MOWBRAY ON DAJAKU Tony Mowbray has admitted he is finding it hard to fit Leon Dajaku into the side - but insists the German has a part to play this season. CONFIDENCE "He's got some good attributes and he needs to get his confidence levels up. He needs to believe in himself. He has got a rocket in his right foot which he doesn't show anybody enough." SHOOT! "I watch him in training and he can take the net off the goals with the power in his right foot, and yet have you ever seen it? I keep saying 'when you get on your right foot, shoot!' I see it in training and it's amazing. If anything, he tries a bit too hard. And is he a central striker? Does he want to play wide?" WINGER OR STRIKER? "He's got some competition if he wants to play wide in this team. The opportunity was there to play him centre-forward but I'm not sure he is comfortable with his back to goal, he needs the ball in front of him chasing onto it." INBETWEENER "It's trying to see the players you've got and how you're going to put them into the team in the way we're going to play. I think he is just falling a little bit in between because he is not a back-to-goal centre-forward who can hold people off and bring people in, yet he probably hasn't got the blistering speed that you need to really threaten the space behind them." AROUND THE SQUAD "He's been around the squad and he's helped us. I took him off at half-time the other day [at Huddersfield] but he had worked hard enough, yet a proper centre-forward coming on you could see made the difference." He needs loaning out in January imo. I've not once yet seen anything from him to suggest he'll make it at this level.
I can't deny it, I find Mowbray's summaries quite interesting. I like Dajaku as well, he'll become a very good player imo.
If he can't trust him for 90 minutes when we've been short of proper strikers then that tells me something. Look to loaning him out in January? Like you Smug think he has a bit about him but he's keeping it well hidden at the moment. The lads a bit of a conundrum.
Like Smug I think there's great potential there. It's fitting him into the team at the moment that is the problem. He needs game time so should probably go out on loan.
I remember when I first saw him, playing out wide but constantly looking to make diagonal runs across the back line sitting on the shoulder of the full back. I thought getting someone like Dan Neil on the ball playing balls through for him I thought he would have been tremendous. He's never really been given that opportunity, however at times when he's been given game time I'm not sure he's taken it, his decision making at times is questionable but like you I do think there's something there, just hope TM can uncover it
not good enough at the moment,loan him out for a season with the proviso he must play a certain number of games we have better choices available, i think one of our own Diamond is a better choice, but i bet there are a few who will disagree
I can say, with some certainty that we would not have signed him permanently had we not been obliged to by the terms of his loan
there is a footballer in there, last time out he was almost screaming for a ball to be played over the top yet none came...if he is to play then we need to play to his strengths, the lad looks lost out there currently and T.M. has given him a few chances. diamond did the same on his last loan, looked good, scored goals and became a valuable member of the squad but he just never seems to do it in a safc shirt, is he another we do not play to his strengths? i always look back at SNQ, he was never a gazelle and never tried to be, his strength lay in the air, he also knew how to create just enough space for himself and P.R. had two wingers that put perfect crosses in time after time...if he had been our main striker at the time with us putting balls to his feet or for him to run onto we would not have done as well.
He did down at Lincoln, were he starred against a team that were flying at the time, I have yet to see Dajaku approach anywhere near that level of performance , and dont expect him too either, he hasn't got the talent.
Still a bit of a mystery. Hasn't had a decent run in the team but whether that's through circumstance or because he's not good enough I don't know.
I've said before I watched him closely when he first came, even out wide he plays on the shoulder of the defender constantly ready to make that run on to a through ball or over the top, those balls never came, those are his main strengths and if we don't do that then there's no point playing him. He looked lost as the loan striker with his back to goal , that's not his fault and doesn't make him a bad player that's just not his position, so like you say play to his strengths or don't pick him
He is either not good enough or we haven't played him in a way that makes the most of his talent! I think it's the former not helped with a little bit of the latter. I think if he is going to play it needs to be in a role where he nipping in and around a big strong striker who does all the physical side. When he stayed as he was pushed out near the end of last year but it was clear we were obliged to sign, was just more suprised the lad agreed to it.
I dont either I mate , and probably never will, but I do know that Dajaku and before him Jones were given the sort of chances that Diamond deserved and thats my beef. I'm still seething over McFuzz and Younger but thats another story. Hopefully our academy products will now get a fair crack of the whip, not just praised one day and forgotten the next, we will see, but its not surprising that some leave first chance they get. Our academy has never been the same since Ross got rid of Robbie Stockdale imo.
To me mate he looks lost as soon as he gets the ball, I dont know what his strengths are other than hitting the crowd behind the goal.
I think he could be decent playing as a second striker alongside Stewart, we have a few who can play that position though so may not get the chance.
