The new players

[Southend Neil]

Harris - So so but hasn't justified the outrageous over the top hype on here after his signing. Has been a bit unlucky in front of goal and lays the ball off nicely but not exactly devastating, 4th choice striker in my view behind Corr, Dickinson and Mohsni.

Dickinson - Very promising if we can get him fit, skilful and an eye for a goal. Must not use him as a target man though, him and Corr would be a very good partnership.

Kalala - Completely surplus to requirements and I dont think he gives us anything we haven't got. Our conceding goals have nothing to do with his absence, more dodgy goalkeeping and an uncertain centre half pairing, we let in 3 at Crawley with him there after all. This so called holding midfield position is the overrated position in football, seems an excuse for limited players to justify their existence by doing the so called simple things well. Of course you need players to put their foot in but doesn't necessarily mean that you have to create nothing. Bailey was our so called holding player in 07-08, and he found the time to score 12 goals.

Timlin - I like him a lot and I would have him over Grant personally. I like having a left footed player in there and he can pass a ball as well and take a nice dead ball. Hopefully will start tonight.

Leonard - Completely out of it on Saturday but looks promising from what I saw against Northampton.

JJ - massive disappointment so far. A big onus was on him to help Hall on the creativity side and has failed to deliver. I just hope he can improve, must have some talent somewhere.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Harris - So so but hasn't justified the outrageous over the top hype on here after his signing. Has been a bit unlucky in front of goal and lays the ball off nicely but not exactly devastating, 4th choice striker in my view behind Corr, Dickinson and Mohsni.

Mohsni's not a striker!!! Oh my goodness! That you rate him higher than Neil Harris in that position is quite astonishing!

 

[Southend Neil]

Mohsni's not a striker!!! Oh my goodness! That you rate him higher than Neil Harris in that position is quite astonishing!

Not as astonishing as you thinking Macca was better than Moussa.
Only going on what I have seen, am sure defenders prefer playing against Harris. Mohsni is always a threat in the air and actually does some very intelligent things and his finishing has so far been better than Harris. 2 goals and 2 very nice finishes just ruled out for offside by a fraction. That all said, when Corr and Dickinson are fit I would like to see Bilel partner Barker at the back as he is superior to Phillips in my view.

 

[Angell Delight]

Harris - So so but hasn't justified the outrageous over the top hype on here after his signing. Has been a bit unlucky in front of goal and lays the ball off nicely but not exactly devastating, 4th choice striker in my view behind Corr, Dickinson and Mohsni.

Dickinson - Very promising if we can get him fit, skilful and an eye for a goal. Must not use him as a target man though, him and Corr would be a very good partnership.

Kalala - Completely surplus to requirements and I dont think he gives us anything we haven't got. Our conceding goals have nothing to do with his absence, more dodgy goalkeeping and an uncertain centre half pairing, we let in 3 at Crawley with him there after all. This so called holding midfield position is the overrated position in football, seems an excuse for limited players to justify their existence by doing the so called simple things well. Of course you need players to put their foot in but doesn't necessarily mean that you have to create nothing. Bailey was our so called holding player in 07-08, and he found the time to score 12 goals.

Timlin - I like him a lot and I would have him over Grant personally. I like having a left footed player in there and he can pass a ball as well and take a nice dead ball. Hopefully will start tonight.

Leonard - Completely out of it on Saturday but looks promising from what I saw against Northampton.

JJ - massive disappointment so far. A big onus was on him to help Hall on the creativity side and has failed to deliver. I just hope he can improve, must have some talent somewhere.

Couldn't disagree more, and I'd bet my bottom dollar that once Kalala is back in the side we will be tighter defensively. Unfair also re the three goal loss at Crawley as after their fluked 1st goal Sturrock changed the tactics and made substitutions to make us more attacking to chase an equaliser. Up until that point Crawley looked threatening but having Kalala holding up to that point had left us tough to break down and was frustrating them. It was only after the changes that we fell apart.

And FYI Bailey wasn't a "holding midfielder" he was "box-to-box" - Kalala has never been that kind of player.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Kalala - Completely surplus to requirements and I dont think he gives us anything we haven't got. Our conceding goals have nothing to do with his absence, more dodgy goalkeeping and an uncertain centre half pairing, we let in 3 at Crawley with him there after all. This so called holding midfield position is the overrated position in football, seems an excuse for limited players to justify their existence by doing the so called simple things well. Of course you need players to put their foot in but doesn't necessarily mean that you have to create nothing. Bailey was our so called holding player in 07-08, and he found the time to score 12 goals.

You *******, that's my bloody position for SZFC. :hilarious:

 

[Southend Neil]

Couldn't disagree more, and I'd bet my bottom dollar that once Kalala is back in the side we will be tighter defensively. Unfair also re the three goal loss at Crawley as after their fluked 1st goal Sturrock changed the tactics and made substitutions to make us more attacking to chase an equaliser. Up until that point Crawley looked threatening but having Kalala holding up to that point had left us tough to break down and was frustrating them. It was only after the changes that we fell apart.

