Steven Pienaar

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On this forum we have already seen the transformation of both Oviedo and Naismith into heroes from has-beens in the space of a few games each.Stones has already been compared to Bobby Moore,so no pressure there.

Thankfully it is the manager that picks the players and the team or we would be in deep ....

The manager clearly believes in having a big squad and I think he is a manager that likes to rotate. I believe we had a slump a couple of months ago because our players were jaded because we didn't have the squad to rest players.
Pienaar,Osman,Hibbert and others will help fill out a squad big enough to challenge in domestic and European fronts.
 
bicycleheader said:
He was in the team and playing well in our first real run of good form.

He is out of team injured whilst we are on this second run of form.

Pick and choose which "fact" to use depending on whether you like him or not i guess..

Whether or not you buy the idea of pass before the assist or the idea that a player in his position can still be useful even if not hitting your preferred statistical target it is a part of football. Secondly he is not a winger, calling him a winger doesn't really indicate you know much about how we play, or maybe just shows why you are so unhappy with him. You are watching a dinky little link player whilst expecting him to be a Peter Beagrie or something.

With Pienaar out Osman has come in to do mostly the same role with some slight changes. Martinez' preferred tactics involve a player who can "hold up" or "slow down" the play whilst being able to read whats around him. If we always have players like Kev or Deulo who will enter the opponents half and go head down to attack we will end up with lots of defensive situations where the opposition have a numerical advantage. There's got to be a balance and there has to be an element of controlling the game. Pienaar and Osman do this. Although they dont do it amazingly its true, however they are all we have when it comes to this part of the game.
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I called him a winger purely because he plays left mid and that's what I refer to wide players as. I suppose if we're being specific he's more of a defensive wide midfielder. I say defensive as he tracks back well.

I'd say its pretty pointless comparing him and Osman, Osman has always scored far more than Pienaar ever has, and Osman's range of passing is simply better too. He doesn't play enough killer balls, but he still plays more than Pienaar.

I'd actually argue Pienaar is a very intelligent footballer, but he so so often over or underhits the passes he tries to make, his technique and final ball in the last third just haven't been there in the last couple of years. I wont argue against the fact that he's tidy, but he simply doesn't do enough to justify a place in our starting XI. If he pulled off more flicks like that one which put Naismith through on goal against (Villa?) then I'd be a lot happier with him.

One final point I'd make is that with Barry and McCarthy almost always sitting, we can actually have our wingers like Kev and Gerard being dead direct, with very little threat of being over run on the break.
 
FIFA-player assessments at work again: only interested in 90+ pace, 5 star skill moves, setting stepover records and players who make sure to never put more effort into football than they do their hair.


Where has this 'he slows down our attacks' myth even come from? Again, seems like if enough people repeat the spurious claim, it becomes fact.
 

chewee said:
If we qualify for europe squad players like Osman & Pienaar will be even more important.
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At the moment Pienaar still appears to be very much first choice. It's a huge step in the right direction if we can downgrade him to a squad player next season.
 


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