:hehe:
Printable View
Phil, this is a good point. Brown's biggest draw back was his lack of athleticism. You can get away with at lower levels but not at Premiership and to a lesser extent Championship level.
Athleticism, pace, size and locomotion are now paramount. You've got to have the ability of a Bernado Silva to make it without. That's why the Colwill's, King and Isaak Davies could be so important to us over the next couple of seasons. I'll also mention Nyakhuwa. Just look at a Premier team coming out of the tunnel; they're huge.
It's also why we so often looked impotent last season with Siopis and Wintle (Ralls is a class above these two, and gives us an 'edge' and set piece) in centre midfield, flanked by Collins and Ng. It's ironic that the attackers get the blame but the speed of action of the midfield (including the full backs, because they are midfielders when we have the ball) is what creates the space and opportunity for the front 3/4.
Not being argumentative but that's not what I remember Brown's biggest draw back was. His biggest draw back as I remember it was he couldn't kick the ball 3 yards in the direction of somebody wearing the same colour shirt as him.
Certainly not Ferdinand or Van Dijk in terms of athleticism and pace, but relatively big and decent in the air, probably a bog standard borderline Championship/League 1 center back athletically. Or am I thinking of somebody else?
I don't remember that but nor would I contradict it. But he played under Mad Mick and I don't remember during that tenure any central defenders trying to pass.
We currently have a few midfielders who suffer from the fault to which you refer. Although, on times last season it appeared that they had been instructed not to pass the ball in a forward direction.
Ron Greenwood's mantra was that the ball should always go forward (pass and move) and during his training sessions backward or sideways passes were banned.