Strikers

[JimmyK]

How many of those shots has DCL had though? Or how many have been corners that have pinged around the box?

I get what you are saying, but in terms of big chances how many are our strikers getting? It’s really not many at all.

And without doucoure, we don’t have anyone who is there to pick up the scraps and actually be in the space DCL creates.

You are right though. Expectation on a 1.5m striker and one who we haven’t paid any money for yet are too high.

Yeah I did say that to be fair but like I say if other people are getting 9 shots a game inside the box the striker can’t be that isolated can they. The strikers have both missed absolute sitters this year that I would expect a full back to score so the argument that they keep missing because it’s been so long since they got a chance that they’ve forgotten how to score doesn’t wash it’s just poor play.

 

[MikeH72]

How many of those shots has DCL had though? Or how many have been corners that have pinged around the box?

I get what you are saying, but in terms of big chances how many are our strikers getting? It’s really not many at all.

And without doucoure, we don’t have anyone who is there to pick up the scraps and actually be in the space DCL creates.

You are right though. Expectation on a 1.5m striker and one who we haven’t paid any money for yet are too high.

But he’s not a £1.5m striker is he? Are you saying if we sold him now we could expect to get £1.5m for him? Because that would basically be an acknowledgment that he just isn’t very good. We bought him for that amount 8 years ago from a League 2 side when he was a youngster. He is now a seasoned Premier League player in his prime so it’s ridiculous to still be holding him to the standards we did when he first signed.

So we’ve got to decide, is he a £1.5m striker that we shouldn’t expect anything from and is basically League 2 standard, or is he the former Kane backup, experienced Premier League, proven in the lockdown season striker that Arsenal want and we shouldn’t sell for anything under £60m?

On the first point, he has had 39 shots this season and Elijah Adebayo has had 24. One of these players has 3 goals and the other has 9. Guess which one’s which.

 

[Marius57]

But he’s not a £1.5m striker is he? Are you saying if we sold him now we could expect to get £1.5m for him? Because that would basically be an acknowledgment that he just isn’t very good. We bought him for that amount 8 years ago from a League 2 side when he was a youngster. He is now a seasoned Premier League player in his prime so it’s ridiculous to still be holding him to the standards we did when he first signed.

So we’ve got to decide, is he a £1.5m striker that we shouldn’t expect anything from and is basically League 2 standard, or is he the former Kane backup, experienced Premier League, proven in the lockdown season striker that Arsenal want and we shouldn’t sell for anything under £60m?

On the first point, he has had 39 shots this season and Elijah Adebayo has had 24. One of these players has 3 goals and the other has 9. Guess which one’s which.

On the first point, of the last 45 shots, how many has DCL had? As that’s what the first point was about. I couldn’t care less about Adebayo

We signed him for 1.5m, as potential. He has shown that when we play in a way that suits his skillset he can score goals. We don’t play in that way now because we don’t have players who can can do that.

Going from James, Digne, Siggy etc to zero creative number 10s and fullbacks/wingers who can’t pick out a cross which is going to have an impact of the quality of chances.

Ultimately, he is with us, a relegation fighting team year on year, for a reason. Same as the rest of our players. They aren’t very good.

He should have scored more and done better. But it’s not like he gets 5 good chances a game where he scores one and misses 4 and we would all be ok with.

Lukaku has been a blip in regard to our PL strikers (he should have been at a title challenging team and we were highly fortunate to have him) and people seem to think that us having a striker of that quality is the norm whereas in reality, our PL history of strikers is more like what we have now. Good spells but big drops off. Jelavic, Yakubu, Johnson etc

 

[MikeH72]

On the first point, of the last 45 shots, how many has DCL had? As that’s what the first point was about. I couldn’t care less about Adebayo

We signed him for 1.5m, as potential. He has shown that when we play in a way that suits his skillset he can score goals. We don’t play in that way now because we don’t have players who can can do that.

Going from James, Digne, Siggy etc to zero creative number 10s and fullbacks/wingers who can’t pick out a cross which is going to have an impact of the quality of chances.

Ultimately, he is with us, a relegation fighting team year on year, for a reason. Same as the rest of our players. They aren’t very good.

He should have scored more and done better. But it’s not like he gets 5 good chances a game where he scores one and misses 4 and we would all be ok with.

Lukaku has been a blip in regard to our PL strikers (he should have been at a title challenging team and we were highly fortunate to have him) and people seem to think that us having a striker of that quality is the norm whereas in reality, our PL history of strikers is more like what we have now. Good spells but big drops off. Jelavic, Yakubu, Johnson etc

Sorry, what strikers in the league get 5 good chances per game? That’s not the way football works, teams do actually bother defending you know. Even Haaland doesn’t get that. If a striker needs 5 chances per game to be expected to score one goal then it’s clear that he’s an utterly terrible striker.

