Name: Geremi Sorele Njitap Fotso



Club: MKE Ankaragücü
Number: 75
Position: SB*, SM, CM, (I'd consider WB and DMF to be optional)
Nationality: Cameroonian*
Age: 31 (DEC-20-1978)

Foot: R
Side: R

Length: 176
Weight: 78

Attack: 71
Defence: 66
Balance: 83
Stamina: 88
Top Speed: 76
Acceleration: 78
Response: 81
Agility: 82
Dribble Accuracy: 79
Dribble Speed: 78
Short Pass Accuracy: 78
Short Pass Speed: 84
Long Pass Accuracy: 83
Long Pass Speed: 81
Shot Accuracy: 70
Shot Power: 86
Shot Technique: 74
Free Kick Accuracy: 84
Curling: 79
Header: 79
Jump: 82
Technique: 75
Aggression: 80
Mentality: 80
Keeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 79

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition/Fitness: 6
Weak Foot Accuracy: 5
Weak Foot frequency: 5
Consistency: 5

SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Long Throw*

VIDEOS:

YouTube - Cameroon VS Rwanda Second Goal by Geremi Njitap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pViSCZztk

YouTube - Chelsea West Ham 1-0 Geremi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw08YdWg ... re=related

Geremi has had something of a difficult footballing career over the course of the last 5 or so seasons. It's not due to injury troubles or a lack of form, it's actually down to his own versatility. As we all know, Geremi is a very good utility player who can play anywhere along the midfield line and also as a full-back with reasonable quality in any area. This therefore makes him an attractive prospect for most clubs, and most Premiership clubs would be happy to take him on board. Sadly, Geremi has joined the wrong clubs in the process, Chelsea and Newcastle. He was signed by Ranieri at the beginning of Chelsea's ascent after having excellent seasons at both Real Madrid and Middlesbrough, and he went on to have an equally excellent first season at Chelsea. The problem was that Ranieri signed lots of other players, most of them unnecessary, with Abramovich's money going to his head. Heck, I suppose you could say that the signing of Geremi himself was questionable. In midfield Ranieri already had the likes of Duff, Joe Cole, Grønkjær and Mutu who were used on the flanks, and the centre of midfield was packed with the likes of Makelele, Petit, Lampard, Veron, Parker and Stanić. Things didn't appear much better at right-back, Chelsea already had the likes of Desailly, Melchiot and Gallas who could play that position, and Ranieri didn't make the situation any easier by signing Glen Johnson! So it was quite apparent from the start that Geremi would most probably struggle to break into the squad, although we know that he did. Then commenced the Mourinho reign in which, despite cutting the squad down, kind of made the situation even worse with the signings of Robben, Tiago, Jarosik, Paulo Ferreira and Smertin in the positions that Geremi could play. Needless to say, the amount of appearances he made dwindled in comparison to the previous season although he impressed in the vast majority of the matches he played. Many would say that his time at Chelsea was torrid and that Mourinho didn't show enough respect towards him, I disagree. He lasted at Chelsea a lot longer than some of the players I have mentioned and was still in the squad up to the 2007 season, although Mourinho did question his physical ability (The quote is mentioned in the Pace section) in this period it must surely be obvious that there was something about Geremi that made Mourinho obliged to keep him, even if he was to be just a back-up player. At the beginning of the 07/08 season Geremi was signed by Allardyce to be part of the new look Newcastle team and right from the offset Geremi impressed, enough so to be named Captain! In fact Wikipedia has an error in this part of Geremi’s career, for his captaincy was not taken away from him, he merely relinquished it due to the ACON tournament. However, we can still see that Newcastle have too large a squad for Geremi to play in. Let’s face it, Kinnear/Hughton will not play him in his favoured right-midfielder position, a simple look at the squad will show you the amount of players they have there. Repeat this process and look at the players at Newcastle who can also play right-back, and you’ll see that there’s far too much competition. Right now Geremi’s struggling for a place in the squad, and is only playing regularly as a DMF due to the absence of Joey Barton and the absence of talent from Nicky Butt. His career is not going well, and it’s directly comparable to that of Lauren (a former compatriot of Geremi in the Cameroon set-up) who is also struggling to break through at Portsmouth. For Geremi the solution is simple, he needs to move to a “smaller club” and I mean literally! He needs to move to a club with a small squad, that way he can be bereft of competition and will therefore have the chance to shine! In fact, there’s already a club out there perfect for him, Middlesbrough (although Wigan would also be a good move)! They love him at the Riverside, and fans often cite him as one of their best players in recent years. A move back would get the fans wild, especially in such bleak times for Boro.