And FYI Bailey wasn't a "holding midfielder" he was "box-to-box" - Kalala has never been that kind of player.

Back instead of whom? Re Crawley, that was my point as in I dont think he has that much influence as to whether we concede or not. I'm not blaming him for Crawley but then again the goals for Vale were a keeping mistake and a clumsy penalty, dont think he would have prevented those either. If you think that JPK will do a better job than Kane there then fair enough. Kane was awful on Saturday but I would back him to come good, what I cant stomach is having JPK, Grant and Kane in the same side, far too negative.

Yes I am well aware of what Bailey was, so what was Macca in that play off side? Hardly a holder either. Thats what I meant, you dont have to have someone who just sits and protects etc. We won the league with Maher and Guttridge, hardly destroying types and Martin and Butler whilst being tough found the time to score goals in our promotion season. Whatever did we do before Makalele came along and what happened to just all round midfield players who could do a bit of everything.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Its amusing to compare this post to opinions when we first signed these players. All were world beaters and we were gonna walk the league.

 

[Angell Delight]

Back instead of whom? Re Crawley, that was my point as in I dont think he has that much influence as to whether we concede or not. I'm not blaming him for Crawley but then again the goals for Vale were a keeping mistake and a clumsy penalty, dont think he would have prevented those either. If you think that JPK will do a better job than Kane there then fair enough. Kane was awful on Saturday but I would back him to come good, what I cant stomach is having JPK, Grant and Kane in the same side, far too negative.

Yes I am well aware of what Bailey was, so what was Macca in that play off side? Hardly a holder either. Thats what I meant, you dont have to have someone who just sits and protects etc. We won the league with Maher and Guttridge, hardly destroying types and Martin and Butler whilst being tough found the time to score goals in our promotion season. Whatever did we do before Makalele came along and what happened to just all round midfield players who could do a bit of everything.

I would put Kalala back in for Kane yes. In a 4-4-2 I'd play Kalala and Grant/Timlin and in a 4-3-3 I'd play them all.

Neither Bailey or McCormack were holding midfielders no but we didn't need any back then as in the second half of the season we were absolutely banging them in for fun. When you have prolific strikers (Barnard etc) and 3 midfielders who were all getting 10 a season (Gower, Bailey, McCormack) a player like Kalala isn't so important but he certainly has a role in this team. When you're not free-scoring a player of his ilk can be invaluable. In the case of 2004-6 you could argue that again we didn't need a player like Kalala as we had Eastwood and Gray banging in 40 between them, Gower chipped in with 8-10 as did Guttridge. We don't have goals from midfield in this team other than Hall and virtually none coming from a central area. If we did then great and maybe Kalala would be nothing but a good squad player in the event of injuries or those difficult away games against top sides but the fact is when we have no strikers and no goals from midfield bar Hall it's imperative the defence is re-inforced or it will be difficult to pick up points.

 

[Southend Neil]

I would put Kalala back in for Kane yes. In a 4-4-2 I'd play Kalala and Grant/Timlin and in a 4-3-3 I'd play them all.

Neither Bailey or McCormack were holding midfielders no but we didn't need any back then as in the second half of the season we were absolutely banging them in for fun. When you have prolific strikers (Barnard etc) and 3 midfielders who were all getting 10 a season (Gower, Bailey, McCormack) a player like Kalala isn't so important but he certainly has a role in this team. When you're not free-scoring a player of his ilk can be invaluable. In the case of 2004-6 you could argue that again we didn't need a player like Kalala as we had Eastwood and Gray banging in 40 between them, Gower chipped in with 8-10 as did Guttridge. We don't have goals from midfield in this team other than Hall and virtually none coming from a central area. If we did then great and maybe Kalala would be nothing but a good squad player in the event of injuries or those difficult away games against top sides but the fact is when we have no strikers and no goals from midfield bar Hall it's imperative the defence is re-inforced or it will be difficult to pick up points.

Well you argue very well, interesting logic in that we are lacking goals so we need another non creative player. I see where you are coming from though but of course ideally we would have a better balance and have some more creative and goalscoring midfielders, personally I would like Timlin and Sawyer to come in alongside JPK/Kane, would be more variety in my view. However I do think that the best way of addressing the defence is to to actually have better defenders, am getting slightly concerned with Phillips and I dont wish to sound like a broken record with the keeper.

By the way Barnard did only get 9 in the 07-08 season but take your point that we were free scoring in general, thats why I'm not particularly keen on midfielders in the Kalala mould as I just like players who have more all round ability, maybe thats greedy I dont know.

 

[CasualBlue]

Its amusing to compare this post to opinions when we first signed these players. All were world beaters and we were gonna walk the league.

Oh yes opinions do change!! However for the record, I never understood the hype with Kalala and still don't. As I said, average at best.

 

[Romford Shrimper]

Yeah very good. I agree