Curbishley's flexible friends

Time will tell whether Marcus Bent is a good signing for us or not, but it's hard to argue against the view that the fee is a little on the high side. Hence, I stopped to think about what factors Curbs may have considered before agreeing to make such a generous bid. Could it be his goalscoring potential? Or could it be his aerial ability and strength? Could it be his ability to play alongside namesake Darren?......And then it hit me like a bolt from the blue.....he can play on the right side of midfield! You just know that as soon as Curbs realised he can play in more than one position, he added another zero to the bid!

I think Curbs' obsession with versatile players made much more sense in the mid-90s when we were operating on a shoestring, than it does now. Back then, the fact that Brownie could move into midfield or Shawn Newton could drop to full-back was clearly a benefit in a small squad. Phil Chappell even started a game upfront (it didn't happen again not surprisingly).

However today we have perhaps the largest squad in our history. This combined with the ability to name five subs (and use three) has surely removed the need for players to be versatile in all but the most extreme circumstances. I've discussed before the fact that our best players of recent seasons were only able to play in one position, but did it extremely well (Parker, Kinsella, Mendonca, Hunt, Rufus etc..). Surely versatility should be a mere bonus, not an attribute you would actively seek?

Just to hammer home the point, I was somewhat taken aback by Curbs' comments in the 'Ask Curbs' section of the website. When asked about Luke Young's chances of making it into Sven's World Cup squad, he replied, "Once they get Luke into the training ground and have a good look at him they'll realise a couple of things. He can play in a couple of positions - he played a lot of his games at Spurs at left back and he can play centre back as well, as we know. So you've got a very versatile player there and I see no reason why, if he keeps up his form, that he shouldn't be part of that squad. I don't know who would play at left-back at the moment if Ashley Cole got injured, but you've just seen that once Gary Neville got injured they didn't have another specialised right-back established in the squad."

With all due respect to Luke Young who has become a core part of a team (at right-back), I suspect Sven will be less impressed with his versatility than Curbs is. If the injury situation was so dire that they ran out of 'natural' left-backs (Bridge, Cole) then he would sooner play 3-5-2 than throw in Luke at left-back in a vital World Cup clash.

I often shudder when I see Matt Holland pushed to right midfield, or Jerome Thomas asked to plow a right-wing furrow, and there are still question marks over the Herminator's abilities at centre-back despite this seemingly having become his default position. Taking players out of their comfort zone is rarely going to have a positive impact on the team. If Curbs feels he is lacking players in certain positions, then the transfer window is open or shock horror, maybe try out a youngster.