How has he failed? He's a defensive midfielder and we're letting hardly any goals in. He's been singled out for praise by McCarthy this week.
You obviously don't understand the logic of your own argument, (and you accuse me of being snide too...) In all honesty, the last poster to grace this board with such nonsense was WLOH, except that he did have a knowledge of football that your lacking...
I give up as I've clearly lowered myself to your idiotic level!! I was not aware you were like this but we learn something new every day. Rather than being snide why don't you construct and argument with an opinion back rather than criticising my level of football knowledge!! Given I can't judge yours because you haven't given an opinion just felt the need to critcise my opinions. Of which i think I would be in the majority if you ask all (including Coventry) of McGoldricks previous clubs!! Again you have not really given me an example of how i've contradicted myself!!! Why do you feel the need to be such a knob today??
DU As Hyam seems to be your lovechild why not push him up front as a striker I'm sure he would bang them in for fun!
Just winding you up about Hyman. I do think though that we should look at the bigger picture, a few months ago we looked so frail at the back that everyweek looked like shooting practice for the opposition, and now as you say we are hardly letting any goals in. so i think there has been progress goals have been in short supply recently but just because a players does not score doe not mean he has played badly.
I agree WCP but as I've said in another thread I think Mick has changed tac. When he first came here yes we were set up as solid, which needed to be done but we were still playing some decent football and keeping the ball a little better and attacking with purpose whereas the past month or so we've got more and more negative
You still can't see it, can you? First off, you say McGoldrick isn't a goalscorer...I point out that his record of goal scoring at Coventry might suggest otherwise... Deciphering your points from the abuse thrown my way, you now seem to have moved the goalposts in your argument, I guessing that when you originally said "goalscorer", what you meant to say was "goal poaching striker", (or something like that), of which, to use my example, Gareth Bale isn't, although he is a (regular) goalscorer... You're ****ing hard work!
Sorry I thought it was pretty obvious what I meant given the context of my post. If I'd said goalscorer as to mean he's scored a goal or goals then yes you're right. I just thought most people would be able to see I didn't mean it in its most literal sense. Apologise if I offended u, I felt I was more than a little goaded into it!!
Getting a few poor results and a having a million pound carrot dangling in front of your nose can do this.
I'm reading through all these posts and we just keep going around in circles! Letting go of Scotland has proven to be a mistake but like I have said Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Given the state we were in when Mick arrived his first priority was to tighten us up at the back and make us harder to breakdown which is what he has done. Solving all of our problems right across the pitch will take more than 4 months to achieve! The problem we face isn't down to just the strikers but the total lack of quality in midfield and the wide areas. For a club of our size and standing it is a bloody total and utter scandal that we have no options in Midfield and in other areas come to that! We have no quality at all if we are being honest and it will be a desperate fight to the end of the season much as Mick alluded to when he joined in November. IF we go down the blame will rest with ME, SC & PJ for not strengthening the squad in the summer and relying on too many short terms loans instead of preparing a proper squad of players who are contracted to us. Many of the birds have come home to roost this season and if Mick does achieve the miracle given his lack of players then his achievements will sit amongst those of Bobby and Alf. Yes the football is turgid and totally boring stuff with no creative spark but you really can't wonder at it given the total mess this football club is in when it is being run by clueless owners! It really is time for ME to put up or **** off as we are suffering a slow and miserable death and if we survive this season it will mean absolutely nothing if Mick isn't given the huge investment he will need to completely start again. This club faces huge challenges not only til the end of the season but into next season as it is still not clear what ME's intentions are other than hiding behind FFP rules all the ****ing time. So the petty arguement about whether McGoldrick can score a few goals is all pretty small beer in the grand scheme of things!
We just haven't had a balanced squad for some time. We've gone from having more midfielders than you can name in a match day squad but a lack of defenders and striking options to having good cover at the back and a dearth of strikers but a distinct lack of midfielders. The recent poor results has meant Mick has asked everyone to put defending ahead of attack, hence the lack of goalscoring opportunities.
You raise some good points JWM I agree in the most part but I think Mick hasn't done the best he could over the past month or so, IMO he's made a few mistakes that he didn't make earlier on. Yes if we do go down the blame can lie with ME and PJ but I think given the great job Mick did initially getting us out of the relegation zone he's gone backwards and sometimes it's down to his own making. Everyone said at the time letting Scotland go was a mistake, whilst it he wasn't getting in the team that was because we had a good goalscoring striker here in DJ but he was always a viable option if need be, he was our own player and didn't take up a loan space. So we can't keep DJ so we get in 2 loan strikers, neither of whom IMO are as good as Scotland (although they are different players) and neither have as good a scoring record as Scotland, I just thought it was a strange decision. I wouldn't have like it if we had managed to keep DJ but could understand it more, just thought it would've been pretty low risk to just keep him until the end of the season. Given our defeciencies in midfield why did Mick choose to get in a loan keeper and 2 loan strikers over strengthening in midfield, further to which we let Luongo go back, who now would look a tidy little player for us IMO!! I know we do not have the best midfield but I saw the same players keep the ball a damn site better and create far more under Jewell a lesser manager than we are under Mick, so we can do far far better in this area. Agree SD one of the main criticisms of Jewell was that he didn't build a balanced side i.e having too many creative players, not getting in the players in positions we needed or that complimented each other, I thought Mick would do that, whilst I wasn't overly enamoured with the actually players he signed a RB, a LB, a CB and a target man striker pretty much straight away but since then he's managed to make us look even more lopsided IMO!
