I’ll start with a comment Kit made to the local paper after the QPR game: “He (McCormack) is in a good vein of form goal scoring wise but he can get better,” Symons said. “He is playing well within a good team but he still comes too deep at times. Six in six, he can’t do a lot more than that.” Seems to me the first line is the most pertinent. Yes, he has been picking up goals, but ... his overall contribution has been fair to middling (across all of our games). Has he got a fitness problem or is he simply on occasion disinterested (as Surlyc pointed out was the case in the first period of the QPR game) or is something else bothering him (not taking kindly to the Club arbitrarily invoking the 1 year extension to his contract, for instance)? The other question I have about Kit’s comments is this. If McCormack is not following instructions, and constantly playing too deep, what are you, Kit, doing about it? Hopefully we won’t end up with another ‘Berbatov-type’ situation on our hands – sometimes wonderful; often like a spare whatsit at a wedding; and always (seemingly) undroppable.
It would be good to see his heat map of touch points vs QPR. Some of his drifting out to either wing really seemed to stretch the defence - perfect for our nimble midfield to move into space.
I think his work without the ball is very, very good and does stretch opposition. His contribution is very important....he was giving MD help and advice on the field against the raggeds...
When he's engaged, he is brilliant. After that slow start (for him) against QPR he really picked it up. Maybe that positive team performance will perk him up, knowing he doesn't actually have to do everything himself (like last year)?
What annoys me is this season McCormack has had more poor games than good ones, but he never gets subbed often, if at all. There's no doubting his work rate helps but he has been inconsistent, I write this after the Wolves game where he was ineffective even before the sending off. I don't understand why he is kept on the pitch when he isn't having a good game, is there a clause in his contract that he can't be subbed if he isn't injured ?
Maybe, given the age of our other striking options right now, Kit doesn't want to field a hugely inexperienced pairing up front, meaning that at any given time in the match it has to be McCormack plus either Dembele or Woodrow. Maybe.
Congratulations to R McC on scoring his 100th Championship goal in Sunday's match against Charlton. please log in to view this image
