Vela must play

With Holden's injury, the retirement of Muamba, the departure of NRC and the failure to sign Sanchez we are left with a bunch of cream puffs in midfield - a fact that Burnley exploited to the full and that every other team in this league will unless we sort it out.

Now I know Josh is still a young lad, but he looks like he can tackle and put himself about a bit.

So why not give him a shot?

I really don't see why not, he's a very tough tackler and uniquely amongst our mids he LOOKS for the ball

So if OC publicly states that he recognises we need a midfield ball winner and then doesn't sign Sanchez or retain NRC, why play 4 lightweights?

In this league I'd play Vela AND Sanchez (or anyone else we're lucky enough to get) given our shaky defence - in front of a back 5.

I think Coyle was under the false impression that we could murder teams on the break in this league with LCY and Petrov.

I'm sure we will murder someone in that way this year but it wont be the norm.

Mears needs to sit down ASAP, Riley is young but at least he's gonna give his all.

Vela and Afobe need to play too. I want to see Wylde as well.

wanderlust wrote:

So why not give him a shot?

Because this is Owen Coyle. He buys players and benches them. Loans them in and benches them. Puts time and money into youth players and doesn't pick them.

Terrible, terrible manager.

I saw Vela play in a pre-season game and he was dire.

I'd still give him a chance though, especially over Pratley.

Id just like to ask why everyone is so confident in Vela? he had a bit of game time last season and look ok, but thats all. Where has this tough tackling persona come from? or have people seen him in the reserves, from what I remember he isn't a huge guy

This is so far the only comment ive seen from someone judging one of his performances (that was longer than 15 mins) and its doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence:

doffcocker wrote:I saw Vela play in a pre-season game and he was dire.

Pratley is poor, but he is probably better than Vela is atm

If im honest...

I fear Vela is not going to be all hes cut out to be.

Remember the lad that went to Blackpool for a million quid - the midfielder/right back I think - played a couple of games, looked amazing, then died a death. dont even think he actually played a game for Blackpool.

Chris basham...

I fear he may turn out like him.

my reasons - if you have a player in your youth team who looks any good, they fuck off and sign for one of the 'big 5' academies before you can get a shirt printed for them...

this is why i think the Eddie Davies academy will/has been a total waste of money...

IMO we should never have sold Basham, he looked a decent young player and even when he had to play at the emirates as cover for injured players he did a good job.

The reason he never played a lot at blackpool was he broke his leg a few weeks after getting into the 1st team and not sure if he is still there or not.

As for Vela, he may or not be all he is hyped up to be but until he is given a run in the team we will never know, I would much rather see a youngster from the academy given a chance over Pratley just to give the lad a chance.

Reebok_Rebel wrote:If im honest...

I fear Vela is not going to be all hes cut out to be.

Remember the lad that went to Blackpool for a million quid - the midfielder/right back I think - played a couple of games, looked amazing, then died a death. dont even think he actually played a game for Blackpool.

Chris basham...

Basham played against Villa, then Blackpool got fined for fielding a weakened team. That's how good he is.

Putting Vela in is a good call. Young, up for it and not afraid to get stuck in - the kind of player that's missing from midfield at the moment. If not a start, I'd certainly bring him on in front of Pratley. He may turn out to be crap, who knows, but give him a few games - he can't possibly be worse.

A big failing with Coyle is he doesn't have the imagination or the balls to try anything different. Not giving Sordell or Tuncay game time last season was a classic example of his subbornness. Reluctance to change the formation is another. He needs to grow a pair before it's too late.

Not at all suggesting he is our saviour - I'm just saying that instead of playing 4 tackle-shy fancy dans across the middle, give the lad a shot. He will get stuck in and has something to prove. He will either crash and burn - which is no worse than what happened on Saturday - or take his chance and hold the fort until OC makes this tough guy signing he keeps going on about.
Worst case scenario is he gets a bit of experience and we move on to plan Z.

I agree with Wanderlust, despite not being impressed the last time I saw Vela.

Pratley is awful. I mean really awful. Seriously, what does he actually do? He runs around like a headless chicken, flies in with ridiculous challenges after giving up and gets himself booked. He gets into positions, but doesn't do anything useful with the ball when he gets it. He was worse than Vela in the game that I saw (Morecambe, for the record).

I think the central midfield pecking order as of today should be:

1. Holden
2. MDavies
3. Andrews
4. Vela
5. Pratley

Mavies can go forward but he can't defend for toffee. Pratley was good at Swansea because he had workhorses around him and was given the freedom to wander about. Holden is not a well man yet. Andrews is past it - good player once but is slow nowadays and has anger issues so is a liability. Which leaves the kid to do the dirty work. And somebody has to do it if the prima donnas are going to get the chance to perform.
ATM they're not performing though. Not finishing chances. Poor final balls. Losing possession and putting the pressure right back on whoever is left holding the fort. So they really have to start upping their game and soon.
We are fragile ATM so instead of blaming the defence (who are admittedly poor) we might want to consider what the wide midfielders and forwards are doing with it when they do get a chance, because if they do the business it will make life a lot easier for everyone else.