future great at lb (or lwb, if they still existed)

he was bought for lb but lwb really, i'm not sure at 17/8 it was because he was too limited rather than at southampton (and even spurs) it was ok to just consider lb an extra lm

this is some bill hitchert level obtuseness deems

eh i dunno how to respond to allegations like that tbh

i think players can break into a team in a position based on a lot more than where their talents would be maximised, and that's w/out takign into account any ensuing development over the formative years of their careers

has the player said anything about wanting to move into a more 'free' role or has 'arry said something to the effect of 'he does it really well in training'? It seems odd how they continue with something that obv. isnt working just for the sake of it

you a;lways assume it's player driven once it's obviously not working, i suppose? bale seems more than happy to continually drift in and try evermore hollywood shots/runs, doesn't seem to feel any onus to keep it simple and effective

maybe if Adebayor was less wasteful he'd want to cross more.

that's probably a point but ffs he had crouch all last year when he was really killin it on the wing

He was happy crossing to Crouch for long enough. Reckon it's manager driven.