14/11/2008

We miss you Paintsil!


Yes. We do mistakes. All of us. We could now see that selling John Paintsil was one!
Well, some of you would say he was not good enough. But maybe it was just the lack of will or knowledge how to teach from the West Ham coaches that was the problem. To make him play the way they wanted .

John Paintsil was a cult hero at Upton park. But just that. He did not play much, Curbs did not seem to like his sometimes unconventional style of play. Even if he always was sure of a starting place for the Black Stars he was rarely seen as more than a replacement for the Hammers. Our fans loved his energy though, his effort and the way he always tried to make the team feel good. He was a pretty good tackler but seemed sometimes to lack the understanding of how to play in position.
Well, somebody could have tought him!
(Clarke would have I guess, Illunga has been doin well since game two in his position play). 

Since he left for Fulham (for 1.5 million pounds) he has been playing nearly every minute! Roy Hodgson has shown him his faith, Painstils confidence has grown and he plays safe. 

The Fulham team has just let 10 balls passed Schwarzer by while we have let 22 goals in.
While Zamora has struggled, Pantsil seems to love playing now. And even if I haven't seen but a few of Fulhams matches, it seems that you can't fault John Pantsil for a single one of those ten goals.

If you look at our record instead, we can see that both Neill and Faubert has played bad at the same position. Against Everton Faubert was awful and Neill was - even as a CB - not much better and we could say that they both was involved in the downfall in the end. Against ManU both of their goals came from our right. Against Arsenal Faubert made an own goal (well, those things happen....), against Fulham and Newcastle (matches that we won) Neill made bad mistakes that let - on both occations - the opposition score. 

The other games: Against Hull and Middlesbrough we made old sins come alive, and let in stupid goals at a freekick and a corner respectively. (Bolton was a game that Green never will forget.) We also let our defence to get to close to our own goal - but that's another story....

Our third choice at RB has been Behrami, but I think the midfield position suits him and the team better. So if we don't start to play young Spence soon, I am worried that I will miss Pantsil more and more. He may not be a world beater, but - as we can see at Fulham - he would certainly have been my choice now!

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