Westlake?

azbedwell · Post by **azbedwell** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:58 am

This is a rquest for some views on Ian Westlake. Last year i thoought he was developing in to one of our best players. A kind of Matt Holland, not in playing style, but in that he seemed to rarely have a bad game. In fact i would have rather kept westlake than miller last year.

As i am at uni i have only seen games up to late september when he got injured and have thus not seen him play since his return from injury (not even seen any tv games with him due to playing sport)

Has he just not returned to the form that he had last season? Do people think he when in top form is a certain for a midfield starting place? (i find it hard to believe matt richards is better than him as when i left he was still that sh*t tiny left back) Or do you think he was never much kop and is just a decent squad player?

Cheers for any feedback. Interested in your views.

hallamblue · Post by **hallamblue** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:31 am

Westy is IMHO not yet returned to the form he had prior to his injury.
He does a lot of running in the middle for us and was (in the "Jim days") our "legs" in the middle covering for Jim.

However our midfiled has at last begun to evolve into a very different type of animal - into one that has mobility, creativity, and ball winning abilities. This is largely due to the newcomers of Juan, & Williams and the re-emergance of a Matt Richards in this more central role. This is most defo HIS position. He has the ability to make forward runs AND provide that killer pass to the forwards. In comparing him to Westy - I think the two plaers compliment one another , but are different in their skills. Westy (on a good day ) is the engine room and ball winner ..but at the moment I dont think he has attained that sme level of consistancy....Ricjh=hards has blossomed in his rightful midfield position.

But the best news is that Town now has a variety of options f0or midfield - which we just didnt have a year ago.

The players of Juan, Currie , Westy, Williams, Richards and Garvan provide us with a mouth watering aray of skills, running and defence splitting passes - Westy plays his role in all of of the above it's just that Richards has now shown his true worth now that he is in his correct position.

toby · Post by **toby** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:32 am

I'm not really the best person to answer this as I've seen very little of Westy recently.

What I would say though is that he is one of the only midfielders we have at the moment who gets into goalscoring postions (not counting goals from set pieces which is how most of our midfield seem to get goals, Currie, Juan and Richards especially).

This is not to have a go at our midfield as I think that it is developing very nicely at the moment, with a very good combination of pace, aggression and passing, however they do need to chip in with more goals from open play and Westlake is one of the few who has done this (although not recently!).

I think with Lee proving to be a fantastic "link up" striker we will need Westlake's power running from midfield and into the box, although with the current formation it's kind of difficult to see how everyone can be accomodated (when everyone is fit and available).

the-mole · Post by **the-mole** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:52 am

How refreshing it is for us to have a debate about why a certain midfielder is not in the starting line up as opposed to - who the heck can we actually fill the holes in midfield!!!

For the first time in a very long time we seem to have a wide variety of skill, work rate, creativity and aggresion in midfield. Midfield is what makes a team tick. They provide the forwards with good opportunities whilst at the same time protect the back line to good effect.

For my money this midfield squad of players is the best we have seen since we were relegated. And IMO they can only get better. Westlake is good enough to be in the side week in, week out - but so is everyone else!! We have a squad of very good midfielders who can all hold their own and this is the teams benefit!

I feel we will get more goals from open play with the current players - richards has proved he is more than capable to help fill westy's boots in that department. I don't think anyone is guaranteed a place in our midfield presently and I am sure big Joe is chuffed to bits at that!!

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:03 am

For me personaly Westy had a bad game yesterday. But he was being asked to play wide right, A positon ive never seen him in before. I would have thought it would have made more sense to have Currie wide right and Westlake in that free role buzzing around causing havoc!
He is a good player and his time will come!
What about Skard ???

budgiebasher · Post by **budgiebasher** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:24 pm

I rate Westy highly, and on his day deserves to be in the team, bags of energy to keep running all game, and as we have seen in previous seasons he gets in goalscoring postions, justy a pity he has yet to find that form so far.

squiz18 · Post by **squiz18** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:21 pm

I just think this season westlake has picked up the ability to go missing in games. Its a shame becasue he was player of the season 2 years ago. Doesnt seemed to have moved on from that.

Vaughan8 · Post by **Vaughan8** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:30 pm

Luke wrote:For me personaly Westy had a bad game yesterday. But he was being asked to play wide right, A positon ive never seen him in before. I would have thought it would have made more sense to have Currie wide right and Westlake in that free role buzzing around causing havoc!
He is a good player and his time will come!
What about Skard ???

Yer, I think Royle has some obsession with playing currie left, when he is actually right footed as well!