How many more points do you think we would have if we'd have got Long in the summer ? Around ten ? not only for the goals but how he holds the ball up the feild thus not allowing their attackers attack.
He just stretches defences, we can play a long ball beyond their defence and still have a chance of getting it. Gives us the chance to go a bit more direct if we need to.
Wouldn't go as far as to say we'd have 10 more points, more like 4/5. He's been superb in the last 2 games but it's only 2 games. No need to get carried away, his pace gives us a whole different dimension and I think he'll prove to be a decent signing, despite his hefty (reported) price-tag.
He's obviously started brilliantly, but I doubt he'd have carried his current form for 20 games. I reckon we'd be a few points better off but not 10.
On a serious note, Jelavic and Long as a strike pair are easily deserving of playing in a top half team. While he was pushed out Jelavic did come from Everton and Long has shown more than once that he can score against the likes of Chelsea. Two players do not make a team but two forwards who link up well and compliment each other are certainly a valuable commodity. There's no reason why we can't be comfortably mid-table/outside the top 6 with those two as a pairing all season, considering the players we have in the rest of the squad. Similar to Southampton with Lambert and Rodriguez supported by Lallana et al.
Palace we played a back 3 and it was part of a long run of poor results. We're not going to get into Europe but this thread is about Long and Jelavic. There's no reason why we couldn't be in a similar position to Southampton and Newcastle above 30 points but outside the top 6, just comfortably inside the upper half of the table, if we'd had this squad all season. We played without a striker for most of it so far! We might lose to Southampton on Tuesday, we might win. A win won't mean we're going to finish above them this year and a loss won't mean we're going down. I would hope we'll play a 442 again and give them more of an even game than last time we met though. Livermore is the only player we lose in the summer. If we can sign him again, and perhaps add 1-2 more in key positions, we'll certainly have a squad capable of a top half finish. Whether or not we fulfil that potential is another thing.
If we stay up Livermore is ours, so I basically treat him as our player, especially now we won't play Spurs again.
Long is exactly what we needed, he's ****ing brilliant. I'm not sure we needed to blow another £7m, Long and Aluko are our best two strikers.
To add to that, consider some of the players we now have: Huddlestone Livermore Long Jelavic McGregor Davies Brady Aluko Last time we were in this league having just one of them would've been huge for us. Now we have them all together. If any of them were playing in a team like Tottenham or Everton and in the top 6 you wouldn't be shocked. Look at Cleverley in the Man Utd squad, Henderson at Liverpool, Milner at Man City. Not world class but capable players. The reason those teams are up at the top is that they have the world class players on top. We don't have world class players, but we have a good squad now. We're not going to be top 4, or even top 6, but is a top half finish really unrealistic? If Newcastle had our squad and they were on, say, 32 points around 8th you wouldn't say "Damn, they should be 20th with that squad. How are they there!". Having capable players isn't everything - Fulham did ****e with Berbatov etc. The players need to be motivated, good backrrom staff and so on but that's beside the point. Our squad IS fully capable of a top half finish. It doesn't mean they will pull away, but Jelavic and Long make such a difference it's reasonable to suggest that if we'd had them all year we might be a few points better off in 8th/9th and closer to Newcastle/Southampton than to relegation teams.
We shall never know. But what erks me more so is the fact that Poor Officiating has cost us 5 points from the away games @ Everton, Spurs, Swansea and Palace and some poor defending has cost us a further 6 points in the home games with Cardiff, Palace, Man Utd and Tottenham. Add 11 points and we would be almost safe now on 38 points & 8th in the table. 40 points still has to be the mark we aim for imo.
I'm sure every teams supporters would also have the same opinion of points lost due to officials and bad defending etc. Hopefully this is the start of another good run, where we can chip away at that 39/40 point target. I'm sure there will be some more twists and turns to come, it is Hull City after all, we don't do things the easy way...
before we get ahead of ourselves....let us not forget how gedo started last year, with similar comments being made as to where we'd be if we'd had him all year. only 3 games in but he looks bloody brilliant so far
