Many of you are suggesting Maynard, Rhodes and other players for lower leagues. Yes it would be good too give some young untried player a chance but QPR turn great goal scorers into rubbish for some reason. Bothroyd: scored for fun in the championship - comes to QPR rubbish DJ Campbell: scored for fun everywhere - comes to QPR missed a few sitters Hulse: Has always scored goals - comes to QPR and is rubbish HH: Scored loads of goals at Watford - Until this season couldn't score (even send back to Watford) Jamie cureton: Always scored goals - QPR couldn't hit a barn door. These are just a few examples. Think we need to spend a lot of money on a new striker because we normally turn good strikers into rubbish
The League is littered with strikers that lose the ability to score, it's not just us. Very few have managed to score consistently throughout their career.
All of them were near 30 and never really had a great record at the level we wanted them for. Its different as a younger player has a great chance to step up, usually players nearing 30 will never step up a level because they have already been proved not good enough. Rhodes is on course for at least 40 goals this season. We need him.
We haven't had a decent striker in years. We keep buying them and they all turn out too be disappointing.
I think you're missing the point here. yes Bothroyd scored for fun in the championship, but the step up to the premiership is huge, and you can't expect him to be scoring for fun in the premiership. DJ Campbell has been injured for the majority of his time at QPR. He's started two games so he's obviously going to be short on confidence. Hulse was used a hold the ball up, and bring others into play striker. At previous clubs, he was played in a 4-4-2 formation where he was able to score goals. At QPR he's been played as an only striker, which is a lot harder to become a goalscorer. HH is the same as Hulse really. Due to his age, he struggles to play twice a week, so he's going to struggle. HH does such a good job for the team, when he scores, it's a bonus.
This is part of my point. People are calling for people like Rhodes and the PL is a huge step up and I dont want to rely on someone who has never scored goals at this level
I've seen some fantastic strikers over the years: Clive Allen, Les Ferdinand, Kevin Gallen - all legends who scored shedloads of goals for us. We haven't had a 30 a season striker for a while, but that didn't stop us winning the championship last season. And don't they rely heavily on the midfield for service? If we had the midfield of one of the top four clubs, wouldn't Agyemang score a few...? (perhaps not, but you get the point)
Its better to buy someone who is young and has never played at the top level but scores lots of goals where they have played than someone who has played at the top level who is a proven failure like Andy Johnson. At least the former has a chance of stepping up. If we stuck to your thinking, wed have never got players like Faurlin.
The problem with buying players who are 'hot' is that there is only one way they can go. Remember when we were relegated and Houston had the chance to sign an unknown called Paulo Wanchope? He scored 5 in 3 games for the reserves but was shown the door and Derby snapped him up. Instead we bought Mike Sheron and John Spencer for a total of about £4 million and we finished up as also-rans. Sometimes you have to gamble...
DJ is the best striker in our current squad, that's without question for me. We need to give him a solid run of games to see what he can do, but I also agree that we do need to sign another striker, I'm unsure if Rhodes would be the answer however.
Boothroyd scored for fun at the beginning of last season but was then injured. When he returned he hardly scored at all, apart from the screamer against us. Dj as mentioned before has pretty much been ill or injured since he joined. He may yet prove useful when given a chance. HH has been our saviour this season, but he is very close to the end of his career. But he has struggled with us before, some strikers are demons for one team and pony for any other. Hulse was injured when we bought him and what was supposed to be a 2 week injury lasted 2 months. By which time we were sticking to one up front and this just didn't suit him. I wouldn't mind us going for Maynard, Rhodes or any similar up and coming player, but only as part of a new partnership with a proven goal scorer. Buying one of these players alone in the hope that they will keep us up could very well send us down, but also ruin a promising career.
Except that HH is a good player and Hulse is the world's worst! Also, let's not forget that no proven, top quality striker is going to join us right now. Be realistic.
It seems too trite and simplified but there must be something in this. We haven't had an out-an-out scorer since Kevin Gallen and even when we have been doing well the goals have been spread throughout the squad rather than focused on a front man. The obvious conclusion to jump to is that there is a culture at LR that doesn't encourage this type of player but that is illogical when you consider ther number of coaches and styles we have been through since Gallen's day. The more measured view is that this is a deeper issue in football generally and that modern systems mean goal-scoring is now a team task rather than focused on individuals. Occasionally a team will come up with the tactics that mean there is a glut of goals for one player in particular but generally that is no longer the case and even where it is those clubs are often not successful overall (did Cardiff or Watford get promoted?). Having said this, the situation with Rob Hulse will forever remain a mystery to me.
This is what we should look at before getting in a striker, Rooney would struggle for goals in this QPR side! And why this support for DJ, he's crap, worse than Hulse. He missed soooooo many chances for Blackpool last season it was embarrassing to watch. If we produced the amount of chances Blackpool did he could succeed, we won't without open up defensively, hence DJ won't cut it for us. Dave had more of a precence in the Premier League in the games he played than DJ's had.
