Dan looked off the pace on Saturday I fear that he may well be sold in January to make way for a new striker . Birchall can't get a game either MA prefers Strevens to Adam surely its only a matter of time before we see Birchall partner Deon up front . If Keds is sold who would you guys like to see replace him at the club .
Gavin, strangely enough since Saturday I have been thinking over that very same question and as yet have not come up with a sensible solution! I do not believe it is Deon Burton and I just cannot see Birchall being a suitable replacement in the same role as Keds. If I was forced to make a choice at this moment in time, it would be Akinfenwa (Northampton) or Howe (Torquay) in for Keds role, with Myles Weston having a free role up front. Birchall as the bench warmer for Weston. I said in another thread Keds would be more suited to being a midfielder but then what do I know with my crazy suggestions. Again if I had to make another choice this time between Strevens and Birchall, I would go for Birchall but again NOT in place of Keds with either of them.
Kedwell works at this level and lower. If we are to get promoted (fingers crossed) then I think he would definitely look out of place in League One. There was times when we resulted to the long ball on saturday and Kedwell won most of those headers/chests/flick ons. As a target man he works in League Two. If he is kept until the end of his contract then I don't see him playing much of a role if we are in League One.
Don't think Ade or Rene are viable options. No other club in L2 (except strugglers maybe) is going to sell their main strikers to us. Especially not those two players. And I personally don't think Keds will be sold. He is a big part of our way of playing despite his lack of goals from open play. The fact we are 2nd top scorers is mainly, I think, down to his all-round play, hassling of defenders, pressure, presence, winning headers and flick-ons etc. I think, if we are to get another striker, it will be someone out of favour at a L1 club, or maybe a Champ/Prem youngster loaned to us for the rest of the season. Akpo Sodje has been mooted around, but apparently Mr Evans wants him at Rovrum.
If I remember rightly,at the beginning of the season ,Northampton said Bayo can go if the right offer came in. However, I don't think that Martin would want him and he would only be a short term fix til the end of the season anyway. I will be surprised if any of us can predict (apart from Wright) who Mad Dog will bring in. I personally think it will be a tall striker from a L1 or above club who we will sign on a permanent deal ready for next season. It may well be that Kedwell goes, either on loan or permanently, and quite frankly I won't be sorry if that happens as I've never been a fan. He should have been subbed at half time on Saturday, because I think Burton would have put away at least one and probably two of those chances that Kedwell missed in the second half. Cue, Hoadie coming on in his defence.
A lot of people have got this all wrong. The important thing is how well the team plays and how many goals are scored with Kedwell in the team. So long as the team performs it does not matter one jot who scores the goals. If there is one clear lesson it is that with Kedwell playing there tends to be success and goals, same story last season, same story at Wimbledon. I doubt if Kedwell is capable of playing at a much higher level although I seem to remember one of his best performances as being the one against Stoke but he is excellent at League 2 level.
brb - I'm glad you've seen sense and come around to my way of thinking. Gills fan or not, trys hard or not, Kedwell isnt very good. Sell him and lets get someone in that can score from open play.
Fan or not, he puts in a lot of work for the benefit of the team and as others have pointed out ....we win when he starts. I PERSONALLY feel that at this stage of the season with him being our leading scorer (open play or not) starting such threads is a tad self defeating. It would be like Usain Bolt throwing his running shoes away just before the start of a race because ......although they do a reasonable job for him, he doesn't like the colour and doesn't have a good enough spare pair. Just my thoughts.........
Putting in a lot of work for the team is not in dispute. What is annoying is that when he gets chances he's got a very low percentage of converting them (unlike Burton) unless they're from 12 yards, and that is not good enough from your main striker. You can get plenty of Mid fielders to run around and make chances, thats their job, his is to score goals and he's not very good at it even in L2
Kedwell is an important player for Gills, let no one believe he is not. Yes he has not scored enough from open play BUT he gives 100% and his all round play is good including important blocks and headers . At the beginning of the season he was on fire and looked leaner and looked like he would get 20 goals this season.He has not been at his best recently but the team plays better with him in the team. No way will he be sold in January although Mr Allen may explore bringing in new faces.
Top scorer 10/11 Macdonald 25 goals 11/12 Kedwell 12 goals 12/13 Kedwell 9 goals (22 games just under half way) So Kedwell has underperformed then? well no because his game is all about delivering for others and the real measure of success is; Goals scored 10/11 67 goals 11/12 79 goals (highest in league 2) 12/13 41 goals (on target to beat 11/12)
a player with kedwells ability to link up play, win the long ball and redistribute and his work ethic combined with a good proven goal scoring record (from open play, not a dig) would cost a small fortunate and would not be playing for gillingham for long if at all if we found a gem from the lower leagues say. simple as that stats can always be used to prove a point but at the end of the day we have won more games with him than without him, and personally i dont care if nelson ends up our top scorer or we continue to score goals across the team its getting the 3 points that counts!! that is exactly the mentality MA has instilled
Well said Bristol, Gemini and Jokey..............as has been said when Pope doesn't score, Vale don't win. Yes they have scored a few more goals than us but we are not so totally reliant on any one player.
So if we were to bring in a goal scoring forward who would be sacrificed to make way cos it won't be Strevens or Birchall so that leaves Burton or Keds
It could be Strevens although he tends to be played more as an attacking mid fielder than a striker, so probably a new striker would only be challenging Kedwell or Burton for a starting place. Weston rarely starts and Birchall never does, so my guess is one of Kedwell, Burton or Birchall would lose their place on the bench, because a new striker would almost certainly start. I reckon Birchall will be the fall guy ,and unfortunately he's never had a chance.
The stats speak for themselves though. everytime he's started, we haven't lost. His workrate is probably one of the highest in the team and he gives it 100% every game. If you want to talk about his goalscoring then yeah ok he doesn't score thousands a match, but his record is still not too bad. In total Kedwell has played 70 games for the Gills (including sub appearances) and he has scored 25 goals. Pretty decent if you ask me for someone who is not a natural goalscorer.
I reckon one of Strevens / Birchall will be loaned or sold. A new striker (IF we bring one in) would be played with Keds & Burton on a match by match basis depending on the opposition. If said striker is indeed a natural finisher with a great record (playing in L2?) then he would start more often than not. The remaining player from Strevens/ Birchall would be the other bench player. If I had my way, Adam Birchall would already be getting a lot more game time to see if we already have that elusive natural finisher. As said above, he's hardly been given a chance. Having said all that, I'll trust MA to get the right people in to help us for the 2nd half of the season. After all, he's not done much wrong in the first half so far.
I think you can throw all of the stats you like at Kedders but when he's not in the team we simply don't play as well in my opinion. He also wins a hell of a lot of the flick ons from throws (Rotherham for example) which create goals. He may get replaced (it wouldnt surprise me if MA replaced Kedders, Birchall and Strevens) in January but we'd need someone from a higher league to come along and lead the line in the way he does. Someone like a Leon Clarke for example.
