Lambert: Great vision, good shot (when he doesn't, unselfishly, look to pass to another player), average movement. Rodriguez: Average vision, average shot (inconsistent), great movement. Osvaldo: Average vision (good when he doesn't mess about), average shot, good movement. Fair review? As noted on the match thread, we need a 20 a season striker to seriously challenge for the top 6, but with Osvaldo not getting many starts and having inconsistent displays, do we need to spend big on a new striker in January or give our current three more time to find form?
Rodriguez is our top scorer with five goals. Hopefully that gives him a boost. Got nine last season, so five so far is encouraging. Seems the biggest threat at the moment with his direct running.
It's difficult to determine whether we need a better goalscorer or a better provider of chances. I like the Diego and Hunt rumours because they seem to offer a bit of both. I trust our scouting team to do the job though, as they clearly do thorough research.
Yes, at this moment in time we're a little light in the striking department if we want a consistent strike force. Whilst any one of them can win a match on their day, they can't be guaranteed to perform. This may be a weakness in supply as well [we're not the perfectly balanced team], so improvements within and without could be made to the side. One concern - buying expensive doesn't automatically get you a 20-30 goals a season striker [Soldado..!], which is why Saints are reportedly after a midfield creator/supplier.
I think we need a midfield play-maker to give whoever's playing up front some supply. JWP is halfway to being that solution but at 18 isn't yet the finished product. But out of Lallana, JWP & JRod who makes way for whoever we get in? Unless, of course, we move JRod up top... Rickie & Osvaldo on the bench...
No idea whether we're interested in him, but there were direct quotes from him mentioning us as a possible destination.
I think it's both too early and too harsh to write Osvaldo off as average. He is clearly struggling to adapt to the pace, but he really hasn't been given any service, and the games he has played have mostly been against the top teams. I honestly think there is more to come from him, the only problem is we can't really afford the time for him to bed in if we're genuinely aiming high. Rickie must start on Wednesday for me, but it would be a good opportunity for Osvaldo to get his confidence up. It's a tough one.
I think the problem we have is that Lambert and Osvaldo both need chances to be created for them. That's not to say they're totally incapable of creating a chance themselves but they generally need crosses or passes to feed off, and the midfield just aren't providing that at the moment. You can see that Osvaldo in particular gets frustrated at his lack of chances and then starts trying silly tricks and ridiculous shots in an effort to make something happen. Rodriguez is a bit different. He's more likely to create a good chance himself but is also more likely to fluff the finish.
With Osvaldo, I think that part of it is that we involve the strikers quite a bit in the buildup, and while he has a full array of tricks with the ball, most of his goals in the past seem to come from running off the shoulder of defenders or floating into space around the box. With Saints, he ends up dropping off the defense line frequently and those runs are lost. Whether intentionally or simply as a product of our style, he gets used in the same fashion as Rickie, but Rickie he is not. Might have, though I'd expect us to rubbish any rumours unless a contract is signed.
Agreed. We just don't seem to play that way. I think the videos of his previous goals are why quite a few people seem to feel (or maybe seemed to feel) he'd work well with Ramirez. I can't see that combination getting used too often now though. The one thing about Poch that concerns me (not hugely but still) is that his style of play doesn't seem to work for our strikers. Osvaldo has obviously only got the one goal but it's more than that. How many real chances has he had for us? Maybe 3? And Lambert under Poch only has 9 goals in 28 games (5 of which are penalties or free-kicks) compared to 10 in 22 under Adkins. It just seems we don't play in a way that suits either of our strikers. Of course, as long as we stay near the top end of the table it doesn't matter, but if that changes...
I think other teams look at Saints and don't see any prolific 'big-name' forward playing against them. That's the thing though, other teams do not realise how much our players help each other out, regarding assists and runs, the scoring and assisting constantly varies!
Aye, but the way the defence has been working (so far) it hasn't really been a problem. If we start leaking goals then it will become very serious very fast. However, our leaky games have been away against numbers one and two in the league so there's no real reason to think that we'll suddenly start shipping loads of goals. Vin
Bar today where I felt there were situations that we could have defended better, we are a substantially improved unit in that department. On the other hand, we are fairly toothless in the attack at the moment and I agree with others that it is probably a combination of a lack of creativity but also finishing. We can't rely this heavily on our miserly defence.
Two games ago we looked like we could tear any team a new set of holes with our fluid movement, pressing and attacking play. We have now lost two games away at arsenal and Chelsea and the inquisition starts. I need another sabbatical.
