Why nobody mentioned Leon ?

[Gentleman Jim 0]

On saturday I thought he was great !

In the second half he was doing a Hucks, taking on opponents getting the ball into the box, scored a great goal, etc etc.

I wonder if we need to spend £5m on the mystery forward in January, we may already have him !

Whilst on the subject, the pass ,that fed him for his goal, from Sven was magnificent, when did we last see a City midfielder deliver one of them ? Perhaps Sven is a midfielder and he don''t know it !

Perhaps we should concentrate on spending available "striker money" on such a midfielder in January, and maybe bring out the best in our current strikers. 

Sorry if this topic has been discussed already, been out for the day and came home to find lots of new posts, great, never seen so many but haven''t read them all yet.

 

[blacko 0]

I have been on record for a long time saying what you did about Leon, give him time and he will be a star. Before anyone says we have no time I mean in the short term he will do a good job for us (as he already is) but in the longer term he will be a star.

Cunning plan about Svensson in midfield though, might be worth a try.

I do think it will come good though, as long as the team don''t get despondant. They are working their socks off and if they think that they are doing everything they can and getting little, they may lose enthusiasm. Thats where we come in, we need to keep their peckers up and support them. I shall be there on Wednesday doing that again. Hopefully there will be a good turnout. We need to avoid the boos, like at halt time on Sat., we were losing to the team in third place, when all is said and done. I know we were not playing as well as we can, but I am very much in the camp of encouragement rather than criticism. Knocking the team reduces their confidence, in my opinion, making them more nervous. Not rocket science. Difficult, I know, to maintain lots of enthusiasm when the team are not performing, but I think we have to, to try and help.

 

[a1canary 0]

I agree GJ, Sven has a great knack for playing in his fellow striker partner down the channels from midfield or final final area (unless it''s hux who will invariably be out on the left wing!), and Leon thrives on those balls. I''ve thought Sven and Leon have looked our best striking partnership since the day i saw their double debut together at you know where.

But those balls he plays are because of the way he plays, just off his partner, rather than because of any hidded talents as a midfielder! What with Bentley, Safri, Francis, Holt, Jonson, McVeigh, Mulryne etc I think we have plenty of options in midfield to ponder before we start thinking about buying another!

I am a huge Leon fan and just love the guy''s attitude but lets not forget he was playing for Peterborough this time last year and he needs to learn even faster than he is doing. He missed a couple of seriously presentable opportunities. Not blaming him for that given how far he has come but i think it would be folly to abandon the search for another striker on the basis of his performance on Saturday. The last time we did that was in 1995 when a certain someone said we didn''t need a new striker ''cos Jamie Cureton had just come good as we put three past the binners.

We never won another game after that!

[bilbo b 0]

i think you''re spot on with your remarks about leon. i also thought he had a good game and that all he needed was a run of games before he started scoring. i also think your comment about sven is right too. ive spoken to him on many occasions about his best position, and he says that he likes to play up front but he is more of a goal creator than a scorer, liking to play a little deeper than a usual striker does. (ala dennis begkamp)

[Tacklebury 0]

I thought Leon deserved man of the match on Saturday, his work rate and desire to create chances was fantastic. One thing that became apparent on Saturday was that if we''re going to get a successful partnership upfront, we may well need to play three up there. Think about it, with two up front - one of which being Hucks - the other striker is always isolated and consequently easily marked by the opponents'' centre backs. When we played the three on Saturday we had an extra man up front and as a consequence we stretched their defence. It''s time to revert to last season''s formation! Who knows, we could yet make Helveg fit in!!!

[ZLF 276]

Cant disagree with you there - once leon scored his confidence went sky high and his performance improved too. However he still failed to get a chance on target after than and missed the target again in the first half too - so some good points will the same old Leon being visible.I will agree with you on the midfielder as I have been pushing that since we got promoted - although both Bentley and Jonson will improve things longer term we are still missing a touch of class to control the centre for us.OTBC

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

The Guardian did. They made him their ''man of the match''.

I agree. An excellent performance.

Well done Leon. With a bit of luck you will make it in the Premiership. Just keep on doing what you''re doing.

Again I agree Jim - we need a top class midfielder more than a striker come January.

OTBC.

 

 

[GenerationA47 763]

G Jim, I thought he was great too, the only problem being that once he''d scored that lovely goal, he thought he was even greater - his self-confidence started to exceed his ability and he wasted some good chances for the team on some selfish wayward shooting, as I saw it.  Maybe it was these mixed results that have kept people quietish on the subject?

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

Yeah fair play Jimbo.  Leon did have a stormer.  If he can do that week in week out it''ll be amazing.  Lets just hope he can