EXPLANATION:
Stamina
Like a lot of African players he possesses a fantastic energy level and his “Total Distance Covered” figures are always very high. Although he doesn’t go anywhere that quickly, he scarcely shows signs of fatigue and his energetic performances made him a star as a wing-back in the Cameroon national team. Although he’s no longer deserving of an orange value, he certainly still deserves a high Stamina value.

Pace
Has had a chronic pace problem, which almost directly contrasts his Real Madrid and Boro' days, and it’s severe enough for Mourinho to describe him as "running like a 40-year-old". It's simply not a cogent tactical method to play him at right-back, he clearly comes a crop when playing against a team with pacy wingers. Having said that, he did play well in that position last year solely due to his own technical abilities, but he’s simply not the sort of player that Newcastle are looking for in that position. Kinnear is currently playing him as a defensive midfielder, and this appears to be the best solution as his pace issues are not showing at all. He probably would do quite well if Kinnear were to play him as a wide midfielder, if Beckham can do it with his lack of pace then surely Geremi could do it too?

Dribbling, Ball Control and First Touch
He’s not the guy who beats his man, although Duff isn’t either, nor does he attempt to perform neat little tricks on the ball when trying to retain possession. He doesn’t hold up the ball to look for a pass, all he does is bring the ball forward with a tight-control of the ball. Although it’s pretty easy to do that when your running as slow on the ball as Geremi does. What’s particularly shocking about Geremi is his first touch, it’s one of the most abysmal things in football (alongside Titus Bramble and Mido’s promises to lose weight). There are times when he’ll be able to perform a deft touch that‘ll trouble the goalkeeper, and there are a lot of occasions where he takes five touches to control the ball properly.

Short Passing
An understated area of Geremi’s game, his short passes are always quite decent and it’s mostly helped by his range of passing and his fairly decent understanding with his team-mates (although it‘s quite mercurial). His SPS value will, without a doubt, look odd when you see the value he has been giving for his LPS and the explanation that I have given for his long passing. Well, that’s just the kind of guy that Geremi is, he does put some decent power on his short passes and not enough on his long passes and crosses. Sadly Geremi is not showing this as much at Newcastle due to the current tactics being deployed by Kinnear, i.e. simple passes between the defence and midfield to draw out the opposition players, and then catch them on the counter-attack.

Long Passing
An asset to Geremi’s game, his crossing has always been one of his best features and I’d bet that this was one of the reasons why Mourinho kept him for so long. His crosses and long passes are very accurate, and on his “red-arrow” days they can make the thoughts you have about Geremi quite obsolete. The problem, however, with Geremi’s long passing can be broken down into one area. In a direct contrast to his shooting Geremi’s crosses can be quite weak and lacking in height. Although the accuracy is there, it’s the power that he puts behind it that stops him from being one of the assist leaders in the Premier League (that and the positions he’s played in). Just watch he performs a long pass in a dead-ball situation, the ball just lofts slowly giving the opposition defenders time to judge where it’s going rather than coming in with enough pace to cause some havoc.

