of course we miss LND, he is an 'all round player' in so much as he defends, will go wide for the ball, hold the ball up, bring others into play and grabs a good percentage of goals along the way. the club was linked to a couple of loans for younger lads and gelhardt was the one to join and that seemed to take weeks to happen (and i feel he will do a good job, hard working lad) and the rest chose another club, i do wonder how fast the club can arrange a striker as some feel it is quite a simple matter. personally, i think the club should have had a couple to look at, maybe they did and were told there was 'no chance' so apart from free agents who are usually in the last years of playing/regular injured/not worth a new contract from the old club there is not a great choice that can be contacted and their club agrees for talks to happen then the process begins of trying to offer the player a decent contract at a club which could mean he will have a 'bit part' to play etc etc etc. of course i would have liked another front man or two 'just in case' but pretty much like that experienced man to replace evans they are not easy to get..remember we were astounded when maja was allowed to leave in january so i would be astonished if another club allowed a tried and tested striker leave like that...yesi know it was the players choice but that is a rare happening.
I'd have been thrilled if Olivier Giroud made himself available for loan to us which would have solved everything, but unfortunately it didn't happen. Realistically though, no-one was loaning us a striker to play 10 minutes off the bench. So it meant actually signing a player permanently. We were not going to pay a fee for a player to the end of the season, so it was either a free transfer (who has no better options than a 6 month deal) or buying someone long term. We attempted to sign players for the long term (Nemeth as an example) but quite rightly wouldn't compromise. So we're left with the option of a free transfer to the end of the season. Chris Martin is the one that has been suggested (assuming he'd rather sign for us than play 90 minutes every week for QPR). He's a 34 year old journeyman who has scored a goal every 353 minutes this season. If we played him the 10-15 minutes a game that people are suggesting for our last 13 games, he'd play up to 200 minutes of football for us. So he'd have to double his scoring rate this year just to score a single goal for us. So we're down to it being about "how he would help the team" which is subjective and we have no way of knowing. People talk about Stewart giving us an outball, but to me, that happens because of his energy and the way he runs the channels as much as the way he holds the ball up. He chased lost causes and balls into space. Martin would perhaps be effective if the ball was hoofed up to him. One thing I'd put good money on though is that Gelhardt will outscore Martin between now and the end of the season.
I don't think the notion that our lack of a designated striker is as a result of us being shafted by Everton, not having properly prepared with a number of targets,not being willing to spend or generally engaging in incompetent business practice has any credence to it whatsoever.There's no evidence to support any of it. I think we've largely been a victim of circumstance......Ross's injury,Everton's administrative chaos,one or two dominoes not falling for us at the last knockings. Our player dealings have mostly been excellent.....it's crazy to suggest otherwise.
So we'd currently have Simms but not Amad. Hmm,, not convinced that's good practice tbh. And, honestly, how could this back-up thing possibly work. We lost Simms to an unexpected recall and Stewart to injury. Basic business practice may work in business but football is nothing like that. In business you'd have a back up computer system, or stationary provider, but football players are human beings with wives and children who need doctors, dentists, schools, etc. You can't just have them sitting around, with packed suitcases, waiting for your call.
Thought this was discussed to death when the window closed. We all know but surely it's time to move on.
Gelhardt will score another 6 or 7 goals this season for us, in my opinion. He gets in the right position and any centre forward will tell you that is half the battle. His workrate will mean we win the ball high and have Clarke and Roberts and Amad getting at the last line of defence and they will all score as a result of Gelhardt. Since Gelhardt came in our results have been good, last night apart. He has contributed to those results because we are a team, not a bunch of individuals. Any team in this league would pick Stewart if he was fit so of course he is a miss. But unlike most teams in this league we have a squad that can adapt to missing him. Been a bit downbeat on here today. 1 defeat lads and lasses. That is all. Still a hell of a good side, with some brilliant young lads. Lets not forget the 95% great stuff they do.
The thing with Stewart is that he draws in opposition defenders that are **** scared of him scoring, which creates more space for the likes of Diallo, Roberts and Clarke.
Gelhardt has decent positioning sense, a cracking shot on him, and some good skills, and like any new player needs time to settle, it will be a few more games before we see the improvements and progression some crave , no different to Stewart when he first arrived with people wondering could he cut it then again can he make the step up, just chill all will come good we are in good hands
