Haaland has something like 8 touches a game and scores a hattrick, do you need your striker doing more than that?
Haaland is averaging more than a goal a game. If you're operating at that level then no, a striker doesn't need to do more. But Oscar isn't and whilst he the best striker we've had since Abel, I understand why no bigger teams came in for him in the summer.
There isn't anything but you run into issues when you go through a patch of only scoring 1 in 12 as Oscar did when you don't offer much else
But why would anyone find scoring goals in the Championship more impressive than scoring in Portugal? The championship is a lower level
Physical aspect of the championship shows you can adapt to English football. Will be seen as less of a risk. And whilst some clubs in Portugal are arguably a higher level, the majority of the league isn't.
That sounds too much like an old Peter Swan quote. "I don't rate Stuart Elliott, I mean what does he give us apart from goals?" Honestly I'm not ****ting you, Swan actually said that in the Hull Daily Mail
You don't need to operate at more than a goal a game, Oscar is doing more than enough in this team to justify his contribution on the pitch. He's scoring in most games he plays and has earned us a lot of points off his own boot. This is an echo of a conversation I had with someone else, but the contention that no 'bigger' teams came in for him last summer is rubbish, it's pure guesswork.
Because it shows he can score well in England not just in a foreign league? It means he's less of a gamble going into the PL than he might otherwise have been if he had gone directly.
He was on plenty of clubs radars, but if a 'bigger' side had made him a 'better' offer than we did then he wouldn't be here.
The majority of that run we were 2 or 3 down by half time and abject though as a whole team. I don't just disagree that a goal every 2 on average isn't by itself justification for inclusion, but I also disagree with your implication that he doesn't do a fair bit of the graft also. He does.
Haaland hasn't scored in three games he must be rubbish too. Strikers go through purple patches, and particularly when the team was as disjointed as it was when he went through that run I don't think you can put the blame on him. Strikers like him are there to finish the chances created, if you aren't creating chances then that's an issue with the personnel you put behind him. If we were creating chance after chance for him and he was fluffing his lines that's a different story.
It was Longman the other night after a really good performance, Tufan has had loads of it for supposedly being uninterested and unfit when he's clearly proved to be the opposite and now it looks like its shaping up to be Oscar's turn, our top scorer... Christ, I hope Tetteh doesn't start banging them in, for his own sake. I know nobody is exactly rinsing Oscar here, but this is how it starts every time; with seemingly unjustified comment on a players lack of contribution. Right off the top of my head Oscar set up Tufan's chance against Burnely. With movement around him I think he's been underrated for how good he is at providing other players opportunities on goal.
I can’t understand anyone saying he doesn’t contribute enough. He gets stuck in, wins the ball, holds it up with some nice touches, just does all the simple stuff and does it well. Should we be expecting him to do rainbow kicks through the defence and 50 yard diagonals? Maybe a few Cruyff turns for good measure.
On a side note to all this, I've been thinking about our summer transfer window and if you look at where we're at right now, I honestly don't think it was that bad overall, for such a large number of changes... Oscar - best striker since Abel Tufan - comes up with goals and gives us a real edge in the middle and final third Tetteh - makes things happen and we've been crying out for him to come back Allahyar - stretches them for counter attacks, keeps the pressure off us and we've been crying out for him to come back Seri - our quarterback Christie - owns the right side, really consistently Pelkas - popped up with a few goals and we'll likely only see more from him when he's back Traore - not seen him yet so impossible to say, but seems to be rated highly and in our long term plans Salah - again, impossible to say, but most Arsenal fans weren't happy to see him go. One for the future Sinik - still too soon to say, but it does seem like this one won't work out for us Baxter - good keeper, was unfortunate how bad we were when he had his run of games but likely won't be one for the future for us by the looks of things Vale - hasn't worked out Simons - we seem keen on making him one for the future and has shown glimpses of promise Woods - hit and miss, decent player Lo Tutala - too soon to say Covil - one for the future I think a large part of this season so far has been more about the McCann hangover effect, Shota being out of his depth, a solid League 1 side trying to evolve into a Championship side with a lot of new players to bed in and also our injury crisis which has all culminated to make us look so much worse than we actually are. If you compare who we've brought in to losing KLP and Honeyman I think we're honestly miles better off now. Credit to Dawson who then seemed to find a spark in difficult circumstances and credit to Rosenior for nurturing that. We just need to get that 'home win' monkey off our backs now so we can push on.
Tobi Ademayo scored on his Watford debut weeks after being on loan at a non-league side.. so I suppose it isn't that ridiculous after all.
