hepphep

Also he is at the moment top in assists in on going Euro qualifiers, so his creativity is sure to be missed in addition to goals. However, longer the last season went there was others to step up as well. Would not mind getting someone on wing who could also find target bit better.

No Buendia, but there is Robin Lod. Another player he has seemed to have like telepathic connection with in national team games, so maybe that actually also plays some part.

Pukki also actually leads in assists in whole Euro qualifiers at the moment (4). Maybe he has been thinking that its time for a new challenge and instead of scoring himself its time to try to win some top assists tables 😉

I'd bet for their promotion from league 2 for sure, with 3 Serie A players and 3 Bundesliga players in their team 😉

I'd correct a bit, if you allow. 😉 He has done extremely well for us and we have done pretty well for him (not getting in anyone to provide service and making him to stay this one last championship year when he would have wanted to play still on higher level lowers the "we've done well for him" meter quite a bit)

Hard to say exact club, but I'd think the league is either EPL or Bundesliga.

Cannot agree that he flopped. On his time in Spain, he was academy player who had one sub appearance before moving away for more minutes (and actually to play in european competitions). Year and a half from that and he was in Bundesliga top 5 club. On Bundesliga he did score around goal per 130 minutes ratio, which I would never call flop. Reason why he did not break through in Schalke was that they had Huntelaar on his prime as their main striker and they played with one forward. Therefore he moved after gametime to Celtic. Celtic period was awful, but it was not that he would not have had quality to play top leagues at that time already. Sometimes the team just plays in a way that does not suit for individual.

I agree that money is likely not deciding factor, but I'd expect he would still want to challenge him on top level. Either EPL, Bundesliga or La Liga. As free transfer, he will sure have demand in those

Or if he could be better finisher. He is so good in cutting in the middle and getting his foot open. Just bit of quality there and he would be scoring some big goals

Now he is 5th in goals and 4th in assists in whole league. If we can keep on playing ever near today, can see him still climbing to challenge top spot in both.

I think that it remains as valid question for longer term if he can find and maintain such form regularly. So far in his career for us and in Bundesliga he has scored 28 goals in 138 games. As big chunk of those is early this season, its interesting to see if he had silly streak or if it is that he has been able to step up to next level. In comparison, Idah has 9 in 62 which would make their career averages pretty same in start of the season when Idah was still injured and Sargent got his streak. And please do not read to this as saying Sargeant is bad player. He has really good qualities in his pressing and work rate. Still bit unsure if he can contribute to controlling game yet though and if he can keep on scoring regularly on high numbers.

It could also be that Sargent was massively overperforming for short period. But I agree that Sargeant likely can be best option if the style of play is just to try to drive towards goal and deliver ball there. However, I would rather see us to try to create chances as a team, as we should be very capable to do that.

Problem is though that in overall quality, we are still having mid-level championship forward vs epl level forward there, and therefore dropping Pukki for Sargent would be admitting that we give up for this season. Not 100% sure that Sargent will take that step in future either, as he seems to be lacking football brain. In that sense I actually still think Idah might be one to replace Pukki in future.

I often cannot but wonder if we really should play only one of Pukki or Sargent at any time as they seem to eat space from each others too often. I think that might apply to many players actually, as individuals they seem better than when working together. For example Aarons is shadow of his past level, but I really cannot think that he is regressed as individual. He just dont fit in with rest of the current team that well anymore. Also CM trio on last match tried play too similar with each others, nobody too aggressive role between others of midfield and forwards. As individuals, I think most of players in our last starting eleven could make it to starting eleven for nearly all teams in this league. As a team we are not even close to top teams. I think part of it is just bad coaching and we need some serious improvement on setting player roles. Part of it is surely shattered confidence. And part of it would be wrongly build team due to silly recruitments, having our best eleven made of too similar players so that we cannot fill all the required roles with them.

I dont know if I'm totally lost as I cannot join all the misery talk this time. I think it was excellent improvement in the quality of our game with real attitude to get the job done. Just no luck this time, but after a long time our players seemed like quality individuals. Also, gotta admit that today it was easy to see why managers keep on selecting McLean as he was outstanding. Unlucky to lose points, but otherwise really entertaining stuff!