Yet again last night demonstrated to me, that we need a top striker, especially when our most prolific striker is used deep. Why is he being used deep, well because he has skill and can create for others. This isn't the answer we need someone either creative to replace Ross so that he can go up top or we need a striker. We still lack width and a decent winger would be handy, but with a lack of cash we will struggle, and at the end of the season we will finish round about where we are now. Our defending is 300% better and the best we've had in years, but we need a striker and creative midfielder and a winger, but if we can only bring in one in January what should it be?
Becchio!! And yes, I know there will be howls of derision, but he knows the club, he can cope with ER, he understands our passion, and he scores goals. Get him back on loan, let him take the knocks and tie up defenders, allow Ross to play next to him and see the difference.
And following on from my post, they cost money. Until GFH make some available, talk of wingers and strikers are pure fantasy. No one is going to have spare ones to loan out
In fairness, he's only played 4 games for Doncaster and scored 1 goal this season - he did score 13 for them last year though
what we need most is to get rid of the well below average players, Pugh Brown Drury to name a few are taking their wages and restricting funds to the manager. Get rid and replace with better
We need a midfield playmaker we are back to the old ways, back 4 pas it back and fro then hoof it up the wings, where our so called strikers are playing. Then when they get a cross in there is no one there. We have been lucky with results this far, but we will take a thumping of 5 or 6 some week.
Browny, Smith and Hunt are well below average, are taking their wages and restricting funds to the manager and this manager only signed them in the summer. Michael Brown has scored as many goals as Smith and Hunt combined despite hardly featuring.
Exactly, TC. He pretended to be trying to sign a winger but we haven't even been linked to a striker. People can say Morison was useless and couldn't settle and didn't try or whatever they like, but you could cut his legs off and he'd be better than Hunt and Smith.
I was a big fan of the Becchio/Morison swap deal at the time, it was the right time to sell Becchio, he was getting too big for his boots, started to stop scoring, was getting stroppy and wanted to leave. Also he did nothing for the team and helped very little in every other way other than scoring goals (which I agree is valuable but I always thought we should be looking at someone who could at the very least control a ball as well). And then I thought Morison has scored goals at this level before, played in the prem, knows what he's doing. On paper looked a good deal but I think we can all agree a waste of time and in hindsight it would've happened very very differently. Had Warnock not messed up with that deal, maybe sold Becchio for the 2m cash and bought someone like Sharp then we wouldn't even have Hunt and Smith here. Personally though I think Smith has the ability to change the game, and allow us to play a different tactic. He may not be the best at what he does but he's still developing and you need a variety of tactics in a good team. Hunt, I have not seen his benefit as yet other than some good control here and there, he needs to up it. But if you were to look at the bigger picture, we have 5 strikers including Ross. We all know Ross has the ability to score goals and Varney can also get em too. That would leave us with Smith, Hunt and Poleon as backup and different options from the bench. The problem isn't the finishing, in fact I'd say our converting isn't that bad and in fact is probably better than in recent years, we just aren't creating the chances. If we created more chances the current crop of strikers would score many more goals. Priority has to be a winger, there is no doubt in my mind. In fact if I was manager, a striker wouldn't even be crossing my mind. Whats more irritating is some decent wingers have gone out on loan from prem clubs recently, Conway from Cardiff is one of them.
I think Morison was a bit of a desperation signing but you can't really blame Warnock because we needed another striker and who else was out there? Plus you don't know that Norwich would have offered the straight 2m. You can't blame Warnock for McDermott signing Hunt and Smith. The different tactic you talk about is long ball and everyone knocks Warnock for that. And anyone can cause problems just by being tall, it's why goalkeepers come up late in games. A decent footballer doesn't just win the header, he scores the goal. Varney really doesn't have a great goal scoring record and he was getting dog's abuse last season. We need both a winger and a striker. Ben Parker was saying on the radio last night that his priority would be a striker because we can play through the middle. I agree with you on Conway, I'm surprised no one else has picked up on that. Would you rather we spent a million on Adomah than Murphy?
I do blame Warnock for signing Morison, everything I have heard points to him offering Norwich Becchio in a swap for Morison, not the other way around. And you say there was no one else, but the likes of Wood went to Leicester for cheaper than we got Morison, there was plenty out there. And I obviously don't blame Warnock for McD signing Hunt and Smith, but at the same time I don't think we are seeing the best of either of those two players. I do however blame Warnock for getting us close to the relegation places before McD come in and basically saved us, I genuinely believed we were gonna go down under Warnock with the way we were playing at the tail end of last season. Varney hasn't got a fantastic goalscoring record but he is playing well enough to justify his place in the team. I don't like to refer to previous records, I like to go off current form and style of play. I would expect Ross to get the major majority of goals in that strike partnership and if he was to get 15+ or close to 20 then that would be enough imo as long as Varney was to get 10+ with others chipping in. To be honest about Murphy, I have been quite underwhelmed by his performances when I have seen them. He hasn't been fantastic yet, Adomah would've no doubt benefited us more this season imo. I'm a huge fan of Adomah and I put him down very early on in my thread of who we should sign in the summer, however I'm not sure about Adomah's increasing potential whereas Murphy will get better. All in all I would say at this stage that I would've preferred to see the money spent on Adomah but there is no way of saying what is the right decision so early on.
