.... would you expect a striker to score in a season, when he's mostly playing up front on his own? Can we really expect Wood to score 20-30 when he's on his own? How many lone strikers have achieved this? Often? In the Championship? I really don't know if it's possible, or if it's been done before. Don't even know where to start researching. I just want to set my expectation level of Wood. I think he's doing fine goal-wise atm, but am I setting my expectation bar too low? Hoping for a genuine discussion here. I don't want to split the Wood camps further.
I'd say 1 goal from open play every 3 games would be a good return for a lone striker over the course of a season, plus penalties If he betters 1 out of 3 and gets 18-20 goals plus pens he'll have had a great season
That would be a tremendous season if he did that. I think on average you can expect a striker to get somewhere between 15-20 goals in the season from everywhere (including pens). Anything above that is a major bonus and he'll likely be sold off. What was Becchio's biggest season for us goal wise? I'm not sure he ever really got more than 20 (or not much more). We need to find someone else that's gonna get some goals from midfield, if that's Hernandez then great, if it's sacko then great but at the moment I'm not sure where the secondary goal scorer is coming from.
But remember, Becchio never once played the lone striker role, did he? I'm desperate to get examples of lone striker goal tallies, so we don't all expect too much. Well, part from LL - if Wood scored 100 in a season, he's have a list of all his misses!
Becchio played lone striker role a lot in our first season back in the champ at least. Difference was he had snoddy and gradel supplying him with Howson supporting behind. He played it a bit under warnock as well. I remember McCormack playing on left with Becchio through the middle
Becchios last season for us saw him get 19 goals before season was half over. He's also in the Leeds top 10 all time goal getters, not bad for 4 seasons......
At the start of the season I was hoping we would push for top 6 probably expecting around 8th as realistic but was hoping for some excitement at the right end. At the start of any season I look at how many goals our team has in it, if we're serious about top 6 we need to be near 70 goals. To get near this you need at least one midfield player to get double figures, I think I made a post a while back during preseason along these lines and I predicted 20 for Wood. I was expecting another striker to near enough match him but we're not playing 2 up front (which I'm glad about). I still believe Wood will get 20 for us, it just depends on how many the three behind him can bag. Our defence is the best it has been in years so maybe we can get near with fewer goals. I'm not going to get carried away just yet, we have just beat two very poor teams but it's a confidence boost and you can only beat what's in front of you. Long winded answer to the opening question, if he stays fit Wood will get between 22 and 25 goals and some will still knock him
we've got to 3wins 7 matches earlier than last season,which says maybe we will do a fair bit better than the 13th place of last season.Do stats lie ?.
Becchio always had a twin striker whilst at Leeds but when he was used up top on his own he just fell about or threw himself on the floor. At Norwich and Rotherham he was used as a lone target man and was shyte and didnt score. Best target men have been Ricky Lambert when he was at Southampton and for a while at Liverpool but hardly used. We saw a little bit of class from him yesterday but wasnt given support. Andy Carroll is the best by far and scores every 3 games or so, but to play that role you need a bull of a man who is brave as they take stick. Wood is crap in the air and misses out on chances Carroll thrives on. Wood is quick and covers ground better than Carroll but Carrolls positional play better. Carroll is very skillful more so than Wood but look at the gulf in transfer fees. That lone striker role is done best with a No10 and you could say a Shearer/Beardsley or a Toshack/Keegan or Kerry Dixon/little jock player or Rush/Dagliesh. Those smaller No10 players were really the secondary striker from midfield. They didnt poach in the box they ran onto pick up pieces and played off the bigger fella who could also score plenty. Look at Bent always scored plenty and the transfer fees paid for him were incredible until he was used as a lone striker where he hasnt done anything for a couple of seasons. Ballotelli over here was crap as a lone hit man, Man City do not use the lone striker as they prefer to have 3 or 4 No10's who buzz about from the wings and a smaller player like Sergio Aguero can create or latch onto something. Chelsea use the Spanish nutter who can play by himself but can do nothing until he gets just 1 chance. We need Peter Crouch
we beat the Wendies away and even yesterday,the commentators were saying the wendies could be an auto team,so where does that leave us ?
Hernandez does look a bit special ( from the tele). He might be the difference. Stats don't lie, but they can be misrepresented. The league table is the only statistical indicator that matters,
I think we differ in our classification of a lone striker You don't have to be a big slow lump to be a lone striker. The game has moved on from that, most teams in both prem and championship play lone strikers so they can control the midfield. It's about working hard to support him when you have the ball, we aren't great at that imo.
Some say he wanted to leave while others say he didn't, one fact is, both Bates and Warnock wanted rid of him, Warnock for Morison. I still think he can do a good job for us and provide a bit more firepower up front...... Here's a list of players who were still playing top football 35 and over. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1489137-world-footballs-11-best-players-over-the-age-of-35
He went to the prem because of his form. What I meant was when we get players scoring that many we aren't going to be able to keep them unless we get promoted ourselves. I also doubt he could still do a job. Not that I've seen him play but his goal scoring record of late implies he has lost it
Spoke to Andrew Dalton (lufcstats) about the OP. His expectation, for what it's worth, would be for a lone striker to score 15-20 goals per season (no inc pens), depending on service. I then asked him if anyone had actually achieved this in the Championship & he replied no, not to his knowledge (which is considerable). So I wonder what we can really expect from Wood up front. Is 14-16 more realistic?
Wood may get 15 to 20 but a third will be penalties. Crouch would be the only player at Championship level who could play lone wolf and bag 20, but hes still at Stoke and after today Hughes may be forced to bring him back Our best chance is for 5 or 6 players to chip in regular. Not happening yet but Pablo, Roofe, Antonnson, Sako, Wood, but will also need Bartley and Pontus to chip in too.
