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Mbokani

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He''s tried but his signing has largely been a total failure. Yes, he''s scored the odd goal, mainly in defeat. I suppose we can all look back at aspects of the season and use hindsight to suit our arguments, but I can''t help thinking that his signing, coupled with not signing a defender in that window, effectively put the nail in our all too familiar relegation coffin.

We shouldn''t be surprised. Our fall to the Championship is as inevitable as Ipswich not filling their stadium every week. What a shame we''ve blown it again.

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I think he''s been ok, a bit of a handful, scored the odd goal, but certainly not a game changer and hasn''t done enough to convince me to buy him, not that he''d want to come if we go down. It''s really worrying that the only striker we ''own'' and play is Jerome, who is clearly lacking confidence. Where''s the competition? And sorry to bring this up again but what has happened to

Lafferty? Beggars belief that he hasn''t been tried. The last few years have been a mystery on the striker front, RVW, Bechio, Hooper ( I really rate Hoops, would rather we kept him) and now Lafferty, when will we get it right?

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AN''s failure to address the defense both by not prioritizing new blood in the summer and by not allowing a settled back four (five inc keeper) to develop a vital understanding will contribute more to our impending relegation than Mbokani''s ability (IMO of course)

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Wouldn''t say it''s been a total failure. He''s been ok. Holds ball up well and wins alot of headers i dont think hes mobile enough and thats why Neil goes with Jerome.

Unfortunately as much as i like Jerome as a team player and someone who works very hard and is a great championship striker. That is his level.

Hopefully Bamford gets a look in soon and we see what he can do.

Really shouldve gone and got Afobe in januay. 4 goals in 8 games for Bournemouth for what was common knowledge our number 1 striker target of the summer.

Whatever league we are in come August that''s a department that will be very scarce.

Bamford & M''Bokani will go back to parent clubs. Wolfswinkel & Lafferty Will probably be moved on. Leaves us with just Jerome.

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Still think he''s by far our most gifted striker, but it isn''t happening for him - he just doesn''t get any clear cut chances - can anyone remember him missing any?

Whether this is his fault or not I don''t know. It strikes me that he''s often figured in some of our worst performances, when he''s been left completely isolated & mostly had to do a hold up job - he did well, but not as well as Jerome, whose pace & harrying qualities come to the fore in that role.

The one game where he had decent support - Liverpool - he scored a terrific goal & looked dangerous with Naismith & Wes buzzing around as well. As somebody pointed out, if we could morph Mbokani & Jerome together, we''d have a top, top striker.

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He missed that hilarious lob attempt, can''t remember who it was against, maybe Villa or was it before that? I agree that he''s scored the most goals out of all our strikers and his link up play is much better than Jerome''s. I can''t help but think of that West Brom cup game, the ball he played into Jarvis and Lafferty putting a couple away. Big Kyle score those chances for fun for N.I. so why not give him a go now

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Our best striking option IMO especially with Wes and Naismith to feed off him. would leave a little unbalanced defensively though. works in and around the 18 yard box and holds the ball up so much better - his best game for me was Villa at home when their defence just couldn''t cope with him.

His appearances also coincided with our best run I think and certain our best finisher now Hopps has gone.

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Mbokani holds the ball up well & draws the odd foul to gain free kicks. He doesn''t miss too many opportunities because he has had very few - and that''s the problem. Sadly he only offers around 50% of what Grant Holt gave us.

However, ''if'' we ever play two up front, I don''t think Jerome & Mbokani (as we saw in the last few mins vs Chelsea) is the optimum pairing either; Mbokani & Naismith / Mbokani & Redmond / Jerome & Bamford / Bamford & Naismith all inspire me more.

Either way, someone needs to let Swansea''s dominant player Ashley Williams know he''s been in a game on Saturday, so Mbokani is likely to start.

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He has not been too bad but needs to be part of a pair otherwise he spends all his time winning headers and has his back to goal, he best attributes are when in the box. Where i do agree is he will not be here next season regardless of which division we are in

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Given AN''s low regard for Lafferty I didn''t even consider him for a place vs Swansea. He would be ideal cover as battering-ram cover for Mbokani - not expecting it though...

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We seem to have perfected the knack of making prolific goalscorers either totally impotent (Mbokani, Grabban, Jerome, RVW), bench warmers (Becchio, Hooper, Lafferty) or both. And it''s interesting that neither Grabban or RVW have managed to recover their pre City form since they left so whatever we did to them looks permanent.Makes you wonder how Hooper managed to avoid this curse and God knows what we will do to Bamford.I''m still of the opinion that Lafferty desrves a run because the current strikers are clearly not up to it.We need goals and sooner or later AN must take the risk & try him.

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He''s not the striker we needed - that would be a regular goalscorer. But he does offer something different to Jerome, who misses a different kind of opportunity to those Mbokani misses!Not sure why Bamford is here if Alex Neil doesn''t rate him enough to start a game.

