It would be justifiable to question after such a lean spell of form, whether Joe is actually as good as people purport him to be. If we look back at his record at his previous club Chelsea though, those fears should be allayed. In his first season at Chelsea, he scored three goals in 25 starts, before steadily increasing both his goals and appearances during his time at Chelsea. In 2004/05 he scored 9 goals in 34 games; in 2005/06 he scored 11 goals in 34 games before an injury hit season in 2006/07. He then came back to form in 2007/08 and 2008/09 where he scored 9 and 7 goals respectively before being hit with another serious injury in the 2009/10 campaign.
During his time at Chelsea, it could be argued he was playing with better players, but the class of the man shows through in the fact he managed to get a significant amount of starts for the London club despite big competition from a variety of star names. In addition, he generally played wide right or wide left; a position he still feels doesn’t get the best out of him.
For these reasons, his arrival at Liverpool was greatly anticipated and although he has scored 1 goal in seven appearances so far, Joe is far from happy with his form. Aldridge believes that Joe is a “victim of circumstance” to some extent, and I would be inclined to agree. He was brought to the club to play “in the hole” behind the striker, but he has invariably found himself wide left again where he has struggled. Although he played the position at Chelsea with great success, he was in a team that was successful and gave the ball to him frequently. In a team that is bereft of confidence like Liverpool though, the position he plays means he is isolated. He generally goes fishing for the ball in central midfield, causing the midfield to get narrower and narrower.
The crowded central midfield area has been one of the main problems for Roy Hodgson’s side as it has stunted creativity and allows opposition defences to play compact without worry of being stretched out wide. Although Joe’s position is one of the main issues as to why the team is failing in the final third, it really isn’t his fault. It is up to Roy Hodgson to put it right.
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STELLA ARTOIS WORLD DRAUGHT MASTERS
The whole team looks de-moralized, diss-jointed and de-motivated due to bad team selections and tactics!!
bottom line JOE COLE IS NOT AND HAS NVER BEEN A WIDE PLAYER,, WE ARE LACKING A STRIKER AND A LINK MAN, SO WHAT DOES ROY DO!! HE PUTS JOE OUT OF HIS BEST ROLE BEHINED THE FRONTMAN AND PLAYES HIM OUT ON THE FC***** LEFT??? THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
JOE COLE HAS TO BE USED BEHINED NANDO WITH STEVIE AND RAUL IN THE CENTER, THEN USE JOHNSON OUT WIDE RIGHT.
REINA
CARRAGHER SKRTEL SOTO AGGER AURELO
JOHNSON GERRARD RAUL
COLE
TORRES
A FIVE MAN BACK LINE???
get real, if we’re lacking striking options, and ae playing too defensively, how will that fix matters??
It’s not us that should be listening. It’s RH anddo you think he will????
@ samuel charles Says:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 pm
While ur line up is actually quite good your inclusion of Carragher is symptomatic of the problems we presently have in that rathere than have a say pacheco play the wing, u feel Carra is undroppable such that u suggest playing 5 defenders when the major problem we have is scoring.
Its the same as Roy at Napoli were we didnt look like scoring but he then made two defensive changes rather than introduce a spark to the team. I was more worried though that the two withdrawn were being preserved for Sunday when their replacements were by a mile more effective than them. Insua used to get caught out of position due to being slower when getting back after running forward whereas Konchesky asumes a central defender position and always gives attacking winger and fulbacks of opposition miles of space in the areas he should be.
Maybe its high time youngsters started ahead of the likes of Carragher who is all heart but thats no longer supported by his on-field contribution even though you can see he wishes he could do more.Kelly Johnson on one wing sounds good because is good defensively but is not one to cause problems going forward. Aurelio could play left back or the wing but Konchesky is not th man to partner him. Agger could do the defensive midfielder role better than the present people who play that role. I could jus dream though because this all unlikely to ever be tried because in 35 years of football it hasnt been the case.
there is no point in having a playmaker with just one man ahead of the ball, and if that playmaker isn’t a prolofic goalscorer (as Cole isn’t) then the onus on the striker to carry all of the attacking threat for the team is increased even further.
The logical solution is to withdraw Cole deeper into midfield, just ahead of Gerrard & Meireles/Poulson, then push Babel & Jovanvich forward on either side of Torres, thereby giving the midfield additional options when looking forwards and stretching the opposition defence across the pitch.
433 instead of 4411
Cole just isn’t that good – 4 world class managers have chosen to use him as a bit-part player at best, never as an automatic starter. There is a reason for this.
He has undoubted ability on the ball but his overall contribution just isn’t up to scratch and never has been. World-beater as a kid but not a first choice for any big team.
Why should roy use cole while there is babel and koncheski while there is agger