A Championship club with aspirations of promotion cannot afford lazy players who are marked out of the game and are passengers for large parts. This was the case for Yakubu and it's the case for Beckford. Yakubu was a quality player and had a good goalscoring record. However in this league goalscoring is not always enough, he was non-existant in too many games and it didn't help the team. Some of his performances were part of the reason we didn't get into the play-offs. Beckford isn't scoring and his effort is lacking at times. His decision making all round is terrible and he cannot hold it up to save his life. I want him to come good but it's not looking likely. I'd rather give Schlupp some more game time because he shows more promise in his all round game than Beckford does.
For me, the reason we didn't make the play-offs last season was because we weren't great at the back. We scored plenty of goals and really put some teams to the sword at home. I think with a prolific goal-scorer this season we'd be right up there...
You defend from the front and if your strikers are chasing balls down then it does make life easier for the opposition. Even last season when Waggy came on and did nothing he was still running around like a headless chicken making sure the defenders didnt have an easy time
I think we're talking about two extremes here. Obviously you can't have 11 lazy bastards who put in no effort because you'll get nowhere but then again, you can't have 11 players who run around a lot but aren't very good because then you might as well get the blokes from the Leicester Cross-Country club to come and play. Players like Beckford re luxury players who, when they're playing well (and that usually co-incides with when the team as a whole is playing well), will be an asset to any team and can win games on their own with a moment of magic because they have that quality about them. The problem comes when they aren't playing well and they become a luxury you can't afford to have because they add nothing to the team. Ideally you'd have one, maybe two, of these players but no more in an XI. I think when the latter situation arises, man-management of these players is important and I think Nigel's right to, when he isn't playing well, just put him on the bench, get him fired up and more motivated to prove a point when he does come on and then you still have the quality of that player ready to come on and change a game like we know they can do. You have to remember that Beckford, due to Big Steve's sending off, was forced to play that lone striker's role today and it's a role that we saw at West Ham doesn't suit him because then you do need to be more robust in defending from the front and making life more difficult for the centre-backs because you're the only one doing it. But that said, I think he should have adapted to his given role a lot better than he did. But Nigel's man-management skills are very good and I'd still back him to get Beckford firing and I think Jermaine will benefit from (hopefully) the better service he and his colleagues will get once the appropriate players are bought.
All Beckford needs to do is up his work rate and sort out his attitude a little. IF Nigel has faith in him and believes he can change him then I think he would come good for us eventually but i cant see that happening
