Two days left and we need a striker.

[Jam_Man]

thats what we do seem to play brilliant against the big big teams and lose against the lower in the table teams! we have to win all the games in the bottom half to stay up. and we have to have new players in!

Actually thats not true, earlier in the season we used to lose to everyone, now as our last 8 games show we are capable of getting points off of most teams and only having lost to the top two.

I agree we need to win against the bottom half, but we havent had any come to Roots Hall since we started getting results so thats promising.

Im not sure we absolutely have to get new players in, we seem to be doing ok with what we have, I think it would be more useful for Freddy to regain his confidence. A Fredddy on fire after all will be better than any new striker we can afford.

 

[sufcintheprem]

I don't get or buy this "Eastwood has lost form" idea that people have. It's a team game and he can't always be expected to create something out of nothing. This is a much tougher league with much better defenders. As a team we are not getting behind defenses and we are not given space and time on the ball. We simply don't pull players out of position and create space for others because we are too pedestrian.

I don't understand. You make the point that Eastwood hasn't lost form and then point to the well-appreciated problem we have with creating chances.

If the rest of the team are creating chances, does that mean Eastwood is on form? I don't see how these are related.

However, I do see that Eastwood has only scored from open play once in goodness knows how long and that, for a striker with a goals per game record of around 0.5, is indicative of a lapse in form.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

london blue. i was more talking about the 1st goal and your right it began spurs left but hammell was left marking two players where gower should have covering but keane was left un-marked with an easy finish!

also i know at least two possibly the third were all conseded on the break after losing possesion attacking!

 

[moneypit23]

I don't understand. You make the point that Eastwood hasn't lost form and then point to the well-appreciated problem we have with creating chances.

If the rest of the team are creating chances, does that mean Eastwood is on form? I don't see how these are related.

However, I do see that Eastwood has only scored from open play once in goodness knows how long and that, for a striker with a goals per game record of around 0.5, is indicative of a lapse in form.

Not sure I quite understand your reasoning either. If Eastwood is off form because he isn't scoring as freely as last season does that also mean that Gower, for example, is off form for the same reason? Is JCR then on fire as he has doubled his goal tally for the last god knows how many seasons?

What I'm saying (and I thought I had made sense) was that it is a team game and if we are not creating chances as a team, then I'm not going to blame Eastwood if he's not getting much of a sniff at goal when we find it so difficult to open teams up.

 

[londonblue]

london blue. i was more talking about the 1st goal and your right it began spurs left but hammell was left marking two players where gower should have covering but keane was left un-marked with an easy finish!

But he wan't marking two, he was marking no-one. He got sucked in and Keane exploited the space.

also i know at least two possibly the third were all conseded on the break after losing possesion attacking!

But that doesn't mean they were Gower's fault. If (as was the case for the 2nd) the ball comes down our right and is punched (I might add!) into the net by a central midfielder that can't possibly have anything to do with someone playing wide left.

As I said, Gower didn't play well. He looked tired and in need of a break, but the goals weren't his fault.

As an aside, on the way out of the ground I said that I think Tilly should play a reserve team against Birmingham. The chances are we will lose whatever team we put out, so we might aswell rest the 1st eleven to have a good go at Stoke on Saturday.

 

[Bielzibubz]

Do you manage a Championship football team on a very limited budget? - NO

Do you know for a fact the in's and out's of exactly what/who Tilly has been trying to get in during the transfer window? - NO

Please enlighten us all as to how you would get a proven quality Championship striker on the books with the resources Tilly has at his disposal?

Please engage brain before making such sweeping statements again. Muppet :thump:

I know alot more than you think!

Judging by your first post you quite obviously don't.

Also, you still haven't answered the three questions I posed.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Moneypit is spot on. The team create nothing for Freddy.

They don't give him the ball in the areas he wants it, they don't drag defenders out of position. The only possession he gets he normally does well to just control. People expect him to control a ball fired waist high at him, and for him to then beat 3 or 4 men and then score past the keeper from 25 yards. Freddy is capable of doing that on occasions, but not every game. If he tries to do that he gets accused of being greedy when it doesn't work or if spots a player unmarked and in a good position he's accused of being lazy and disinterested because he hasn't scored.

Leave him one on one with a championship defender and space to work and I'll back Freddy to create something, not every time but at least on occasions. That's not something you could say about any other player at the club. Freddy scored against Spurs and created our best chance (excellent cross to an unmarked Gower who scuffed his shot) and yet no-one gave him more than 6 out of ten. If anyone else had done that they'd have been given an 8 out of ten because they'd have exceeded expectations.

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

By my calculations, not including players out on loan who arguably are not in Tilly's first team plans, we have a squad of 19 players. The 16 on saturday plus Francis, Paynter, and Prior who retires in 3 months and i'd be surprised if we see much more of him this season. Personally i am not confident this is enough as injuries and suspension will occur which will make us very light-weight. We need 2 fresh faces at least. Dont ask me who, thats the managers job to sort out and i am aware that 99% of clubs are crying out for a striker, but with no fresh faces coming in i cannot see us staying up. Winning 9 games from 17 is hard enough for most teams, more-so for a team struggling with limited formation options.

