Phil Br

How is playing him against Cheltenham going to prepare him for the Prem?

 

Moyes has stated why he chose the team he did, and we won, so we have to respect that. Moyes will have his own ideas about young Shane, and his readiness. It could be that he wanted to give the existing Centerbacks an easy match to sort themselves out.

 

Even if we play Shane week in week out, he still has no experience at this level, and a loan deal to get him that experience is best. He'd probably be out on loan now if we weren't thin on the ground, so the arrival of one or two more defenders would give him that opportunity.

 

If we could get comfortable leads on teams he might have been given a few outings, but all of our matches have been tight recently, and the timing hasn't been good.

4-1 up with 30 mins to go is not a suitable time for Duffy, Vellios and Barkley?

I agree... Bar the odd moments of brilliance (ie Sunderland), I think Felli and Jelavic dont really suit each other. Jelavic thrives on through balls, trying to play on the last man and making runs into the box. Felli for the most part, plays with his back to goal. He brings it down excellently but most of the time it means he has to play it wide or backwards which doesnt help Jelavic at all.

 

Fellaini has done a great job upfront but he is a lot clumsier than someone like Osman would be in the same position. His final ball, shot and decision arent of the quality of a striker, they are of a defensive midfielder. He certainly has his moments though and he can hold his own up there.

 

However, as Steve_E says we arent really able to play the ball out of defence all the time and we do rely on that ball forward to Felli. With Gibson in the team we will improve in our ability to pass the ball forward and if we do move Fellaini back we need someone who can keep hold of the ball and use it intelligently. Mirallas was a bit outmuscled when he tried playing there, and he needs more space to run at players IMO and Pienaar is too wasteful most of the time and I like to see him keeping linking up with Baines. My choice would be Osman as his ball retention is excellent, especially when he has a bit more time (which he will have compared to playing as a CM) and i think Jelavic would be better suited to that combination. I would like to see Barkley gets some minutes in that type of role as well because that is where I see him playing over the next couple of seasons.

Again, spot on and time to give Ross 30 minutes every game. This will help us to win more matches rather than drawing.

I feel a hell of a lot more confident defensively when he plays deeper, and I think that's reflected by our lack of clean sheets this season. But until we have someone better to play in there, it's clearly the most effective way attacking wise - just look at his stats. But I can almost guarantee if he was playing deeper we wouldn't have such a shaky defence. Might be time for Moyes to give Barkley a crack in the hole, at least later on in games when he can provide Jelavic those classic 'poacher' goals of his.

Agree with this 100%, shame that Moyes doesn't.

Expected, it was a tough job.... just as long as I don't have to manage everton!

I guess that he wasn't selected for U21s because he wasn't playing first team football. He should be selected for the U20s world cup next summer as long as his loan spell with SWFC goes well. He's improving with every game and he should stand out within a couple of months, him and Bothroyd already are the most skillful players but lack a bit of match fitness which is holding them back a little.