Talking Points: More Sibierskis & Less Luques
By HTT On Wed 8 Nov 2006 |
One of my favourite ever Newcastle players was Scott Sellars who gets in my Toon all-time XI ahead of the Ginola’s and Robert’s not just because he was a very good player in his short spell here at United but also because he was tremendous value for money. Which can’t be said for many Toon players past and present!
However, one player who is proving himself good value is Antoine Sibierski, signed in the summer from Manchester City’s reserves for an undisclosed fee.
While the Frenchman wasn’t the most popular of signings, he has won the affection of fans used to big money, big name buys because of his effectiveness, commitment and the way he conducts himself on the pitch.
While the club struggles for goals in the absence of two of those big money, big name buys (Owen & Martins), low key Sibierski, initially a midfielder, has now scored 3 goals in 5 starts, notching vital strikes both in Europe and the League Cup for the club.
At this moment in time the 33 year-old is a rare commodity at Newcastle; he can be relied on.
And it is the likes of Sibierski the club need more of and not the Luque’s, Owen’s and Martins of this world, especially now that our financial problems are apparent to all. Players who are low maintenance, hungry and above all else - good value for money.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not advocating giving up on Owen et al or wanting the club to forget all about signing players like that in the future because they are quality players and a club looking to win things and compete at the top end of the table and in Europe need to sign quality. I’m not looking for the club to snap up as many discarded 33 year-old freebies as possible either.
But we’re a long way off competing at the top end of the table at current and in the past United have tended to ignore the bargains or low risk players for the higher profile more expensive names, often at the expense of squad depth. Indeed one of the reasons why we are struggling right now is down to our transfer policy.
The money we splashed out on Owen could have bought us Andy Johnson, Darren Bent and James Beattie for example. Or a million Sibierski’s…
Wages are also a factor. I imagine the follically challenged Frenchman will be on low wages in comparison to some of his more illustrious team-mates and when your wage bill is as high as ours, you really do appreciate the likes of Sibierski and what players like that can give a team.
More of the same please.
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I do not pretend to Know if Luque can make it in the Premiership or not just like I had no idea if Michael Chopra would make it. But why spend all this money & resourses’ on people then not give them a reasonable run in the team.
Is it because we have such quality keeping them out. Maybe it’s as simple as their face fits or not, let’s hope not.
Sent in on: November 9th, 2006 at 6:21 am
Tino, honestly, I wasn’t offended. I know my grammar is poor, and I like honest people, so nee bother man.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Just a thought but I think Glenn actually thought about how Watford would play last night. The way Sibi was getting hacked down, pushed, shoved, and jumped on, he may have thought Luque wont be able to handle the physical side of Watford whereas Sibi can! Of course he couldn’t have forseen the appaling refereeing display or the fact our players were getting no protection from the dirty tarts, that in itself made us deserve to win, nevermind the longball (Wimbledon style) football they were playing.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
HTT,
Sorry for going a bit over the top with my critique of your grammar - having a bad day…
Anyway, your thought-provoking articles are always well written so let’s not worry too much about a couple of misplaced apostrophies! Please delete this and my original reply since they don’t add anything to the article discussion. Many thanks for all your articles - they are greatly appreciated.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Lads (& lasses?) cheers for the comments.
Just to clarify I’m not advocating that we dump all our ’star’ players for the Sibierskis (thanks Tino!) of this world or forget about buying those type of players (the Martins, Owens and Luques) in the future. Signing 33 year-old rival clubs’ rejects at the 11th hour isn’t the way to build a successful team, I accept that.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the high profile big name and big money signings are not necessarily the best way forward for this club, especially in our current financial crisis. We need to spend less money on the “trophy” players and more on the squad, filling vital positions with adequate players. I just used Sibierski as an example of a low risk, low profile adequate squad player.
Anyway…
Luque - I agree with the various views sent in, he needs to play some games, but that doesn’t look like it will happen under Roeder does it so we can only hope we get what we can for him in January as I’m sure he’ll be off.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
That’s me told Tino, thanks! I’ve changed it just for you. If you want a job as my personal editor (I clearly need one) you just have to ask ;)
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
That should read “Sibierskis and Luques”. Why the possessive apostrophies? For christ’s sake, make sure it’s grammatically correct if it’s going to appear on News Now. You’re an embarrassment, to be honest - especially if you’ve got the arrogance to write this to everyone else:
“Before writing in, check your spelling and grammar please (use the ‘Check Spelling’ button). This site gets visited by the media & rival fans & we don’t want people to think we’re thick or anything do we?”
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I did not expect Sib to prform as well as he has done this season, but I also think that Luque should be given a run in the team.
