Tom Elliot

You should move in with my wife. You're the only person on this planet who repeats themselves more than she does.

 

And a Doyle

 

Hadn't realised Elliott played a pre season game for us at Avenue 11 years ago after his release from Leeds.

2 promotions in his career too, so maybe the calming experienced head we need.

Let's hope he mirrors Andy Cook who we initially signed on loan this time last year from a fellow league 2 club with a similar record of appearances and goals for his parent club

 

The bloke hasn’t kicked a ball yet. Give him a shot. If we play to his strengths he could be a significant asset. If we don’t, like Eoin Doyle he will struggle. Let’s hope for the former. A signing that will help Cook as holding the ball up isn’t his forte. If it releases Cook to bang in the goals it could be an inspired decision.

 

as hard as it may seem to some on here, you need an out an out target man if you want to be successful in league two. if Elliot can take the pressure off cook, give us a focal point for our long balls an allow the midfield players to get into the game i.e. Walker, Vernam, Daly & Cook then il consider this transfer a success.

Stop writing off signings an get behind them ffs. Wells was a Carlisle reject when we signed him yet he’s probably the best striker we’ve had for the better part of 13 years here. Hanson was just a shelf stacker at the Coop, an got 10-15 goals a season through his numerous years with us, yet he was imperative to the success Parky brought to our club an ingrained himself as a club legend. Now im not saying that Elliot will emulate the success of those two, but he can play his part in what remains of this season

 

At last some positive comments. Have all the negs gone to bed ?

 

I like what you say but are Elliot and Cook going to play together or has Elliot just been signed as a back up in case Cook gets injured again? As I said earlier, to play them both requires a change of formation.

 

Now general, I've been awake all day and finding positives. Us plebs (evening @NorthernMonkey) can decipher on what is presented before us...

Yes, based on January.... I'm no wiser

 

Good signing, if you like a bit off hoofball. Bring back the hoof!

 

It's how we play these days, may as well get the right personnel to fit the style.

 

Not hoofball, an educated and tactically astute long ball game

 

I agree with a lot of the comments saying another cast off journeyman and not the striker we all hoped for, but tbh the striker we all wanted was realistically never going to happen especially in January, but despite this I do think this guy could add a few bits to our game we do need, it probably wont be easy on the eye but there's a chance he may help to increase our ppg ratio, weather it will increase it enough is anyones guess but I'm prepared to give him a chance.

 

We have good strikers at the club, and needed back up.

We cannot complain that our forwards aren't scoring goals when they play:

Andy Cook: 9 goals in 20 league appearances
Lee Angol: 5 goals in 11 league appearances

Look, I get they're both a little injury prone (Cook never looks 100 % fit, and Angol has knackered himself yet again), but we aren't lacking a ton of goals from our strikers. Our centre forwards are easily top 7 in this division, and that's where we need to be.

Newport have Telford, FGR have Matt and Stevens. Everybody else is a much of a muchness, and you could EASILY argue we're potentially top three in terms of strikers, actual strikers.

What has let us down all season is goals from every single position outside of STRIKER and LEFT FORWARD (Angol).

There has been too much focus on all transfer window on a striker; all right, if we're signing Georgie Kelly, no worries, we've just upgraded on Cook - but upgrading on Cook is unlikely. Upgrading on the goal-to-game ratio of Callum Cooke, Alex Gilliead and Charles Vernam is the route of least resistance, and quite rightly that's what we've targeted.

But this window is only a success if the likes of Daly and Walker make a noticeable difference. Pereira looks for all the world like a dud, but if we can add a few goals from midfield AND if the signing of Bass looks as promising as it did during the Walsall game, who's to say Elliott isn't an astute signing?

It's unlikely he walks straight into the first team, it's unlikely he's responsible for scoring most of our goals, but it's also unlikely his presence in the squad does anything but strengthen us.

Unfortunately some of the analysis in this thread is pretty embarrassing. He's come in as competition for Cook, nothing more, nothing less. Now if Cook is injured for a substantial period in the coming weeks, we probably didn't reinforce adequately; that's the gamble the club have taken, quite clearly.

 

Great analysis but explain to me this.

How is Elliot going to take the pressure off Cook if one of them is always sat getting splinters in his backside?

If DA changes the system and we play 2 up top then perhaps this signing might have the sort of impact you're suggesting but if we plod on with a lone striker then perhaps it's actually weakening us some of the time by replacing Cook with Elliot.

That said, all the comments on here suggest Elliot is great in the air and very good at holding the ball up. Time will tell on that but unless he's completely transformed as a footballer I've a feeling a few of the posters have jumped to conclusions based on his height and are set to be disappointed.

 

Exactly this. I just can't see Adams changing his preferred 1 up top formation, other than perhaps for the odd 10 or 15 minutes towards the end of a game. Even then, it will be unlikely to be an Elliot and Cook partnership imo, and more likely that Cook will have been subbed for Robinson or Lavery.

 

If we start playing 2 up front it will stop other teams defence starting to build up from the back and going forward like we have seen all season, we need 2 strikers up front and we might start controlling games for a change. Pretty basic football, keep the ball Jon the other half unless they have a Beckham that can score from the half way line.

 

from the bits and pieces i’d seen, it looked like we were ‘trying’ to play it about a bit, we just aren’t very good at it. but i will bow down to the assessment from the poor souls that have to watch us week in week out.

Nah - say it loud and proud, as rory mcrory would have - HOOF BALL!

 

None of us Dave. None of us !!

 

Cook doesnt look fit because he looks like he loves a good pie. I reckon he's a regular at Drake & Macefield in Skipton, home of the worlds best growler.

 

I would not be surprised to see Elliott start ahead of Cook tomorrow, as Cook is not fit atm.