Our second choice striker last season scored 10 goals. Dele, Lucas and Bergwijn managed just 13 between them.
It's a shame Dele doesn't have that half second of acceleration to make him an effective wide player, because if he did he would be very useful in the role Jay Rodriguez had at Southampton to arrive at the far post at the perfect time for Rickie Lambert to flick it on Which is the closest teams come to a big man/little man pairing these days
Thought Dele was very poor on the weekend. Fluffed a golden chance too. I’ve mentioned going for Mandzukic in the past, surprised no one has snapped him up.
Since the four I named never played together last season your point is irrelevant. Especially since Vinicius only scored against dire opposition.
He barely played against anyone decent, though. Only played proper minutes in the league against Chelsea and Villa, scoring against the latter. Still got 10 goals and 3 assists, which was about 1 goal contribution per 90 minutes.
My memory is not what it was, but I think Dele was best in the days before Son became a fixture. In those days it was talk of Dele/Kane not Son/Kane linking up, and you would regularly see Dele appearing in the box late with a vital goal. It's less likely to happen with Son in the team (literally) ahead of him. In fact that's why it was so refreshing to see him pop up with that miss against Wolves. Sure he didn't score, but it was very reminiscent of what he used to do. If they can find a way to allow him to do that like he used to, and still have Son, then it could be very effective.
You’re trying to convince yourself (and us) a makeshift front four without a specialised striker would score more than a front four with a specialised striker yet it’s my point that’s irrelevant? Ok. And by the way, of the 13 goals scored by the three last season, 9 of them were scored against “dire opposition”.
Any data point is irrelevant unless it compares my suggestion to an alternative. I am not trying to persuade anyone just stating an opinion. The problem with having a back up striker to Kane is that you need two 50m strikers on the pitch together to get what Kane brings. I don't see the point of having a mediocre replacement....much better to put players who are already getting game time on the pitch together.
Dane is not too young to step up. We've let an international striker go out on loan so the manager isn't prioritizing a striker. We won our first two games with a front 3 of Lucas, Son and Bergwijn. As soon as Kane was back, Lucas was dropped and that was unlucky for him. We proved that we can play with a front 3 without Kane. with sensible rotation we should be fine. Whoever we might/should have bought , it would not guarantee anything-especially top 4. Realistically, who out of City, United, Chelsea and 'pool are going to drop out of that position. City-are still a very strong team and were way ahead last season. Chelsea have added Lukaku and are CL winners. United have added one of the best in the world in addition to Sancho and Varane, to a team that already was strong. 'pool are still as strong as they were. We would find it extremely hard to break into that even by spending £50 million on a striker.
He looked like a slow version of Darren Bent to me. Bought nothing in general play but was sometimes in the right place to score. That doesn't make him someone we should keep.
We have to hope Solksjaer is as bad a manager as he sometimes looks or that Liverpool regress. I think we are good enough to get close to those four.
A backup striker done well in his games last season, Vinicius notched 10 goals and 3 assists in 22 appearances and he didn't play the full 90 in a good number of them, his goals/ assists ratio to minutes played will have been very, very good. He definitely wasn't a mediocre replacement, he was just severely underused but still contributed his fair share. It's not better to put players together and ask them to play in a position that isn't their specialised one. Players train for years for a specific role, to think they can do better in another position over someone who trains and plays that role full time doesn't make much sense.
The stats for Vini are totally skewed. He scored once in the PL in 303 minutes. The PL is the important league. 6 of his goals came in the Europa- hopefully that is a level that Dane can produce.
He's 17 and we've drawn a couple of decent teams in the group. I'd rather take the pressure off him, playing him a lot in the U23s and bench him in the cups. Bringing in an experienced head in case of injury to Kane makes a lot more sense to me.
I don't get this attitude. IMO he needs to be thrown in and given the chance. As Sir Matt said . “If they are good enough, they are old enough.” An experienced head to sit on the bench?They are expensive. Ings would not have agreed to sit on the bench. We are not United who will now have Cavani sitting on the bench.
I’ve just got back from a national work conference so I’ve missed everything today. (Or nothing, as would appear to be the case) have sky reported that Levy has gone home yet and there’ll be no business from Tottenham? is it looking like we’ll be stuck with 4 right backs?
