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Pukki starts for Finland

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As things stand at HT, Teemu could probably play another 90 mins without feeling the least bit tired. There's plenty of energy around him and it's a bit of a stroll for him at the moment. Armenia don't have much threat up front and look unlikely to score --  unless Mikhitaryan can conjure something out of nothing.

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46 minutes ago, westcoastcanary said:

As things stand at HT, Teemu could probably play another 90 mins without feeling the least bit tired. There's plenty of energy around him and it's a bit of a stroll for him at the moment. Armenia don't have much threat up front and look unlikely to score --  unless Mikhitaryan can conjure something out of nothing.

Thanks, that's good to hear !

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4 minutes ago, It's Character Forming said:

Thanks, that's good to hear !

Couple of heart-stopping moments when the Armenians were getting desperate and flying into tackles. Pukki had a right good moan to the ref after one of them, and again at the final whistle. Got up each time without treatment and chased long balls down afterwards, so looked OK at the end. 

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TP strikes me as particularly adept when it comes to riding tackles and avoiding a real clattering. Looks after himself rather expertly. 

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Irish Celtic fans( they're everywhere here) cannot believe that he is the same player that they had a while back, most that have any knowledge of football give great kudos to our coach and system which serves up so many chances, not just for Teemu but for the whole team. 

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25 minutes ago, wcorkcanary said:

Irish Celtic fans( they're everywhere here) cannot believe that he is the same player that they had a while back, most that have any knowledge of football give great kudos to our coach and system which serves up so many chances, not just for Teemu but for the whole team. 

Something we know all about wcork, a change of style, even a change of Manager has seen perfectly good strikers 'dry up'

Holty struggled under Hughton, then there's RVW, Becchio, Hooper, Lafferty, that lump from Bolton, all had good scoring records at other Clubs but it just didn't seem to work here. 

Credit to SW/DF for identifying a player to suit the way we play and to provide him with the chances to profit from. 

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Pukki had one real chance in the game, a fierce right foot shot from about 15 yards out to the right of the goal. He went near post, and a low shot would probably have gone in. In the event it was body height and hit the keeper. Rather like in our recent games, it was a shot that he would likely have put away earlier in the season, but he hasn't quite got the same accuracy at the moment. Still got an assist though.

Edited by westcoastcanary
Typo

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11 hours ago, Alex Moss said:

Maybe a little controversial, but I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing him get a rest against Boro on Saturday, and starting with Jordan Rhodes. I really think it would benefit him and us to get a weeks break to freshen him up for the final games, I’m concerned these frequent internationals on top of relentless league matches must surely be coming at a price now, that’s the indication I’m getting now anyway, and I would rather he got a week or 2’s rest to refresh and recharge for those final crucial games than lose him to injury for the vital last leg of the season. He’s a great player for us even when he’s not scoring, but I think a little break could do him the world of good, and I have faith that Jordan would not let us down despite Teemu’s phenomenal form this season. Fingers crossed Pukki doesn’t play 90 minutes tonight, it’s time to give him a short break for the greater good.

I can't agree with this, despite not scoring for a few games, Pukki's hold-up play and running in behind has been better than ever imo. He's gone from Mario Gomes type performances at the start of the season, where he would do pretty much f all all game and then score out of nowhere, to becoming someone who carries the team forwards and a willing runner when pressing the opposition. I think he is a vital cog in our team at the minute. Yes the goals have dried up slightly, but he does not look low on confidence to me - he's still working himself into good positions to shoot from and has been regularly providing assists, its surely only a matter of time before he gets his goal again! I appreciate he could probably do with a rest given the schedule he's had but until that becomes evident on the pitch in terms of his contribution then why rest him!

Rhodes is a good finisher but in no way can he offer anything like Pukki can when it comes to everything else! I'm sure if he were to get a start on Saturday this would be evident! That said, it is not like Farke to rest players (remember when Tettey used to only be able to play once a week?), and especially don't think this will happen considering we've got Boro away. Maybe more feasible in the following week, against QPR or Reading at home? Still can't see it mind! I think we may be more likely to see him subbed off on 60-65 mins if we've got a comfortable lead in any of these games?

