We actually got entertained for our money and it was high time too. The strike force will get sorted and we will get back to winning ways soon.
I still think Austin would be much happier with someone alongside him. A battering ram not a small quick striker. He is a an excellent goalscorer and the idea is to score more goals than the opposition so surely our main tactics should be to get the ball to him in goalscoring positions....or is that too simple for football nowadays. .
A crying shame is that every couple of weeks I have to spend and hour and a half staring at a sign that says "Smarkets". If that didn't irritate me enough it has been joined by another that says "Twickets". - what a load of BROLLOCKS.
Disagree, I don't think Charlie can play up front on his own as he can't hold the ball up, target man he isn't
He's played up front on his own loads at this level. Redknapp flogged him and he somehow kept playing. How many target men exist nowadays? Not many.
I just think we get the best out of him when he's playing off balls flicked on onto him, maybe I'm wrong
You aren't. He can certainly do that role but I think he's a better footballer than we give him credit for. Albeit not against a great team but at home to Rotherham he was getting involved all over the pitch. His strengths are as a poacher and in the air. You'd like to think our stellar wingers and attacking midfielders will cater for that. I'm not holding my breath
In some ways Austin is quite an old fashioned centre forward. You still see a lot of them in non-league football, where of course he was playing not long ago. He is great in the air when attacking crosses and has an eye for the goal. He often shoots on sight!! The thing is, current football trends tend to lead coaches to play with a lone striker, whether in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. Some sides try to get two men up top by playing 3-5-2, but this requires a lot of things to fall into place, like the right players for the system etc. Even then, it can leave a lot of holes "down the sides". I'm not a fan of 4-4-2, but this would get two up front. The midfield need to work their bollocks off though and we don't have enough players who will do that, especially in wide areas. Charlie has clearly worked hard at being a target man, holding the ball up etc and Ramsey can take some credit for developing his game in this area imo. I think the way to get the best out of Charlie is to supply him with plenty of crosses. This means that the wide players in the formation need to be able to get crosses in regularly. Phillips can do it at this level, but his inability to break sweat very often hinders the team. Hoilett (I know, I know!!!!) can play on the other side, but he's not really a classic winger who crosses the ball from the left. We'd have to play Traore or Yun there or get our left back to attack a lot more, but that's not reliable or ideal. The bottom line is, we probably haven't got the personnel to get the best out of Austin, unless Phillips can hit another purple patch (if he can be arsed) and supply him with a lot of crosses. Charlie will always make his own chances by shooting a lot and being a natural predator. I don't think Austin is a "good" footballer in the purest term, but players who score goals are worth their weight in gold and we need to find a way to get the best out of him.
Can't find fault with a single word of that Col. Damn! Charlie is an enigma to me. As you say he doesn't strike me as properly 'good' and his body language/attitude gets on my wick sometimes. But he scores goals wherever he plays, is trying to add to his game, and it's churlish in the extreme the whinge about him given how well he does the core of his job, finding the net. With decent service he would hit 30 a season no worries. He's entitled to sulk a bit, because he delivers. Interesting to see how well Vardy is doing. He has the key thing that Charlie lacks - pace. With his massive work rate and current eye for goal he looks great, but a pundit noted (can't remember which one) that his strength is running at and behind defences which play high, and he won't see much of that at international level, which is why Roy is cautious about starting him at number 9, you need the guile that Rooney and increasingly Kane bring. I'm afraid that Charlie really doesn't look like an England player to me.
Vardy looks unplayable at the moment. But many players have those dpells. If he can do it consistently he could end up at a top club. Even then, he may not suit international football but one thing that all defenders fear the most is pace.
Preston came for a point and got it. The number of clean sheets they have kept this season is witness to the fact that they are hard to score against - if only we'd had their defence for the first dozen games! They had an effective offside trap, and I lost count of the number of times they played back to their goalie. They were very limited in the skills department, but were disciplined and patient, and came the closest of either side to scoring when we cleared off the line in the second half. Rangers played the ball well, so well, in fact, that it was some time before it dawned on me that we hadn't actually made any chances. We definitely ran out of ideas in the second half and Preston managed to slow the game right down (aided and abetted by some dodgy reffing). Hard to choose a weakest player, maybe Phillips had the least impact, and Hoilett hung on to it for too long, but no one was bad. Austin was definitely not to blame for the result. Hall was probably my man of the match, which was actually quite enjoyable, especially after some of the cr*p we've played this season.
My original point was that, in the first half at least, it really looked as if we did have the personnel to provide service for a good striker and we were finally getting some value out of a squad which most commentators see as being the strongest in the division. But for me Austin just didn't seem to have the enthusiasm that Warnock had manged to instill in the rest of the X1. I suspect that others see the managerial change as an opportunity whereas Charlie is marking time.
