I'm a bit dubious about posting this, but it needs to be talked about. As Steve Morison seems to be 3/4th choice striker at the moment; 1) What has caused his slide down the rankings? (Please please no rumours about you know what) 2) Can anything be done to get him back to goal scoring ways? 3) Is he a genuine Premiership striker? 4) Has it got so bad that he may not be here next season? ILD OTBC
It's no secret that Steve Morrison is a rather one-dimensional player and by far his greatest asset is his ability to head the ball. His ball control can be rather poor sometimes, but he is not the lazy, greedy player some fans scapegoat him as! He doesn't chase so many seemingly lost causes as Holt/Wilbraham, but he does pull his weight defensively and he does try to create chances for others. 1) That the other three strikers have all been excellent at this point. 2) Yes, give him some goalscoring opportunities. It's not his fault that when he has played he has had poor service. 3) As Ben Foster, Paul Robison, Per Mertesacker and the entire Swansea defence will readily testify, on his day he is unplayable. 4) No, if you couldn't tell from my previous answers.
Morison is a good striker and will do better, he can't be full on all the time, every player hits good and bad form.
My opinion is as follows. 1. Agree with DM. Also talking to a couple of Millwall fans at work, he had a tendency to go off the boil occasionally while there. 2. Again agree with DM. Is the sort of player who need's decent service. Some formations we play will suit him more than others. 3. Yes. It isn't luck that he's scored 8 goals this season. 4. No.
I think he was in part brought in because Lambert queried if Holt could hack it. For me he doesn't work hard enough up front, and he doesn't seem fully in tune with the rest of the team. It depends on who and how many players come in.
How can you say he doesn't work hard enough? I've seen him appearing to fill in at left/right back many times this season. I've never seen a single goalkeeper's clearance left uncharged by Morrison. And if anything the rest of the team isn't intune with him - Howson should have set him with a tap-in against Tottenham, it's just because it is Morrison people like to have a go!
Decent player who does work hard despite what some say, (do you think Lambert would play him otherwise?). Very good in the air but does not have the best touch and finishing is sometimes a bit off. Well worth having in the squad, gives us a different option and possibly our best option if we play 1 up top. However while he should be in our short term future don't think he has the footballing quality to be a long term fixture at the club if we continue to do well at prem level.
i don't think there's any particular massive reason for his form tailing off. he's a good striker, not outstanding, but well worth the £2.7m we paid for him, and he's just hit a bit of a cliff in his form, and because he's a confidence player, he's struggled to pick it back up again. he hasn't become worse - he's just lacking confidence, and the morons who keep bringing up certain rumours or shouting abuse at him in the players lounge are hardly likely to help his or our cause. i really cannot understand the persistant attempts to find a reason for why a player isn't playing well... sometimes, players lose their form! thats just how it goes. he'll get it back if one goes in off his arse and nestles in the corner of the net!! get behind the player and please, for the love of god, lets come up with a better song for the poor sod
[/B] I think this is reason for his drop in form. I would deliberately play badly if ithought I was going to "rewarded" for good play with that chant. Abuse is probably preferable.
i do feel a bit sorry for him. his body language doesn't look good but it didn't look good on the opening day at wigan and frankly he was by a mile our best player that day. its just his style - i really feel way too much is being made of this. he's had a good first season with us - not spectacular, not poor, just good. room for improvement certainly but hardly the need for panic because he hasn't played at his best for a while. first three months of the season i'd have said he was a possible player of the year!
Don't agree with all the abuse his getting but his attitude doesn't help I'd go as far to say it absolutely sucks sometimes, I can tell his frustrated about his drop in form but to some people it looks like he can't be arsed, in previous games he put in shift yes his first touch isn't great but he has presence and puts himself about.
I can say it, because that is what I see. How you can construe that as having a go at him, I don't know.
It's not a persistant anything as it's the first time I've posted about it, I was just interested in how the fans saw it, just a thread up for debate. There has to be a "massive" reason for the dramatic drop in form, you don't become a bad player overnight, but he's not the player he was at the start of the season by a long way! ILD OTBC
The unmentionable rumor, is it the same one I have heard? slightly Damien Francis/Leon McKenzie-esque? I took it with a massive pinch of salt. Really hope I was right to do so.
I don't understand all the grief coming his way, his touch, passing and control have been pretty grim all season. He's playing no diffrently now, just not scoring the goals. He's good at what he was bought for, an aerial threat. Its all he ever will be. I don't concur with his drop in work rate, he's a slow player, C Martin had the same thing, people think because they are slow they are not trying. Total rubbish, as is I suspect the rumour Tierney was doing the business with his missus is.
The reason he hasn't scored for so long is because he isn't getting himself into the box as often as he did earlier on in the season therefore the chances aren't dropping to him in decent goal scoring opportunities. He often drifts out to the flanks to create space for others but in the system he has been asked to operate in he is often left with nothing but to create goal scoring opportunites for himself. Confidence is a major issue for some players and he has had a bit of a triple whammy to deal with, what with the idiotic rumours, some fans baying for his blood at every opportunity and a relative lack of goals increasing to the pressures. Perhaps we should be asking our wide players why they aren't delivering the decent service now like they were earlier on in the season. Has anybody else felt that the crossing has been pretty woeful for quite some time?
As I have said before on previous threads that have debated Morison, he plays the single striker best. So 4 5 1. For him to be succesful he needs service (look at the Sunderland game at home) , which he has been starved of hence his frustration. When I have seen him as a front two with anyone, his link up play is mixed. That said he does not always help himself and his body language is negative at times. He also lacks pace. Therefore,he needs to work on these areas to improve. Not convinced he is Prem quality at the moment but Lambert will get the best out of him.