We're not lopsided in a defensive sense, but it is definitely at the cost of being able to do anything going forward.
It would be ****ing lovely if you actually read posts before spouting your drivel. I said I would sacrifice him at the moment. I also pointed out that I did not talk about Scotland with hindsight. I was saying it before he left and I said it was a huge mistake letting him go several times before he kicked a ball for Barnsley. If you actually read my posts you might just learn something
OMG it has been an interestering day or two on here. Where to start! McGoldrick - On the is he/ isnt he argument that has taken up about a 3rd of this thread. IMHO I would not call him a true goalscorer but that doesnt mean he will not score. My own interpretation of who can be classed as a striker is 'do you trust him to score if the ball drops at his feet within the area no matter what else is happening' For McGoldrick I would say no. I would count the likes of Chicharito, Solskjaer, Nugent, Owen etc as true natural goalscorers. The type of players that know instinctively were the net is. There are very clever players who play up front and can score brilliantly or on a regular occasion but you dont get that gut feeling with them. My prime example of this would be Suarez this season who has unbelievable talent and is scoring regularly but I wouldnt bet on him being in the right place to finish off a move or get an all important goal. If we need a goal with 5 minutes of the game left then I wouldnt feel confident of getting it and therefore the answer is no. On Scotland. He is doing well away from PR and he did look a decent enough player here but he never showed the kind of form that suggested a goal a game return. Although I would have kept in I wouldnt call letting him go a mistake but I would say replacing him with Aaron Mclean was the issue. On the midfield duo, I would drop N'Daw and play Hyam alongside Drury if we were continuing with 442. Hyam and Drury was the turning point for us under Jewell for a while and we now have a better defence behind them. In addition I would trust both of them to get the ball to a team mate. The defensive aspect of our player may be slightly reduced in ability but the advantage from retaining possession would be worth it. N'Daw is brilliant at what he does and has a decent long shot on him but for me his failings are the fact that he cant play football in the simpliest terms!
TB, I'm being a bit pedantic here but I actually think McGoldrick is a good finisher, much like Stead he rarely missed when in on goal, the problem was he either didn't have the positional sense or instinct to be in the box or in the right place at the right the time, meaning although he rarely missed he rarely got he opportunity to miss. I see this as a similar problem with McGoldrick. It seems Drury isn't rated very highly but the past 2 seasons our form has improved when he's played in the middle. As you say TB last season under Jewell playing Hyam and him together resulted in an improvement of results as happened when we played Drury and N'Daw under Mick, our form has certainly deteriorated since then. I think currently Hyam deserves to play over N'Daw but I don't see Mick changing it really unless through injury, if anyone drops out I'd imagine it would be Hyam, N'Daw and Edwards seem to be untouchiable atm no matter how poorly they play!!
PTC, Its not the fact that McGoldrick is a bad finisher and its not even his positioning, although he doesnt seem to be more willing to put in the miles running thanever strikers but its that quality, almost a 6th sense where an opportunity is going to present itself and make half a yard to get your shot away. On N'Daw Im not sure if its something Im missing but I have been at PR on games where his first touch has been in the style of a rugby conversion and he has won man of the match. Its going back to the RK days of having qualities where playing football is probably 3 or 4th in the list of required attributes! At least with MM its only 1 player rather than the whole starting 11.
Yes I agree and very few strikers actually have that 6th sense, I don't think it can be tought (Rhodes springs into my head at this minute). To me there are 2 types of strikers who score alot of goals those with that 6th sense in the box who know where the ball is going to drop or are first to the second ball (Chopra, Bent, Owen, Rhodes etc) and then you have those type of players who attack the ball in the box, almost forcing the ball into the net putting their bodies on the line (Lee, Shearer, Holt etc) and McGoldrick doesn't really fit into either of course you get players of exceptional quality who can score great individual goals but all of these are at top top clubs. It was always something which left a nagging doubt in my mind as to if Wickham would make it because similarly he doesn't really do either and why I thought Rhodes always would, as I say you can't teach than kind of thing!! As with N'Daw I agree, I think he's decent enough and would much better with more creative players around him but some of the matches I've seen of him this season he'd got MOM and people were going waxing lyrical about him like he was the best thing since sliced bread, saying how he dominated the midfield and passing was superb, I thought perhaps people failed to see that he gave the ball away about 15 times each half for no reason!! I have to say I didn't think we were getting into Keane territory with our performances under Mick to start off with but the last few have seemed to be going more and more that way, although I would say our defence looks more organised!!
I agree on all that accept Ch*pra's only 6th sense is how to be a moron or how to place a bet. In the past then possibly but I seriously havent seen that from him in a Town shirt. His goal the other week was technically good but didnt show to me that he still had that poacher ability.
It wasn't a poachers goal though, the move was from a ball over the top to Chops, who was where he should be, on the shoulder of the last defender. I thought it was a good goal. It wasn't like a goal mouth scramble where the ball fell to Chops and he put it away instinctively.