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Mbokani would be good with Wes and Naismith in the team because he always has his back to goal. He works hard and is a very different kind of striker to Jerome as he doesn''t play the channels. He''s got good finishing ability but he doesn''t get himself in the right areas to score. A good striker and a good option; I certainly wish we had him under the Hughton reign except Elmander, Hooper and Wolsfwinkle.

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ec-p wrote the following post at 04/03/2016 1:16 PM:

Haven''t had a cohesive striker unit since Holt/Martin/Jackson.

--------------------------

If we were to get the premier league equivalence of that championship trio it would cost an arm and a leg though.

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[quote user="Making Plans"]We seem to have perfected the knack of making prolific goalscorers either totally impotent (Mbokani, Grabban, Jerome, RVW), bench warmers (Becchio, Hooper, Lafferty) or both. And it''s interesting that neither Grabban or RVW have managed to recover their pre City form since they left so whatever we did to them looks permanent.Makes you wonder how Hooper managed to avoid this curse and God knows what we will do to Bamford.I''m still of the opinion that Lafferty desrves a run because the current strikers are clearly not up to it.We need goals and sooner or later AN must take the risk & try him.

[/quote]

GARY HOOPER WASN''T A "benchwarmer" CHAMP!

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[quote user="mrs miggins"]Mbokani would be good with Wes and Naismith in the team because he always has his back to goal. He works hard and is a very different kind of striker to Jerome as he doesn''t play the channels. He''s got good finishing ability but he doesn''t get himself in the right areas to score. A good striker and a good option; I certainly wish we had him under the Hughton reign except Elmander, Hooper and Wolsfwinkle.[/quote]

This is a great post.

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I keep watching Afobe @ B''mouth and think... why didn''t we go for it?

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[quote user="AJ"]I keep watching Afobe @ B''mouth and think... why didn''t we go for it?[/quote]Maybe they offered more money than we did, and he wanted to go there?

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[quote user="jaemae2"][quote user="Making Plans"]We seem to have perfected the knack of making prolific goalscorers either totally impotent (Mbokani, Grabban, Jerome, RVW), bench warmers (Becchio, Hooper, Lafferty) or both. And it''s interesting that neither Grabban or RVW have managed to recover their pre City form since they left so whatever we did to them looks permanent.Makes you wonder how Hooper managed to avoid this curse and God knows what we will do to Bamford.I''m still of the opinion that Lafferty desrves a run because the current strikers are clearly not up to it.We need goals and sooner or later AN must take the risk & try him.

[/quote]

GARY HOOPER WASN''T A "benchwarmer" CHAMP![/quote]

Hooper also hasn''t avoided this "curse" champ. He''s scored in 5 of 20 Championship games. 3 of those were against the bottom 6. He hasn''t played well, champ. I mean Tomer Hemed and Chris Wood are just AMAZING strikers too... (both have more goals than Hooper)

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I think Hooper''s scored 10 in 18 games now that he''s being played in his preferred position.

This has all been discussed before though and it''s boring; he didn''t suit us and we didn''t suit him, end of.

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[quote user="mrs miggins"]I think Hooper''s scored 10 in 18 games now that he''s being played in his preferred position.

This has all been discussed before though and it''s boring; he didn''t suit us and we didn''t suit him, end of.[/quote]

Yes, I''m gonna stop. I was wrong with Wood scoring 10 too (8)

Both of those other statements are true too. Yes, I still get upset about making Hooper out to be something he''s not (I''ll plead guilty to doing that too, in the negative sense)

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Whatever happens this season there has to some serious questions asked about our transfers. I don''t know whether it''s the scouting system or if it''s a problem with the manager identifying good players but apart from Brady they have all been pretty average or below for well over a year. Our best players are predominantly the same best players from the last relegation season and that is always going to be an issue.

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I think you can safely put Andreu, Dorrans, Wisdom, Mulumbu and Jarvis all in the ''dross'' category.

The verdicts still out on Pinto, Klose, Bamford and Naismith.

I like Mbokani so i''ll cut him slack, but ultimately Neil''s only real successful signing so far is Brady.

Which I agree is rather worrying. It still amazes me that we gave a 3 and 1/2 year contract to Jarvis.

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Its a no for me too.

He strength is in the air; but he still loses more headers than he wins (58%) and is not significantly better than the other strikers (eg jerome loses 56%).

What his presence does though is encourage a long ball game - he goes for nearly twice as many headers per game (over 8) as the others which is why it appears that he is so much stronger, he does win more headers, but at a cost of moving to a playing style that doesnt suit us.

I dont agree that he holds the ball up more effectively either - his touch is poor and he is too easily dispossed for a player of his strength.

Worth a punt, its just not worked out and he is not even as good as jerome.

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