Idahs miss

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

I was surprised to see Idah not start last night.

Having waited years for a real opportunity - with two main strikers out for a period - to be dropped for the Swansea game would hurt.

Whatever story the manager told.

It would not surprise me if the coaches think he is too laid back. I think they appear to regularly look for ways to fire him up. Implying he doesn’t quite do this himself. 

Getting Barnes to mentor him is fine in concept, though of course Barnes has never been a goal-scoring forward, nor has Sargent.
 

So teaching him that animal instinct to be in the right place at the right time - at any cost or effort - is not something either of them have either. 

Teaching him to ‘run around a lot for the team’ is fine, that’s certainly in their wheelhouse. 

Idah could be a bit Anthony Joshua. He looks perfect. The template is there. But is he really a fighter (striker) at heart?

Parma 

[king canary 7,609]

10 minutes ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

I was surprised to see Idah not start last night.

Having waited years for a real opportunity - with two main strikers out for a period - to be dropped for the Swansea game would hurt.

Whatever story the manager told.

It would not surprise me if the coaches think he is too laid back. I think they appear to regularly look for ways to fire him up. Implying he doesn’t quite do this himself. 

Getting Barnes to mentor him is fine in concept, though of course Barnes has never been a goal-scoring forward, nor has Sargent.
 

So teaching him that animal instinct to be in the right place at the right time - at any cost or effort - is not something either of them have either. 

Teaching him to ‘run around a lot for the team’ is fine, that’s certainly in their wheelhouse. 

Idah could be a bit Anthony Joshua. He looks perfect. The template is there. But is he really a fighter (striker) at heart?

Parma 

The player he reminds me of somewhat is Emile Heskey- someone who had all the tools in terms of touch, physicality, pace but seemed, for whatever reason, unable to put them together consistently enough to fulfil his true potential. Now Heskey obviously had a very good career overall but it always felt like he could be more if only he had that extra fire to push himself to the next level. Idah is a lesser version of that. 

[norfolkngood 1,087]

44 minutes ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

I was surprised to see Idah not start last night.

Having waited years for a real opportunity - with two main strikers out for a period - to be dropped for the Swansea game would hurt.

Whatever story the manager told.

It would not surprise me if the coaches think he is too laid back. I think they appear to regularly look for ways to fire him up. Implying he doesn’t quite do this himself. 

Getting Barnes to mentor him is fine in concept, though of course Barnes has never been a goal-scoring forward, nor has Sargent.
 

So teaching him that animal instinct to be in the right place at the right time - at any cost or effort - is not something either of them have either. 

Teaching him to ‘run around a lot for the team’ is fine, that’s certainly in their wheelhouse. 

Idah could be a bit Anthony Joshua. He looks perfect. The template is there. But is he really a fighter (striker) at heart?

Parma 

Parma hit the nail on the head ! 

just like my Nephew who was in Todd Cantwell's Team at Norwich 

had pace and so much skill , had height build , played against all the big clubs , had Dozells son in his pocket all game when they played ipswich ,

but did not have the desire , close season Todd would be running a few miles a day , my nephew in bed ,

when he was playing Arsenal once he asked his dad to wake him up ! my brother said if i was playing arsenal tomorrow i would not sleep wake yourself up 

when Norwich released him after two years i said i will pay for you to jump in your car  and  travel round lower leagues stay in a hotel and offer to train and a free trial for a week to get a contract , never went 

tried everything but you have to have that inner drive ,

i do not think Idah is that bad but he looks very laid back needs to get nasty , if i was the club i would get Grant holt into one to one training , 

that's why some fantastic players never reach their potential 

[Samwam27 527]

I think it was harsh Idah was dropped for Hwang, when he'd played well the previous game (seems to be a bizarre trait of Wagners, if you play well you get dropped, but the poorer performers keep their place), but for me Idah doesnt do himself any favours.

Whether Plachetas cross was too fast, it was a guilt edge, open goal chamce from almost blank range. We cant keep giving Idah the 'he needs confidence' rub. He came on and missed an absolute sitter, and you dont get many of them every game.

If, as has been said, he looks too laid back.for the coaches (hence giving Hwang the start) it again begs the question why they gave him a 5 yr contract.

On the other hand, when you know your main striker is out and you want a replacememt in the window, why go for someone who hasnt even played a game in this country, let alone score. And hes no spring chicken. He may be technical but its sheer hope he'll hit the ground running, let alone instantly start.hittting the back of the net.

Here's hoping Barnes at least returns after the break!

