Alright, looking at teams around us I've found three candidates for comparison. They've all played the season wide of a front three, one is predominately a winger, the other a striker and the other is a utility jack of all. That's Nathan Dyer, Jonathan Walters and Charls N'Zogbia. Any other player suggestions?
When you start paying him like a star striker then yes i would expect better consistency and a bit more than no quality and no goals
No thats a good start, i really havent watched many other games than ours so it would be great to see how those and similar stack up.
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On the face of it his stats don't look too bad, although when you consider he's played almost twice as many minutes as any of the others it does look a bit worse... Still, shows there's some potential there. I'd really want him to be outshining those players mentioned though if the reported £60k/week is correct.
I think it shows he gets enough of the ball to be doing more from it. His passing is poor, his long range shooting is poor, his creation is poor. That position is so not for him. If he'd had that much ball upfront I'd reckon the lad would be our top scorer. Edit: **** I replaced total passes with another option. My point makes no sense. Hang on.
That`s exactly the point isn`t it? It`s no good him seeing loads of the ball when the position he`s playing in he`s not best suited to use it. I wonder if Gus has definite ideas/players to fill that position in January and move him back into the middle. Could be one of the reasons he`s put pen to paper. Just an idea chucked into the mix.
That's my whole point fella. He's not even average in that role, upfront, he's decent. I despise square pegs in round holes as you know. Conner isn't a realistic choice for the position. I'd rotate him and fletch upfront depending on the opponents and keep them both on their toes.
Giaccherini in a false 9 role, suits Poyet's style, dropping into midfield and creating. If that's viable in terms of goal return from Giaccherini, then Wickham would thrive a lot more as a number 10 in that set up. I don't see him fitting into any other system, apart from 4-4-2 and you'd need a rocking midfield to go a season with that as your main system.
Sadly me too. The 2 up top doesn't work anymore in a 4-4-2 team. We need 3-5-2 to play 2 up top and Gus won't do that. I think Fletch may be away in Jan. don't know why but it's a sneaking feeling I've had the last few weeks. Don't ask for reasons as I can't really explain it but just something from his demeanour on the pitch
Pleased we tied him down. Easy to forget he's 21, maintained all along he will become a top striker. He is frustrating but I'm glad Gus is sticking with him, he'll be better off for it
I'm happy he's signed, and my belief is it will be closer to 40k a week, with a view to Jozy moving on and freeing up his 44k a week (**** sake...) 'He's only 21' doesn't really wash though, many top international footballers are 21 and under, the players that are going to be top class have shown it by 21. Connor will be a good, solid Premier League striker for a good few years and as such he's a good player to have at the club, when he's pushing, like v Liverpool, he is a very valuable player even without goals so it doesn't concern me that I don't see him ever topping 10 a season. Maybe Gus plans a proper front 3, meaning Whickham would stay out wide but would have greater license to cut inside, Connor scored nearly all of his goals at Ipswich from this position. At the very least, we've secured a great fee if he has a good season at any point in the next 3. If we'd paid £2.3-3 million we'd all be delighted with his progress, we overpaid at the time but paid close to his value now. Time to start delivering Connor lad.
Thanks Mate, yeah interesting stuff deffo. Goals to shots ratio is awful but i saw a good point about exactly where is he having to shoot from and could the figures be bad on the passing if nobody supports fast enough?
He doesn't matter if he has support or not. Connor takes the shot. Needs to use some intelligence to realist strikers instinct doesn't apply outside the box. His decision making isn't the greatest and his long distance shooting is appalling. He if we just played him upfront then Connor can just go out and be Connor, simple as that. Where he's playing now is out of his depth imo.
Fair points that certain, maybe Poyet is playing him out wide to make him a more rounded player and understand how best to work with wingers. Grasping at straws but hey why not
Hope there's something genius about it we're not seeing yet. I wanna see the lad score more goals. Up front please.
