Sidwell - thoughts?

[Take Me Home MAF]

At the game today, was painful, not just the result but the manner of the performance and to be honest we had this coming. Contary to other opinions I thought we were poor against newcastle and really got out of jail when hugo headed home. It ended a run of games (bar chelsea and arsenal) where we have played very poor and have not created

After today there has been a lot of pointing fingers and rightly so we are all upset and today was not good enough as jol agreed. But what i cant understand is how sidwell always avoids critisim.

Yes baird was not great today but what we are looking at with cb is a right back. He is not naturally a center mid but since woy found out he can do a job there and since he had been called to do it many times, and to a degree of success. I almost accept baird wont be exception in that position.

Sidwell is a poor poor poor midfielder. He is worse than eliot, in fact i was dreaming of having pembridge bck at times today.

Poor touch
Poor positioning
No dicipline in tactics
Never shows as an option for brede and aaron
Poor decision making
Cant link play with our forwards

Does anyone not see the hole he always leaves behind when he goes running up to the man on the ball??!! Woy would not accept this from a player who needs to be a team player and hold in his tole

Dont forget with Sidwell MH brought him for back up for etuhu and murphy, not a replacement

So essentially our pairing in the middle is a utility right back and a player who was never meant to start

We need to sign in this position and Jan with priority and start to get some chemistry going with diarra and ruiz (both talented players who need stability)

Please someone put me out of my misery and admit Sidwell is a poor player in an important position

[epsomraver]

Oh Sidwell, man of the match at Chelsea, Spurs, Newcastle,assist on goal today,  that one?

[Take Me Home MAF]

Were these really mom performances!!!

This is what i mean, do you not see sidwell as a problem? Or a talent that will stand up when needed.

I was grateful when i heard that was his 5th yellow,

[ScalleysDad]

Quite alot of yes/no/maybe here. As you say we have players out of position but the Baird/Sidwell combo has done a decent job in the past. Sidwell is certainly a huge step up from Etuhu and as ER has pointed out he has taken games by the scruff of the neck in the past and he has chipped in with some goals. He is often a yellow waiting to happen but as the geordies sat around me on monday said it was "his tenacity" that rocked their midfield a bit. I agree with some others that ultimately Newcastle let us off the hook, again, but that should not detract from his workmanlike performance that at the time and in the absence of others is all we have. I would pick him in any combination of a midfield four we can currently rustle together. In the past we have cried out for some bite in midfield and now all we want is flair which is costly. We played with 9 men at times today ............ actually change that to nine men in our colours running about a bit.

[Take Me Home MAF]

I never minded dickson and it worked well with danny. He was also able to usher baird through a game when he was stepping in. (ss cant do this, he can barely position himself)

Thats why i wrote this post, some people see different things in different players and i sit there every week and he grates me and i need to know if its just me and my brother who have this. One thing i wont critisise steve for is his effort, thats it.

Hes a lee clark sort of mould in what he should be providing but for me clarkey is in a different league as he could graft and also provide good link up

For me (as i put earlier)in Jan the priority is buying or loaning in cm of intent to sit next to Diarra with ruiz infront berb up top.

Another point. If we had moussa today instead of sidwell it would have been a different story

[itombomb]

Sidwell and Etuhu are as bad as one another.

Sidwell harries okay, but the two or three decent tackles a game and the odd goal have made some people think he is far better than he actually is. He's not athletic enough to be either a proper defensive or box-to-box midfielder and his ability on the ball is far too low to be a creative/attacking one.

[Max Headroom]

Sidwell and Baird have done ok lately.... But today was shocking..... No attacking intent and not giving the defenders options to play forward and not linking to th strikers.....

Sidwell is suspended v Liverpool, so at least we have to change

And for what it's worth, qpr weren't to bad today. They closed down Berbatov, and we let taraadt run at us. Like we let Ben arfa run at us on Monday.....

[YankeeJim]

Sidwell had an off game but he has been solid and I think getting better. The problem today was that we had no outside mids. I don't know what Duff was doing but it wasn't much. Worst game for him in some time. Richardson is a waste of a kit. When he is in, Riisa never gets forward. When Sasha went out we had no attack from the fullbacks. Our central midfield doesn't seem to contribute to the attack regardless of who is in there. Everyone loves Diara but he doesn't link up with the front either. That only leaves Ruiz and with him we can count on him being available less then half the time. Baird looked today like he did when he played rt fullback under Sanchez, clueless, helpless & over his head.

[EJL]

One thing that interests me about Sidwell is instead of slowing down and seeing what he should do with the ball, he runs full speed towards the opposition. Not really related to his performance but still something to think about.

Baird has a habit of playing these first-time suicide passes back where he just got it from, even though there's still someone on the guy who played the pass (after being pressed). It means that the receiver has no time to react, which leads to it being played back to Schwarzer and we all know what he does with the ball.

[Snibbo]

I thought Sidwell spent a lot of time clearing up (trying to clear up) the mess that Baird was making.

Baird is no right back. He's a good all round utility player - jack of all trades, master of none (most of the time).  Midfield or central defence.