5 reasons why our attack will get much better even without a new striker

If Obertan is anything, he's a winger. How can you form an opinion on a cameo v Arsenal and 85 minutes in one of the most intense games he will ever play with little to no time on the ball. He can beat a full back and put a wonderful cross in for Shola, who missed it and was offside.

One more option would be to try him as an out and out striker, some (admittedly very premature) comparisons with Henry even (as in winger converted to striker).

 

This I'll like, REALLY like to see. Partner him with someone like Ba/Ameobi and see how he does. Hangeland/Hughes/Senderous/ aren't the fastest so we should expose that by playing Obertan UPTOP with Ba/Ameobi.

 

It wasn't just that. Pardew obviously told Jonas to leave Raylor and start attacking more at half time, because in the second half he stopped tracking back so much and started really attacking hard. The additional of Williamson just aided that even more.

Of course it had a lot to do with Raylor . Jonas kept tracking back to help him an awful lot, and therefore didn't have as much opportunities to attack. This happened in the Arsenal game AND the Sunderland game. It only changed when, for some reason, Jonas immediately started attacking more in the second half. Presumably Pardew told Jonas to stop covering Raylor so much and to start attacking more. Was that only because Pardew knew that Bruce was changing his tactics and wouldn't be so much of a threat down that left side? Perhaps. Either way, in both games, Jonas spent a lot of time making sure Raylor was okay until someone told him to stop (or he felt that he could).

So if he isn't a winger, and he isn't a secondary striker, what is he? If he can't make smart runs or beat a man then that basically takes him out of both options, so he's kind of ****ed. Obertan is a decent player at best, but he has the attributes to be more of a winger than a secondary striker, so if we can get him to utilise those attributes, he will perform much better. You really have to use what you've got. Does he have the nimbleness, control and confidence to work as a secondary striker or advanced CM? No. Does he have the pace and dribbling ability to work as a winger? Yes. So let's use that and develop him properly.

 

So you think a new left back will mean that when we play arsenal away or Sunderland at home Jonas won't have to track back? Sorry, but it's very little to do with 'covering raylor', by saying it this way you're making it sound as if Jonas is getting bogged down purely because of raylor being a poor left back and a new one will free him up more which just isn't the case. he was back covering because it was arsenal and Sunderland and our game plan/counter to their game plan and so on, a better left back would not change any of those things.

That was your original point right? That a new left back will free Jonas more to bomb forward?

 

Of course he will . Just nowhere near as much. In the last two games Jonas has honestly been more of a wing-back than an out-and-out winger, all apart from the second half of the Sunderland game. Raylor is out of position, and while he did better than many expected (i.e. not as bad as Perch) he's still a very weak link there. I do think the fact that Raylor doesn't look too bad there is down to how much effort Jonas put in helping him. And when Jonas puts that much in, he has barely any opportunities to make an attacking run.

Yes it is. Raylor is a poor left back by the standards we should have across the defensive unit. Jonas has to help out more. Once we have a quality left back who can largely be relied on to defend the left on his own, Jonas has more freedom to attack. He'll still help the left back, just not as much. It's common sense. Jonas, Pardew or both obviously had the idea to help Raylor out more because they know he's out of position there and a weak point. It was a wise move defensively, but it means Jonas can't attack as much as he would like.

Jonas has defensive and offensive duties, but he's been much more defensive in the past few games to protect Ryan Taylor. If you look at the Arsenal and Sunderland games its very obvious. Jonas played a very big role in keeping that left side under control. He put in a lot more effort than usual to ensure that Raylor was never too exposed, because teams did realise he was the weak link in the defense, so they directed more of their attacks down there.

It all comes down to having Raylor there.

Yes.

 

Quite right, he did the same thing for Ferguson when we had to play him at LB last season