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KeelansGlove

With an extra striker automatic promotion is in our hands

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I think we have enough to be almost certain of the play offs just need Burnley Leeds or Forest to lose a couple but personally I think we will struggle to keep up with Swansea and Cardiff I wouldn''t want to change the squad in any other way but one proven goalscorer and I think we can get it.

We will not get a better chance than this and I think we need to splash out (not to mention that if we tie up a deal for a loan/permanent in the summer deal and do go up we may be saving ourselves money)

If Shane Long is out of contract in the summer he would be a goods shout. Although Reading are still probably one defeat away from giving up on the play offs.

Craig Mackail-Smith is the one Striker Posh have never let go but dealings between the two clubs have been generally succesful.

David Nugent beat us single handedly and is a player you can only love if he plays for you. Pompey are skint and going nowhere.

Danny Graham Watford are skint and going nowhere.

Steve Morison is fit again at Millwall and similarly they are going nowhere.

Nicky Maynard we will see on Monday night I think Bristol city are just about clear of trouble in mid table.

Leroy Lita , Billy Sharp or Ched Evans would also do the job although Middlesborough , Doncaster and Sheffield United are more concerned with staying up than cash.

I think in all likelyhood all these players could have a go at the Prem if we got there and certainly could provide the extra few goals to push us over the line.

Big Chunk of change for Loan with agreed transfer fee at the end of the season if we make it.

Who do you think we need to get there ?

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[quote user="KeelansGlove"]I think we have enough to be almost certain of the play offs just need Burnley Leeds or Forest to lose a couple but personally I think we will struggle to keep up with Swansea and Cardiff I wouldn''t want to change the squad in any other way but one proven goalscorer and I think we can get it. We will not get a better chance than this and I think we need to splash out (not to mention that if we tie up a deal for a loan/permanent in the summer deal and do go up we may be saving ourselves money)  ?[/quote]

Well thought out post with suggestions. [:)]

I agree that we need just one more player to suppliment the squad and also agree that we won''t get a better chance than this.

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Yes.

Yes.

Perhaps we all already answered in the 75 other "We need a striker in on loan" threads lol.

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[quote user="Mike "]Yawn....[/quote]

Yes I know we''ve talked about getting a loanee striker in before but there''s nothing on the front page now and the opening poster may not have known its been discussed before so at least he''s trying to get a conversation going and out some thought into it.

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Two points.

 

1. We are amongst the top scorers in the division (only Leeds in the top six have scored more goals than us) so goals scored doesn''t really seem to be a problem for us. We have a proven striker who will in all likelihood score 20+ league goals this season who is well supported by a midfield that already contains one player who is into double figures in league goals (Wes) with another who has eight (Crofts). Would those two still be able to contribute as many goals if we brought in an out and out striker to play alongside Grant Holt? Would they provide the effective ''out ball'' that Wilbraham does which clearly eases pressure on our defence? Would this lead to Crofts and Wes having to be given more defensive responsibility?

 

It is far too simplistic to look at the goals scored by another striker, bolt those on to our own tally and decide that it will guarantee promotion. You have to take into account the overall effect on the team and the system and style which has served us so well to date.

 

2. Are some of the strikers you have named really going to be allowed to move to us on loan with a view to a permanent move at this stage of the season? For the clubs who own these players it would be tantamount to admitting they had given up on their season. I can''t see the fans of these clubs being too happy can you? If we do end up bringing in a striker on loan it will more likely be a Premiership reserve who we have no chance of signing in the summer or a young lower league player who has it all to prove at this level. Are either of those two worth the risk?

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Problem is I don''t think there is the remotest of chance that we would get any of the players you have mentioned - if there was a chance then great but a deal would most likely have been done by now. None of the teams would want to let them players go and I don''t think any of them are so desperate for cash that they can''t wait until the summer.

Our only real chance is to find a proven goal scorer sat on a Premiership bench every week. But even those are hard to bring in unless you go for a promising youngster who is yet to be proven.

Even the lower league teams are not going to let go of what would most likely be their star player at this time of the year.

