The Joelinton Effect

[MACCA75]

Dibling will be a number 10 and will never make it as a winger IMO.

 

[Rehnman]

Not sure if it was Shankly or PaIsley who converted Ray Kennedy to midfield from striker and that turned out to be a great decision, probably their best midfielder in that era.

Oh that’s a great one! Ive just been reading this fantastic book about footie in the 70s called Get It On and it actually refers to that as an example of great team-building.

 

[Nymzee]

His slowness is slightly overstated - when FotMob briefly had the top speeds of all the players up, he was one of our slower ones, but he wasn’t the slowest*. From memory, he was actually about as quick as KDH - I think smaller players sometimes just look like they’re going quicker than they are!

*Tarky!

Nah he’s an absolute snail mate c’mon. Maybe his top speed isn’t bad but he requires two full length footie pitches to reach it

 

[Rehnman]

Nah he’s an absolute snail mate c’mon. Maybe his top speed isn’t bad but he requires two full length footie pitches to reach it

Ha, it is unfortunate to reach top speed as the pitch ends! Beto and Branth were the fastest from what I can remember, Big Jake can really shift in full flight too - it’s just that those nippy wingers move faster over that first 5 metres.

 

[Nymzee]

Ha, it is unfortunate to reach top speed as the pitch ends! Beto and Branth were the fastest from what I can remember, Big Jake can really shift in full flight too - it’s just that those nippy wingers move faster over that first 5 metres.

Yeh it’s acceleration and ol’ tripod deffo doesn’t have any. Imagine him trying to contend with someone as quick off the mark like a Doku. Be like a free snuff film.

 

[Rehnman]

Yeh it’s acceleration and ol’ tripod deffo doesn’t have any. Imagine him trying to contend with someone as quick off the mark like a Doku. Be like a free snuff film.

True, although I can’t think of many full backs who can do anything against Doku over short distances. He’d have to learn to give him a nudge before he started to run!

 

[boothill]

On one thread, a poster said something about us playing square pegs in round holes too much and it got me thinking. Are there some players who end up spending their entire careers in positions that - if you look at their strengths and weaknesses - they’re not actually best suited to at all? And if so, where should they really be playing? Joelinton was a low-scoring striker when Eddie Howe arrived at Newcastle, but Howe realised that - even if he lacked some quality - he had the kind of engine that could make him a powerful box to box midfielder. Do we have any players where a radical change of position could give them a completely new lease of life?

Of course, there’s long been the Michael Keane-to-centre forward debate - sometimes jokey, sometimes not! - but take Tim Iroegbunam. He apparently arrived as a defensive midfielder, but the positional awareness and passing you might expect from someone playing there are literally the worst parts of his game. The further forward he gets though, the better he gets - pressing high when out of possession and running at people when in it are what he’s best at, so where should he really be?

More radically, is Mykolenko really a left back or is he just left footed and defensive? His skillset is closer to a David Batty than an Ashley Cole, isn’t it? And what about Dwight McNeil? Shouldn’t he have been be made a left-back years ago?? He’s a lot more of an Andy Hinchcliffe than he is a Mo Salah or a Morgan Rodgers, yet right wing is where this manager is sticking him and number ten is where the last manager was. Whether those examples are right or wrong, are there other players anyone can think of, either now or in the past, whose careers with us could have been completely transformed by the Joelinton effect?

I would try barry and beto as the new kit men, sure theres a place for them to flourish

 

[Rehnman]

I would try barry and beto as the new kit men, sure theres a place for them to flourish

That’s madness, we’d have players playing in one sock and no shorts, you’ve not thought this through at all

 

[knowing your history]

Think Moyes is hoping that Rohl will maybe not quite become a Joelinton but be as effective as Soucek was for him in his second spell at West Ham.

A unit who can do the job required in midfield and also chip in with 4-5 goals a season.

Sander Berg is another who can do that job and we'll see it for the opposition today.

Think his name was tentatively linked when he was at Burnley and that would've been a good signing.

 

[Librarian]

What the team lacks is good footballing awareness, showing for the ball and intelligent movement off it.

The lack of footballing brains in the team is astounding, nobody seems to anticipate anything and rarely position themselves for the 2nd ball.

We’ve got some athletes with some individual qualities and for the most part they work hard but they are not smart footballers and you can move them about in different positions but you’re not going turn Mykolenko into Gareth Barry.