I'll never forget when he feigned getting elbowed in the face and Gaston got sent off in that 3 nil home defeat to West Brom in the 2012/13 season.
I think if we'd have bought Long when West Brom did, at a low price, then everyone would be thinking about him the way we think about Steven Davis - or even Corky. What a player, what a bargain! Cork and Wanyama have been pretty hard to choose between, and it's kind of similar. I'm not sure any other team would pay £12m for Davis, for example, but he's probably worth that to us at the moment. I thought £12m was really steep for Long, but I've always thought that he's an asset to any squad he's played in (even if not an out-and-out goal scorer) - and if he's the only player we've really paid over the odds for (and he isn't actually a dud like Osvaldo) then I think we're doing fine there. And as others have said, I only care that he doesn't score if no-one else does and we lose...
At the end of the day we added a proven premiership team player (and who other teams hate to play against). He is a good age to compliment what we have, has an excellent injury record and so was the perfect signing to compliment a slight unknown (in terms of the premier league) quantity in Mane and Rodriguez, who has been returning from injury. It was a lot of money but this has proven very shrewd business I think in terms of what he brings to the squad. If Pelle gets injured and Long is asked to play centrally (would probably be J-Rod asked anyway)then we can maybe talk about goals but otherwise I'm more than happy for things to keep going exactly as they are.
People angst too much over his price...let's face it he is better value than Osvaldo (even allowing for his odd goals). I prefer to look at the fact that we got a bunch of super players in and had enough change to buy our training ground.
I thought he was excellent against Sunderland, never stopped running and created space for others. He's a very intelligent player and the fact that opposing players don't enjoy playing against him says it all. I have no doubts that he will score some important goals this season but to run a poll about how many goals he will score this season is to miss entirely what he brings to the team. Unfortunately for players like him, there are no stats for running off the ball to create space. The plaudits will always go to players who get the goals, assists and clean sheets. We paid what we had to pay to get the player we wanted so the fee was spot on. Players like Tadic and Pelle were steals and we clearly underpaid for what they are now giving us. Osvaldo was overpriced based on what we got out of him. Longs fee is in my opinion spot on.
The one I feel for is Shane himself. Koeman is playing him out of his normal position, perhaps seeing him as a different sort of player. However, in Shane's mind he is a proper striker and midfielders are scoring all around him. I shall light a candle for him so he scores soon
To reiterate the point made by others, based on his new position in the team we shouldn't fixate on his goal tally. You only have to adopt your own player cam to see the effect he has in taking players out of the game with decoy or primary runs. He also harries off the ball incredibly well a bit like JRod. And as for goals - he still scored a good few for West Brom and Hull. I've heard his conversion rate is about 20%. So he needs four opportunities for every one he puts away. He gets chances - it's only a matter of time before he opens his account.
He's Steven Davis up front. I can't fault his industry. the price was steep but would i send him back to hull for a fraction of our money back like we did with forren or will have to with osvaldo? no. glad to have him as an option.
I just hope we can still get something for Mane. Surely I'm not the only one who notices that when Mane is on the pitch he is an attacking threat with the ball? He's just completely unsuited for that key "Long role" which calls on him to specifically run around and NOT score or make assists. The worst part is, I have a feeling that if Rodriguez were healthy, he too might score goals and create assists. So we don't even have a back up for Long. I hope Mayuka or Gallagher are as bad as I think he might be, otherwise I'm afraid we're completely devoid of non-scoring winger/strikers. Who on this team is capable of 0 assists and 0 goals in 360 minutes in an attacking role? That's downright frightening how well Long plays his part. For that matter, I also wonder how what we would do without Davis' near-blank slate as well. Two players with 1 assist between them. It doesn't get much better than that.
mayuka is showing worrying signs on international duty tbh. he did particularly well at the role you mentioned on saturday though.
It was more like 2 or 3. He was between 2 of them, with another running towards him. Completely cleared the path for Mané's shot. We should never underestimate the importance of players who do that.
Thank God. Sign him up for a ten year extension and put him on the opposite wing of Long because Tadic is absolutely killing us with his assists. On top of his annoying tendency to possess the ball.
I think Long does scare defenders. Two reasons: 1) pace. No one likes players who run at you. 2) tenacity. Defenders hate strikers who constantly chase you down.
