Can't believe people will refuse to acknowledge a player's failings when he denied us the easiest of goal scoring opportunities, we're not exactly getting a dozen of them a game, we're staring at relegation here and struggling to create chances. It's backwards. It's about playing the right ball at the right time, twice in two games he's ignored it in order to gift himself a tame shot from outside the area.
Yes indeed - 25 yards out in the centre of goal (where Wickham took that shot from) is a really stupid place to be shooting from. Ask Gerrard! Baz - I never said Wickham will be a goalscorer - but I expect forwards to "want" to score. Tony Cottee said on the radio when he played the game you'd always see greedy players have a little wry smile to themselves when they came off if they'd scored a couple in a 3-2 defeat. It didn't mean it was good for the team, but they scored a lot more goals than those who didn;t think like that and they were better players overall - He said it about Lineker and that ilk. I still, to this day, reckopn if Wickham had played as many times as Altidore had for us this season he'd have more than 1 goal
Wickham is not Gerrard Besides gerrard gets the shot away if it's on, if not he plays in one of his team mate, he doesn't cling on to the ball, ignoring team mates and letting defenders recover before he shoots. If the shot is not on he gives it, pass and move and all that jazz.
Oh i agree mate. The day he was signed. http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/60280-Sunderland-complete-Connor-Wickham-deal
The point is he has never been given a run of games, he has something about him in my opinion, he is no where near the finished article, but you can say that about anyone, give the boy a chance. These managers you refer to have placed their faith in far worse incumbents I don't have to name them you can do it yourself.
Gus Poyet insists Connor Wickham has all the attributes to become a top-class Premier League star. However, conceding Sunderland are still learning how best to make use of his “plenty of qualities”, the Black Cats head coach says the striker must retain focus while supporters concerned at his development remain patient. The 21-year-old arrived at the Stadium of Light in a £8.1 million move – rising to £12 million – from Ipswich Town in June 2011, signing a four-year contract. Yet despite an impressive record of six goals in 17 England under-21 internationals and one prolific loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday (he has had one other at Hillsborough, plus another at Leeds United) when he scored eight in 11 appearances, Wickham has struggled to make an impact on Wearside. He has six goals in 46 outings under four permanent Sunderland managers – Steve Bruce, Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio and Poyet – and caretaker bosses Eric Black and Kevin Ball. The last two of those goals came in Wednesday’s 2-2 Premier League draw at Manchester City. Poyet believes the forward can use his club’s current predicament – away to Chelsea today, bottom of the table with four further games to play – to his advantage in the hope of mutual benefits. While wary of comparisons, the Uruguayan highlighted Manchester United’s patient development of Cristiano Ronaldo as a blueprint of how best to mould a young player to fulfil his potential. He said: “I think he has everything to play in England. He is strong, big and has an incredible shot with power. “He likes to link. Of course, he needs to learn certain things and how we play at certain times. “I didn’t want him to be taking long throws, because he should be heading it. Now he isn’t taking throws. He gave up something to do something for the team and that is learning and adapting. “I think he has plenty of qualities. “Sometimes this team and previous teams in the last few years didn’t use his qualities in a certain way. “Maybe it was just a pressure of performing because you are the youngest one and the others had bigger names. “Maybe he needed that run in the team others had but he never had. “In the situation we are in he can take advantage for himself because he is playing week in, week out. That’s the best thing that can happen for Connor. “The more he plays and the more he performs the better chance we’ll have. “The most important thing is for him to score, because he will be totally different in the next few games. “My challenge is to keep him in that state of mind. Focused. Not ‘I’ve scored two goals. I can relax’.” Just 18 when he left Ipswich to join Sunderland, Wickham had by then played 72 times for the Tractor Boys – albeit with a decent return of 15 goals. Yet asked if he was of the opinion the player had curtailed his Championship education prematurely, Poyet added: “It depends on the time you get as a coach or as a manager with a young player. “If you go out and buy a young player for £8 million, how long do you have to make him the player that you want? Or does he need to perform tomorrow? “The biggest improvement I have seen in a player in the Premier League is Cristiano Ronaldo. “When he arrived at Manchester he was just a tricky player doing oversteps. “Two years later he was the best in the world. Why? Because Manchester United took him in a certain way. “They had time to let him grow up slowly and make him a football player with the right mentality. “Maybe at other clubs when you spend £8 million on a player you want to see something straight away. “Players can have potential but sometimes you don’t get the time to work with them. “Maybe the time is now, maybe he needed to go through that spell for him to stand up and maybe we needed to be in this situation for him to play week in week out.”
Lets face facts who has been at the the club of note who has the experience and knowledge to coach this player to become any better than he was when he arrived here , a person such as kp would have been ideal ,oneil /walford offered nothing /decanio probably would have if he remained,but who is there at the club to coach forwards.
Cant wait to see the back of Altidore tbh. Extremely poor for 99% of his time here, no one will convince me otherwise. He is a big reason to why we are likely to be relegated, yet you get idiot fans blaming every ****er but Jozy himself. We've had competent strikers every year since we came back up and this season is the first we havent, we've had Jozy Altidore for the majority of it. Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/thread...derland-situation.907012/page-4#ixzz2zKbkOhUV
Short memory there fella. The 11/12 season we had these impressive strikers to choose from. Bendtner Wickham Ji Tounkara Cook Noble Lynch and an injured Fraizer Campbell What a dreadful season that was. Best we had was Bendtner and he was never in position. We had 33m(38m if you include Graham) pounds worth of striker to choose from this season, I say 33m, that's what their last transfer fees were collectively, not what they're actually worth together. Beginning of the end was the 11/12 season
We have never solved the striker problem since we had the Bent-Jones partnership and I never understand how/why that partnership dissolved (Amy?). Gyan came in, Bent out and Kenwynne was a ghost of a player he was in the previous seasons, then Gyan sold out. We've been **** since then. Who bought Altidore and sold Sessegnon?
Di Fanti bought Jozy. Sess and PDC gave Ellis the opportunity to sell a big earner. Loved Sess, but I can still remember how inconsistant he was. Still we've had no CAM all season and we've desperately needed one.
We don't know who to blame and who not to blame with any certainly. I reckon both PDC and Sess gave Short an excuse to cut costs though. Sess with his stupid behaviour and Paolo with his reaction to the behaviour. Ellis will have been buzzing at the chance to shift a top earner unexpectedly.