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

1 hour ago, norfolkngood said:

Parma hit the nail on the head ! 

just like my Nephew who was in Todd Cantwell's Team at Norwich 

had pace and so much skill , had height build , played against all the big clubs , had Dozells son in his pocket all game when they played ipswich ,

but did not have the desire , close season Todd would be running a few miles a day , my nephew in bed ,

when he was playing Arsenal once he asked his dad to wake him up ! my brother said if i was playing arsenal tomorrow i would not sleep wake yourself up 

when Norwich released him after two years i said i will pay for you to jump in your car  and  travel round lower leagues stay in a hotel and offer to train and a free trial for a week to get a contract , never went 

tried everything but you have to have that inner drive ,

i do not think Idah is that bad but he looks very laid back needs to get nasty , if i was the club i would get Grant holt into one to one training , 

that's why some fantastic players never reach their potential 

You could quite easily include me in that. 

Professional football is professional. It’s a job. A daily job. An all-consuming job. An all-or-nothing job.

A competitive environment beyond all others. Everybody’s dream. Everybody’s world. Everybody’s opinion on everything. 

I wanted to know if I was good enough. I needed to know. Then I found out I was. Then I did something else. 

Odd of course. 

But - as you have pointed out and shown with your example - it takes all sorts. The ones like Idah are frustrating.

I suspect the old sweats would say ‘goalscoring is the one thing you can’t teach….and wanting it’ 

Parma

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Parma Ham's gone mouldy

[By Hook or Ian crook 917]

10 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Have he ever scored a header for us? I'm struggling to remember one. Still, how on Earth did he miss? 

 

4 more years! 

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

Idah is rubbish. Just rubbish. 

[wcorkcanary 4,334]

9 hours ago, norfolkngood said:

maybe he is a chris Sutton in reverse

started as a striker but will end up a CB if he was a defender clearing that you would say world class defending ! 

Play  him in midfield like Joelinton.

[mrD66M 99]

10 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Criminal. I get fed up with all the excuses about it and him. It wasa sitter of the unmissable kind. And he cost us the game with that miss.

What costs us games is shipping goals at the back.

Not even 0.02, I'm out of pocket already..

 

[Channon’s Windmill 327]

Idah is never going to be a prolific goal scorer, just doesn’t have the instinct or awareness, but he is still ours and will one day make us a bit of money when he is moved on, Hwang on the other hand was a very poor signing when we could have chosen someone more suited to the championship…ridiculous signing. We had a ten day window In which to make a better choice.

[Virtual reality 712]

Should have scored but it happens. Move on

[Canario 205]

7 hours ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

I’ve looked at this chance from multiple angles, multiple times. I think it’s a good deal more difficult than it appears at first sight.

Idah is attacking inside the back post, looking for a ball along the ground to tap in. Placheta fires it early with the outside of his left, which surprises everyone. 

It is a fraction behind Idah which is hard to adjust for at pace. It wasn’t what he was expecting either.

At no point would I suggest that a wider player firing into the box should ‘pick someone out’ or that crosses can have too much pace on them, though I don’t think that Placheta or Idah have the finest of natural football brains. It is the key weakness of both. 

In effect that weakness of each combines to make a good opportunity harder than it needed to be, more complicated and surprising than was necessary, exacerbated by Idah’s rather callow sense of anticipation, leading to small margins falling on the side of miss rather than score.

As I have suggested repeatedly, all professional footballers are good or have good things about them. The best are very consistent in their performances , make better decisions, do simpler things more carefully and end up with average contribution levels a fair bit higher than those who don’t.

Fans see the good bits, coaches see the averages, the weapon-like elements and - crucially - the negative tendencies under pressure.

Parma

 

Spot on with the football intelligence.

Both Idah and PP are better "athletes" than they are footballers. Definitely wouldn't class the chance as a "sitter" but it just gets added to the list of missed opportunities. 

Guess the question is are we still going to be able to coach the football side or are we getting a little late to expect an improvement?

[BroadstairsR 2,174]

I've said this before Adam Idah doesn't do headers. They're not in his remit ... he's a striker after all. 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

3 hours ago, king canary said:

The player he reminds me of somewhat is Emile Heskey- someone who had all the tools in terms of touch, physicality, pace but seemed, for whatever reason, unable to put them together consistently enough to fulfil his true potential. Now Heskey obviously had a very good career overall but it always felt like he could be more if only he had that extra fire to push himself to the next level. Idah is a lesser version of that. 