He can’t do worse than the rest of out strikers.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
To solve the puzzle of why Luque is not performing as well as many of us know he can is easy…… Look at our defence!! We need someone with the pace of Martins just to get near the passes that tit end Bumble fires randomly around the pitch. When we had Woodgate the balls forward from the back were more controlled and to feet. This then allowed skillful players of the time like Robert to get the ball under control with time to exploit opposition defences. If Luque gets the ball under control he, like Emre, can unlock the best defences in the world with ease. Come on Roeder give Luque a chance and lets not finish the game with six midfielders on the pitch again like we did at Watford.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Whether you like him or not, with Shola out, Sib has to play as much as possible until the transfer window, at least. Against Sheff U every time the ball was turned back to Harper it was banged up front where we had nobody to head it. This was no accident. Warnock knew it would happen so his team chased everything to make us play back to the keeper. Then they got the ball back, every time. Sadly footballers are too thick to work these things out and we just kept doing it.
Anyway, with Sib in the team at least we have the option to play a high ball forward when we need to. Who to play with him? Not Milner or Duff. That didn’t work. Luque or Martins, surely before Rossi. I expect Dyer will be played there though. Why Luque doesn’t play is a mystery. He must be awful in training, or something.
Anyway, another cup match only narrowly won. Apart from Pompey we only seem to scrape through against everybody and you can’t blame the defence either.
Down to you, Sibs.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
There is no logic to this idiot who calls himself a Premiership manager. He said Luque should prove himself against Palermo, he scored and showed a good touch and plenty of movement. I imagine his conversation with Roeder went something like this: AL - “I scored a goal boss do I get a chance on Saturday”? GR - “how dare you try to prove me wrong by scoring and puting in a decent performance, I’ve been telling everyone how shit you so are don’t undermine me again. You are benched you shit.”
How can Roeder justify picking Rossi game after game when he has done nowt and he is not even our player. I feel for Luque and hope he gets a good move in Jan as we don’t deserve to keep him, our loss, trust me.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Lets not go nuts, Sibbo has proved to be a reasaonble buy as a squad filler, and might be a good secret weapon off the bench when we get more players fit. His commitment and attitude cannot be faulted however, which is probably why people are getting a bit overzealous in praise. Mind you a Watford fan told me he looked “world class” last night… so what do I know.
I agree Luque has not had a long enough run in the team at any stage to be written off. He made the mistake of being Spanish, which meant that we react like he is Marcelino II. He often looks a bit lost at the way we play and I think someone made a good point that he must be a bit baffled that we do not get it on the deck more. I like the look of Rossi, and I doubt we would have done any better with a fit Owen in his place… nor would we have done worse with Luque in his place. Rossi hasn’t scored for a couple of games now…. for Luque that would be a luxury to get that long.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Al Gardiner,
Maybe shine was too big of a word.
But look at it this way, we have giving Ameobi 204 more games than Luque!!
And while he just gives us more headaches, and still kept his first team place, Luque did the right thing as you said in the right time, and that’s what you need really. I like N’Zogbia, he has a huge talent, but the problem is running at players like headless chickens without scoring counts only as a faliure, so we need both types, the Martins type and the Luque type. The problem is that Roeder either really hates Luque, or really hates his style, but at the moment it seems to be the only thing thats working for us (beside’s scraping through a shoot-out).
Luque has refused to sign for more then 1 club just so he can prove himself, so why not give him a chance, I am not a big fan of Spanish football, or Luque, but right now his peformence when ever he rarley gets a game seems to be exactly what we need in order to turn this season around.
Regards.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Some forwards just don’t run constantly and back track, Owen anyone? Like what Shearer has said about Owen in the past and he has admitted himself that his job is to score goals and when he is fit no one can deny that.
When you look at Luque’s record when he starts I think I am justifiably confused as to how he has not played more. Roeder wants him to get tougher and up to the pace of them Premiership, fair enough, but that can only happen by playing in it!
Sibierski has been a good signing in respect to the goals scored and is able to function in the system that does not play to the rest of the squad’s strengths.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Those who criticise Luque for his work rate should think back to Robert and before that Ginola. These guys are naturally talented players and can turn a match with one piece of skill. If you can get them to chase all over the pitch as well then that is a bonus. Players like Ameobi and Sibs don’t have the flair or the skill so need to compensate with work rate. A good balanced team has a bit of everything. Having 10 workhorses doesn’t work and over the course of a season they will be outdone, often by a little bit of ‘flair’.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Sibierski was magnificent last night, not pretty but extremely effective at both ends. Although he tired he still tried to get forward and that’s all you can expect of him really at his age, especially what little he cost the club. I have to agree with the author, we need to stop blowing all our money on stars and spread it out more to cover the entire squad so we have depth and options across the team. We don’t have that because most of the money went on one or two big names.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Sibierski is a terrible footballer and the fact this topic is being talked about shows how far back we have gone. Sibierski is only dangerous in set pieces and when we kick long balls up the pitch. He wouldn’t get near a team that plays decent football along the ground, his first touch is abysmal and his awareness of players around him is just as bad. On the bench we have a £9.5m player who only 2 years ago was scoring winning goals at the Bernabaeu from his half of the pitch and a regular Spanish international. Luque is working his socks off to be given a chance and he would offer us so much more than heading ability from long balls. He needs 4 or 5 games in a row to get momentum. Roeder has stuck by Bramble and Carr for continuous cock ups in defence, why can’t he just give Luque a chance?
