by bigmick » Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:51 pm
There's no question that if we aren't going to play Crouch barely at all (and it certainly appears that way) then we are at least one striker short. Infact, given the "sameyness" of three of them you could even argue we are two short. The lack of threat from out wide is a real problem when Gerrard and to a lesser extent Riise don't play there, and we are obviously short of a centre half.
In fairness to saint, he has been on about this "creative second striker" for a bit now and time has proven it be a good call, he was and is obviously right. Similarly Stu talked last season about strengthening the first team, needing another striker, a winger and a centre back and although in the latter case he was incorrectly in my opinion stressing we should replace Agger, he looks like he's right on the other two.
I've got a bit of a feeling as I've alluded to on many occasions, that Rafa is about to see the light on mass rotation. I don't expect or need to see a press conference and an "I fecked it up" style apology, but just expect to see a largely settled team played in all matches except the Carling Cup for the forseeable. If as I hope we can put the wheels back on quickly, before the leaders disappear over the horizon we can hopefully put ourselves back into the mix (or stay in it if you prefer as on points we still are) by the turn of the year.
It is my hunch though that we are going to need at that point to gamble on signing a proper partner for Torres. My knowledge of European football is nowhere near sufficient to start throwing names into the mix, but there really must be somebody better suited to the task than any we currently have. I've a further hunch that by then our very best eleven may include our captain playing right midfield. One thing is certain, if you are going to buy a right-midfielder you could scour the World, robbing banks along the way and you wouldn't find one better than Gerrard in my view.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".