Mane almost never plays with his back to the goal. And he almost never holds the ball up. The thing is, people EXPECT Pelle to hold up the ball. When he doesn't, it's like ohno he messed up. But they expect Mane to dribble right at people and lose the ball. So the one time a game Mane actually notices he is dribbling into a wall and holds up, it is a success. Same with Long. Long is better in the air than you would expect. Mane is stronger than you would expect. But neither one of them could do what Pelle does. Which is okay, because those two are different players. But if you lament the lackof holdup play from a striker, Long and Mane do this like 1 out of every 10 balls. So even with Pelle's ocassional wayward pass he is still way, way, way better at it than them.
Of course, but when he has, he is a strong little bugger and I've seen him hold it up centrally and lay it off. I wasn't trying to make out he does play there a lot. If Mane almost never plays with his back to goal, where does your 1 in 10 come from? As you say, they are different players. Just so as not to cloud my opinion, what I am saying is that I don't hink Pelle is as good a target man as his size and physique should make him. That's just an opinion.
Shane Long has little invisible wings on his ankles, that's why he wins so many headers. Amd also why he's so blooming quick over the ground.
Is there a break down how many of Pelle's headers won are in his own box defending? Not trying to be funny but there are games where Pelle doesn't seem to win any headers up front. Seem of course being the operative word as it may just be an impression rather than reality.
Just my opinion, but we are more exciting to watch, without Pelle. The speed and movement make us so much more unpredictable, and you can almost see the panic in defences. In recent games we have been doing to teams, (to some degree) what happened to us against Leicester (2nd half) and Everton, where we just couldn't cope with their pace and movement. If we revert to 4-3-3, then I'd be happy to see how it works with Mane, Long and Austin, but if we are going to go with just two up front, then Ron has a seriously difficult job coming, pairing off the above three, plus Pelle, Tadic and maybe JRod, should he recover his fitness at some stage. What a great problem to have.
I don't know if there is breakdown exactly like that, but that's not the reason. Only Benteke had more headers as a striker than Pelle last year. I doubt Pelle has all that many because of defensive headers from corners. It is really that everyone expects Pelle to always win. When he does, you don't notice or you think oh no we are lumping it to Pelle again. You don't think "hey he just won a header."
You can't say that as you don't know what people are thinking. I have always had my doubts about Pelle's all round play. I think his touch is hit and miss, he looks awkward with the ball at his feet with nobody on him and he doesn't get in front of CBs and hold it up as well as a target man of his size should. I've not even mentioned his headers, because it is tough to judge him when a ball is hoofed up to him to head. It is the other aspects I have questioned in the past. I love his passion and I love the goals he has scored for us. He has a part to play, I just happen to think we are harder to play against with other options. Not 100%, but certainly I sway that way.
Give Pelle a little bit of space and a clear sight of goal and I'd back him to bury it almost every time. Whilst Mane and Long may both be better at creating opportunities, they are both considerably more likely to miss the goal completely. Maybe we should just play Tadic upfront every time.
We're not better. We're different. We have more options now. That makes us stronger overall as a squad. But I don't see us in 4th or 3rd position, like last season, so added variety and strength is all to the good. We need everybody and we need to get better if we are to get back to last season's level.
To paraphrase Thatcher after the Falklands War..."just rejoice". Rejoice in the fact that we have the most talented, varied and expensively assembled Striker department in the history of the club...2 full English Internationals, 1 current full Italian international, 1 full ROI international and 1 full Senegal international. We have pace, power, finishing and target men, so many options. I don't care who starts as long as we keep scoring goals and winning games. COYR!! * Austin hasn't played for England yet, but he has been in the squad, before anyone points it out!
I think the stats for "excellent ball played off the chest" for Pelle would be 100%. He never gets it wrong. Vin
Austin will want to hit the ground running and make a late bid for a place in the Euro`s squad - Long and Pelle want to be starting regularly and scoring to put themselves to the front of the queue for their countries. Nice problem to have Ron !
In his interview he said he wasn't looking at that. He said he simply wanted to do the best he can with Saints. Of course, if his form becomes that spectacular there's no reason why he shouldn't be considered. But the point is that when he was asked the same question [looking at Euros?] he said NO.
.......must be in the back of his mind. Hodgson will take his favourites no doubt, but this time round he won`t take Rickie, and Sturridge may not be fit. JRod won`t be in the mix either.
Sadly, I think we probably are better without Pelle. As others have said, that is possibly because the team play a worse system with him in, looking for an easy outball, but also because his movement isn't great. He's been outstanding for us at times, and he is the best chester of the ball in the league, but our team is based on a certain dynamism which he doesn't possess. I feel bad typing this as I am a big fan of his, but I just don't want to watch the style of football he has, through no fault of his own, become synonymous with.
That's never happened. It would require close marking from a defender. And as we all know, only Shane Long draws defenders.
