Capital One--Fulham v Everton

I thought Ruiz would be the Dempsey successor, but when he's stuck out wide he disappears for some reason. He has the creativity, the vision and has a good shot from distance. If played on the right and allowed to cut in, he should be successful and it's hard to figure why he hasn't been.

Kaca showed glimpses of that potential when he returned late last season but he's struggled to start this season. He'd be helped if our front 2 would occupy defenders more, either by running the channels or consistently getting into and staying in the box. At times I think Berba's histrionics throw him off, at others I think it's just his inexperience. He is only 22.

Aside from the leadership, I don't see Parker as a Murphy replacement. He doesn't have the range of passing that Danny provided. If anything, he's almost more of a Dembele replacement. He doesn't have the size, speed or strength, or the big shot, but he is a better passer and is fundamentally solid and is good at getting the ball forward on the deck. While he's not a bad defender, he's nowhere near as effective as Dembele was either, especially at ball winning.

It pains me to no end to say this, but the closest thing I've seen to Murphy is... uke-front: Karagounis. The only problems are that he usually takes a while to get dialed in and turns it over quite a bit in the process and that his passing goes to crap when he's put under pressure. Murph knew how to find the soft spots in the defense from which he could deal. The ancient Greek doesn't seem to have that same knack. Plus he's poor defensively and he usually can't go much more than an hour before gassing out.

Sidwell is neither Murphy nor Dembele. He's probably our best option for protecting the back four when he makes that his first priority and can do some damage in the box, but he's not a good passer and not effective bringing the ball up at his feet.

Boateng looked like he'd be comparable to Etuhu but we haven't seen enough of him to know what exactly he is or can be for us.

The one player I've been impressed with and would really like to see in central midfield is Kasami. If you go through our matches, he's usually the leading tackler among the midfielders and he is easily our best ball winner. He'd probably be the closest thing to Dembele (minus the silky smooth on-ball skills) if deployed in that role. He looked good playing through balls to Bent vs Chelsea as well. That combined with his lack of creativity in the final 3rd make me think he'd be better in the middle and have someone more creative, like Ruiz at the #10, or Berbatov if Bent is up top.

Our midfield and forwards are a bit of a hodge podge collection, especially for the setup that Jol wants to run. It makes me wonder how much of a plan was in place when we set about acquiring these players. But there are some options there that should be workable. It's just a matter of getting the matchups right against the various opponents and styles of play we'll face.

That's my $0.02 anyway.

 

After getting out of work, I checked my phone and saw in disgust that we were losing 0-1 at about the 50 minute mark. While stuck in traffic, I remembered I could listen to live audio and tuned in just in time to hear GJ's excitement at the lead-up to Bent's winning goal. You could tell Everton took it seriously at the end with the double substitution to bring in Jagielka and Barry coming on after Bent's goal. I only saw the highlights and heard 30 minutes of commentary, but it seemed like we were more creative and a lot better in possession. We've got a good stretch of mediocre opponents coming up- Cardiff, Stoke, Crystal Palace and Southampton. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to get at least 6-8 points from that group of matches.

I agree with some of Matt's assertions- I'm still holding out hope that Ruiz can become Dempsey's replacement- he doesn't have the toughness, but he has the creative flair and audacity. Unfortunately, I think for Murphy's replacement we'll have to just accept some hodgepodge of Parker, Sidwell and Karagounis. Anyway, I'm going to try to come on here more often. I just get lazy with the group's presence on Facebook...

~ Steve