Reading through many posts about Strikers on our board, I tend to notice we seem to have a thing to hate Macca... Yeah, he might not bang goals in week in week out, but when you look at him carefully, he runs his socks off each game he plays, and is a great impact sub. The amount of times I've seen him get subbed on, and make a change in the team. I was fairly dissapointed when I saw him get loaned out to Ipswich. Also very confused, we have a lack of strikers as it is, but then we loan him out?
Thats OK then, its not like we need strikers who know where the back of the net is or anything. As long as he works hard (which, granted he does). I dont imagine him or Simpson will be city players this time next year, and hopefully we will have a couple of players who do know how to reach a double figure goal tally.
That's the problem with McLean. I don't think it's the fact that people dislike him, it's just if you spend £1.3m on a striker, you expect him to score goals which he doesn't do unfortunately. Agreed that he's a great impact sub, but I'd rather have strikers that can score at the Club. Hopefully he finds his feet at Ipswich and returns with a goalscoring ethos.
But like I said, when he does get subbed on, he makes a change in the team, Sheffield Wednesday away earlier this season for example..
So thats enough to justify his wage, is it? For most people its plain to see where we have been lacking, we still have deadwood in the team, and SB will be doing his utmost to ship those (especially the ones whose contracts don't expire in the summer) out. I agree entirely that he gave his all for us on the pitch, and he seemed a genuinely nice lad, but that simply isnt enough. His job was to score goals, and on that he failed miserably. If this wasnt the case, we wouldnt be looking at DJ or Gedo.
Simpson and Big Nick work really hard, if they put me up front I'll work my bollocks off. Doesn't stop him being awful.
3 goals in 16 appearances? He played alongside Aluko for 10 mins in the Sheff Wednesday win, admittedly he scored in that period. Aluko wasn't in the team against Rotherham (League Cup) when McLean scored. McLean was subbed for Aluko against Doncaster (League Cup) when McLean scored. So I'm not sure where you get that from?
Mclean's a League One striker, he'll be back there before long and he's nowhere near good enough for a promotion chasing side. To be honest, considering how poor his strike rate is, I don't think he gets much grief at all, he's remained fairly popular despite not being very good.
Anyone think it might have been down to how we played? Last season McLean played on the right, with Fryatt up front on his own. The fact we have a dearth of strikers that all can't score suggests the problem is greater than any one individual.
You can't be a good footballer on the grounds that "you run around a lot". Christ, they all have to do that, it's part of being a footballer. What counts as a striker is to put the ball in the back of the net, just like being a goalie is all about keeping clean sheets. Unfortunately McLean couldn't score for us, for whatever reason and will probably never play for the club again. Sad but true.
