Apart from Mason on whom we made a tidy profit, what is it with our striker choices? Why can't we get it right and unearth an unexpected find instead of having to cut our losses and run for cover. Le Fondre, Macheda, Revell, Doyle, are the more current failed crop whilst the likes of Cornelius, Odemwingie and even the statue like Jones exchanged for PO in the past have hardly brought success up front. You can argue that Jones did a job but he was so pedestrian that he could have doubled his tally with us if he'd made a real effort to get on the end of things. Watt seemed to be the answer but he can hardly get a game now at Blackburn - just how good was he really? Not letting them in at the back must always be the target to start a game, but only scoring goals will win it - that is the crux of our problem this season. Is it an inefficient supply chain in the middle of the park that's been the problem or is just plain old poor quality at the sharp end? The recent success of pressing Pilks to play up front and arrival of Immers would seem to indicate the latter. Can Saadi and Zohore change it for the better? There is no evidence so far and the jury must be out on them. It's been mentioned on another thread about giving Healey a chance. Little or no experience would be a reason used to dismiss him, but how much has Zohore got at roughly the same age? Saadi at 24 would seem to have a reasonable pedigree in France but Slade seems very reluctant to throw him into the mix. Is it going to take some decent cash and equally decent judgement from the management to solve it?
We've not really had a decent striker since the Chopra/Bothroyd era. Even Bellers was not prolific - a scorer of great goals rather than a great goal scorer. To the above list you can add Miller and Helguson who both barely got into double figures. The ones we really let slip were Gestede and McCormack. who have since proved their worth to others in the Championship. If I knew the answer I would be applying for Russell's job.
I don't think Helguson even got into double figures Bluey. Wasn't he our top scorer in our promotion season with a single figure tally? Gestede was definitely shipped out too soon. He seemed a bit naive when he played for us but there was something there to work on. Malky didn't rate him and shipped him out on loan to Blackburn though I think Malky had gone when we actually sold him to them.
Kyle Lafferty joins Birmingham for the rest of the season. Just what we needed? Rocking on the international stage. Imagine that there's not much left in Vincent's loan budget? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football..._the_day&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport
