After cooling off, My Post Bolton Rant

That's an interesting stat that, 100 goals. I think Billy Sharp is next top with 84. Strangely though, out of 8 seasons in League 1, Grigg has only hit double figures 4 times. I've been trying to find, but can't, where Grigg ranks on the most appearance in League 1. I expect it's high, especially for a goalscorer. Most of the other League 1 top scorers on the list were either flashes in the pan or moved on to higher divisions. For some reason Grigg has stayed in League 1, being unexceptional on the occasions he's had a go at the Championship.
I think that speaks volumes about him as a player. I also think, based on his up and down record, that he was a panic buy based on his stats alone, rather than on whether he'd fit into the team and the system.

 

My take on this is that we have a team and manager who have been drained of any confidence. Not sure that Ross can recover from this now, but I'm sure he will go elsewhere and be a success in the future.

 

What about the other 4/5 manager who managed to keep his head up and manage him correctly? Were they 'top top' managers in this league?

I'm not solely blaming Ross for the Grigg situation by the way as there is an element of the onus being on Grigg himself but we are simply not playing to his strengths and never have.

 

I feel that he was the wrong player and, as I said above, a panic buy. On the other hand, once he's here, you'd think that more effort would be made to get the best out of him.

 

Maybe, but Liverpool would sign say Aguero in the PL based on his stats no issue as he scores goals at that level. (Maybe a bad comparison but I would guess you catch my drift!).

Proof is in the pudding, he scores goals at league one level no question.

We don't play to his strengths, that's on Ross 100%.

I'm looking at his League One stats and he's scored 100 goals in 287 appearances. Good stats on the face of it.

When you actually look at his goals per 90 mins he scores one goal every 192 mins on the pitch which is one goal every 2.14 games, an even better return.

The 4 seasons he's scored 19+ goals he played a lot more minutes than the other seasons. He needs a run of games and he will score goals providing we play to his strengths, which we aren't at the minute. It shows me he isn't an impact sub too.

 

He did score goals in league one at one time, he does not any more, and you cant blame Ross as he has had chances provided, to score in every game he has played, I struggle to see what these strengths are tbh, he looks like another Jozy Altidore to me and has from day one, quite content to amble through games happy to live on his reputation.

 

Yeah, I agree with you about his stats- they do look good, although I'd say that they also highlight questions about him. And I was agreeing about not playing to his strengths. I think Ross had set the team up a certain way and if he wanted to continue that way, they should have looked at a different player. They either didn't, or couldn't, and Ross hasn't adapted to what he got.
Despite not being ready to throw the towel in on him, things like that stack up against him and make defending him harder.

 

I'm not having that, you don't just become **** overnight from one season to the next.

I'm not saying I have the answers but I would like to think that Jack Ross has an idea, it's clear he doesn't.

 

None of them inherited a player who hadn't played for half a season though - they got him straight on the back of scoring goals and he continued to score goals for them. It's far easier to keep a player confident than it is to get one confident.

As @clockstander says - he's had chances - at least 4 this season which I would back my 14 year old son to score. So the tactics are giving him chances and he's not taking them. He's had other chances which you'd class as half chances which would be a "good goal" if he scored them - but you expect a forward to score one in 4 or 5 of them as a minimum. Not sure how Ross can be blamed for this. He scored past Burnley and I thought "Here we go - get his confidence going" and it just didn't happen. Seems the only player we have who isn't scared of missing is McGeady!

 

I'm not sure about this idea that we're not 'set up' by Ross in a way that brings the best out in Grigg. If fact I'm not really that sure how we are set up tbh.

When you study Grigg he's not 'setting himself up' to get the best out of himself. He's not playing on the shoulder of defenders, not bending his runs or making space for himself. When I've studied him he actually seems to be 'marking the defender' and unavailable for passes. He doesn't pull defenders around or put them under pressure and I can't remember him chasing balls down.

I'd say Ross and Grigg are equally to blame and, sad to say this, but I'd have taken him off at Bolton and replaced him with Ozturk.

I never have any confidence that he'll score and, obviously, nor does he.

 

Agree totally - as I said above, he's had the ball in A1 positions at least 4 times this season where you'd put your house on most forwards of any level scoring - he's scored once and that wqas a pass from the opposition!.

Heard a few say "he's putting himself about" and I see a player looking at a defender he knows will clear the ball and make a token run to make it look like he's trying to get there. Charlie Wyke, as much as he'll never be a finisher, if the ball is dropping in the box he will put himself in danger to try to get there. I don't see that in Grigg. Sad reality all in all but it's what I see

 

As I said before
Maja scored for us. Mcnulty seems to be scoring for us. Even Wyke is scoring more than Grigg.
So how come Grigg isn't scoring if other players can/have in this team?

 

I was at the Rochdale game (miracle) and we did score our second after he came on but he was very sluggish and just did not seem arsed. He just doesn't seem to have any enthusiasm.

 

I thought Grigg started the season with a bit of energy like he had a point to prove, by his standards anyway, but it soon fizzled out when he didn't get any goals and indeed in the first game he barely had a sniff of a chance.

Maybe he's a bit over sensitive and is the type of player/person who struggles to lift themselves out of a bad patch. I don't believe he genuinely doesn't give a **** I think he's having a bad time mentally.

Not making excuses for him just speculating why he's not anywhere close to being in form. I get the feeling Wyke is a sensitive lad too, couple of bad performances and a few boos and his head is gone.

 

Think Grigg's body language is all wrong, he barely celebrates when he scores a goal (perhaps there so infrequent he's forgotten what to do) and he's hardly all over his team mates when they score.
He seems completely unhappy to be here but Jack says he trains well and he has faith he will come good ( suppose he has to say that doesn't he).
Theres no knee slides or going daft when he scores he's either in a state of deep depression or doesn't care, it's just hard to understand him but I would play him until he either comes good or is found to be completely useless to us, whichever happens first but the second option has a good head start.
Baffling.

 

Exactly.

 

and McNulty

 

Seriously when was the last time watmore did anything that remotely reflected the unjustified adoration he is afforded.
Nice polite lad etc etc.
Ye gods though he is a sicknote of prodigious proportions. Given he is supposedly one of our highest earners he is little more than a drain on resources. He is wealthy in his own right from the game and is from a seriously minted family.
We will be waiting a long time for him to make any real impact.
Macnulty is also another sicknote in the making.
If these 2 are to be relied on the omens are not good

 

as i do not get to games now i rely a lot on match reports to go along with commentary (tried to sort out viewing the games via android box but that dried up) from what i can gather, grigg is not getting a lot of chances but also seems reluctant to put himself into what we would class as 'good positions'.

now, put the two factors together and there is a reasonable guess to be made that he is suffering a major drop in confidence (too much expectation maybe?)...a drop in form (caused by his injury and resultant time out of the game?) ...the team are not playing to his strengths (which would beg the question of 'why buy him then?')...personally, i think it is a combination of them all, the expectation from the fans* was evident by the immediate singing of the 'on fire' song although he was really just aiming to get back to match fitness...i honestly think he is now best held back until we have a nice 3 goal lead (yeh, i know) then bring him on when there is less pressure, hopefully he will feel more settled and if he is just not wanting to be playing here it will soon be apparent but at least we shouldalready have the games won.

* this is not me saying it is the fans fault, grigg was the player most wanted here and we all expected him to hit the ground running, for some strange reason,i just feel the size of the place and the crowd hit him harder than expected and maybe, he is one of those that performs better with smaller crowds to please?