So what is the issue with Cisse?

Have seen him in person and christ... a Phillipino housemaid with stunted growth development would look down in him.
To be fair Defoe and Owen scored a few goals from a low height.

 

The thing about Cissé is he can't be this ****e forever right? I mean no one can be, he used to be banging them in and I feel he will again eventually. I'm just not sure it's this season and I have a feeling he'll be moved on, but when he does move on I'm pretty sure he'll get 15 a season again, which will be ... annoying as ****.

 

Really?

 

Height is clearly not an issue, it all depends how you play and who you are partnered with. Phillips, Defoe, Lennon, Zola, Juninho, Nathan Dyer, Beresford all tiny but very effective. I dare say Campbell is taller than most of those (almost certainly Defoe).

 

When Cisse arrived and embarked on his scoring run, he was an unknown quantity, played alongside two very dangerous players who were playing well - Ben Arfa and Ba - and benefitted from having two wingers who had always been wingers - Benny/Jonas. We also had Cabaye/Tiote in the middle, with no emphasis on trying 4-5-1's or number 10's.

Following season it all changed, we started playing differently, Cisse went wide, then Ba went wide, then Ba left, there were a few injuries and defences know he's a bit fragile and is about finishing - they are more savvy to stopping the supply line, or at least cutting it down. Simply we didn't either evolve ourselves to cope, buy players to improve our game nor did we try and play to his strengths.

 

There was nothing lucky about his amazing half season. Luck doesn't score that array of quality goals no matter what way you spin it. He also scored vital goals for us last season and without them we would have no doubt been relegated. He never regained his confidence after that Ba situation (which I thought was disgraceful and terrible man management just to appease a sulky little w**ker who threw his toys out of the pram) but I think come the summer he will go - the best for both parties now.

I don't mind him going as I think he needs a fresh start but I will be well ****ing pissed off if a certain talentless, wretched, useless **** doesn't leave come the summer as well. If he stays and Cisse goes there is something terribly wrong with the club.

 

Have we got one of those?

 

Well to be honest it could apply to a few squad members, but I think I'm being lenient on the particular bum I was referring to.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how fans try to find excuses for underperforming players outside of them just not producing the goods. Cisse had a purple patch. It was not luck, he just had one of those spells strikers have sometimes. His actual level is well below that level, and above what he is achieving now devoid of confidence. For me its not down to WONGA, its not down to the Ba situation, its not down to lack of a supply line, its not down to formation or any other reason created. He has just played poorly, end of story for me. He's had plenty of support, he's had plenty of opportunity and it doesn't matter one jot what is on the front of his shirt.

Its down to him. **** happens, and to better players than Cisse (Torres/Owen).

 

Cisse looked more like his old self on Saturday and was unlucky not to score two goals, one with the instinctive effort in the first half and the sitter in the second half.

Cisse isn't a back to goal striker, a role he was asked to play a lot last season. Not only that, but opposition teams knew we had no pace to run in behind last season so they pushed up and made Cisse and the rest of the team very ineffective.

He's not a lone striker, he's much better with a Remy or De Jong dropping deeper as it means with Gouffran and Sissoko wide, teams are afraid to push up too high, you then have Remy deeper and all of a sudden Cisse has a bit of space to work with.

There's still a 15 goal a season striker there, it's just whether it's with us or not.

As for Campbell he simply won't make the grade with us. He's only 18 which is young, but look at Shaw, Gallacher and Chambers at Southampton. Or going back Rooney, Lampard, Joe Cole, Carrick, Glen Johnson, N'Zogbia, Milner, Defoe, Robbie Keane etc. At 18 they'd have been tearing up the Scottish Premier League, Campbell doesn't even always make the St Mirren first team and got sent back to us by lowly Carlisle after one match. Our youth production is so poor and he's another example of this.

 

You can add Ward-Prowse in for Southampton. And a chap called Bale. Be nice if we had the foresight to appoint Cortese.

 

Have to say its not looking good with Campbell. There was signs of promise last season but he hasn't progressed much. I really thought St Mirren would do him the world of good, bit of confidence. It seems he has made little or no progress. I'd like to see him do well but it has to be a concern that he can't get a game up there. Look at Dundee U afterall. Their youngsters Gauld, Souttar, Robertson and our own Good are more than holding their own (notice how I've somehow managed to bring this back around to Ryan Gauld).

That said he is 18 and not all players look fantastic at such a young age. Some take a little longer like Ferdinand and Wright did. Even nowadays Callum McManaman, Joe Allen, Ashley Young are all examples of young players who took a while to find their feet in the professional game.

I liked what I saw and I think it would be a little bit on the hasty side to be saying he won't make the grade. If I was betting I'd say not but I wouldn't give up on him just yet.

Did we ever bother replacing Willie Donachie after he twatted Remi Streete or are we just floating along understaffed?

 

McManaman does a pretty good job of looking after other player's legs and feet!

I think Massadio Haidara will vouch for that.

 

Cisse is obviously low on confidence but I think he's just a thick footballer (and I don't mean 'Wayne Rooney thick' off the field, I mean on the pitch). He just can't work out what he's doing wrong, can't think of something different to try and doesn't even have the intelligence to be able to read the game or stay onside once in a while. Add to that that he's too scared to compete for the ball half the time (boils my piss the number of times I see him stand there and watch an opposition CB head the ball away rather than getting up for it himself), plus his low confidence and the fact that the team hasn't played to his strengths at times and this is what we get.

Cisse isn't a well rounded enough striker to play as a lead striker in the Premier League IMHO and he can't play off a target man very well or out wide so I just don't see the point in persevering beyond this season. Sounds like the club want rid too but whether they'll be able to sell him for what they consider an acceptable fee, I don't know. With such a shortage of strikers about to become a real problem come the summer transfer window I can see Cisse or Shola being kept on to make up the numbers.

 

I think in the correct system and with good confidence he is a good player who would get 10-15 goals a season but it isn't going to be with us. He has been too out of form for too long now and it has got progressively harder for him to regain form. The half-season when he was immense was not lucky at all, he was doing it game after game and scoring amazing goals.

In truth that was clearly him at his very best and we are seeing him now at his very worst, the real player is somewhere in between. We can't complain too much as our entire squad seemed to do the same last season (be at their worst after having had an exceptional season) and Cisse was one of the few who showed the character to pop up with some vital goals late on in the season - we could easily have been relegated otherwise.

 

I've thought some more about it and decide I don't actually give a fck. Turns out it doesn't matter what I think, the useless fcker still rocks up in the number 9, plays like a turd, then goes home with another £50k in his bank.