Penalties are proper goals. You've still got to stick them away. Just ask Rickie Lambert or Le Tiss. And Armstrong was not playing as a CAM when he scored the goal against QPR. He was in the penalty area when he received the ball!
We've had 3 months to sign a striker. Why wait til the last day? We will get overcharged because we are desperate.
Really wanted to see Ballard given a chance here. Everything else I'm fine about though; Che was... alright, but that's about it.
We all know he doesn’t do enough to be first choice number 9. If we want to win the league / get promoted / have a good season then it’s the number one priority for us.
A CAM isn't allowed in the area? And any position can take pens. Adarma hasn't intentionally scored from open play as a striker. And what if he gets injured? This is a ridiculous position to be in after 3 months of the window.
Cool but he doesn’t want to stay and has been asking/trying to leave for 12 months. He didn’t want to stay in the PL and he certainly doesn’t now we’ve been relegated. If I’m Martin and my job is to get promotion, I’m not hanging my hat on a bloke who’s openly trying to leave. He’s 27, has an international tournament in 12 months and clearly (in his head, if not elsewhere) he is a PL player. We’ve suffered a miserable collection of strikers missing chances for too long, I’m fine for them all to go.
Not sure on this one tbh. A loan move makes sense but Reading? If Selles sets them up like he did us then he will have no desire to attack and just sit back. 4 goals scored and 4 conceded in his first 5 games suggests a similar approach. Ballard will be feeding off scraps in his first season in the adult game. Location wise, he is a young lad and it will allow him to not have to relocate though so assume that played a part.
It’s the nature of the transfer window. If you believe Martin’s comments in interviews then Adams’ future still wasn’t known a few days ago, so buying a striker earlier wasn’t really on the cards. It’s very much a domino effect waiting until clubs make their moves, and usually that is late in the window
We really don’t want Tall Paul, so presumably will ship him out on loan before the window closes even if we have to pay half his wages still. We’re sending Ballard out on loan. We’re also letting Mara and Che go out on loan… So that leaves us with AArma who doesn’t look good as the solo striker in RMs system. Are we really going to bring in 3 strikers? Stewart is injured and has a dodgy injury record. We’d need someone to compete with him and play when he’s out injured. And a back up/3rd option. Going into the season with just Stewart and one other + AArma who doesn’t suit it wouldn’t fill me with confidence. I’d rather we put our foot down and let Che go on a free next year. Che, Stewart and another fills me with far more confidence as a strike force that can fire us to promotion.
If Ballard, Che and Mara are all off, we'll be getting more than just Stewart in, I'd be fairly certain about that.
1 goal in 25 appearances. Hopefully our scouting is slightly better than “who was the last bloke we saw play”
Got to be calculated; hasn’t it!? Surely? Everyone knew Che was going; the only surprise is it’s a loan. 24hrs to go!
Yeah this is why I’m pretty calm about the striker situation. You don’t need to be Haaland to score goals in this team based on the games so far. We will create a lot for whoever is leading the line so hopefully there are potential players we could get tomorrow who will be successful
