Saw this today, so interesting particularly to the anti Dykes brigade:- Top home nation scorers whilst at QPR Lyndon Dykes 8 Don Masson 5 Les Ferdinand 3 Gerry Francis 3 Alan McDonald NI 3 Conor Washington NI 3 Jamie Mackie 2 Ian Stewart NI 2 Stan Bowles 1 Colin Clarke NI 1 Iain Dowie NI 1 Keith Rowland NI 1
It's not his Scotland goal record that matters though is it, its his goal scoring record for us that does ! You need to take into account their appearances for their country too, how many games for Englsnd did Bowles actually make ? Think its only 2 or 3 off the top my head.
6 in his last 7. His performances at international level throw up a few questions.... Are Championship defences better than those of Ukraine, Israel and others in the B leagues of Europe? Do we play to Dykes strengths, or are we hoping that his square peg will finally fit into the round hole we're trying to ram him in to? Does he have better players around him in the Scotland team who provide him with the service he doesn't get at QPR? Is he more motivated playing on the international stage? He only came on for the last 15 minutes last night, had two touches in the box, both with his head and both of which nestled in the far corner of the net. He also carried out a bit of the harrying that we see him do at QPR further down the pitch. We tend to play a lot of ball into his feet, and whilst his hold up play isn't bad, his overall touch is pretty poor - but it does allow Willock, Chair and others to pick up the pieces. I'd like to see us put a few more high balls into the box and see what he can do with his head, even if it's a knock down for Willock to smash another worldie in.
Yeah, Laird has been fantastic for us but it looks like his most usual crosses are ones angled low back to someone coming in at the edge of the area. Willock scored from one. Some have been aimed at Dykes head. Paal hasn't got many crosses in at all though 1 or 2 have been good, one gave Laird a goal. Sometimes Willock and especially Chair get in decent crosses but there isnt that many all told. Bring back Kane!
I know but like I said I don't care lol. I care about his goals to games ratio for us ! You know he's coming back injured after the next 2 Sweaty games again. Happens every time. Is Chair playing for Morocco ? Dreading him getting injured. Doubtful these players will be ready for the Bristol game which isn't good.
At the end of the day he did manage to miss from 2 yards for us and has missed alot of 1 on 1 chances too. If you can't score an open goal from 2 yards , exactly what strengths do we need to be playing too ffs ?
We don't need to - we just need someone to actually take some decent corners instead of the hit and hope efforts we've seen lately Did you see his goals last night? When was the last time we pinged in corners like that? As I said before, his touch is poor but he's good with his head.
Maybe he could do what Bob Latchford used to do, and lie in the box and the let the shot hit your ear or head and fly into the top corner lol ?
There are some seriously big, dirty centre halves in the Championship to mark him from corners that get up to all sorts to stop him getting to the ball. There is no VAR to check infringements and the refs rarely give pens from corners in this league especially to us. Most international games of note have VAR now so defenders are less inclined to produce similar filth at set pieces due to the possibility of being caught by the VAR man.
Armstrong followed up his hat trick in the last U21's game with another 2 goals today ! Maybe he should've been starting games for tge proper team instead of 10 monute cameo's. Amos and Clarke Salter both played an hour aswell !
Really good interview with Beale on the Open All Rs podcast this week... https://open.spotify.com/episode/2N...i=z4daDWUWRvSVIBYghRqLvQ&utm_source=copy-link https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/long-shot-kick-the-table/id968873601?i=1000580421163
Not quite the same as facing a championship defence though is it? He still needs time to develop his craft, he's looked very raw when he's played for the first team