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 11:37 am
I would have liked to have seen Luque start against Watford. It would have been good playing time for him and he should be given a proper chance. Why have him if we dont use him? It makes no sense to develop Rossi for Man U when we have a player of our own that at the very least we should give some game time to if only to increase his transfer value.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Is that all we want then, doesn’t matter if players have few skills or little natural talent, as long as they show enough “passion”? Well sorry, Sibierski is just another big man up front playing off long balls. The fact that he’s got three in five starts shows nothing more than how poor our tactics have become.
Personally I want our club to attract players of the calibre of Luque (and maybe Martins). And the comment about him “strutting about the pitch” - I’ve never seen someone more grateful to get on the field, let alone score. Luque’s stats this season are something like - started 3, scored 3. And his reward for this? Non-playing sub. With the amount of debt we have we simply cannot afford to keep writing off £10m of talent and I’m sorry but its up to Glenn and Freddie and the coaches to get the best out of Albert, not the other way round.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Even though he has limited ability football wise, the Gallic Ketsbia has shown more commitment, more energy and basically more bottle in his short time on Tyneside than many of the other well established primma donnas.
Bizarre, being that he was only brought in after Well Fed, had spent deadline day on the phone, embarrassingly asking the other PL chairmen if they had any players they wanted to offload (allegedly).
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 10:15 am
I disagree with Omar when he says Luque has shined, he was in the right place at the right time twice, his work rate is appalling and it does appear as if he struts around the pitch, sorry but I want to see every player running at their opponent, pushing them to make an error, I want every player to stand up and be counted and show some heart. I just wish that Newcastle would go out and pick up a few more N’Zogbia’s, he is a class act. Come on lads get some quality signings that aren’t here for the wages.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:47 am
The last two summer’s the managers have harped on about how they’re only interested in proven Premiership players because its a hard league to adapt to. Then the chairman runs out and spunks a wad of cash on someone from abroad:
2005 - £10m Luque
2006 - £10m Martins
Without saying anything about Luque’s performances since arriving, the manager wanted Boa Morte - a proven Premiership player but our glorious chairman baulked at the £6m fee before running out and buying an unproven foreign player for almost twice that.
While the players may or may not come good for a team in our position and with a squad of our size we can’t afford the time it takes players to adapt (if they can).
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:47 am
I agree with you but we haven’t gave Luque a fair crack of the whip yet, I can’t see how he is going to improve sitting on the bench. He was a quality player before he came to us. If you look at the Sheff Utd game he was one of a few actually trying and hungry for the ball when he came on, more so than the likes of Parker, Duff etc. on that day.
The problem with the Newcastle is we ruin quality players, the likes of Luque and probably Martins, if we keep our style of football. They like the ball on the floor to feet, none of this lets hoof it up front and see what happens (living in hope Shearer will run on the pitch from the dugout and pop one in). Then again I think that happens because they all believe Shola will actually head the ball at some point in his career.
Any way onwards and upwards hopefully.
Regards
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Agree but with a slight twist, what Sibierski brings is a genuine passion and desire to play and win. He has not been paid so much that it doesn’t matter anymore to him, and sadly with some of our so called super stars the money they have earned has taken away their hunger.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Too right mate, Sibierski has been class since he arrived, probably the signing of the summmer for us as Duff and Martins have not really got going yet. Everytime he plays he gives 110% and he always makes something happen for us and 3 goals in 5 starts is a great return. His height is his best attribute and he uses it extremely well. I must admit I thought Glenn had lost it when I saw that we’d signed Sibierski but he has proved me and many other United fans wrong. If he continues like this he should end his career at SJP and what a partnership he could have with Owen.
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:37 am
I don’t think Luque was giving a fare chance to prove himself in the team, less Martins’s who will be better, Alber shined whenever giving a chance this season, and he is not in the team for personal reason’s only.
But I agree, we need more Sibierski’s in the team, the guy is fantastic, he is doing what others (i.e, Rossi, Martins, Ameobi etc.) are not doing, playing with a superb peformence and his heart is with the team.
Those low profile signings are the building blocks for big teams, they start with no real pressure on them to produce anything, so they can shine with ease.
Regards
Sent in on: November 8th, 2006 at 9:08 am