Why was the lad not given a shout last night? I've made my mind up on Ji, he simply can't play football, some time ago and was hugely disappointed when he came on last night instead of Wickham. I think we should start and give our £8m summer acquisition more game time and rest Campbell and ditch Ji altogether.
Agree 100% about Ji. When him came on against Man City he was useless...then popped up with a goal (in all honesty I thought he fell over for the goal). I just don't think Ji has a clue. With regards to Wickham, when watching him here appears clumsy, however giving him game time would surely eradicate that! I would start Wickham against QPR, with Bendnter. QPR defence isn't the best, and I reckon power and size would destroy A. Ferdinand. It must be something in training, perhaps not giving 100%?? Maybe he is still feeling the effects from his knee injury against Utd?? Who knows but MON
Wickham has done nothing to suggest he's even as good as Ji imo, he's got a first touch to make Jeff whitley blush, he's slow, gets pushed off the ball and looks soft as s***e. We need two new strikers in the summer and Whickham needs a loan spell in a lower league
Parker has it. He has a lot of potential, but he is simply not ready for the Premier League right now. We will work on his first touch and collection on the ball, and he will be decent from there, he's ok once he has the ball fully iunder control (some of his goals for Ipswich prove this!) but you don't get that time and space up front in the Prem.
Frankly I have not seen enough of Ji or Wickham to know if the are going to be good, but I have seen enough to know they do not seem to be ready for 1st team atm. Ji missed a sitter last night, but he had only been on for a few moments and we were not creating much (if anything) so one miss is magnified Also Campbell after an initial promising return has gone back to his old headless chicken performances, pre his injury state, it may be he will be OK next season he has pace and can shoot and just needs more games? Bendtner has been gone over in other threads, I doubt he will ever be prolific, he has a good first touch but quick he is not and he needs to be in the pen area but has an aversion for it. Personally I would only buy him if his fee and wages were low, a squad/impact player he can hold the ball up and bring others into the game when he is in the mood. On his performances (unless he is saving himself for the euros) and as a reject from Arsenal I cannot see any big bids going in for him. Just think we had young Mr Welbeck on loan and what sort of bids would have gone in for him and compare Bendtner to him. The skunks scraped a win against Norwich cos' one of there strikers hit a good shot, did any of our strikers hit one good shot on target last night? MoN has had the midfield and others making up for the lack of firepower of the strikers, when Sess is fit that is why he is played, he is, IMHO, not an out and out striker but he will create chances for others so we score more. So a forward line of Welbeck, Bent and Gyan is a thing of the past...we still have not replaced them.
Wickham has not impressed me in the main but TBH I thought he looked OK when he came on for Bendy, certainly equal if not better than Ji. Was Ji getting his chance to shine last night? Did MON want to test him out in action, who knows but I agree with you Cest, it surprised me when I saw he was coming on. I'm afraid when our midfielder s stop hitting those fantastic goals our lack of a real striker shows, roll on the summer.
both Ji and Wickham need to spend a year out onloan and then they can come back for the pre season to be assessed by MoN if he thinks they can cut it then they should be given a chance if not move them on
Unfortunately from what I've heard young Connor is suffering from Osgood-Schlatters disease (growing pains in the knees). This involves musular pain in the thighs, behind knee joints, in calves and is quite unpleasant. Young lads normally grow out of this as they mature and it has little or no long term effect. However, Sunderland are trying to manage him with kit gloves to make absolutely certain there is no long term damage and this involves him being on a reduced training regime during the week. They continue to keep in the squad because he does offer something different when he comes on (physical presence). In my opinion we've seen a lot of players injuries handled badly in the past and it's a nice change to see them put a player first with the hope they'll get more out of him in the future. Hope this helps
Re the above; i have noticed he wears an awful lot of strapping on his legs. I thought maybe shinsplints but maybe its the above.
This is very interesting, and rings true. Good thing if it is, and if he'll simply outgrow it. Didn't Gerrard have similar issues with his muscles as a young un? He turned out pretty well...
Can we get our money back if young Connor is knacked? Also what will happen to him, is he compensated or covered by insurance also?
Ji played for South Korea but has limited international experience, he has little or no experience in the english leagues. I think he has the potential, football awareness and a far better touch (apart from last night in the six-yard box) than many others on our books. I agree that a spell in championship would help BUT..... I still believe he was brought in as part of the package that involves future investment from South Korea and the selling of the Sunderland brand .... therefore, loaning him out may not be acceptable to potential backers from that part of the world!!
my brother had the same thing lads... he from the age of about 2/3 everytime he grows he got horrible pain in his legs and muscels in knees and calfs gerrard also got held back a few years because its bad to play at the time
Waste of £8 million imo.. I'm not buying into this "one for the future bollocks".....when's the future? 2015.... He's 19 next week there have been mamy many players who have shone before that age.... His price tag is his burden, no-one should have paid that much for a "one for the future gamble"
Yeah I don't buy into 'hes one for the future'. If your good you play, if your not you don't. Rooney was 18 playing for UTD and England. Owen was 18 during the World Cup 98. The only position where being young is a problem is GK. Generally they become good later on. Wickham needs game time, maybe back in the Champ. For something like 15 goals in 2-3 seasons, we paid about 7 million too much.
Neither Ji nor Whickham have had enough game time to judge as both SB and MON seem to be pinning our hopes on Bendtners ability an ability that only Bendtner thinks he has. We have some games coming up soon where we should be putting these two in for at least 45 minutes. With the other lads on this "one for the future" crap, fine if you are a top team with a top squad but, for teams like us we need them now not in a couple of seasons time too much of a luxury in my opinion.
