I really don't think we do, Aluko is here for another year and if Bruce classes him as a striker, then that's four. That is surely enough, two main ones and two back ups? We aren't going to see the back of Hernandez, he's our record signing and he's pretty decent, we know he can score goals but he isn't going to take the place of two in form strikers. He knows, we know it and Bruce knows it. We could spend any money we have on the other areas of the pitch, for once a striker isn't something I think we will see arriving in the transfer window, not when we really could do with improving the midfield and the RB positions.
Back to Long though - he was playing pretty regularly but didn't he pick up injury that was predicted to sideline him for quite a while?
Let's do what we did before only the other way round - sell Hernandez and buy Long and end up with some money left over for Mr Allam's pocket. We just need to find some club willing to pay £10 million for Hernandez. Yeah right.
I was thinking along the lines of the last few games. He was back & forward to Uruguay & then apparently played well v Everton, I'm going off here & what I saw on MOTD, then got injured. Since he's been back he's only had a short run outs, that was what I was basing my comment on.
definately agree, shane long wouldn't of scored much more than Hernandez because the midfield can't create anything
I'm not talking about numbers. I'd also get rid of two. My point was that we look fine with Jelavic and N'Doye but Jelavic's knee is all over the place so as often as not we're playing with 1 decent striker. We need two good ones at any one time. Too often he misses a game and we're ****. He's scored in 5 of our 6 wins I believe. He goes off the other night and we lose our lead. We're far too reliant on one half-fit player. If we do survive we need better backups than Aluko and Sagbo. Hernandez will get at least next season to prove himself, but the 4th spot needs to be someone decent. If we could get Long back for what we paid originally I'd be delighted. We still haven't replaced his pace. I dunno why Long is now pigeonholed as a hard-working but **** player. People never said that when he was here. In fact I remember me sticking up for Jelavic on here cos a lot thought he was the weaker one of the two, whereas I liked them both. It's a bit **** how football fans pretend players are **** after they leave.
I agree with you completely here. Hernandez is absolutely rapid though, he is much faster than Long, he just hasn't shown it yet. I am convinced that Hernandez will be great next season he has a lot of potential we just need to stick with him.
I know Hernandez is meant to be fast, but a few times for us I've seen him look really, really slow and be easily beaten to loose balls. He reacts really slowly too. I dunno if it's fitness or what. I thought pace was one of his big strengths before I saw him play, now I think it's a weakness.
Its not going to happen!! http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/hull-and-his-mrs-deny-shane-long-move-1.1649629
I thought he was pretty good when he came on at Stoke and did OK on Tuesday too. I do think he'll come good. It's just taking hima bit longer than we'd hoped.
His finishing is really poor. He works hard, causes nightmares for defenders and is constantly making room for himself, but he looks very nervous every time he goes one-on-one with the keeper. He isn't composed in front of goal at all. I remember the game against Trencin at home when he missed chance after chance after chance.
Are you on about Long? You're right about Trencin at home, but I think that was rather a one off. His finishing in his half season with us was pretty good overall.
Yeah, I am on about Long. I just think his finishing was quite poor. Fryatt was pretty similar in that he needed to have three or four chances before scoring. They're both good strikers though.
It's great the way we sneak on a different midfield when Jelavic and N'Doye are up front compared to Aluko/Ramirez/Sagbo. I don't know how we manage it when we make that change using subs during games though. As far as Long is concerned, he basically scored 1 in 3 for us last season and we're talking about whether or not we'd have him to replace Sagbo (out of contract) and Ramirez at the end of his loan, who I know is a midfielder but he's getting used as a striker more often than not. Wages wise I can't see it being much different, but we'd improve our goal return and give a bit of competition/cover to our front 2, plus we know he works well with Jelavic. Unless anyone has a better option for a 3rd choice/rotation striker I can't think why we'd say no if the option was there.
Classing Aluko as a 'striker' is like classing me as a rival to Usain Bolt - and I'm 76. Long won't be coming back here at any price - his Missus didn't like it here. Hernandez is still an enigma. I have seen deft touches from him and he showed his class when he had two opponents behind him and flicked the ball backwards over his and his markers head, rounded his marker and was speeding away only to be tripped by the other defender. He isn't scoring goals and that's the problem. I'd like to see him on the wing as a foil to Robertson playing the old one-two but I guess Bruce would prefer to have him on the bench as a sub for Jelly or N'Doye.
