Article: Lover | Football, Newcastle

I hate how a lot of people under rate him. True he's not excellent, and in quite a few matches last season, he was a passenger for most of the game, but lets figure out why that was.

Lover had to have Bambi Ameobi as a partner for the majority of his games last season. He was relying on Shola for knock downs and passes, and 90% of the time they didn't come because despite Shola's physical strength and height, his timing and balance most of the time is ****, and players considerabley smaller than him can dominate him in the air. So if Shola couldn't do **** with the balls that were launched up to him, what the **** was Lover supposed to do all game?

Loverman was great today. He works hard, and even though the timing of his runs are poor quite a lot of the time, he passes the ball well, has a good touch on him, good agility, and can be a part of an attacking, creative move.

Most of Shola's assists last season were ****. Just balls smashing off his chest or arse and landing in the box for Nolan to belt in, all of Lovermans assists are passes or crosses that he made.

Shola can't do the same for the team. Remember the 1-1 draw vs Blackpool? I know this is the 6th time i've brung this **** up, but we could have quite easily been 2-0 up and burried the game, but Shola couldn't play a simple pass to Lovenkrands who made an good run and was set for a tap in. This was 5 minutes before Lovenkrands scored that 25 yard belter.

I'm not saying Lovenkrands is even a great striker at this level, because he's not. He's weak as piss, pretty much useless in the air and his timing is sometimes off when it comes to his runs, but if you put him with a good partner, or give him a role which consists of more passing and link up play, he's a very useful player.

He'll be criticized and treat as garbage if we just stick him upfront knocking through balls for him to run on to. That part of his game isn't with him any more. In my opinion, he'd be a good impact player in the attacking midfield position, running with the ball, passing, crosses and slotting players in.

As i've said, he's not a fantastic player, but he has his uses, and abilities that people don't appreciate. I'd get rid of Shola long before i got rid of Lovenkrands. We want to play flowing, passing football, Shola can't be part of this. It's true Shola can produce moments of magic at times, but they don't come frequently enough and even though he's supposed to be fighting for his place right now, he didn't look that much more interested than he normally does.

Rant over.

 

Don't think he's that bad myself, but he'll be 32 next January and I just don't really see the point in giving him that many games. I'd far rather see a younger player getting game time

 

Hes absolute dog ****e.

Everything people say he does, makes runs, links up well etc.... I certainly haven't seen it, for the 5-10% of the game he actually gets involved in the play hes sloppy, wasteful and not even as fast as people let on.

Theres not much in it between them because both are atrocious, but at least Shola can hold the ball up well and wins a lot in the air IMO.

Dont particularly want either of them near the starting lineup next season but IF I have to choose it would be Shola every day of the week.

 

I'd play Sammy ahead of him

 

As would I.

 

He's ****, passenger for most games but not for the reasons you've mentioned. Other strikers have managed to play amazing with Shola, you can't blame Shola for Lover being ****e...

 

Also this

 

I think whenever he pulls on the shirt he justifies his wages. He's a bit lightweight and his first touch is bad but he does the running for him and Ameobi... literally. You need that sort of effort in every team. Definitely a squad player

 

would rather ship him out so a younger player could have his squad place

 

Agreed. I'm not saying Loverman is an fantastic player, and he's worth only 15k a week max. Squad player yes, but he has his uses. I respect him far more than Shola.

 

Both are ****e, end of story. Except we all know Shola will be here forever, whereas Loven won't be.

 

I'd much rather we let him leave when his contract expires and use the youth like Sammy, Vuckic, Ranger, I'd even give Airey a blast, cant do much worse than the goal records of Lov and Shola last season.

 

This, basically. Also I personally think he's PAST IT and has been since our Champioship season.

 

I'd play Fat Mike ahead of him. Yes he scored the odd goal in the Championship for us and I'll always be grateful to him for that. But when we bought him he wasn't signed to any club. There was a reason for that. Last few games he played last season, he was utter crap - regardless who was playing alongside him.

 

He's ****! Simple!

 

He was actually very good at championship level, didnt he get around 15 goals for us? I think that in itself shows the huge gulf in class between the champ and the prem.

 

Yeah but towards the end of that season he showed signs of decline and even though he scored 13 in 29 in the CCC.. he didn't exactly shine BIG time did he? Carroll was the main man. This will definitely be his last year, as I don't see us extending his contract unless he's on dirt cheap wages!

 

Yeah good point. And with the fatman in charge you never know, might turn around and give him a 5 year deal :|

 

The Championship made Ameobi look like Drogba. Like someone said, it shows the quality gap between both leagues.

 

It was me about 3 posts up