 

[colonelnutter]

Same old Tilson leaving it to the last minute to buy a mediocre striker.

**** **** ****

 

[colonelnutter]

you are a tw*t

 

[sufcintheprem]

Not sure I quite understand your reasoning either. If Eastwood is off form because he isn't scoring as freely as last season does that also mean that Gower, for example, is off form for the same reason? Is JCR then on fire as he has doubled his goal tally for the last god knows how many seasons?

What I'm saying (and I thought I had made sense) was that it is a team game and if we are not creating chances as a team, then I'm not going to blame Eastwood if he's not getting much of a sniff at goal when we find it so difficult to open teams up.

Sorry, I presumed from your quoting of my post that you were making a counter-argument to mine.

As for your reference to Gower and JCR, the comparison is way off. Freddy is a goalscoring striker. He's in the team for one reason. Just as Bradbury is in the team to do Eastwood's hard work. Of course, Gower has scored five goals in a little over half a season so by the same metric he is clearly doing ok at this level. If we wanted a fair benchmark, we would have to cinlude his assists and, say, pass completion to judge him. Goalscoring strikers are measured on goals though.

I was pretty sure I said in my first post the very same thing regarding the poor quality of attack and minimal variation. We don't do Eastwood any favours and we need to improve this part of our game.

However, he's had very good chances to score in the last, what, fifteen games and hasn't put them away aside from Southampton. Whilst he's been very unlucky, there have also been uncharacteristic mi****s and scuffs that, in my eyes, normally show when he's not firing on all cylinders. Whatever way you want to look at it, fortune or form, he's not scored as many goals as you'd expect from a talismanic forward. The generally accepted rule that class is permanent would say that at some point, his fortune will change and when that happens, I think our team will be a lot better set up to win games.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

you are a tw*t

Please refrain from using personal abuse on this board :mad:

 

[mattytheshrimper]

without blaming any team member as no indivual is at fault for this season so far but i just think that the key to staying up this season is for us to take our chances when we get them. even if we have one shot the whole game as long as it goes in thats all that matters. every game we have loads of chances but seem to panick in front of goal. i think tillys new pre-game warm up has been a good change to the side and has produced more goals and even a few players shooting from outside the box which was un heard off beginning of the season. imagine if we took our chances against spurs and how different it could have been. gower right at the beginning, maher with the whole goal to aim at, the **** up their keeper did that hooper missed. doesn't matter that they ruled the game but if we took our chances the result could have been a lot different and i think that is the factor of us staying up or not. obviously i no players are not missing chances of purpose.

 

[DTS]

By my calculations, not including players out on loan who arguably are not in Tilly's first team plans, we have a squad of 19 players. The 16 on saturday plus Francis, Paynter, and Prior who retires in 3 months and i'd be surprised if we see much more of him this season. Personally i am not confident this is enough as injuries and suspension will occur which will make us very light-weight. We need 2 fresh faces at least. Dont ask me who, thats the managers job to sort out and i am aware that 99% of clubs are crying out for a striker, but with no fresh faces coming in i cannot see us staying up. Winning 9 games from 17 is hard enough for most teams, more-so for a team struggling with limited formation options.

I agree with all you have said 100% BBL.

 

[Ljubljana Branch]

Please refrain from using personal abuse on this board :mad:

But he's got a point surely?

 

[Bielzibubz]

Please refrain from using personal abuse on this board :mad:

But he's got a point surely?

Also, I called him a muppet. Is that considered abuse.
Personally I've never considered the word **** as abuse. Slightly derogatory maybe but not abuse.

Anyway, back on topic.......................................

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

In what position do we need more cover?

GK we have Collis (who should be fit soon)
RB we have Francis
LB we could get Cheese back from loan, or Barrett could play there
CB we've got Sodje and Prior
CM we've got Guttridge. Hunt or Clarke can also at a push play here for a game or two
RM/LM we've got Hooper (both Gower and JCR's favoured position is wide left). Guttridge can also play wide right.
CF we've got Harrold, Paynter and Hooper

That is sufficient cover in every position.

We don't need a bigger squad, what we might need is better players in that squad.

 

[Stodge]

How about this chap? Worth a punt?

 

[Bielzibubz]

Speaking to a business colleague of mine who lives in the Wycombe area he remarked that the lad has bags of potential and skill but is somewhat of a confidence player and can go AWOL on the pitch at times.

Certainly he is one we should perhaps of been looking at but I fear it is now way to late in the day for any serious questions to be asked.

 

[Ricey]

No chance of getting Jermaine Easter he has attracted attention from Premiership clubs! So the asking price will be well out of our price range.

I don't care if we make a signing or not I just want to stay up!