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We need a new striker

NaijaSpurs

NaijaSpurs

Les Ferdinand
One thing today proved is that we need a new striker, and importantly not what most of you would call a back up striker or a 3rd striker but rather someone that could rival Soldado or Ade for a starting berth.

We all know Ade on his day is unplayable and Soldado must be a good player as he has scored over 80 goals in the previous 3 seasons but the simple truth is that our partnership is not enough. I am not for one moment writing Soldado off but he has missed sitter after sitter this season scoring only one league goal in open play, kind of reminds me of Defoe's whooping 1 league goal in 2013. And what happens when Ade has an off day like today or most of last season?

Lets face it suspension, injury or an off day like today and guess what we have Obika on the bench?

Ideally we need someone at least as good as Ade and Robbie, if not better and ideally with the tools to play with either of them or on their own.

With our injury record this season would it surprise you if Ade pulled a hamstring and was out for 6 weeks, if that happened where would it leave us?



For the record I am not really going to blame Sherwood for today's defeat. We were toothless up front but with a severely weakened squad and just 2 recognised strikers who were firing blanks what could he really do?
 
The last time we didn't need a new striker of some sort was probably when Greaves and Gilzean were playing together in the 60's.

Sigh. Bring Shane Long in and settle down for the long haul. If we can't get one of Spain's very best strikers (a 26 million pound buy) fit and firing, I doubt anyone can get us scoring consistently again.
 
4-4-2 will work at home against a few sides and it obviously got the job done at Southampton and Man Utd but generally speaking I don't think Adebayor and Soldado is a good enough partnership to use in most away games or indeed against the top four or five. So it will be interesting to see if Sherwood persists with it in those games.

Aguero and Negredo, Suarez and Sturridge, Rooney and van Persie, these all work well because both strikers are capable of scoring and creating goals as well being excellent at a number of other services involved with linking the play up.

Soldado so far has been nothing like a goalscorer and, bar a great cross and a few nice through balls hardly a creative machine. Adebayor is great on his day at most things but we can't rely on him for half a season, let alone a full one. Defoe is probably off and neither is he suited.

Thing is we just dingdonged £26m on a striker so I doubt Levy will be keen to get the chequebook out anytime soon for a new one.

For me the manager should only use them at home to the bottom ten, away in the odd game but generally then it becomes more about luck than judgement. In the majority of matches I'd rather see a fluid 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 adopted making the best use of our GHod knows how many midfielders, attacking midfielders and wingers. The way we're currently playing is imbalanced when you take in to account everyone missing out.
 
Lilywhite said:
4-4-2 will work at home against a few sides and it obviously got the job done at Southampton and Man Utd but generally speaking I don't think Adebayor and Soldado is a good enough partnership to use in most away games or indeed against the top four or five. So it will be interesting to see if Sherwood persists with it in those games.

Aguero and Negredo, Suarez and Sturridge, Rooney and van Persie, these all work well because both strikers are capable of scoring and creating goals as well being excellent at a number of other services involved with linking the play up.

Soldado so far has been nothing like a goalscorer and, bar a great cross and a few nice through balls hardly a creative machine. Adebayor is great on his day at most things but we can't rely on him for half a season, let alone a full one. Defoe is probably off and neither is he suited.

Thing is we just dingdonged £26m on a striker so I doubt Levy will be keen to get the chequebook out anytime soon for a new one.

For me the manager should only use them at home to the bottom ten, away in the odd game but generally then it becomes more about luck than judgement. In the majority of matches I'd rather see a fluid 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 adopted making the best use of our GHod knows how many midfielders, attacking midfielders and wingers. The way we're currently playing is imbalanced when you take in to account everyone missing out.
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So based on your analysis do you suggest we should play one central striker? Because if you are that is fine, but if Ade is off his game, suspened or injured then that one central striker will be non goal scoring Soldado
 
NaijaSpurs said:
So based on your analysis do you suggest we should play one central striker? Because if you are that is fine, but if Ade is off his game, suspened or injured then that one central striker will be non goal scoring Soldado
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Yeah in certain games we absolutely should, else we'll get ****ed on in the middle like today.

As I said in another thread, mismanagement in the transfer department has left us with a seriously imbalanced squad. Three strikers isn't enough if you're sticking with 4-4-2, especially as it mean we have three predominant attacking midfielders and a ****load of central midfielders missing out too. Like I said, no planning on our behalf has led to this.

Think we've just got to pray Adebayor has more good performances than bad and steers clear of injury or that Soldado somehow discovers how to score in England.
 
Mumorn said:
Been linked with Mirko Vucinic and Fabio Quagliarella as of tomorrow.
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2009 called, they want their copy of the Sun back!

I swear we persevere with transfer targets longer than any other club in the world
 
Suarez and Sturridge is a terrible partnership, but both do very well on their own the way Liverpool play.
 
We don't need a tall, hold up the ball type player, what we need is a dribbler who can finish. Someone who will scare defenders and who can also create openings from nothing.
 
Jordinho said:
Suarez and Sturridge is a terrible partnership, but both do very well on their own the way Liverpool play.
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I think they're a better partnership per se than Rooney and RVP. Suarez and Sturridge I've seen link up well in games as well as assist each other a lot. The Man Utd ones not so much. But my point wasn't really about how well they combine anyway, more that because of how good all of those are individually they will outscore most teams. Whereas I'm not so sure on Adebayor and Soldado in that respect.
 
Yiddo said:
We don't need a tall, hold up the ball type player, what we need is a dribbler who can finish. Someone who will scare defenders and who can also create openings from nothing.
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Not many of those about though that are available.
 
Lilywhite said:
I think they're a better partnership per se than Rooney and RVP. Suarez and Sturridge I've seen link up well in games as well as assist each other a lot. The Man Utd ones not so much. But my point wasn't really about how well they combine anyway, more that because of how good all of those are individually they will outscore most teams. Whereas I'm not so sure on Adebayor and Soldado in that respect.
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Re. S and S: They hardly ever passed to each other in games that Liverpool were completely dominant. They are very much players that will go for glory themselves. Might be what we're missing, someone that has both the ability and the will to do it, like Bale last season.

By playing Ade we are taking a slight risk. We are so dependant on him turning up and we're still not playing to Soldado's strengths. He has missed some sitters, but he has also been a provider. Sherwood needs to make s decision on who's going to be our focal point. Should he just tell Soldado to stay in the box as much as possible and try to present him with a few chances every game or do we go with two up front and have both drift wide and drop deep at times?

Can't wait to finally see the back of Defoe, but who do we replace him with? Do we go with the players we already have that can play off a striker (Lamela, Eriksen, Holtby, Sigurdsson, Kane) or do we get a short term solution in (Long, random Italian bloke)? Don't think there's much chance of us going for another expensive, top class striker in this window.
 
We need to play as a team, that's Sherwood's job.

The fact that all our strikers for some time now - Keane in his last season, JD, Ade, Deuce, Soldado all aren't scoring well, and if you look at our PL records overall, outside of Bale (who wasn't a striker), you really only have that Keane/Berbs season that we really had a front line that scored a lot.

It's really easy to say, if we had Suarez, RVP, Aquero up front, we would be banging them in, I'm not sure, we have to make sure we play in a way that gets the strikers to score. Perhaps TS with his 2 up front and people committed may get us there, still to early to tell.


Re the original ask, we have always been light on bench up top, because quite honestly, not too many strikers who are better than JD will sit on the bench (with Spur's wages).

And from a priority perspective, we need a LB more than anything else.
 
Wouldn't mind a clever creative forward who can play CF or left in a 4-3-3. Pato or Vucinic would do.
 
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