You say “couldn’t care less about Adebayo” but it really doesn’t matter whether you care or not. He is one of DCL’s peers who is roughly the same age as him, playing in the same league, also playing for a crap relegation battling team that hardly creates chances for him. He certainly doesn’t get 5 chances per game, yet he’s on 9 goals for the season in his debut season in the Premier League. It’s absolutely relevant to compare DCL to his peers. Comparisons to the likes of Watkins, Toney, Wilson etc are laughable, they’re on a completely different level to him. Let’s put him up against the likes of Adebayo, Wood, Archer and see how he fares.

 

[Marius57]

Yeah I did say that to be fair but like I say if other people are getting 9 shots a game inside the box the striker can’t be that isolated can they. The strikers have both missed absolute sitters this year that I would expect a full back to score so the argument that they keep missing because it’s been so long since they got a chance that they’ve forgotten how to score doesn’t wash it’s just poor play.

9 shots a game, how many of them are blocked shots from corners? For example, Godfrey had 4 shots yesterday, yet 3 of them came in 2 seconds in the 95th minute from a corner. DCL hit the bar with a header from a corner. Beto missed a headed corner. The “handball that wasn’t” was from a corner.

We don’t create much for our strikers in open play.

He should be doing better, I’m not denying that.

 

[JimmyK]

9 shots a game, how many of them are blocked shots from corners? For example, Godfrey had 4 shots yesterday, yet 3 of them came in 2 seconds in the 95th minute from a corner. DCL hit the bar with a header from a corner. Beto missed a headed corner. The “handball that wasn’t” was from a corner.

We don’t create much for our strikers in open play.

He should be doing better, I’m not denying that.

But I've already agreed twice that we don't create a lot! Chances from set pieces still count though you can't just ignore them because it wasn't at the end of a 20 pass move.

 

[Marius57]

Sorry, what strikers in the league get 5 good chances per game? That’s not the way football works, teams do actually bother defending you know. Even Haaland doesn’t get that. If a striker needs 5 chances per game to be expected to score one goal then it’s clear that he’s an utterly terrible striker.

You say “couldn’t care less about Adebayo” but it really doesn’t matter whether you care or not. He is one of DCL’s peers who is roughly the same age as him, playing in the same league, also playing for a crap relegation battling team that hardly creates chances for him. He certainly doesn’t get 5 chances per game, yet he’s on 9 goals for the season in his debut season in the Premier League. It’s absolutely relevant to compare DCL to his peers. Comparisons to the likes of Watkins, Toney, Wilson etc are laughable, they’re on a completely different level to him. Let’s put him up against the likes of Adebayo, Wood, Archer and see how he fares.

It doesn’t matter whether you care or not either. Or any of this. Because DcL is our striker. We aren’t signing another one. So he is it until the summer at the earliest.

May as well back him to break his duck and get some confidence back. Because turning on them won’t help as it will spill into the ground like it did earlier in the season and individuals start getting booed for being injured.

 

[chicoazul]

It’s all on the fans.

 

[Marius57]

But I've already agreed twice that we don't create a lot! Chances from set pieces still count though you can't just ignore them because it wasn't at the end of a 20 pass move.

I’m not ignoring them, but it skews the stats. Doesn’t mean our strikers aren’t isolated because we have 3 corners in a game and have like 10 blocked shots from them.

Most of the game DCL is trying to win headers from long balls forwards. Doucoure is the best we have at picking up the ball from this, without him, we look awful.

 

[MikeH72]

It doesn’t matter whether you care or not either. Or any of this. Because DcL is our striker. We aren’t signing another one. So he is it until the summer at the earliest.

May as well back him to break his duck and get some confidence back. Because turning on them won’t help as it will spill into the ground like it did earlier in the season and individuals start getting booed for being injured.

Me typing on a forum that he isn’t good enough isn’t going to affect his performance or spill into the ground mate, same as you backing him won’t make him suddenly be able to hit the target or strike through a ball cleanly. All that’s posted on here is opinions, that’s it. My opinion is that he isn’t a very good striker, I’ve watched him play football for 8 years to arrive at that conclusion. I can only apologise if you don’t like it, but it is what it is. Nobody’s counter arguments have convinced me otherwise either.

 

[Toffeelover]

Strikers, what are they ????

 

[Cameron Manning]

It’s all on the fans.

It’s not, a lot of fans have been strikers, dockers,building workers, junior doctors etc etc, without these strikers we’d still be on £2- 50p a week!

 

[Tigger]

The biggest problem is both our current strikers can't kick a ball cleanly, only really got Mcneil that can. Should be quite a large requirement of being a proffesional footballer but often overlooked.

 

[hallamblue]

I was surprised we weren't in for Brereton Diaz on loan. Scored a hatful for Blackburn last season. If you don't have a 20 goal a season striker you need 4 or 5 strikers who can get between 5 and 10 goals each.

 

[MisterJ]

Maupay scored again. Bring a blue home?