... being used as an 'impact' sub at the moment e.g against Leeds... and god we needed him to come on in that shower of **** ... the ref must have been contemplating blowing up early so as not to disturb the sleeping fans just prior to Knocky being introduced.
Its about the team not a player. Nigel is trying to set a team mentality of being hard to beat, and we have sacrificed a bit of flair in the mean time Knockaert is still our ace in the pack
Despite the loss and being completely battered for the first twenty minutes, I thought we played some good stuff on Sunday. I expect Chelsea to win the league, so losing 2-0 away on the opening day is no big deal, particularly when you consider two of most important players had never played for us before. I think we might have some fun this season.
You did knock the ball around very well but never looked like scoring I think your lack of cutting edge will cost you dear
I'd say it's too early to judge. Graham has played well in the Premier League previously, but has just had a **** time at Sunderland and still looks like his confidence is low. Sagbo and Aluko look to be the strongest strikers, but we've ended up signing a couple of key players after we had already finished pre-season, which isn't ideal. I think things will be tweaked a bit over the next few games and then we'll have a better idea of where we stand. It also seems that Bruce is still keen on bringing in one more player, so we might yet get another striker(possibly dependant on shifting/loaning Fryatt or Proschwitz).
I dont think the Brown team would stay up. We are also a far better team than that Brown side. But I still dont think you need a 15 goal scorer. You can spread that 15 goals out between multiple players and get the same goal total for the team. Your point that you need a 15 goal scorer is wrong. You need a certain number of goals for the season and that total does not need to be from one guy. Your number 15 is arbitrary. Also you can lower that total by proper defending as we did in the past. That is my point.
I disagree with you and agree with FF. You need a talisman. One who will you get you a goal in the face of adversity. One you can look to and know that if you can muster a chance for him, 9/10 times he'll score it. Benteke, Michu, Lukaku, Lambert, Holt, Le Fondre, Walters, Fletcher, Yakubu.... These players all played for relegation threatened clubs but their goals saw them saw them safe (Yakubu aside). I really do think you need to splash the cash for a good striker (despite the fact most of the above cost little to nothing for them). A good striker is key because no matter how good your defence is in comparison the likes of RVP, Suarez, Torres, Mata, Hazard, Silva, Dzeko, Aguero and Rooney will still run rings around you.
All about opinions elle. I agree that you need a certain number of goals and that they don't NEED to come from one player BUT - your strikers are the 'specialists' in the goal department and that is where you would expect the majority of your goals to come from. The number 15 for me wasn't 'arbitrary' but is perhaps 'aspirational'. Everybody is looking for a 20 goal a season striker but that indeed is a tough ask. But if your top man has the ability to score 15 (in all competitions - but the majority in the league) AND the rest of the team has been weighing in with a few then, IMHO, you will probably survive. We can all quote statistics but just going on league goals the most telling thing about QPR's relegation was their league goalscoring Remy 4 Zamora 4 Tarabbt 4 Cisse 3 Mackie 2 Townsend 2 The most 'league goals' in a relegated team last season was Le Fondre with 12 for Reading - but the interesting thing there is that he scored the majority as a sub (and perhaps scoring after the game was all but done, result wise) By contrast 3 clubs that survived which might otherwise have been in the dog fight: Villa - Benteke 17 WBA - Lukaku 17 Southampton - Lambert 13 (but probably scored over 15 in all competitions?)
I do agree that it is far easier with someone who bags a ton of goals. There is no arguing that and if we had someone who could bag 15 or 20 I think that survival wont be a problem. Personally I doubt we get anyone who scores 10. I still think we will stay up. QPR wasnt a team. QPR was a collection of individuals. Villa, WBA had an over reliance on a Benteke and Lukaku which should have cost them had QPR not been a bunch of idiots. You want your goals spread out with threats coming from multiple areas from multiple players. It is that spread in quality that enables you to win more games and get more points. You guys last year for instance had the better squad yet we went up. I think part of that reason is that our players jelled more because they were forced to play together and not rely on one or two goal scorers. In my opinion if your goal differential had been worse and you had sacrificed goals for bringing more players into play you would have gone up.
I don't think graham is good enough at all, i was gutted about hooper... I just hope we get a good forward in before the window closes.. It's the thing our team is missing, sagbo is an unknown and graham hasn't been half decent for ahwile, hope he proves me wrong though
Its slightly concerning that Graham has gone to Sunderland and not made an impact, but he was never really going to feature heavily under Laudrups style of play at Swansea.
... not sure that's entirely accurate Wizard - Laudrup is not averse to playing with a 'big' target man up front - he did it quite a lot last season (and indeed started with such against Man United on Sunday) ... but Miguel Michu is a superb footballer and Danny Graham is not ... Michu's technical ability means that he is able to hold the ball up and link play together - I thought he was superb on Sunday; Vidic and Ferdinand had a torrid afternoon (despite the result). The reason that laudrup was mor than willing to led Graham go had more to do with his quality as a footballer than not fitting the style of play IMHO. Danny Graham is more in the Steve Howard mould - but actually not as good as Steve was in his pomp - he might prove me wrong but from what I've seen so far I'm not sure he'll score enough goals at Prem level and his all round play is pretty average ..
I think we should have signed Le Fondre, but Brucey obviously wanted more of a strong hold up player to work alongside Aluko, ironically he may have Sagbo to play that role anyway. We have several players in midfield capable of scoring, Brady, Elmo, Boyd, Meyler and Quinn a chipped in with a few and Aluko and Koren got 8 and 9 respectively(though Aluko mainly played as a second striker).
I'd agree with you on Le Fondre - in fact your whole post makes sense - Danny Graham is not a bad option to bring off the bench to cause some more 'direct' disruption in the opposition box if you are chasing a goal etc ... I'm just not convinced that he will ever merit a starting place in what is a very good Premiership these days ..
I'd start with Sagbo and Aulko up front on Saturday, but I'm not sure Bruce will be too keen on dropping Graham to the bench after one game, he's already lacking confidence after a fairly disastrous stint at Sunderland. It will be interesting to find out who the final player Bruce is chasing actually is(we seem to be only linked with French players at the moment) and I'd but much happier if we had one more striking option. There's rumours of Fryatt going to Barnsley for £800k, if that happens we might yet go for Le Fondre(or similar).
Good to see you again OLM, it's been a while Le Fondre would be an ideal signing for you IMO. I think with Sagbo being a bit more bullish with his pace and strength he'll get you goalscoring opportunities. ALF is the ideal person for a lower end PL side IMO. Can't believe we decided to opt out when we were interested in him. He's clearly a talented finisher.
I've been sunning myself in Portugal for the past couple of weeks. Much as I'd love us to, I suspect we won't go for le Fondre. Bruce has complaining all window about English players being overpriced and that's why we seem to be doing much of shopping in France at the moment. It seems that outside of PSG and Monaco, most of the clubs are having money troubles and there's some bargains there at the moment. It looks like we'll be making just one more addition, it will be interesting to see who it is(Barnsley just signed some Dutch striker, so I'm not sure there's anything in the Fryatt story).
