No way Funk. Wouldn't have him on the bench either. I don't want to be unfair to the lad, I think he tries hard. I just think he's a good Championship player, as he's proved just recently. Think he could make a good living there and will go at the end of the season.
Nothing to disagree with there mate, if we're going to use Connor he needs a fair run to try and make it, short cmeo makes people try to hard to imprees, thought Vergini looked more than soild. Gardiner's strike deserved to be a winner
If Phillips had done what he did and missed I reckon no one would say he'd made the wrong decision. Didn't matter anyway but just my opinion, there's never a bad thing to see a striker wanting to score. He had 3 chances and made the right pass on one to Borini and took shots ith th oth two. I like wickham and personally think he should be given a chance. Nt really building him up I don't think just I liked what I saw today. I also liked in part what I saw of a Scocco. Movement was good, looked a little rusty but understandable. Looking forward to seeing more of him and glad Wickham got some game time under his belt. Hope to see him playing more... The manager has some decisions to make now as there were some very good performances. Certainly not a bad thing imo
Fair do's fella. Just thought he was trying too hard and his decisions suffered as a result, that's something that can be developed, to think about his game more, but it won't happen over night. I too want to see more of him, but not chucking him in the deep end that's all, he needs a lot of work seems as our previous three managers completely neglected him.
Based solely on the match today our strikers are now Scocco and Borini. Two fast paced good movement players. Alti & Fletch now squad players only imo. Thought Wickham did quite well and with games his decision making will get better.
I'm going to nail my colours to the mast and state I hope we hang on to Connor. This lad is going to develop into a top top striker. He is 20! He has it all and will only get better. I remember fans slagging Henderson on here and saying he was over rated. At the time I said that he would go on and play for England and I stand by that. Connor is not the finished article but he will become a great player given time and the right coaching. It really worries me that we will give him away. He has all the ability but just needs to learn the game.
If he'd put in exactly the same performance but with Altidore written on.his.back people would be stating him
Ha'way, yes he wrong footed 2 defenders and went steaming forward with acres of open space before the goal. Better than Altidore, FFS, let's not get carried away! Next, there he was 3 against 1, then he completely ****ed it up. What was more impressive, in fact apart fro that turn was his collection of the ball on the left flank, then with an excellent 1st (and 2nd) touch he had the ball under control at his feet. He was also offside, however, I recall a big lad who had one of the worst first touches I've ever witnessed in the Premiership. Apparently no more ...however, his 30 minute cameo does neither impress me nor make we wish to pitch his name into a hat that says he's better than what we have already. At best he surprised one or two people -including me And Scocco too - not sure what game you were watching, but for his glimpses of ability, there were more glimpses of giving the ball away softly and he was far too wide for most of the game. For his debut against Brazil playing for his national shirt for the very 1st time, he banged in a brace of goals for Argentina to win 2-1, for Sunderland and the Premiership, sorry, but I saw nothing to get excited about ...yet, and should he get a regular 1st team slot, I reserve judgment on the lad for at least 4-5 games. I'm not condemning him either with those comments above, more-so disagreeing with those that witnessed something different.
Connor Wickham is not ready for the big league yet? He never will be in my opinion, he should be shot for not squaring that ball yesterday, he's had more than enough chances now and for me he's too soft, flog him off to the lower leagues and cut our losses. Scocco showed a little bit of promise but the juries still out on him .
Scocco hadn't played since November! It's like asking you to get up off your arse now and get your boots on. He showed very little, but it will take him a month at least of intense training and reserve games before he's ready
Scocco is, like all south american players, going to get a shock at the physicality over here, you don't look for the things that he's obviously going to struggle with at first, you look at what comes naturally. His movement is very good. He's going to add an extra dimension to our attack if he can adapt. Will he succeed with us? Who knows, it's far too early to say. But he definitely showed glimpses of quality that I saw like.
The fact that we have persevered with Altidore for so long puts him in pole position as far as team selection goes, but in the long or medium term he must be replaced as he poses no threat to the opposition. That is the dilemma, if he was any good there would be no problem.
Putting individual performances to one side, didn't we do well throughout for a team of fringe players. Not a lot of frills but a hell of a lot of effort went into that win.
