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HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE YAKUBU? 9-1-07
Toby Higgins
It's only eighteen days since the final Rockcliffe Files of 2006, and here we are already with the first edition of 2007, and with respect to our season so far, what an eighteen days they've been. In fact, they've been best eighteen days of our season so far.
Now, this isn't me trying to pull a 'Noel Edmonds'. As viewers of Channel 4's highly acclaimed 'Deal or No Deal' will no doubt testify, Edmonds very infrequently, if ever, stands idly by and watches a game progress without describing the often tedious and repetitious show as 'a fascinating game' or 'a truly memorable day'. Such over exaggeration is not in evidence here. This is our best league spell of the season: fact.
A huge contrast, really, with what has happened almost every Christmas since the birth of Jesus Christ. Normally, the festive period means one defeat after another, poor performances, and heaps of bad luck. Not this Christmas though, because despite the defeat to Blackburn Rovers, the home wins against Charlton and Sheffied United combined with the draw at Goodison Park mean that we've taken seven points from the twelve available; our best return over four league games to date this season.
This good run of form has helped us move cautiously away from the relegation zone, but let's not forget, we're far from safe yet. As we've shown ourselves, it doesn't necessarily take a brilliant run of form to move away from the group a little, and with clubs like Sheffield United and West Ham having money to spend on new players, it might not be long before we end up back in trouble.
But with Gareth Southgate reportedly more interested in shedding players from his squad rather than adding new faces to it, we probably need to accept that the players in contention for first team places at the moment are going to be the same players in contention for places for the rest of the season. Which frankly, is a fairly dull prospect.
A quick glance down the squad list suggests that a few areas need strengthening. Defensively, we look ok, but in midfield we look short of an attacking midfielder to two, someone who can carry the ball to relieve Stewart Downing of the massive responsibility on his shoulders. Up front, we should have enough fire power to keep us up, but Viduka's injury proneness means that we might have to rely mainly on the erratic form of the unpredictable Yakubu, which begs the question, how do you solve a problem like Yakubu?
There can be no doubt that in Yakubu, we do have a problem. On 'his day', he can be unplayable; as John Terry, Ricardo Carvallio, Kolo Toure and Rio Ferdinand will all will undoubtedly admit. The main issue is how is often is it 'his day', and when it's not 'his day', how much is he going to contribute to the team?
The statistics show that during the calendar year of 2006, Yakubu scored a total of sixteen goals, eleven in the league, of which two were penalties, and the other five in the F.A and UEFA cups respectively, two of which were penalties. During the whole of the 2005/2006 season, he scored a total of nineteen goals. Without it being a brilliant record, it's probably fair to say it's not bad, given that he faced stiff competition during most of the year from fellow strikers Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
But what these statistics don't show is that, following Yakubu's penalty against Roma on March 9th, he didn't score again for the rest of the season, breaking his five month goal drought away at Reading on the opening day of the season. He then went on to get three in his next fifteen games, before his impressive record of five in the last seven games. Clearly, Yakubu is a man who scores in patches.
As remarkable as it maybe for a player who has played in eighty games for the club, fifteen of which were as a substitute, and scored twenty-eight goals, the jury are still out on Yakubu. While Yakubu's strength and speed are often enough to help him beat players, there are many aspects of his game which let him, and the fans, down.
His first touch is often poor, making him look like a clumsy player, and the awareness of other players around him make it difficult for Yakubu to work well with a partner, particularly as he wins next to nothing in the air, and scores very few with his head. His weakness in the air was even highlighted by Southgate after Yakubu scored the winner with his head against Newcastle, who joked that he couldn't quite believe Yakubu had scored with his head. A joke that not many laughed at.
Yakubu's work rate is also fairly low, as he doesn't hassle defenders which gives the opposition a chance to carry the ball over the halfway line before a challenge is made, but the main reason fans have come to question his place in the team is the number of chances he needs to miss before he scores; and some of them are stone cold sitters. The most shocking misses that the memory snatches at are at home to Liverpool, when he somehow failed to connect with the ball from no more than three yards out, and last weekend's F.A. Cup tie at Hull, when Downing's cross struck him on the thigh, again no more than three yards out, and the striker tumbled into the net as the ball floated harmlessly away from goal.
The return of Mark Viduka from injury appears to have re-launched the Yak this season, who has so far faced no competition for a first team place, and as a result, has only missed six minutes of Premiership football so far this season.
How many goals Yakubu adds to his tally of nine so far this season remains to be seen, but this writer is of the opinion that he will score more, and that they will be the goals that keep us in the league. It's worth remembering that Yakubu has scored nine of our twenty-one league goals, and if it wasn't for those goals we'd be in more of a mess than we are now. He's a handy striker to keep hold of, until the summer at least, when he may or may not be one of the players Southgate decides to move on. Until then, Yakubu is our man, and we've got to stick by him.
If we can keep hold of Mark Viduka during the transfer window and partner him with Yakubu, we should have a frontline capable of keeping us in the league, providing they both stay fit; though another striker in January wouldn't hurt, particularly if Massimo Maccarone moves on.
A win over Charlton at the weekend will move us eleven points clear of the London club, but, as has been well documented, we havn't won away since April 2006, when Lee Cattermole's diving header was the deciding goal at Man City. Saturday would be the perfect time to change all of that, and, having seen enough of Charlton to pass judgement, they aren't very good.
Prediction? Boro win 3-0 with Yakubu to score a hat-trick leaving everyone on Teesside with a smile as wide as his.
Same time next week.
Up The Boro
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