Robbo Di Robbio wrote:
Despite a few occasions last season, Nolan was probably our most important player given the way we play. He's the Lomas or Carrick figure who never really gets the crowd excited but without them we are not as effective.
As I have said many many times before I find it hard to judge central midfielders. 

I buy that he does more defensively than I tend to spot.  I buy that many others miss this as well.

But I am certain that going forward he is a fox-in-box second striker who can do well off of the big man but there is so much his game has not got.

I buy that he still has a role.  But surely, even to BFS and his most ardent supporters... (1) we need to do things different going forward, at least some of the time, and (2) players with a vastly different skillsets to Nolan - Diame, Morrison, Poyet, Zarate, maybe even Downing, Jarvis, Valencia - need to be tried there.

I would love to see Lukaku (or Ba were he still available) come in, but we might have enough up front.  What is essential to me for this season is

(a)  Can we get creativity behind / off the striker, ie can we try options other than Nolan?
(b)  Can we get sufficient pace and quality from the full backs to trouble opposition defences more than last season?
(c)  Can we get Dowing and Jarvis (or whoever else plays in their positions) in the box more and getting more goals and assists?
(d)  Can we do the above without compromising much defensively?

Very curious about Kouyaté - the extent to which he'll be exceptionally defensive, and the extent to which he will be relatively box to box... and the knock on effect on Noble... will Noble be expected to get forward more, or will he be sacrificed?

I'd be really positive if it wasn't for the BFS / Nolan love-in and G and S fingers hovering above the big red button market 'SELF DESTRUCT'.