I said this last season. He remnds me completely of Heskey and Frank Bruno. Talent but not for a fight.

Edited October 5, 2023 by keelansgrandad

[zema abbey football genius 36]

8 hours ago, ged in the onion bag said:

This thread really demonstrates how clueless and irrational far too many posters on here are! 

I couldn’t agree more. 
 

Anyone who’s played (any standard!) football in their life will realise it’s pretty difficult to control header when the ball is fizzed at you…

He’d have actually been better trying to ‘chest it in’…but tbf to Idah he didn’t have much time to react.

I am no Idah lover…but this is not a ‘how did he miss that?’ chance! 

Edited October 5, 2023 by zema abbey football genius

[Samwam27 527]

To put this thread another way, should Placheta have fizzed it across the goal for Idah, or anyone, to slide in, rather than going for a high, fast cross.

Is it more Plachetas poor choice and supply, than Idahs miss???

[The Bunny 310]

3 hours ago, Samwam27 said:

To put this thread another way, should Placheta have fizzed it across the goal for Idah, or anyone, to slide in, rather than going for a high, fast cross.

Is it more Plachetas poor choice and supply, than Idahs miss???

No.

[Jim Smith 2,322]

It was travelling fast, that is slight mitigation.

but it was still way, way harder to miss than to score. And it cost us as I’m convinced we would have won the game had we got in front. 
 

I just don’t feel Idah has the speed of thought on the pitch, not because of this miss just my general observation. That said he’s more effective than Hwang. Ultimately Webber has left us short in a key position again when he had an opportunity to address it at the transfer deadline. 

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

For those genuinely interested in Idah’s development and clues to his mindset, I think it could certainly be argued that yesterday’s miss - or non-contact - is more concerning than the headed miss last week.

I think that there were considerable mitigating circumstances last week - despite initial appearances - though yesterday I think I might be a little more concerned as his striking coach. 
 

The chance yesterday came from quite a ‘classic’ passage of play - nice 1-2 Sam McCallum - the cross is played exactly at the time, pace and place one would expect. A textbook striker’s chance, just what you dream of.

Idah is attacking the right space, the play is all in front of him and he is ‘looking down the barrel’ of the chance.

I think the goalkeeper get in his eye line and he somewhat mistimes his slide as a result. This is a concern as the best - real - strikers only watch, think and care about the ball in such situations. 

A player with much lesser physical gifts than Idah - say a Jamie Cureton - I think toe pokes that chance in reasonably comfortably. I don’t think Jamie even sees the goalkeeper or thinks about him in that situation.

Parma 

 

post script: despite what Paddy oddly wrote about Wagner not using Sargent-Barnes missing as an excuse, I thought - in football speak - that that is exactly what he did. Though he perhaps rather intended it to dig into Adam Idah - again. This re-inforces further the impression that they are trying to light a spark, a hunger, a  ruthlessness, a reaction in him. 

I think that the coaches might actually be a good deal more concerned by yesterday’s miss than last week’s version…

Edited October 8, 2023 by Parma Ham's gone mouldy

[......and Smith must score. 1,345]

I agree with Palma.

Those at the match must have despaired but looking at it on the highlights it isn’t just that Idah missed it but he was way short of making effective contact.

The Swansea miss was bad but he did at least make contact. Yesterday there didn’t look to be much of a strikers desire there at all.

 

[BroadstairsR 2,174]

I'm fully with all of that Parma, and I've mentioned similar before, by recalling early days when Idah played for Ireland and Roy Keane was a pundit and the latter expressed frustration with the player when such crosses came over.

At the time and in true Keane fashion he said that the player "hides." This is possibly too cruel but he certainly lacks a lot of attributes you expect from a top striker, a Championship striker or one that our team is forced to rely upon as things stand at the moment.

Later in the game I recall the commentator saying of another chance falling to him that "Idah nearly got there," and thinking that word typifies the player's striking instincts.

In fact, he's 'nearly' a striker.

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by BroadstairsR

[canarybubbles 1,923]

8 minutes ago, ......and Smith must score. said:

I agree with Palma.

Those at the match must have despaired but looking at it on the highlights it isn’t just that Idah missed it but he was way short of making effective contact.

The Swansea miss was bad but he did at least make contact. Yesterday there didn’t look to be much of a strikers desire there at all.

 

Perhaps it's his speed of thought more than a lack of desire. He has been highly prone to being caught offside and I imagine he has been told to work on that aspect of his game, so in situations like the one yesterday he is now delaying his run too much. He just doesn't seem to have a good footballing brain.

