Choose one today: Jason Prior v Shola

I could have done as well as Shola did yesterday. And I'm an overweight 56 year old.

I couldn't believe how bad he was yesterday. There is no excuse for the lack of effort he showed. He didn't run the channels, which at least Best did. Despite his height, he hardly won a thing in the air, but worst of all he made no effort to close the QPR defenders down in the second half, when we needed him to do so. I can excuse a lot, but not lack of effort!

The odd great moment from him, such as the goal against the spuds, or his annual stormer against the unwashed, should not be allowed to hide the fact that he has only scored 49 goals in the 11 years he has been part of the first team squad. Simply not good enough!!

 

I love your opening line.

 

Good on you. Now when was the last time you touched your toes?

 

His acceleration is so slow the pitch isn't actually long enough for him to get up to full running speed.

 

Yesterday. Mind you, I was sitting down at the time.

 

Prior of course. Won't be long before we're putting Prior above Best, and, if he can push on next season (which I don't doubt), in the same breath as Ba. The guy is a phenemenoal talent - major coup of a signing. I'm sure he'll be getting a few starts and goals before we see the season out. Exciting times.

 

its funny how we had all this concentrated hate at shola earlier in the season.. then the spurs game... then the floods of.. you know we have been harsh hes a good play to have available, maybe we should put him ahead of best.. maybe he should be given more consistent starts,ect

FICKLE!

we won an all round poor game. yet shola once again takes the blame for not setting the stage alight and banging in 15 million goals.

 

See I think you must defend from the front and every player must play some part. Now I'd describe Shola as a target man. They tend to do less running as far as forwards go but they still have a role in closing down full backs and centre backs. For some reason Shola doesn't seem to think he has to. We'll have to agree to disagree on his chasing yesterday, I thought he did zero.

I've accepted Shola for what he is but I can't put it all down to previous injuries. I admit Roeder and Souness ****ed the lads career but every 6 or 7 games he'll close down, run round like a madman. Was it Spurs he came on left wing and never stopped? I just can't see how I Pardew can excuse going from that to doing feck all. And his touch goes from the sublime to the ridiculous! Bizarre player.

 

Shola just infuriates me. He can look like a premiership striker on his day, however, these are too few and yesterday he looked as if he couldn't give a damn.
I would think any forward is worth a chance if he closed people down when not in possession, could complete 90 mins without looking knackered all the time. I personally do not know what Pardew sees in him to make him a 1st pick player.

 

I'm with the general opinion on this. We need a lot better than Shola, but people are too harsh on him. Anyone picking Prior is ridiculous, none of you have seen him play, just a lad we gave a trial to. Shola has had a slightly below average, prolonged career for us. Clearly Shola is better.

 

Shola any day of the week and he is much better than a lot of you him credit for.

 

Got to be shola. Who is this prior really got a great record in the non-league big difference from the premiership. You look at players that have a blinder in the championship but cant make the step up. What makes any of you think he can yes he is on trial and yes he scored in the reserves against wigan? There arew very few exceptions that remain unspotted until they are 24 can only think of ian wright and kevin philips. Who knows i hope he is the next but choosing him over a striker who has scored and played at the top level for 10 years now is ridiculous. I know there is a lot of shola haters on here but come on

 

I watched your game yesterday, not entirely sure what to make of it to be honest.

It was a funny game. Until Cabaye went off you looked like you were in for a trouncing but as the game went on you could see that QPR were just pathetic, they were never going to score even if your team walked off after 80 minutes.

So you kind of didn't have to play well, and you didn't. Some of your players played ok, like Jonas Gutierrez and Danny Guthrie, but for the most part it was an average performance. The fact that you still won has to be satisfying because that's what champions are made of, not saying you lot are going to be champions but you need that to get places, you know.

Shola Ameobi for me did well though, he looked like a bull. The guy has so much strength he won every ball yesterday. I can see the frustrations from you lot because at times he seems immobilised, I think there was a chance in the game where he was at the back stick and he just watched the ball roll past him, but as far as ball retention is concerned, he did his job. When Pardew asked your players to keep the ball in their half, he done very well at holding off sometimes up to 3 or 4 defenders.

 

I think that's just because the defenders are wary of Shola falling on them and injuring them while he's bumbling around like he's on ice.

 

Shola anyday, this club wouldn't be the same without him. To his credit he was involved in the goal yesterday. Probably to only thing he did was pass to Ryan Taylor though

 

OMG. A bloke in my bar calls him the Black Bambi!

 

No, Shola takes stick for breaking down many of our attacks, forcing us to play a more direct style that only occasionally pays dividends, and meaning that we scraped a 1-0 victory at home to a team of Championship-level thugs.

 

The other

 

Sarcasm?

 

The rag may be soiled but it would still fulfil more attacking duties than Shola.

The defenders would be unwilling to approach the rag incase they get dirty so you could strategically place it in order to create a gap which the other striker could exploit.