Possibly get another, I was more coming from the view that we should be looking to get a player who offers more of a direct goal threat. He is playing as a winger, but he doesnt really take people on or create direct assists, which I believe would be more effective than the other stuff he brings to the time (i.e. bringing others into play and causing distraction).
To be honest I think we're always on the look out for improvements to the team. That's how we got Mane...although we didn't keep him for long..........(No pun intended)
Much more constructive, thanks I like the garden saying. Mrs S will appreciate that What tune is the song to?
Isn't the point that noone can believe we are playing him as noone can believe we have failed to fix our striking issues in the transfer window, but as we did fail to improve, he is the best option available?
He is currently our only guy who can play alone up front which he does most of the time with Ings dropping back. Losing him put us under pressure. Yes we want that from someone who scores as well but they don’t grow on trees
Personally I think Ings is a pretty good fix thus far. It’s how we decide to play. Having Charlie on the bench as super sub sits quite well with me.
Out of interest who are these players that have been creating something useful in the past couple of years?
I don’t think we have them yet mate, hence why we use Shane. It’s not his fault we need him but surely we need better pretty soon.
He's not here to score, he's here to make space, stretch the other team, and help bring others into play. I'm fine with him starting ahead of Austin. He earns his place in the team.
Really, if Gabbi was always going to be 4th choice then we probably should have sold him and signed someone else.
5th, don’t forget Sam For me Sam is the New Shane and Gabbi is a more mobile Charlie (potentially) You’ve got to think that if Gabbi can do it then sparky can help him
Strewth mate you are a hard one to convince.........He does do other things as others have stated.......IE move into spaces to draw defenders etc. There is so much more to football than scoring and direct assisting............there are other parts to play............
I said during the transfer window that what we were lacking was physicality up front to help us control the game. Somebody to make it stick when we play it up front. I have also said before that Long is the closest to that we have any why I didn't want to sell him. So its no surprise to me that the only times this season weve been able to control the game for long periods was with him on the pitch. I think there was a thread about long at some point last season where I said the same thing.
I have never before seen him take on players in the way he has this season. Maybe he did this for Norwich, but rarely for us. I suspect Mr Hughes has spent a little time with him on the training pitch introducing the idea of foot feints. Or just told him to f*cking get on with it. Though not always having an end product (known in the football world as Long's syndrome) it panics opposition players forcing more poor decisions from them. And he looks happier, I like happy*. *only in others, can't be arsed meself
Beddy, Hardly any Saints managers have had him as their first choice, so that sort of trumps your own point. He is also a full international for The Republic of Ireland. All due respect to them, but that isn’t really an indicator either and he has spent a lot of time on the bench to them too.
That’s a different set of Qs though. If we don’t use Gabbi we should have sold him as Gallagher can do the job of doing nothing on a bench or sat out the squad.
Could that be because they were more defensive than Sparky's teams?? If memory serves when ever the other managers had to have ago he was brought on to just do that.......and sometimes with a bit of success for the team
Is he a winger? I don’t think so. He has played wide for us but I would say that if asked, Shane would say he is a centre forward.
My reference to him being a winger is based on recent games...didn't mean to infer he was one....although to be fair he doesn't do too bad a job as one......
