Captain and Leaders

[yiddo]

I wanted to start this thread because reading many posts of late, particularly ones with people posting starting XI's that they feel we should be fielding.

It seems that very few are taking into consideration the leadership required in a team to be consistently successful.

Just look at the 3 most successful teams (in recent years) in the league at the moment, they all have had a number of strong leaders in their squad;

Man City - Kompany, Barry, Y.Toure, K.Toure
Man Utd - Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Fletcher
Chelsea - Terry, Lampard, Ivanovic, Drogba

I have not included GKs as whilst it is great to have a commanding GK that can organise the defence. Do they really have much of an affect from the midfield onwards? I dont believe so.

Current I would say we have Parker, Dawson & Gallas as our main leaders, which is already a bit on the low side. I feel this is the main reason why we are seeing Gallas in the team and not Caulker, remember against Newcastle he was in ahead of Vertonghen too.

I think people wanting starting XI's without any of Parker, Dawson & Gallas involved are seriously overlooking the importance of leaders in a team.
Whilst the likes of Vertonghen & Dempsey may become leaders in our side, its too early for them to have much of a leadership impact on the other players.

 

[yiddo_4eva]

You haven't mentioned Sandro. I believe he's been captain of Brazil at various levels.

On the whole though I agree, in terms of the squad AvB inherited, there aren't many leaders aside of those you've mentioned.

Once back and fit, I'd hope Parker be the captain. He leads by example and throughs himself at every game. With time I'd then like to see Sandro develop into the future captain and if not then Vertoghen, assuming he settles and becomes the rock, and captain, he was at Ajax.

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

Lloris is captain of France
Verts was captain of Ajax
Dempsey is a senior pro with a tough mentality
We still have Gallas, Friedel and Parker about the place.

Rafa is a big loss though - him coming in had a hugh impact on our squad's mentality - it was then we started to go from being plucky to being more assured.

 

[JimmyG2]

Van Der Vaart. Oh sorry.
Gallas is too unstable to be captain and likely to be dropped anyway.
Don't fight it, Parker is the obvious choice if he ever gets fit and returns.
Sandro isn't playing well and probably needs another year, if he stays.
Benny on the old school theory of making the chief trouble maker head boy.
JJ seems to have overlooked here.

Dawson it is in the meantime.
Vertonghen looks to be the long term choice, or Kaboul.

 

[SugarRay]

As Dan says, Lloris is France captain, Verts was Ajax captain, Dempsey is captain material as is Parker, Dawson is apparently club captain.
When all this lot are fit and playing and we add Sandro to the mix, we have enough leaders in the side.

 

[chrissivad]

havent seen anything of sandro with us to show he is a leader or captin yet.

Walker could be a good captin in a few years, but i would have to go with parker when fit just now.

Just need to give the new guys that have others have said time to bed.