Strikers

[bluethroughandthrough]

So the latest rumour is we want to buy Dougie Freedman. Good history as a striker but another oldie at 34. The key point here is we currently have the following:

Barnard
Furlong
Walker
Revell
Laurent

Not to forget

Harrold
Foran (ok might be a bit more of a leftie midfield but im sure he made his name as a striker)

So thats 7 strikers for 2 spots. Dougie would make 8.

What is the fascination with buying strikers when the glaring requirement is for wide and central midfield players. Surely the time to buy a striker is when we are creating lots of chances and not putting them away - not when we are creating few chances and leaving forwards up front alone??

Discuss.

 

[haveaguiness]

im not being funny though, i would trade in 6 of those for freedman. He is probably one of the best players outside the premiership in the last 10 years.
it is not a question of whether we have too many strikers but how many of them are actually good enough to score goals consistantly at this level? discuss

 

[MilkeySUFC]

Can't disagree with that. If we have the option and the funds to get a player, in whatever position, that is better than we have, why should we not? Personally I don't know if he will be better but many more people have said he is and if he's up for the challenge, Tilly wants him and Martin can fund it; we'll have him.

 

[cockles is back]

im not being funny though, i would trade in 6 of those for freedman. He is probably one of the best players outside the premiership in the last 10 years.
it is not a question of whether we have too many strikers but how many of them are actually good enough to score goals consistantly at this level? discuss

agreed sign him up, we have 6 or 7 of the worst strikers this league
has to offer

 

[SUFCLiam]

i would put Kanu up top like we did last year

 

[OldBlueLady]

i would put Kanu up top like we did last year

I don't agree with you there young Liam, while it's good to see him back and at least looking hungry, I wasn't one of his biggest fans last year, in fact, to me there was very little difference between him and Dean Morgan in their manner of play. Admittedly I didn't see him yesterday, but I thought he did pretty good against Brighton on the wing, and with the situation as it is at the club I'd rather he stayed there. We're completely top heavy with strikers, none of whom seem able to score consistently - hopefully Barney breaking his duck yesterday is the start of a change there - so HRK can stay wide for now.

 

[Jam_Man]

Surely the time to buy a striker is when we are creating lots of chances and not putting them away - not when we are creating few chances and leaving forwards up front alone??

Discuss.

Yes thats spot on.

However the point you havent mentioned is we are still trying to buy a midfielder and buying strikers isnt neccessarily an attempt to solve all of our issues.

We again have far too many strikers on the books now, I understand the Freedman one but not sure why we needed Laurent.

Theres nothing wrong with buying better than we have, in fact we should be doing so, however when theres so many players who have only been here a few months and we are still buying strikers you have to wonder whether theres much strategic buying going on!

 

[graysblue]

So the latest rumour is we want to buy Dougie Freedman. Good history as a striker but another oldie at 34. The key point here is we currently have the following:

Barnard
Furlong
Walker
Revell
Laurent

Not to forget

Harrold
Foran (ok might be a bit more of a leftie midfield but im sure he made his name as a striker)

lets have it right, barny is our one true out n out goalscorer. rev looks promising but he's nowhere near top form, walker is young and wants to be pele or george best (i.e take on every man before rounding the keeper-just pass the ball!)
laurent is completely unknown and furlong reminds me of the tin man from wizard of oz, (you kno, the bit where he's seized up).
harrold.... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....behave
and foran's not upto this level and won't do too much for us in a bid for promotion. freedman would be good signing for us.

 

[Andyhsufc]

lets have it right, barny is our one true out n out goalscorer. rev looks promising but he's nowhere near top form, walker is young and wants to be pele or george best (i.e take on every man before rounding the keeper-just pass the ball!)
laurent is completely unknown and furlong reminds me of the tin man from wizard of oz, (you kno, the bit where he's seized up).
harrold.... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....behave
and foran's not upto this level and won't do too much for us in a bid for promotion. freedman would be good signing for us.

Pretty much agree with you on that. Would like to see Furlong integrated into the coaching set up as I think he could help our younger strikers like Walker etc

 

[OldBlueLady]

Barney worries me though, he seems to have hit the problem Freddy had but much earlier in that he's getting marked more closely and not getting the breaks. I don't like him playing with his back to goal, same as Freddy, he needs to be receiving the ball in an advancing position.

 

[shrimpled]

Barney worries me though, he seems to have hit the problem Freddy had but much earlier in that he's getting marked more closely and not getting the breaks. I don't like him playing with his back to goal, same as Freddy, he needs to be receiving the ball in an advancing position.

And having Freedman in the side would enable him to have more time and space, as both would need a great deal of attention IMO.

 

[OldBlueLady]

And having Freedman in the side would enable him to have more time and space, as both would need a great deal of attention IMO.

Exactly, and I guess the same might have been expected of Furlong.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

What is the fascination with buying strikers when the glaring requirement is for wide and central midfield players.

i've said this previously, you can keep on and on buying strikers but that isn't going to change the fact that the defence has been to weak imo for the last 2 seasons. we concede way too many sily goals. i think we need to spend big on a proven centre back, question is who to drop as everyone loves clarkey and barrett but for me they are too similar and maybe too small. they always give there all but too many goals conceded.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Ideally, I'd like to keep:

Barnard
Freedman
Walker
Revell

Barnard and Freedman, whilst not having a lot of pace, will score goals at this level providing they have the service. Walker works extremely hard, running the channels and chasing lost causes whereas Revell, who I know isn't everyones cup of tea, I think will prove to be a useful player at this level. Brighton fans talk about Revell a fair bit, and my Brighton supporting housemate told me when we'd sign him he'll go on these dry spells and then pop up with 6 goals in 6 games.

I'd get rid of:

Foran
Harrold
Furlong

Harrold and Foran are, quite obviously, not recognised as Southend players and as long as they're still here, they'll always be a hinderance as the wages could be spent elsewhere. As for Furlong, when he's played he's offered me personally nothing to warrant him being here... He's a Revell who doesn't move.

None of us can really comment on Francis Laurent as none of us have seen him play, and Robson-Kanu is a player I'd love for us to sign permanently, but have no chance of landing.

 

[graysblue]

definately think we need a more dominationg midfield. a box to box player who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and control everything. (a la nicky bailey)
and a winger that has bags of pace that can work the wings non-stop. then maybe we'll get better service to the strikers.