An argument for playing Dan Gosling?
Posted on September 24th, 2011 | 13 Comments |
In a recent interview, Cheick Toite has been saying he’s been enjoying his new partnership with Yohan Cabaye in the centre of midfield. Tiote said:
“Last week I think we played very well together. It is good and it is working well.
“Last season was different with Kevin Nolan, it was a different style of play. Kevin went forward more and scored goals.
“Yohan is a more technical player and uses a different style. They are both good players.
“But Yohan likes to play with the ball more – he brings the best out of me. If you are a winning team the most important area is the midfield.”
Now I will admit that I didn’t see the Villa game last weekend as I was otherwise engaged, but I have seen every other match this season and I thought that the Tiote-Cabaye partnership was something that needed work.
Tiote seemed to be putting in some poor passes and regularly getting caught in possession, whilst Cabaye looked like a passenger a lot of the time. Admittedly, the latter is hardly Cabaye’s fault because we’ve been playing over the midfield quite a bit, but Tiote – perhaps because of his slightly deeper positioning – still seems to have had time on the ball and I haven’t been particularly impressed with what I’ve seen.
Having witnessed his excellent form last season I know it’s not a permanent problem and I’m sure he’ll find his form eventually, but I tend to think that Dan Gosling should be given a Premier League start. This, I feel, would benefit Tiote too as it would it give him some incentive to ‘earn’ his place back and – hopefully – help him to overcome his poor run of form.
You may of course disagree with my assessment of Chiek Tiote in the first place, although you’d be so wrong you may as well set fire to yourself.
The way I see it, we have plenty of midfielders, so let’s use them. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be Dan Gosling of course. Sylvian Marveaux, Danny Guthrie, Mehdi Abeid and Haris Vuckic can all play a central midfield role (although the latter is currently injured). Not to mention Alan Smith*. We may as well use the advantages we’ve got and, whilst we may be lacking personnel in other areas of the pitch, we have plenty of choice in midfield.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it at the moment.
* Humour.
I’m a fan of Gosling. I think he’s a talented young man.
You should have seen the Villa game!
The best game we’ve had for years.
We controlled possession, Cabaye and Tiote were superb.
A few silly errors still in Tiote’s game but he’s improving match by match.
Gosling’s going to have to wait for injuries, or the odd appearance as sub.
It’s a good problem for Pardew to have.
Looking forward to today’s game.
HWTL