Blue Sombrero wrote:
That;s a big call, Chicken.
Stevens and Houlihan are very different and Stevens has had much more consistent defensive input than Houlihan. The big difference is that Stevens has a role to play as the attacking midfielder every week and Houlihan has had toplay back/fwd/mid when he should be kept well away from defence. Goals agains isn't a fair statistic to use. Tackles, maybe.
If you are suggesting Houlihan is a better player than Stevens at the moment, I think you are mistaken. If you are not, sorry, I have missed your point.
By the way, I am a big fan of Houlihan as his detractors will know. When we are in the top four, he will be one of the ones who shines.
When we are in the top four, Stevens will be just one member of a gun midfield, not just the one experienced mid we have. We haven't carried him to date and we won't be carrying him then.
He should have been Captain.
Lance might be able to play forward as you suggest but only from the square where he doesn't have to run and where his man can't afford to run off him. That means we have to align the whole team to suit the position that suits Lance.
This is a team sport and the more people we have who can play in different positions, the better. Lance used to be able to do it but not any more. He has been a great player for us but it is time.
You are correct to an extent - stevens does play as an attacking midfielder and frankly I have no issues with that. The problem arises when we apply different judgments to players because of some personal bias.
Why do we overlook the lack of accountability of stevens when we criticise players like campo and houlahan (arguably who are/were also attacking midfielders/forwards in the same mould)?
On houlahan and stevens and goals against. Thanks to pagan, Houlahan - a natural forward has spent more time in defence in his career than what he probably has in the midfield and upforward combined. In that respect, any comparison between stevens and houlahan for goals against would actually be biased in stevens favour. There would be more games where stevens direct opponent in the midfield has kicked 3+ goals than houlahans direct opponent when he has been in defence.
The point is - as one of our most unaccountable footballers, we do carry stevens a fair bit (and yes, he is a better player than houlahan). Its perhaps just not as obvious as stevens is more damaging going forward and perhaps due to the flashy blonde factor most supporters prefer to dwell on the positives rather than the negative aspects of his game.
On Lance - when fit he cant run. He should however be limited to playng within the forward 50 (not unreasonably to keep a couple forwards there at all times). The issue arises when the club tries to run him into the ground by having him to cover the whole ground and to push beyond his capabilities by playing him on bigger, stronger, faster opponents.
On the need to play more than one position - how many positions does Fev actually play? At a stretch I'd give you 4 - FF, CHF, midfield and FB. The last 2 are questionable at best and his performances at CHF to date havent been too impressive either. So why the different analysis?
Rather than run whitnall around the ground - we should have him as a permanant forward and split the F50 entries between him and Fev and fisher (perhaps waite but our greater need is at CHB atm) until such time that kennedy is ready to come through (2 years away). Might be all theoretical but I'd hazard a guess that under such a scenario the goal output between Fev, fisher and whitnall wouldnt be too great.
whitnall 15 goals from 12 games (less than 50% time up forward)
Fev 38 goals from 12 games (100% time upforward, a tally inflated by 1 bag of
fisher 21 goals from 10 games
I dont think it would be unreasonable to suggest that whitnall could lift his goals output by 50% if he played every match up forward. That would leave him at 22 goals from 12 games.
So over a 22 game season (assumnig all uninjured and played forward)
Fev - 76goals
Whitnall - 45 goals
fisher - 44 goals
That doesnt look too bad does it?