You say 3 managers and a Noah's ark of midfield yet who, out of those 3 managers, has actually told the ark full of midfielders to provide service to Soldado? I can't believe that Levy, Baldini and AVB had no knowledge of what sort of player Soldado was before they bought him. Even if they didn't (maybe they only looked at his goal return) - it certainly became quite clear quite quickly exactly what type of player he is. He's not played well granted - but it's not all on him. Nowhere near.
You say 3 managers and a Noah's ark of midfield yet who, out of those 3 managers, has actually told the ark full of midfielders to provide service to Soldado? Are you suggesting that the 3 managers somehow conspired against Spaniard Bob to stop him scoring or are you saying that midfielders are so thick that they need minute by minute tuition just in any case they forget to pass the ball to a striker. I'm sorry if I hadn't made it clear before, but I was talking about professional players. I can't believe that Levy, Baldini and AVB had no knowledge of what sort of player Soldado was before they bought him. I'm sure they did, hence my comment which refers to being 'robbed with eyes open'.
It has been suggested that there was a tussle going on behind the scenes about which striker to bring in last year, with Baldini suggesting Benteke while AVB wanted Soldado - which begs the question whether AVB won that battle when Soldado signed, or perhaps Villa offering Benteke a bumper deal meant that Baldini lost it?
We may have a ton of midfielders, but they've all been used in a similar fashion with similar tactics and not one of them is a playmaker in the role of a Modric or an Alonso. We've also mostly failed to pair Soldado up with a strike partner and rarely used any width, baring the odd occasion under Sherwood, when it actually appeared to work. His first league game in charge, ironically against the guy that eventually replaced him, saw the Spaniard and our other misfiring striker, Adebayor, start together. A 3-2 win away, with the previously sidelined Togolese netting twice, the first from a very dangerous Soldado cross. Sherwood gradually abandoned the idea of two strikers though, for some reason. If we want to get goals from Soldado, then we know how to do it. We won't get them playing the way that we are at the moment, though. 4-4-2 with proper width against our next Europa League opponents and we might see him find the net.
Inter Milan want Soldado,but can't afford his wages,if he moves we could get Hunterlar for 3 million on January,make it happen mr Levy
I've just posted something about this on the "transfers" thread. No way will Milan offer what Levy wants.
Besides is Huntelaar really what we are looking for? As good a reputation as he has (hey, didn't Soldado have an excellent goalscoring record too?) is a 31 year old going to run a pressing game with any effectiveness? At £3m it wouldn't really be much of a risk financially but it might be £3m better spent elsewhere in the long run.
If we get a very decent price AND get a very good replacement then maybe. (I say this almost entirely cos he's 30 or something). But basically if your team is having trouble scoring the answer is not to sell a striker. You can talk about systems, about styles of player, about formations, but the massively over-riding feeling I had at the beginning of his Spurs career, for whatever reason, was how few touches of the ball he was getting. I mean for those first few weeks I was consciously trying to get a feeling for our new man and I felt a) that it was difficult cos he was barely touching it and b) this was a little frustrating cos he did seem to have decent touch and technique. I wish I knew how to find these stats but it seemed like he had possession about 5-10 times a game for the first few games. I'm barely exaggerating (I don't think). My experience of him has not changed that much, to be honest. I think I'm pretty sure that I spot totally duff players pretty quickly (who play for Spurs - it sometimes takes a while for the penny to drop when I'm assessing other teams' players mostly via highlights) and Bobby looks to have a lot more about him than previous striking flops like Pav (who admittedly did know where the goal was), Bent, Postiga, Zamora (had high hopes cos my Brighton-supporting mate had been going on for years), Campbell, Rasiak etc. He doesn't look to be be a crap player - just a lost one. And I'm pretty sure that all but the very, very best strikers would have looked the same with the (lack of) style, lack of width, lack of support for the striker etc that we've seen in the last 14 or so months. Or maybe some players can be crap not cos of their lack of skill but purely cos of their lack of being able to get involved in the game?
lenny, were you happy with the Ade appointment or did you see like I did that we had a duffer from the word go?
Yeah. I think our strikers are decent and that we're likely to make things worse rather than better by twisting rather than sticking. Ade only has a goal and an assist in seven games, but he had 13 or whatever in half a season last year. I think he deserves time. Kane's done great this year whenever he's had half a chance, and Soldado has 2 in 4 games.
2 in 4,but how many games have we played,not so good then,we need better,and Ade only plays when he feels like it,and when he does like last week,he's everywhere,than where he should be,making runs into the area
I think Ade is doing what Pochettino wants him to do. I think the primary scorer in his system is the LM/striker, Chadli, who's doing fine. Anyway, I'm in favor of sticking rather than twisting not because I'm so wild about Ade, Soldado and Kane, but mostly because I think if we ditch someone and try someone else we'll probably end up in even worse shape, and Soldado or Ade will be scoring for fun somewhere else.
According to the gossip column today M/P is completly underwhelmed,by both strikers and is looking at others,so i don't think Ade is do what MP wants him to
Well I was pretty open-minded about it at the time. Saw him as a step up from Peter Crouch and in that first season he won me over and got 17 goals in 33 appearances so I'm not sure why you'd say we "had a duffer from the word go". He scored plenty of goals, put some fine performances in and we finished 4th. Not too bad.
Literally any of the regular posters on here could write a transfer gossip column that was just as convincing and just as accurate as the stuff the press print. It's about 99% inaccurate and the "rumours" are pretty easy to fabricate. Team's strikers not scoring many? Then state that the manager is "completely underwhelmed" by his strikers and link him to any old Dutch international whose contract runs out in six months' time (for example). And then in your next "story" link Harry Redknapp with any experienced, Premier League veteran who's fallen out of favour. And Jermain Defoe.
The tendency to criticize strikers is understandable. Because their job is scoring goals, they seem incompetent if they don’t. The truth is that most strikers don’t score that much, and those that do tend to be very expensive. Add to that the fact that every striker is a potential confidence problem waiting to happen, that any of them may go permanently off the boil at almost any time, and trying to evaluate them becomes even more difficult. As of right now, IMO, the chances of Soldado coming good aren’t great, but they’re far from gone. Saying Ade should go because he has one goal and one assist in seven games is premature to me, especially as he just had a good year. Well, half year. I’m guessing and hoping that at least one of Ade, Soldado and Kane will have a big year for us. On the other hand, we could go out and spend a lot of money on a different, better striker who’ll solve our problems. Though we did just do that.