[Robert N. LiM 4,381]

59 minutes ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

For those genuinely interested in Idah’s development and clues to his mindset, I think it could certainly be argued that yesterday’s miss - or non-contact - is more concerning than the headed miss last week.

I think that there were considerable mitigating circumstances last week - despite initial appearances - though yesterday I think I might be a little more concerned as his striking coach. 
 

The chance yesterday came from quite a ‘classic’ passage of play - nice 1-2 Sam McCallum - the cross is played exactly at the time, pace and place one would expect. A textbook striker’s chance, just what you dream of.

Idah is attacking the right space, the play is all in front of him and he is ‘looking down the barrel’ of the chance.

I think the goalkeeper get in his eye line and he somewhat mistimes his slide as a result. This is a concern as the best - real - strikers only watch, think and care about the ball in such situations. 

A player with much lesser physical gifts than Idah - say a Jamie Cureton - I think toe pokes that chance in reasonably comfortably. I don’t think Jamie even sees the goalkeeper or thinks about him in that situation.

Parma 

Just watched the highlights and agree completely with this - a much worse, certainly much more concerning miss than the one midweek. He just looks a little tentative to me.

 

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

1 hour ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

For those genuinely interested in Idah’s development and clues to his mindset, I think it could certainly be argued that yesterday’s miss - or non-contact - is more concerning than the headed miss last week.

I think that there were considerable mitigating circumstances last week - despite initial appearances - though yesterday I think I might be a little more concerned as his striking coach. 
 

The chance yesterday came from quite a ‘classic’ passage of play - nice 1-2 Sam McCallum - the cross is played exactly at the time, pace and place one would expect. A textbook striker’s chance, just what you dream of.

Idah is attacking the right space, the play is all in front of him and he is ‘looking down the barrel’ of the chance.

I think the goalkeeper get in his eye line and he somewhat mistimes his slide as a result. This is a concern as the best - real - strikers only watch, think and care about the ball in such situations. 

A player with much lesser physical gifts than Idah - say a Jamie Cureton - I think toe pokes that chance in reasonably comfortably. I don’t think Jamie even sees the goalkeeper or thinks about him in that situation.

Parma 

 

post script: despite what Paddy oddly wrote about Wagner not using Sargent-Barnes missing as an excuse, I thought - in football speak - that that is exactly what he did. Though he perhaps rather intended it to dig into Adam Idah - again. This re-inforces further the impression that they are trying to light a spark, a hunger, a  ruthlessness, a reaction in him. 

I think that the coaches might actually be a good deal more concerned by yesterday’s miss than last week’s version…

Yes. I was going to post something similar. There was another chance later on, again with a cross from the left; when he was a bit further off making contact. And as an amateur watcher I just felt he somehow should have scored from one. Lineker was once asked if the secret of being a striker was to be in the right place at the right time. And replied, no, you need to be in the right place every time.

Edited October 8, 2023 by PurpleCanary

[Jezzard 16]

Yes one midweek was tough; fast and slightly behind him though a top striker would have cushioned it in. Yesterday’s was woeful. It wasn’t in front of him. Just a lack of ability 

[Robert N. LiM 4,381]

45 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

Lineker was once asked if the secret of being a striker was to be in the right place at the right time. And replied, no, you need to be in the right place every time.

That's a great quote

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

If only he had met the ball in for our own goal rather than Gibson..no way would that have hit the back of the net.

[PurpleCanary 5,562]

5 minutes ago, Kenny Foggo said:

If only he had met the ball in for our own goal rather than Gibson..no way would that have hit the back of the net.

That is very cruel...

[rock bus 853]

Haven’t seen the highlights yet but was at the game and again Idah showed he just doesn’t have the natural instinct to be a striker. There was the failure to get the cross when he slid in which I presume is being talked about above. But also another occasion where a great ball came across to the back post. It would have been a harder chance and Idah May not have reached the ball but he should’ve at least thrown his body at it. Any kind of contact and he might have scored but instead he use stood motionless and watched it go out of play. It really looked like he just couldn’t be bothered. I don’t think that is the case but he clearly doesn’t have the passion or determination to make the best of what attributes he does have.

the longer we preserve with him the lower down the league we will go. Hwang may be no better but I’d still play him ahead of Idah. But I’d also pick Rowe, Placheta or Fassnacht up top ahead of Idah (hell after yesterdays goal I’d even prefer Gibson!)