Free Kicks
A real danger from a dead-ball situation, although he’s not the regularly taker at Newcastle, his free-kicks have always been very dangerous and accurate. He has scored countless free-kicks throughout his career and is sometimes seen as Cameroon’s trump card. He fires them venomously at the opposition goal, normally aiming for the top-hand corners with very little curl on the ball whatsoever. That’s not to say that he should be given a low curling value, his crosses and long passes have that inswinging quality to them that make them quite dangerous. However, his set-pieces have lacked a danger of them recently to such an extent that he was booed off after a series of poor free-kicks.

Heading
An area that nearly everyone overlooks with Geremi! If you look at the goals that he does score, a large number of them are actually headers, in fact the second goal he scored for Newcastle was a header (and he’s only scored 2 goals in all at Newcastle). At Chelsea I can remember quite a few occasions where he troubled the opposition goalkeeper with his headers, and he scored 2 or 3 of them at Boro. His headers are quite accurate, and his decent leap and sharp reactions contribute to him being quite dangerous in the air. At right-back he will contest an aerial battle, unlike a certain Mr. Kilbane, and remains quite strong against a large opponent.

Oh, and I think his Free-Kick Motion is roughly an 8

so are you calling me blind seriously though, could he have been injured during that time or something of the sort? You said he hasn't played as SB in two or so seasons, so could it be you haven't seen him run at full tilt since two season ago?

has he played in the ACN?

yes

yes, and showing some decent pace off the ball. I have to say, he has been one of Cameroon's better players.

decent passes too, especially against Egypt
lol

He was occasionally shunted into a deep-lying SMF position at Newcastle and did occasionally try running at full tilt, but he was always outpaced, so he adapted his playing style more thoughtfully to make his chronic lack of pace a problem. So while he didn't run at full tilt as often, I find it really hard to believe that he's been pacy all along and has been keeping it secret from us, I really do. And I can't believe that's he had an injury lasting 4 years either. He really hasn't justified the sort of numbers you suggested for pace, and if he suddenly shows a high level of pace in the Turkish League....well....it'd be quite an indictment on the effort he put in during his Premier League tenure.

And as for "not running at full tilt", couldn't the same be said about a certain Samuel Eto'o at Internazionale? *cowers in fear of castigation *

Oh, nice.

However, difference is I've watched every single game of Sammy's this season while those while those who strongly disagree haven't Also it was with careful deliberation, and I haven't completely written off the idea that I may indeed be wrong about Eto'o

Perhaps TS @ 85 is rather high, only I remember thinking at the time, beforehand, that his TS was @ 82 and then I saw him chase after a loose ball and i thought, "weeeell... "

At least take into consideration the next time you watch him play.

i can't understand how he lost all the running ability and none of the stamina

pace and stamina aren't always totally related

His speed and acc and stamina is 86 in my old OF. I really wonder what happened to him lost that high amount of speed in a year.

i won't ever touch this thread, seriously. god knows what happened with the leo franco thread im gonna leave god to make any future changes

Chillax, it's just a joke I actually agree with the concept of a reduction in Eto'o's speed. He simply wasn't running at 95 for Acceleration at Barcelona last season, and those injuries and hacks at his legs are starting to take their toll. Plus, the speed he's shown at Inter hasn't made him stand out by any means. I think you've been totally correct in reducing his speed, although my values may differ (Although I can't remember what you've given Eto'o).



I'll certainly take it into consideration. But like I said, if he's showing that speed now, then what does that say about his last 4 seasons in the Premier League.


Who says his Stamina doesn't need reducing? His energy levels haven't inspired much this season and they showed signs of waning towards the end of last season (and he's hardly been in the position where fatigue is going to accumulate. He needs a reduction.


Are you referring to the same old stats that had him at a 67 for Free Kick Accuracy and his Long Pass Accuracy in the mid 70's? Whilst xv63 was a nice guy who really seemed to know stats-making, his stats were woefully inaccurate (and inadequate forn that matter) when it came to Geremi. He got many things wrong with his stats for Geremi, so I really wouldn't use the past stats as a basis for an arguement. That'd be like using xv63's old stats for Chimbonda (The ones that had him at a 90 for Stamina ).