Striker or Target man?

[Syteanric 1]

we all know we need a striker but should we go for a big target man type.... many people on here say that we need a big man up front.. i disagree, a big player encourages long ball football, the players get into this mindset and  when the big man is out of the side still resort to the long ball.

Also, we have tried playing this way for a number of seasons now and it hasnt really worked. Look back at the promotion season and with the likes of Hucks, Svensson and McKenzie up front we passed the ball around, mixed it up and scored goals for fun.

 Succesful sides today in a large number of cases, do not rely on a target man... Barca have Etoo, Messi, Henry and Ronaldinho, Manchester utd have Rooney and Tevez.

Whilst of course we arent as good as these sides the underlying factor is clear, successful sides in the game today are built around flowing football and the ability to use a ball, get wide and then get Crosses in.. rather than smacking it 60 yards for someone to flick on....

 Its clear we need a striker but should we get a smaller player in thus forcing the team to pass the ball, break opposition down and tire them out.. or do we rely on a more physical game and risk getting the ball straight back from the centerbacks?

jas :)

[NCFC_Shaun 0]

nope we need a pacey striker...

[Graham Humphrey 13]

I think we need both, really. None of our strikeforce are up to scratch so in an ideal world we would get a target man and someone to play off him.

[ZLF 335]

Priority has to be someone who can put the ball in the back of the net.   The defence is tighter and the midfield now creating chances but we dont have a striker who can finish worthy of the name;   if we did we would e further up the league having won more games.

Ideally we need a tall pacy goal scorer;  but in the absence of that Rowan Vine would seem perfect to me.

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Priority has to be someone who can put the ball in the back of the net.   The defence is tighter and the midfield now creating chances but we dont have a striker who can finish worthy of the name;   if we did we would e further up the league having won more games.

Ideally we need a tall pacy goal scorer;  but in the absence of that Rowan Vine would seem perfect to me.

[/quote]

By all accounts Rowan Vine will be a QPR player fairly soon:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/7170356.stm

[Salopian 1]

If the targetman is also quick and scores enough goals (say 15 a season, or 1 in 3) fair enough. Certainly Iwelumo scored a fair number for Colchester as Curo was banging in 25. If the targetman scores say 8 a season, then there is tremendous pressure on the one(s) to feed from him.The problem in having a targetman  is that it tends to promote route one football, and hoofing hopefully. It can be effective if muscular enough, but is that what we want?At the moment our so-called strikers are missing relatively easy chances. What we need is a striker who can convert chances, or a high proportion of them. Curo seems to have lost this ability, at least for the moment, even Dion misses a few, Martin seems too slow, and Ched, if he returns, is not the most prolific at the moment.The fact that we are not managing more than one a match is worrying, but we are at least creating very good chances even in the match when we played not very well on Saturday. We could, and should, have been at least 2-0 at the interval. If our strikers were at the top of their game it could have been 3-0 or even 4-0 at the end. Our misses let Bury into the game after a nervy start. We can''t continue like this, so GR''s prioity has to be to find a proven goal taker, however big he is. Somehow, he has also to help Curo find his touch, or drop him!