Column 11comments | Jump to last This article may have been recategorised and is therefore no longer available at this URL. You can try to find the updated link in the article archive. Share article: Reader Comments (11) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Wayne Smyth 1 Posted 22/03/2014 at 21:49:30 Paul, agree with you about the captain. I thought we lacked someone on the pitch to give the team a kick up the backside. Also I think your captain needs to be someone who inspires confidence. For me, Howard is not that man. Decent shot stopper, but flaky as fuck under pressure and can barely kick a ball straight when played back to him. Personally, I'd have given it to Barry. Julian Wait 2 Posted 22/03/2014 at 21:58:44 I like Stones, he's got quality, just needs to get rid more often when he's last man or in trouble ... Patrick Murphy 3 Posted 22/03/2014 at 22:03:18 Is it just me being a bit thick – but I notice in most reports from today's games that they are saying things such as "Everton move into Europa League spot" when I believed due to Man City's League Cup triumph that 6th place was good enough for Europa. The BBC's league table also only has 5th as a Europa qualifying place. Have I got it horribly wrong or have the various outlets missed something? Patrick Murphy 4 Posted 22/03/2014 at 22:06:35 When Jags gets back in the team, I would consider playing Stones at right-back and moving Seamus up the pitch. 1) To make sure that the youngster gets as much match experience as possible; and 2) To try and get Coleman out of his current reluctance to overlap and go to the bye-line. Chris Owens 5 Posted 22/03/2014 at 22:27:52 Patrick (458),I believe 6th place will be good enough for Europa League qualification only if Manchester City finish in the top 4. It's probably not mathematically certain yet that they will. Patrick Murphy 6 Posted 22/03/2014 at 22:31:01 Cheers Chris that makes sense – mind you, if Man City somehow failed to get 4th place or above we perhaps wouldn't have to worry about Europa. Matt Woods 7 Posted 22/03/2014 at 22:44:11 That Dino Zoff fella did ok... Paul Ferry 8 Posted 23/03/2014 at 14:41:01 I agree about the goalie/skipper quandry PT. One thing that occurred to me, however, was that somewhere in the scheme of things a decision was made that Leighton Baines is not skipper material – either by his goodself, our good manager, or our good players – as he filled these boots a couple of weeks ago.Sort of confirms my view of LB although I do have to add the caveat that his new film noir hair-do is a big improvement on his Seattle look. Alex Trevalyn 9 Posted 23/03/2014 at 15:40:31 Mr Ferry, I don't know if you remember but a couple of months ago on the live forum, I posted I was off to Belize for a spot of jungle warfare training and you wished me well and be safe, could not reply! But thank you meant a lot!! Back home now with a great tan and a shit load of money to blow! Jack Molloy 10 Posted 23/03/2014 at 17:19:48 I would have thought the obvious choice of captain would be Distin and failing that Barry. Failing that, I'd give it to Coleman. Goalkeepers can read the game and can be effective leaders behind the scenes but can't communicate outside of their box effectively. Howard in particular isn't cool-headed enough to do the job. Mike Gaynes 11 Posted 24/03/2014 at 14:12:34 I've just never much cared for the idea of a keeper as captain. When the team needs the "kick up the backside" that Wayne mentions, it should generally be somebody who can deliver it in the middle of the action, not from 80 yards away in the back. The only keepers I've ever seen with powerful enough presence to pull it off have been Schmeichel, Chilavert of Paraguay, Buffon and the aforementioned Zoff of Italy, and Kahn and Maier of Germany. But those were all guys with such dominating personalities that their teams naturally looked to them for leadership. There are very few keepers in that category. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads © ToffeeWeb