There aren't that many strikers of that ilk about at the moment. Most teams have small, quick forwards. There are a few like Henderson (Millwall), Davies (Bolton), Wilbraham (Palace), Barnett (Peterbro) and some lanky guys like Zigic (Birmingham), Madine (Weds), etc but not many. Not all of them play all the time. Lot more teams playing good football in this division than ever. I think our biggest problem in terms of height comes at set pieces. Most teams still have big centre halves but we don't. That was true all of last season though and despite the guy next to me having kittens at every corner or free-kick, we didn't often concede from them.
Most teams have got somebody big they can play up front. If we've got a pairing of Chester and Cooper any half decent manager is going to do it regardless of what their normal pairing up front is because it will give them a massive tactical advantage. I'm pretty sure Middlesbrough's main tactic last season wasn't to launch long balls in the direction of the opposition right back, but with Garcia playing there instead of Rosenior that's what they did against us, because it was an obvious weakness they'd have been foolish not to target. Zigic is hardly lanky, he's over 15 stone. You can throw in Marlon King who was doing the job of being the big man up front against us. Then we had Carlton Cole who was swatting them away like flies, Iwelumo even when Watford only had 10 men (and was the reason we conceded both goals in the first game), Platt who was playing for Coventry, that's off the top of my head from the back end of the season. I know some of those aren't in the division now, but with King and Cole it shows they don't need to be fat lumps to have the size to totally dominate our short arse centrebacks, even an averagely built CF can do it because we have almost zero physical presence at the back.
One of the things we miss with Ashbee is his height in both boxers. I think we need add height and strength. Maybe the lack of it was a factor in us not picking up points when we where not playing very well.
I take your point on the height/weight issue to a point. But i do expect Bruce to make sure we are well covered one way or another. Thankfully we wont face anyone of the quality of Lambert and Cole or next season.
