Article: Lover | Football, Newcastle

He scored the odd championship goal for us?! Pretty sure he scored 16, which is 3 behind Andy Carroll, the £35 million striker. That's more than the odd goal. On his day I firmly believe he is miles above shola. I agree that if there's a younger player behind him then you can't play him, but the fact is where is our young, tricky, pacy striker? There isn't one. I would far rather see Ba and Lovenkrands together than Ba and any of our other strikers tbh, at least they're different enough to complement each other!

 

13 in 29 as already mentioned.

And he is 9 years(?) older than Carroll and scored less goals at Premiership level.

But he is ****e.

 

16 in 32 in all competitions.
Also if you read my post i'm not comparing Lovenkrands and Carroll, what i'm saying is that in that season he was three goals behind carroll (19 in 42)
which is a pretty good record especially for a 32 year old.
What i'm saying is that when partnering strikers this season I would much rather see Ba and Lover together as they are very different players who I believe will work well together. And i'm pointing out that he doesn't have that bad a record.

 

But Ranger is probably quicker than Loven, as is Sammy from what I hear, and Airey. I just think Loven is past it and would rather play a youngster over him.

 

I agree definitely with Ranger and really hope he stays and gets the game time, I'd also love for sammy to step up, however when hearing his surname I am massively sceptical...
I would much rather play a youngster as well, but I still firmly believe that if it came down to a loven vs shola or even loven vs best to partner Ba then I would pick Loven every time.

 

I'd pick Shola over Loven, just think on his day he is better. Same with Besty. Would rather have another striker though!

 

I suppose it's all down to opinion in the end We'll see what Pardew thinks soon enough!
Would absolutely love another striker... Hopefully not the rumoured Cameron Jerome...
If I had to put all my money on someone it'd be Long, which I wouldn't mind anyway tbh.

 

On his day Shola is better but I can literally count the number of days he had last season on one hand: 3. Sunderland (h), Wigan (a) and Wolves (h). If you get past the love for Shola being Shola (I used to have it) you see that he is probably one of the worst strikers in the EPL. Lovenkrands isn't much better but he works and bags the (very) occasional goal, whereas Shola consistently doesn't work hard and still only bags the (very) occasional goal.

 

I had a thread like this ages ago and loads of people shot me down for it. I rate him. In games such as Blackpool and games we won emphatically - west ham, he played well

 

He's ****. No arial presence, gets bullied off the ball, has an awful touch, can't pass, and doesn't have much pace anymore. Having said that, he is one of the most hardworking players in the team, and he makes very clever runs, which need to be clever to compensate for him losing all his pace. I hate it when commentators call him 'pacy', cos he really isn't anymore. They're confusing a clever run in behind the defence with pace.

 

We certainly can do better

 

This.

 

I agree with tash here, our system is built for a target man so when Lover plays all he's getting are scraps off Shola and looks a lot worse than he is. Decent squad player for the final year of his contract IMO.

 

He's ****, get rid of him and start playing Sammie instead of him.

 

Now look here - if you're going to resort to facts.....

Yeah, fair point. My apologies for forgetting that. But the rest of my point stands (ok maybe not playing Fat Mike). I'll always have a soft spot for Lover and am grateful for his contribution to the cause, but towards the end of the season he was really looking outclassed.

 

The Krul taking over Harper is another example of this, we need to move on and let the youngsters come through. Hope Chris Hughton wants Lovenkrands because I could see him scoring plenty in the championship for Birmingham

 

Lover is **** but a nice bloke

 

given the choice ad rather play with 10 men

 

So you'd rather have finished 15th last year then?

 

well when you put it like that id prefer to play with lover then have 10 men but i just dont rate him as a player, hes a great attitude and does try hard though i'll give him that! I'd defo have sammy over him this season though