Boy, If I were Denzil reading these comments I would get a seeeeeeroius complex.
I tell yuh, trini humor and criticism eh easy! I find alot of the points are partially true but dangerously 1/2-true.
I saw the game on SW.net video, thanks to video by e-man and watched the players carefully without the emotional distraction of a live game. I feel we have to be careful about coming to a conclusion about a player's capacity, flair, simplicity, instincts, attacking potential, defensive potential and role. These characteristics are sometimes heavily infuenced by a role that is asked of him as coach. Dwight could be a totally different player depending on whether he is pushing back or pushing forward even at his age now. Remember too, Theobald is just coming off an ankle injury and I doubt that he could have 90 mins of purehustle in him. (I do admit that he has a non-hustle style like Yorke but I don't think it is a put-on gallery ting though) He was groomed more to be an attacking midfielder, letting Whitley and Birchall do the "less glamorous work" behind. De same trap dere for Whitley. He is now de unsung hero when he was groomed to be more attacking and everybody saying he underachieved at the World Cup. The role. The role that has been asked of you.
Wim is continuing in the Beenie mould of apparently trying to stress possession and using Denzil in the Jamerson, Yorke (post-2005 variety) role of trying to gently and responsibly (boring to most of us spectators) shepherd the ball (remember he is Mr. Responsible captain now) out from an ultra-green, untested and presumably naive school-boy defense. Alot of simple neat low-risk sideways change-de-play kinda ball and also asked to resist overdoing it up high in de midfield leaving the back exposed for the counterattack. He definitely calmed the nerves in the back and it is something that we are probably taking for granted. You have to have good technique to do that and he has good technique and is very orthodox. No question. As the defense gets more secure they will give him less protective responsibilty. Maybe he is doing it to himself and not Wim. Yuh nener know. Kingman, wha's de files on dat?
The defense actually looked like they had composure and not like li'l school boys as some of us expected. The defenders themselves take credit for that but they also look good because the transition from defense looks smooth, very smooth. Theobald does't have to play there. As a matter of fact he is not so inclined but he was obviously asked to do that non-glamoroys work. Possibly with a sore ankle he was going easy on tackles (for his knee's sake and to prevent captain yellow cards) as I have seen him taclke more aggressively in previous WC qualifier games.
All 'n all, I think Denzil did fairly well. As I said before the game, I expect Denzil to be pushed back and Jemmot forced to do what Denzil was normally to do (attacking mid with defense splitting passes) but Jemmott himself was not that fit and not surprisingly, was taken off later in the 2nd half. All this talk about regressing and stagnation and starboy syndrome and trying to hard to be like Yorkie is a lot of hogwash and I am glad I can judge for myself after seeing the game. Good talk and jokes for a rum-shop lime but it isn't really true because he had to suppress his flair to fit a role and now he is getting judged as an underachiever. In that sense, tha's why why I said the coments are dangerously 1/2 true. Conviction over 1/2 truth is a dangerous ting.
