Given our desperate shortage of Strikers perhaps Bruce, in the absence of new signings this week, should consider moving Elmo up front. He certainly puts himself about, is a great target man for headers, and has the speed to get open. Partner him with Ince who looked lively today and knows how to run into space. I'd far rather have those two than Sagbo. Move Quinnie to RW and Brady LW in a 4-4-2 with Livermore, Meyler/Huddlestone in the middle. Back 4 we have plenty of good options with Dawson back and Maguire/Macca solid subs. Thoughts?
According to the net Elmo started out as a striker. He has actually played there at least once for Bruce when they were at Sunderland. I guess we have to do what we have to do when we are in a situation like this. Its not as crazy of an idea as playing Sagbo up front.
Ince will have grow some balls before we can have him lead and line.He pulled out of a clear goal scoring opportunity because he would of got clattered. Would rather have Brady. If we don't bring in a striker this week we might as well not go to West Ham next week, save the travel cost
This. The lad's obviously got ability, but he's knocked off the ball far too easily, he's even more of a lightweight than Aluko.
You need a proper forward. One can play with his back to goal and hold it up. I'd take Jerome from Norwich. Cant believe we didnt sign him in the summer as a third choice. Only cost a million or so. Neither Brady or Elmo can do the job needed.
Ince looked lively? Ince looked awful. As he did at Arsenal till moved to the centre. But here he was played centrally and quite frankly you could see why he struggled to get in a v poor Forest team. Figueroa is the only one of the loan returnees to have emerged with credit from recent games. Ince and Sagbo seem to have gone backwards.
I was responding to what Canadatiger wrote; if we swap beyond this it weakens us too much elsewhere. Ince is weak, yes, but his pace can offset that for now. Dire times need dire . . .
I understand what you are saying Chazz, and I'm not being flippant, but we need a striker with his @rse facing OUR goal who, when he receives the ball, can beat his marker and shoot on target instead of playing it out to the wings where it invariably finishes up being passed back to McGreggor. With our first and second choice strikers injured we have NOBODY on the team capable of playing up front, firstly because those mentioned are far too lightweight and secondly because they are nowhere near the quality needed at this level. We are up poo-poo creek without paddles mate and there's nothing anybody can do about it.
Ye i know that roo but a striker scoring 25 goals isnt coming here. We're going to have to fight and scrap till the end of the season. We still need a forward who can score goals, please dont keep going on about it. We also need someone to hold up play and score goals. But we still need to hold up play and bring others into the game. we also need a forward who makes runs behind them, like Shane Long did, and no he didnt score enough goals either but he still played well for us. A forward who holds it up can bring thers into play and maybe, just maybe, our midfield can get beyong them or have a shot instead of as you say lay it out wide. We've got 17 games left roo, if any forward scores 10 it would be fantastic.
As you say he clearly needs to man up, if Hernandez or Jelavic had been in that position they would have got their head on the ball. Has ability but as you say needs to grow some balls.
I never mentioned 25 goals Chazz a handful would be appreciated. 'Hold-up' players don't score goals, it's the players who they hold up play for that do and unfortunately, not only do we not have a 'hold-up' player, but we also have none who are capable of playing off one. Playing well for us is not good enough. We need goals to get a result. Like you say, we are in for one hell of a scrap to remain in this league but it has become painfully obvious that we do not have a team capable of getting a result at this level.
We had our best performance of the season in our last match against Everton. Hernandez was motm i think. Jelavic scored. We should have had 4 or 5 forwards on the books. Thats been our biggest problem, an unbalanced squad.
Brady has some of the qualities required. Was it against Cardiff on the last day of the promotion season that he played there and did OK? And SAF no less thought of him as a striker.
I've just heard QPR have set a record of ten consecutive away defeats. I wonder when they'll break that record
I'm not normally one to moan about players being picked out of position, because as often as not it seems to work. Chester for example looks as classy as always playing at full back, and Livermore did alright there when he played there as an emergency over Christmas. Strikers though, are the one area where you can't put square pegs in round holes. We've tried so many people up front who aren't strikers and it just never works, we never create the space to do anything. If we don't bring in anyone this week then I'd hope we'll try something a bit different to just sticking two of the usual 'pretend strikers' up front e.g. Ince, Brady. I can't see Elmo being much use up there other than as a target man, but what's the point in him being out wide putting all his crosses in if no one's in the middle? I'd take a punt on a youngster. It won't happen but I'd love to see an energetic young striker who makes loads of runs. Maybe they won't be good enough for this level but it's got be more effective than two wingers up front with backs to goal for 90 minutes. We won't have a shot on target (yet again) if we do that.
I think we're just going to have to have ago at getting a lower league striker on good form with a bit of confidence, because we wont be spending anymore than a couple of million. I expect people to say the usual "we need a proven premier league striker" yes of course we do, as do most teams but that isn't quite as easy as it sounds. Especially when you've squandered a huge amount of money in the last transfer window.
