SHA Small Heath Alliance

Charcy

the Kevin Langley fan club

It's all about opinions and you've made a good case but TBH I don't agree.

For me, he's very obviously a modern number 9. His strengths are finishing, creating something out of nothing in the box and running from deeper at defenders with the ball on the counter. And - obviously - pressing.

Very much like Vardy. Or Forsell.

Our dilemmas is - is he so good at what he does that we build the team around him or are there more effective set ups for the Champ which mean he might play a more limited role.

It’s a squad game, hardly any teams build a team around a player and haven’t for years. You build a team to fit a number of different sets of tactics. Messi, Ronaldo excepted. I don’t even think Man City build around Haaland.

So there’s no dilemma.

Exactly
It's a squad game 16 players a game.
The team that uses its squad subs wisely gives itself an advantage.

Almost no outfielders play all 46 games - and those that do tend to be defenders.

We also need a range of tactics and line-ups to give us the best chance in every match.
Systems that suit the players we have and players who suit the systems we want
Davies found out at the end of January what happens if you try to play your best players every game. You get very tired players and lots of injuries. We got away that in League One. We do not need to make the same mistake in the Championship.

We will need 4 good forwards with different skill sets even if we play with just one up top.
I think Jay's ability to play wide right and left and no 9.5 and no 10 as well as 9 gives him a big advantage in getting picked. The manager knows he can do whatever is asked of him to a good standard. It means even if he doesn't start a fit Stansfield almost certainly comes on.
He's also a reliable penalty taker.
If he avoids serious injury he has a very bright future.

I totally agree with your comments about squad depth and rotation.

People seem to forget that in the championship Stansfield went more than 5 games without scoring on 4 occasions. We had literally no other option so when he should have been taken out of the firing line or rested he wasn’t. Same situation left us with Aiwu and Roberts playing far too many minutes at the back.

This season Davies at points ran the team into the ground and in my opinion we were lucky that Paik, Iwata, Klarer, and Cochrane escaped any lengthy injury.

What we need is options. So whether someone gets injured or is out of form we have someone to bring in who is not a big step down.

If any player puts in a couple of bad performances in a row it is only natural to drop them but also so that they are taken out of the firing line. There were points this season Stanno was getting undue criticism and you could see it was affecting him. Davies wouldn’t take him out of the firing line. Sometimes a player off form needs a game or 2 not starting to rejuvenate but also get themselves back into gear.

So when people are saying we need options, it is not because someone thinks players like Laird, Paik, Stanno etc aren’t good enough. It’s just simply we need more than one viable option per position. On top of that, you create genuine competition and usually it spurs players on to step up. If we’re going to progress there is no harm in pointing out we need players to have healthy competition for places.

People need to stop taking comments personally. I’ve seen it on here and on twitter. If someone isn’t playing well it doesn’t make you a hater to say maybe they should be dropped.

Well deserved winers medal and Stanno will be one of the top strikers in the championship.

Worked hard as ever … but never had any decent balls into him all the games I watched .
Glad we’ve got him . Class.

I don't think anyone should play every game, especially when we had a 60 game season.
You can't play two games a week indefinitely at a high physical level without picking up injuries. The days of playing the same 11 week in week out are long gone.

Blues will need to monitor and manage Stansfield more than other players next seadon as he's played overthe Summer. That shouldn't be an issue either for the team or for him.

HughBlue2

WelshBlue

Why do people think Stansfield has pace? He's speedy enough, but he doesn't have game-changing pace by any means. That means he can't really run the channels too often and he's also not strong enough to hold the ball up. He's got excellent technique and touch in the right area - which to me is coming in off the left of right corner of the box.

I agree, people are acting like he’s a pace merchant and i’ve seen a few people comparing him to Vardy. He’s not slow but he’s also not exceptionally quick. I think his work rate is exceptional and some of his instinctive finishing is good.

I don’t think we were comparing his pace to Vardy but there are obvious similarities between Vardy and the player Jay could be and Jay is quick, just because he’s not Vardy quick I could equally ask why are people now acting like he’s not quick.

I can definitely see the Vardy comparisons; they’re both little rats who are a nightmare to play against. Jay doesn’t have Vardy’s killer instinct, but few do.

Worthy

Worked hard as ever … but never had any decent balls into him all the games I watched .
Glad we’ve got him . Class.

I mean did you see him run into the net yesterday? I don’t think that’s a truly accurate statement.

Yes I’d rather have him than not, definitely. I hope he’s here for a long time his application is exactly what I’ve grown up expecting Blues to be.

I think it’s a valid debate and I’m not ‘joyless’ etc for raising it back up.

Thrillhouse

I can definitely see the Vardy comparisons; they’re both little rats who are a nightmare to play against. Jay doesn’t have Vardy’s killer instinct, but few do.

Vardy didn't have Vardy's killer instinct at Jay's age. That developed much later.

I don’t mean to seem a prick but the reason there are similarities between Jay and Vardy is because Vardy totally revolutionised the role of a lone striker. So any young striker coming through is sort of trying to play like him because how he played is now how clubs are looking for a lone striker to play. A lone forward went from a target man or poacher to a pressing forward because of Vardy. Chase every ball, force defenders into mistakes and just be a general handful. Don’t wait for the ball, go and get it.

At this moment in time the only likeness is how they try and play, but like I say that isn’t unique to Jay. You could argue Delap, Solanke, Watkins, Joao Pedro all try and play a bit like Vardy. Just to name a few.

Stansfield is quick to a point but he’s not rapid is he. He’s not what you think of a really pacey player like Mavididi or Dan James.

There is no doubting Stansfield is good. And that he runs and runs and is a nightmare for defenders to play against. Out of interest, say Stanno scores 20+ this season and we don’t go up, what bid would you accept for him? I think £30 mil plus sell on.

I wouldn’t say Vardy revolutionised the role of a lone striker. I’d say lots of his style he took from watching Torres for one

Vardy and Torres have similarities for sure. But Vardy changed the role, he made the press much more aggressive.

Rab C Nesbitt

I wouldn’t say Vardy revolutionised the role of a lone striker. I’d say lots of his style he took from watching Torres for one

Good observation there Rab, never thought of that but Torres was for a while, the perfect lone forward.

Drogba was the best I've seen at that.