Most liked posts in thread: The Front 2

We've had MONTHS to get a player in. Months! They've known Vaughan was away for ages so knew they had Novak, Guthrie and Don for this season. We've all been saying on here, TCA, Twitter and Facebook that we're lacking that bit of pace and the 3 we have are too samey. That could have been the difference between 1 point and 3 points today.

We're going to waste another few weeks of games and then sign someone on deadline day when his agent calls us because we can't do our own scouting. That's what we do.

 

He's got to nail that first half chance if we're going to trouble the front three positions in the table, he missed an equally easy chance against Bolton. Should really have 3 from 2 now not 1 from 2.

 

Said it in the other thread but they're all the same players with the same obvious deficiencies. No pace, no mobility and poor finishing.

Guthrie is probably the easy target but Novak was horrendous today. Must have had trampolines on his feet rather than boots as his first touch was something I'd expect to see in the park on a Sunday morning.

 

He missed one, arguably two, sitters and scored an offside goal. His overall game was dreadful.

 

I don't think Novak is that bad for this level, he'll be ok. Guthrie as his understudy and Don from the bench isn't a bad option. Blatantly obvious we've needed a different style of player to compliment the attack and ideally a pacey bench option too. So I'd say we're 2 short up front in an ideal world.

 

Not sure. But how we have not seen fit to bring in a striker yet is mind boggling.

Mid table at best with our current strikeforce

 

The most annoying thing is SMc and the club knew we were woeful up front after losing Vaughan but have totally ignored it, it's very poor.

 

Absolutely. Not only are the strikers poor individualy, the fact that they're the same players stifles the team and leaves us with only one way of playing.

 

Ok, replace "pace" with "tricky". Of course Robbies arse was way too big for him to have pace, but he made up for that with very fast feet.

 

.....to add, Jevani Brown (Colchester no.10) looks exactly the kind of player I would love to have playing for us. Thought he looked a constant threat.

 

There's no substitute to seeing a player over a full 90 minutes in a range of games, against different opposition.

 

That would be Norman Cornered

 

Their left back offered him outside every time after the first 20 mins and he didnt take it once.He is short of both confidence and pace of the type that makes a difference. The left back was excellent and had DMH in his pocket. Sorry but Dylan is not first choice material at this level.

 

So instead of having one striker whose strengths we dont play to, we have now progressed to 3?

 

Relax only a mega tie dream cup tie to play for and 9 points before the window shuts.

Why do we urgently need a striker?

You know that in Clarke, Novak, Guthrie and Donaldson we have a mean forward line up with pace....Relax everyone!

 

Never mind Captain Mainwaring. Can't we get that Captain Tom in on a free. Local lad from Keighley, plenty of stamina and looks a bit quicker than our current front three

 

I can only assume they are lining up a loan signing from a higher League club.
We'll really struggle if we are relying on Novak and Guthrie to score our goals for much longer.
Donaldson looked a handful as a target man when he came on, but we desperately need some pace and finishing ability.

 

Here you go Staff

Hope you dont mind me sharing this but as part of my coaching we do a team 'assessment sheet', and using this format here is my striker assessment form for City and it highlights why I think we need to move to improve this area as soon as possible. We use a simple marking system (NO/UNLIKELY/AVERAGE/PROBABLY/YES) and for our forward players we look at 6 points to assess where we are and I have indicated my own view on each one:
1) do we have a natural/20 a season goalscorer in the team - NO
2) do we have the necessary physicality up front - PROBABLY
3) do we have the height/areal threat up front - PROBABLY
4) do we have the necessary pace/mobility up front - UNLIKELY
5) do we have the instinct/movement up front - AVERAGE
6) do we have alternatives up front - NO
(there is one other point we use as well, do we have the right characters but without knowing the players first hand it is difficult and unfair to include)

We would always like to have 3 to 4 answers in the PROBABLY/YES category (obviously 6 would be ideal but hardly ever achieved) So using this I currently rate us as a 2 which is why improving are striking options is so important - you may not agree with my marks (sorry always use that phrase as I also work in a school!) but in my opinion it is a fair assessment as to where we currently are. For me it is important because the first couple of games have bought us a bit of time (as Stuart himself says) but we are short in some of the key attributes for a forward line and if (hope its not the case) we have a couple of bad results to start with in the league I know patience will wear thin as we have taken so long to act in this area. We need an extra (and different) option in our striking potential, whatever results we achieve, because I dont think we can change a match from the bench - the current strengths we have are very 'samey'.

Anyway, thats enough bollocks from me for one night