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Ageing squad

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A decent problem to address.

If it's any sort of mitigating factor, the average age of our starting XI yesterday was 26. With most of the bench below or around that age.

I fear that this season, if all nightmare scenarios are granted, will see the final nail in the coffin of our total stagnation back to 90's levels of mediocrity. Lord knows it's been coming, and if we can't build both resource/finance-wise and result-wise there'll be no way up.

Then again, our young'uns might still come through. We take pride in our academy.
 
I accept the comments about our youth appearing to be decent.

@andrewkgsmith -- Moyes I'm sure said this season that Coleman would be pushed more to right back.

@DaveK / Bryan -- 2 years for Neville is comedy value really. The main reason I can see for it is Moyes wants to have stability with the captain = as was one of my points really, why have such faith in the old guard ?

@GwladysNights -- If Coleman is seen by Moyes as being a right back then the 3 young midfielders you mention would be central + Gueye is as yet unproven. So we will have ZERO width in the midfield.

@AlexS -- Jagielka is very quick which enables him to get back into recovery positions. I would hope he would be able to mould himself into a better reader of the game if he started to lose his pace


In short, we will have no wide players + only Beckford up front and will be hoping that one of our young centre backs as a minimum can come through.
 
Zatara said:
I accept the comments about our youth appearing to be decent.

@andrewkgsmith -- Moyes I'm sure said this season that Coleman would be pushed more to right back.
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I'd say for now, Neville is better at right back than Coleman. I doubt Neville will be playing for another 2 seasons, but I do think he needs to be there. You can't just tell him to sod off and expect Coleman to step up with no mentor other than Hibbo and be as tight a defender as Nev is. He needs Nev there if he's going to develop imo. Besides that anyway, there's a noticeable difference in the organisation of the team when Phil's not on the pitch. Jags, Arteta, Cahill, none of them have developed that leadership quality which we need so much.
You're all just racist against mancs. D:<
 
andrewkgsmith said:
I'd say for now, Neville is better at right back than Coleman. I doubt Neville will be playing for another 2 seasons, but I do think he needs to be there. You can't just tell him to sod off and expect Coleman to step up with no mentor other than Hibbo and be as tight a defender as Nev is. He needs Nev there if he's going to develop imo. Besides that anyway, there's a noticeable difference in the organisation of the team when Phil's not on the pitch. Jags, Arteta, Cahill, none of them have developed that leadership quality which we need so much.
You're all just racist against mancs. D:<
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Oh he will be. No doubt about it. He's untouchable.
 
davek said:
Giving Neville a 2 year contract extension this summer was one of the most stupid decisions I've seen.
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He's our best right back until coleman learns how to defend and he's moyes voice and pointing finger on the pitch. He's worth it for his worth as a role model, leadership and attitude. I want him as our next manager.
 

Frank Drebin said:
He's our best right back until coleman learns how to defend and he's moyes voice and pointing finger on the pitch. He's worth it for his worth as a role model, leadership and attitude. I want him as our next manager.
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I think any team that needs a player on the pitch to point and shout at that them is inherently flawed anyway.

We should be able to play just fine without Neville. It's the manager's job to ensure everyone knows what they're doing.

And captaincy/leadership qualities aside, he's a very limited footballer. He's okay at RB and is a solid defender, but he lacks pace and is poor in CM simply because he's useless on the ball. We should be looking to blood Coleman in at RB because he offers something going the other way, and as we have no width or pace in midfield, we need it from our overlapping fullbacks.
 
He's usually solid, reliable and doesnt freeze in big games. I never want to see him in midfield again while i i live though.
 
