I don't agree mate, I never rated him and did not hide that fact. I actually think Neville will be better than him in that role given a run there.
Were conceding goals now due to terrible errors off players like Lescott, we had the same problems when he was at centre half last year. We need to get the tried and tested back 4 back together again.
When we have a central midfield player in there (which is were Neville wants to play) or this Ecuadorian lad I think you'll see there is no real difference. We currently have 2 centre halves there and there not doing too badly anyway, regardless of what people will have you believe. Were getting done by long balls, long throws and basic errors at the back. Could Jags & Rodwell of done anything about Warnocks long ball & Santa Cruz maneuvering Lescott out the way or Crouch's flicked on long throw and Defoe being allowed to turn??
No one is playing through the centre 2 at the moment which is what I'd expect off them (Rodwell was actually given mom on City by Sharpy at the weekend and Jags the same vs WBA). I thought the problem would be that we would struggle to create but we even did that at the weekend. Established pro's like Yak, Lescott and Baines never done the basic requirements for there positions and we were punished by an average Pompey team who game set up for draw and stole a win.
Carsley was a very average player, a lovely lad, a loyal servant, but still a very average player. It's a miracle we were so high up in the league with what was really a bottom half of the table central midfield (That was the area everyone agreed needed drastic improvement preseason until now, all of a sudden Carsley was one of the best around)
Boris,
Spilt milk, stable door and all that, so I am not going to now suggest we should have gone out of our way to keep Cars.
However, look at our performances when he had that long-term injury in 05/06 - we were shipping goals all over the place with some of the most embarrassing thunpings in our club's history:
Thu Sep 15 2005 UEFAC 1:1 A D Bucharest L 1 - 5
Mon Sep 19 2005 Prem A Arsenal L 0 - 2
Sat Sep 24 2005 Prem H Wigan L 0 - 1
Sun Oct 2 2005 Prem A Man City L 0 - 2
Sat Oct 15 2005 Prem A Tottenham L 0 - 2
Sun Oct 23 2005 Prem H Chelsea D 1 - 1
Wed Oct 26 2005 LC 3 H Middlesbrough L 0 - 1
Sat Nov 19 2005 Prem
A West Brom L 0 - 4
Wed Dec 14 2005 Prem H West Ham L 1 - 2
Sat Dec 17 2005 Prem H
Bolton L 0 - 4
Mon Dec 26 2005 Prem
A Aston Villa L 0 - 4
Wed Dec 28 2005 Prem H Liverpool L 1 - 3
When he came back from injury in 06, we began to steady things a bit and went on to escape what was looking like certain relegation at 31/12/05!!
EFC has clearly failed to come anywhere near replacing him, and we are again being overrun at midfield, similar to the first half of 05/06..
Portsmouth are a better side than most in the PL, and they did to us on Saturday more or less what we did to Spurs at WHL early last season. BTW I remember reading on Spurs message boards after that game how Carsley had been awesome and traeted the Spurs attack like a bored school bully putting uppity 12 year olds in their place.
I now fear that morale is low throughout the squad and that can quickly lead to a long bad run of results which will destroy the season for us.
It is imperative that we solidify the midfield rapidly. If we get less than 4 points from Stoke and Hull (the next best we can get is only 2 points !!) then I will really be bricking it going into the derby - not to mention the UEFA Cup matches!!
