Line-up at the end of the transfer window: would you be happy if....

[Darth Vela]

For a defender, a nack of leaving things exposed at the back is quite a critical flaw, despite all the marauding he may bring to the team.

Vermaelen is a bit overrated IMO. Bit like the Eduardo situation really. The heart grows fonder in absence and all that.

I don't doubt Vermaelen is made of the right stuff but opinion of him is based on Autumn 2009 when he scored a freak amount of goals and had his honeymoon period. He's still got it all to prove.

I'm sure it's that way for some people, obviously I don't think I fall into that category, otherwise I wouldn't think it. It's not a knack, so much as something he's done 3 or 4 times from my memory, most of those times when we were dominating but needed to push up so not such a bad idea really, just needs to be timed better and the midfield needs to have a little bit of awareness.

Regardless, it's something he'll definitely have to tone down if Song continues to forget he's covering defenders and Gibbs continues to believe he's a winger.

I should probably clarify, I meant that Vermaleen has left us compromised at the back 3 or 4 times rather than he's gone forwards 3 or 4 times, he's done that a little more often iirc.