@RvWolfswinkel9: Thank you Father Christmas for my gift this year. A healthy toe. Couldn't wish for anything else! Sincerely Ricky van Toewinkel
Is that an actual tweet or a joke account/your joke? If it's real, brilliant! He comes across as a guy with a great sense of humour
There has been a pretty indifferent response in places like twitter and the pinkun forum. Lots of comments like "yeah, but he's not very good anyway" or "but isn't he off in January". There have been positive commets too but I find all the negativity surrounding him to be very unfair. Ricky was injured in the totenham game which was his 4th of the season, but played on for another month at time in noticeable discomfort. It's very harsh to judge him on this time. People are now raving about Hooper but he too took some time to settle, some of Ricky's movement has been fantastic and the prospect of him and Hooper up top together is, I feel, very exciting. People need to give him time to settle properly especially now our service to the strikers spears to be improving.
Brilliantly said Bath. When you compare his fee and number of appearances/goals with Soldado at Spurs (GH £5M -8/4 RS £26M 13/4), I think we got the better value.
Much as I like the way Hooper has seized his opportunity, the idea of a pairing with RvW is exciting. That's not to take anything away from Elmander, who has worked tirelessly to support both strikers and maintain a presence himself. I think it'll be Hooper and Elmander to start, but RvW offers an excellent 'impact sub' as he works his way back to fitness!
If CH does plan to play RvW and Hooper together then it will be interesting to see who drops off who and how the midfield are expected to re-shape to accommodate both. In fact, thinking about it, has Hughton had a fully fit squad to utilise so far this season?
Okay, so I was one week out But the sentiment it still holds true, Having ´Wolf´ back seems no doubt Like having a player who's new, And playing him alongside Hoops Is what we´ve been waiting to see, And hearing defences shout " Whoops !" As goals go in regularly.
The first is the big question, Cromer. At Celtic, Hooper and Stokes had a fluid combination where one would drop back and then the other. It will certainly be interesting to see what does come about! As for the second question, I'm pretty sure the answer is no, unless there was a match or two where both Hooper and RvW were both fit.
Can't see RVW and Hooper working. Much as I would like to see it. I don't think the midfield is up to handling the pressure to keep the ball and not give it away.
No, one or other has definitely been injured. I'd love to see them paired together for say the last 30 mins on Sat!!!!
I believe they have played 20 minutes or so together at the end of the villa match and actually looked alright together but Hooper was coming back from injury and Wolfy was playing through one. Can't remember them being on the pitch together otherwise, hope we'll see it on saturday.
But is that any different from Hooper and Elmander, if RvW played the Elmander role, or the two players interchanged? RvW in particular seems fairly flexible - Dutch footballers can generally play a variety of roles, their early training makes them much more adaptable than most English. I know neither Hooper nor RvW is the same type of player as Elmander and probably couldn't do the physical, hustling, heading-down-a-long-ball stuff as well. But if we did less of that, and more trying to thread through passes on the ground? Don't you think that could work?
I think it could work, it's whether we've got the midfielders to play that way. We'd only have two central midfielders, one of which you'd think has to be more defensive in nature. If you assume Fer starts, do you pair him with Howson (forcing Fer to play deeper and be arguably less effective), or Johnson (giving Fer freedom but sacrificing any kind of attacking impetus from your other midfielder)?
Two thoughts: 1) it could work and playing two players up front who provide outlets can lead to more possession, assuming the distribution of the other players is good enough, but having more options makes distribution easier. 2) Howson might have to be sacrificed to play two up front- great to have the option of him coming on as an impact sub. the wide midfield players need to be able to adequately play a defensive role so it could work with Snodgrass but not on the other side