RadioFriendlyUnitShifter said:
And captaincy/leadership qualities aside, he's a very limited footballer. He's okay at RB and is a solid defender, but he lacks pace and is poor in CM simply because he's useless on the ball. We should be looking to blood Coleman in at RB because he offers something going the other way, and as we have no width or pace in midfield, we need it from our overlapping fullbacks.
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He's better at positioning himself correctly than any other player we have. If you watch him, he's always available in the right place to pick up the easy ball or to stop a quick break. One of the reasons Villareal looked so good on the counter attack in the first half, yesterday, was that Fellaini simply wasn't in the right place to slow them down, they'd rob the ball from us on their box and then one pass later be through on our defense.

It's just he's so slow and bad on the ball, that once he's in the right place, he often can't do much.
 
Artetafan said:
He's better at positioning himself correctly than any other player we have. If you watch him, he's always available in the right place to pick up the easy ball or to stop a quick break. One of the reasons Villareal looked so good on the counter attack in the first half, yesterday, was that Fellaini simply wasn't in the right place to slow them down, they'd rob the ball from us on their box and then one pass later be through on our defense.

It's just he's so slow and bad on the ball, that once he's in the right place, he often can't do much.
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Neville-wise you're quite right. He's an excellent defender and uses his experience well.

I disagree with your Fellaini comment though. Fellaini, to me at least, usually seems to be in the right place. I was at the game last night, and despite him being sorely out of practice and us playing a very good passing team, he was very dominant and repeatedly won the ball well. On form he's even better and just seems to be able to sniff out danger and then extinguish it, too.

The difference between Fellaini and Neville is what they do when they have the ball. Felli can run with it, and is comfortable with it at his feet. Neville, inversely, looks afraid and just seeks the nearest person to pass to. We need to be phasing out technically limited players now, for me, if we want to make the most of our good passing core.

Admittedly Neville does a good job at RB, and if we had a proper right winger I'd be completely fine with him being our first choice RB. I never, ever, ever want to see him at CM again though. And definitely not RM!
 
In Neville's defence our resurgence in form last season coincided with him being moved to midfield. He's disciplined enough to sit and do his job in the anchor position, he can influence more of his teammates from that role than he can at rightback and he adds 'controlled aggression', as opposed to some of the over-physical tackling of Heitinga and Fellaini or the lightweight defending of Rodwell. He's actually fairly composed on the ball too. He doesn't panic like Jags and he's confident enough to throw in a few step-overs.

He's not the fashionable choice to play there, but he's a cool head and he does exactly what's asked of him. If it's effective, which it has proven to be, then there's a case for persevering with it.
 

I heart Phil Neville.
He's ace, and he was born in Bury, so he's a Lancastrian ffs.

End of, nearly.

True, not the world's greatest footballer, but sooo important to EFC until someone else steps up to the motivational plate and frankly, I don't see anyone in the current squad who's going to shout at people and have an effect like Phil does.

If anyone tells me Bury is in Gtr Manchester they are going to put on ignore ( however you do that ).
 
billycopper said:
In Neville's defence our resurgence in form last season coincided with him being moved to midfield. He's disciplined enough to sit and do his job in the anchor position, he can influence more of his teammates from that role than he can at rightback and he adds 'controlled aggression', as opposed to some of the over-physical tackling of Heitinga and Fellaini or the lightweight defending of Rodwell. He's actually fairly composed on the ball too. He doesn't panic like Jags and he's confident enough to throw in a few step-overs.

He's not the fashionable choice to play there, but he's a cool head and he does exactly what's asked of him. If it's effective, which it has proven to be, then there's a case for persevering with it.
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Honestly if you're suggesting our good results had anything to do with Neville being at CM then I'd have to disagree. He was often there alongside Heitinga and I'd say it was one of the worst parts of the 4-2-3-1. We lacked any kind of guile in that area in possession. I'd rather see Fellaini over either of those two at CM/DM and anyone who disagrees must surely underrate Felli.

That's not to say Nev is bad at CM/DM from a defensive standpoint. Not at all; he'll do a defensive job wherever you put him. But in the modern game you expect both fullbacks and defensive midfielders to be good on the ball and comfortable going forward. Fellaini, Baines and Coleman fit this bill, but Neville does not.
 

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