Another ineffectual performance from our main striker who yet again passes up several decent looking close to goal chances and won nothing in the air as a target man. Yes, I can see how hard he works off the ball and his frustration when the final ball never arrives when he is making his many runs but he seems to be missing the vital ingredients for a lone striker role, at least right now. I know that we need height up front but the fact is that, even with Austin on the pitch, we just don't have that in the squad and anyway, with HR's tactics the target man is only ever a last resort. He must surely now give Johnson and/or Chevanton a go. How we could do with a certain Mr Helguson right now.
he\s done 18 hours work this season you're right he must be knackered. He needs someone up front with him is the answer, not dropping our best striler in years
He needed to go off with 10-20 to go. I have no problem with his performance but Chevy should have come on and he'd have buried that chance that Austin couldn't get to settle.
He is the best striker and top goal scorer at the club bar none. To suggest he should be dropped is quite simply amazing.
Perhaps HR is keeping Austin in the hope that he'll score? Overall, I agree with Flyer in that rather than dropping Austin he should be given a rest towards the end of the match.
I watched the 20-minute highlights of yesterday's game and, to the extent that one can judge such things from that, thought Austin got onto the end of most of the Hoops' best chances. But it did seem to me that he lacked a bit of aggression and power. There was one particular first-half header on goal that he failed to get a good connection on, when perhaps you'd expect a striker at the top of his game to have buried. There were also a few instances where his shot on goal seemed to lack the explosive power you'd expect from (say) Remy. But drop him? No.
After the Reading game there is another international break hopefully that will help recharge his batteries.
As I wrote in another thread, I think that Jane Austen's grandson is not a natural goalscorer, but boy does he put a shift in and gets arms all over him from every centre half in the league. He's the best striker we've had for a long time, so I prefer to rest him on 70-80 minutes. But don't question his work rate or desire. It's there in spades.
What I mean by my comment 'not a natural goalscorer' is a reflection on the chances that he misses rather than the statistics at previous clubs. He's had fantastic chances to score - sometimes two or three in a match - and seems to make a meal over the finishing. In some cases he's been a few yards out and headed over; others where he's had the ball at his feet, he's almost fallen over himself instead of getting the shot off. My observation is that those chances would have been gobbled up by what I'm terming a 'natural goalscorer'. Someone like a Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, etc. I also think that it could be a key development of his game, especially if we get back into the EPL where chances are fewer and far between. As such I'd be working on those scenarios in training every day. Those half-a-second chances. Saying all of this, I have great faith in the player and think that any rest should be the last 10 or 20 minutes to allow Chevvy or AJ to stake their claim and keep the desire for the forward role healthily competitive.
A rest… Reading next week and then its international break so there’s his rest. Also Johnson and Chevanton are to small to play up front on there own. So both would need to be on. In which case you might as well play one alongside him and make things easier for him.
I used the term 'rested' figuratively. My point was that if HR insists on playing one up front in all situations then it would make sense to give one of the other two a stab at it given that Austin is simply not firing on all cylinders. You're right about the height thing in principle of course but I don't recall Charlie winning a single header on Saturday so we wouldn't be any worse off giving Johnson a shot particularly as the manager eschews any kind of long ball game. I think it's pretty clear that Redknapp is not going to change his approach so something else needs to happen to give us a greater cutting edge IMO. I can see why people like Austin and his work rate is to be admired but its just not happening on front of goal.
You can still play a long ball to to Chevy, you just play it into space instead of to the head. I'd put my money on him to get to it ahead of a lumbering CB.
The thing that people commonly miss is that while what your saying looks good on paper in practice it doesn’t work. ‘Charlie didn’t win a header’, while he didn’t lose many either the difficult thing is that playing up front on his own takes out the most likely way to win a header, a flick on. Therefore on the rare occasion that someone is close enough to him, he has the option of passing it with his head in their direction. 9 times out of 10 they aren’t close enough for that or a fglick on. Therefore his only option is to try and manouvere some space and bring it down, hold them off then lay it off or try and turn at them. Very difficult to do with a championship centre back smashing into the challenge everytime but he has done this well. Again sounds good on paper but in reality, this is an extremely difficult pass with a low chance of working. Too low or too little power and the centre back beats him to the ball. But too much power and the ball will run through to the keeper. Therefore if you manage to weight it perfectly in the gap between keeper and defence they may get a foot race. But if it was that easy we would be doing the same with Charlie. Agree with Qpaaaaaah that he looked a little weary on Saturday, but unless we go 4-4-2 its our best option. Charlie does and can win the header which gives us an out ball, but for reasons described above it’s a very difficult thing when isolated. Chev and AJ are good players but are not for me option as a loan striker.
AJ and Chevanton have already worked well together in the EDS squad games. I'd not think it a bad ideal at all to give the two of them a start. Alas, we do not tend to play two strikers!!