 

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Pukki is nearly top of the assist charts, and I can think of two massively important passes in the last couple of games. As Hank says, even when he's not scoring he's far too valuable to the team to rest.

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4 hours ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

I can't agree with this, despite not scoring for a few games, Pukki's hold-up play and running in behind has been better than ever imo. He's gone from Mario Gomes type performances at the start of the season, where he would do pretty much f all all game and then score out of nowhere, to becoming someone who carries the team forwards and a willing runner when pressing the opposition. I think he is a vital cog in our team at the minute. Yes the goals have dried up slightly, but he does not look low on confidence to me - he's still working himself into good positions to shoot from and has been regularly providing assists, its surely only a matter of time before he gets his goal again! I appreciate he could probably do with a rest given the schedule he's had but until that becomes evident on the pitch in terms of his contribution then why rest him!

Rhodes is a good finisher but in no way can he offer anything like Pukki can when it comes to everything else! I'm sure if he were to get a start on Saturday this would be evident! That said, it is not like Farke to rest players (remember when Tettey used to only be able to play once a week?), and especially don't think this will happen considering we've got Boro away. Maybe more feasible in the following week, against QPR or Reading at home? Still can't see it mind! I think we may be more likely to see him subbed off on 60-65 mins if we've got a comfortable lead in any of these games?

 

I never said Teemu looks low on confidence, Hank.

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I did worry about Teemu's workload as well. He has seen a lot of game time over the last couple of months and thought something similar, Alex - that a rest might do him good. It is just a bit of a shame that say Reading or QPR at Cara wasn't first up after the break. That way it would make sense, but Boro away is too important. And if (heaven forbid) we don't win and the other two do, then QPR and Reading become crunch matches, and again, I wouldn't want to rest him.

FWIW, I thought he still looked full of running against Armenia. He is one fit specimen, so hopefully there will be no issues. I cannot see Farke changing a winning formula anyway. 

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12 hours ago, wcorkcanary said:

Irish Celtic fans( they're everywhere here) cannot believe that he is the same player that they had a while back, most that have any knowledge of football give great kudos to our coach and system which serves up so many chances, not just for Teemu but for the whole team. 

Been following Pukki for a long time myself and watched most of the matches that had stream available in interwebs when he played in Celtic as well. Based on that, I'd actually say that main reason why he failed in there was the sort of football that is played in the league and that Celtic playmaking was rubbish. Pukki was not as aggressive and physical back then, which also contributed. However, if you look at matches back then, the Celtic team was unable to play key passes on attacking quarter and lacked team capable to open very deep lying opponent defenses with passing at all. The passing pace was extremely slow and their way to sort out the matches were solo runs and long shots from the midfielders and of course tossing high balls to the goal. I'd say it was exactly that kind of game where even current version of Pukki would not be that suitable. 

Don't know if SPL has evolved from that though and how Celtic plays these days, but it was really good for his career to move to Denmark and get to play better football. Having watched lots of both Scottish and Danish football, it is pretty easy to say that the quality of football in Danish Alka Super League is a lot better than in SPL. 

So in that sense, it is true that lots of kudos goes for the coach and system, as it was in my opinion the main reason why they didn't get that much out of Pukki was the poor teamwork and unsuitable playstyle.
 

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6 hours ago, Alex Moss said:

I never said Teemu looks low on confidence, Hank.

I didn't say you had, but I don't think he's looked particularly tired in his recent games, his running has been tireless! Just trying to make a case as the only other reason for dropping him right now would be because of a lack of confidence from not scoring! To me, he is far too an important player to be dropped right now at this crucial stage of the season.

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While Pukki may look like he isn’t tiring, the recent run of games and travelling will place a higher risk of him picking up an injury. 

Norwich need to manage that risk carefully and make sure he isn’t overloaded. No player in the Norwich squad has played more minutes than him this season when you combine league and international fixtures and if Norwich can give him a break then they should look to do so. 

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I was surprised when he wasn’t taken off in the Hull match. He’d had a very poor performance for his standards and just looked shattered. We were 3-1 with 30 mins to go and appeared to be cruising to a comfortable home win....

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