Arouna Kone

[chopper6]

Hold up play decent. Links play fairly well.

Other than that I find him so lackadaisical, to the point that he frustrates his team mates. You see thier reaction quite often to his delayed/ slow decisions. Slows game down well, but can't do the opposite when required

 

[Ashtonian]

I imagine Naisse was watching those chances Kone missed thinking "i'm going to do alright here".

As long as he is more direct than kone and looks for the shot in similar chances kone normally gets then we will be worth his price tag alone on that.

That is the thing about kone, he wastes so many chances he instincively should be hitting the target with. At the start of the season he looked like he was going to be a great player for us in the squad but excluding the second chance last night, generally he is not taking any chances or even looking to shoot half the time.

 

[Norwegian Cow]

The ball sticks to him sure... but it sticks too well, because 50% of the time he then gets tackled before he decides who to pass to.

Not true. His finishing is poor , but he does very well holding up The ball and bring it on to others.

 

[blueboy1664]

Second one was quite tough, but I think with his first chance he definitely should have scored.

Pity no one comments on how lennon missed the initial glaring one on one...just saying like

 

[Norwegian Cow]

Pity no one comments on how lennon missed the initial glaring one on one...just saying like

Was a good shot but also a very good block. Unlucky he was.

 

[BlueToff]

Pity no one comments on how lennon missed the initial glaring one on one...just saying like

Wasn't glaring at all mate. Watch it back.

He gets it on his left and he has to go around the defender with the shot. He does that but just couldn't get the curl on it to get it past Elliot, who had a really good game.

Kone needed to just boot that first time rather than take a touch. Couldn't seem to adjust himself though.

 

[RFUS]

The problem is we signed him as a striker. So you feel obliged to judge him on his ability in front of goal.

And my word, how poor he's been of late. Definitely think he's a confidence player as at the start of the season he was very clinical, but he falls to bits in front of goal now.

However with Niasse coming in, hopefully fans can view him as more of a support player. His link up play, hold up play, ball retention, heading etc is all really, really good and he offers a lot. He's versatile too. People pretending he's the worst player ever are being very unfair; I think he's a good squad option to have. We just shouldn't be left needing to play him by himself up top.

 

[kithnou]

 

[kone99]

He played well I thought, none of the chances were clear cut. just needs one to go in and he wil be right.
We believe in the Kone

thanks man its good to see fans like you

 

[Goat]

thanks man its good to see fans like you

Hi Arouna, big fan of when you sit on the bench and never play, keep it up mate.

 

[toffeestillidie]

I think he's been slagged off very unfairly this season, he's been effective and I think we expect a lot of him because of how effective Rom is.

Particularly yesterday I noticed he's very good at picking out a teammate in those 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 counterattack situations, which is something Ross has struggled with this season.

I'm not sure if it's just the last few poor seasons that have poisoned people's impression of him, but he's got about the same goals and assists per minute ratio as Ross and is more effective at converting chances (I know this is skewed by the fact that he's played a lot less). As others have said, his hold-up play is good, at least until he tries to beat his man (I assume he was under instructions to do that rather than play the safe pass because of how poor Newcastle are defending breaks).

 

[orly]

I think he's been slagged off very unfairly this season, he's been effective and I think we expect a lot of him because of how effective Rom is.

Particularly yesterday I noticed he's very good at picking out a teammate in those 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 counterattack situations, which is something Ross has struggled with this season.

I'm not sure if it's just the last few poor seasons that have poisoned people's impression of him, but he's got about the same goals and assists per minute ratio as Ross and is more effective at converting chances (I know this is skewed by the fact that he's played a lot less). As others have said, his hold-up play is good, at least until he tries to beat his man (I assume he was under instructions to do that rather than play the safe pass because of how poor Newcastle are defending breaks).

To be fair mate, he's a centre forward with 6 league goals in 36 games - with three of those against a hapless Sunderland side.

I think people have a pretty fair impression

 

[toffeestillidie]

To be fair mate, he's a centre forward with 6 league goals in 36 games - with three of those against a hapless Sunderland side.

I think people have a pretty fair impression

He hasn't been playing centre forward for a lot of those games though, and I agree he's been poor in previous seasons, was only talking about this season.

He started the season very well, looking at the comments about him from earlier on just shows how insanely fickle we are as supporters. Start here, comments from BEFORE the Sunderland game https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/arouna-kone.77972/page-42

 

[orly]

He hasn't been playing centre forward for a lot of those games though, and I agree he's been poor in previous seasons, was only talking about this season.

He started the season very well, looking at the comments about him from earlier on just shows how insanely fickle we are as supporters. Start here, comments from BEFORE the Sunderland game https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/arouna-kone.77972/page-42

Sensible people highlighted his 1 in 40 for Sevilla.

I like this one

https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/lukaku.67134/page-181#post-2821631

they are better players, no doubt. Better finishers? maybe not.

You getting what I am saying yet, or do I need to put pictures up...

'They' being Kone and Welbeck being better players than Lukaku

 

[toffeestillidie]

Sensible people highlighted his 1 in 40 for Sevilla.

I like this one

https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/lukaku.67134/page-181#post-2821631



'They' being Kone and Welbeck being better players than Lukaku

Sure but again, that's all from BEFORE this season. One moron saying Kone is better than Lukaku before he'd put in a single good performance for us doesn't change the fact that around September through November, most on here were very positive about Kone.