Your're right, RedKiwi about the other thread. I contributed to it in praise of Murphy. I think it was around the time of the Blackburn game when Danny was dropped to the bench. At that time, he was going through a purple patch, playing extremely well and full deserved his place in the team. When he came on, he nearly pinched the points for us with the last kick of the game.
Now he's not performing as well and taking some stick. Let me clarify how I see the situation. Danny is a good, but average Premiership player. Good enough to play in most Premiership teams, but in terms of playing for a championship winning team, I see him as no more than a squad player. I don't doubt the bloke's commitment or determination, but if you want to play for a top 3 club, you need to have 'that little bit extra'.
If you compare him with other players that are in similar positions at other challenging clubs, it may be a little clearer. Arsenal have Ljungberg and Pires, Newcastle have Robert and Dyer, Leeds have Kewell and Smith(sometimes), MU have Giggs and Beckham. I know it's abit unfair on Danny, but can you honestly say you believe he gives something more than those players do? I don't.
That's not to say he hasn't justified his place in the team. I've always believed that if a player is playing really well, then keep him in the team. If something's not broke, don't try to fix it. The same way I thought we were wrong to drop Titi, when he seemed to be the only player scoring for us a couple of seasons ago. Fowler justified keeping his place after the hat-trick at Leicester.
Our problem is who do we bring in that is any better? Does Macca have the legs to do Danny's role? Biscan always looks out of his depth playing on the right. Smicer, I would argue is equally inconsistant. If I had to go out on a limb and offer a potential solution (without opening the cheque book) that might give us the same strength and a little more positivity, I'd play Riise on left side of midfield, Hamann in the middle with Macca, Biscan or Redknapp and have Gerrard on the right. I know 99% of fans will disagree with me on that last bit, but this is the way I see it. We have several players that can all play central midfield reasonably well, in other words, although Gerrard might be the best there, the others can all perform at an acceptably high level in the same position. However, Gerrard is the only one that can really play right midfield to a high degree. Macca is too slow, Smicer as I said is not solid enough and fades in every game, Biscan is like a fish out of water in that role, Barmby is injured and inconsistant, whereas Gerrard offers pace, athleticism, strong tackling, tracks back and gets into attacking positions. One of the few times we troubled Arsenal today was when Gerrard whipped in a cross from the right wing. Remember his cross that led to Murphy scoring away to Kyiv and the cross Owen scored from against Blackburn (I think it was Gerrard). Few people will agree with me on this (if any) but I think it would offer more balance to the team.
Too many goals we have conceded lately have originated down our right side ie, Arsenal home and away, Bolton at home, S'hampton away, West Ham away are just some of the ones off the top of my head. If Gerrard was in that role, opposing left midfielders might not be so keen to attack if SG is on that side of the pitch.
Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it..........for the time being.