I''m sure if he could, Lambert would be bringing in a quality striker, but I doubt it is going to happen. But anyway, we still might just do it with the players we have. Perhaps Chrissy will come back from injury refreshed and put a few away?

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I agree they may be long shots but as each game goes by other teams have less to play for and if Long was out of contract in the summer a hefty loan fee with transfer thereafter may appeal.

Similarly Watford and Portsmouths financial troubles are well documented and they will not make the playoffs if they are able to start planning for next season already it may be positive for all concerned, its certainly not unusual for clubs to start blooding players in games toward the end of the season when they have little left to play for.

I cant imagine there are too many 5th choice strikers in the premiership who would do a job but I would be interested if anyone has any names but I dont think now is the time for players without first team experience.

I have a nagging feeling we will come up short with this squad and I am not convinced with our cup tie form that we would have a good chance in the play offs.

I know there have been other threads on this but there wasn''t one on the front page and the situation changes as each game is played

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[quote user="Shack Attack"]

Two points.

 

1. We are amongst the top scorers in the division (only Leeds in the top six have scored more goals than us) so goals scored doesn''t really seem to be a problem for us. We have a proven striker who will in all likelihood score 20+ league goals this season who is well supported by a midfield that already contains one player who is into double figures in league goals (Wes) with another who has eight (Crofts). Would those two still be able to contribute as many goals if we brought in an out and out striker to play alongside Grant Holt? Would they provide the effective ''out ball'' that Wilbraham does which clearly eases pressure on our defence? Would this lead to Crofts and Wes having to be given more defensive responsibility?

 

It is far too simplistic to look at the goals scored by another striker, bolt those on to our own tally and decide that it will guarantee promotion. You have to take into account the overall effect on the team and the system and style which has served us so well to date.

 

2. Are some of the strikers you have named really going to be allowed to move to us on loan with a view to a permanent move at this stage of the season? For the clubs who own these players it would be tantamount to admitting they had given up on their season. I can''t see the fans of these clubs being too happy can you? If we do end up bringing in a striker on loan it will more likely be a Premiership reserve who we have no chance of signing in the summer or a young lower league player who has it all to prove at this level. Are either of those two worth the risk?

[/quote]

This about sums it up for me - particularly the first paragraph.

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Great points Shack''s. I was adamant over January that we bring in another striker like last year, to just push the team on that little bit more, however, in the games since then we haven''t needed one. If Wheelie can use the goal at Leicester as a boost to form then hopefully he will chip in.

The issue as Shack pointed out is our inability to keep a clean sheet - something we have to look to rectify in the last ten games. 

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Agreed, but as has been mentioned before - that may well be due to the way we play and not down to our defence or defenders. Look at Leeds, the only team to score more than us, look at the amount they concede. If you have attacking players and try to "go for it" during games, it is inevitable that you will leave yourself more open.

It''s a fine balance. You just hope that either

a) your defenders/keeper and defensive midfielders have blinders or

b) your strikers/attacking midfielders have blinders and score more goals than you concede.

But i''d rather play this way than shut up shop, play tentatively and then go route one to try and score an ugly goal and win 1-0.

Wes is on fire at the moment, Holty is showing no signs of easing up, Crofts rises to the occasion when others are not doing so, Foxy is looking like a much more rounded player and playing very well, Albi may well be stepping up to the plate now, R Martin and Tierney seem to be raising their game, Ruddy is becoming a bit of a superstar in the goals and Ward and Whitbread are starting to show the "us against the world" mentality that centre halves need. If we play to our full potential, or even half of our players do, every game we have a better chance than the teams with 2 or 3 superstars in their team, or players with a reputation but little drive.

We have a great chance - bring on the next 10 games. OTBC

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This is all a Yawn now, we don''t need a striker. We are joint second with the squad we have.. Getting a new face in will only upset the apple cart

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Why are you worried about keeping up with Swansea and Cardiff? they should be worried about us, we are a very hard team to beat,we haven''t lost two games on the trott under Lambert, its about the team work rate!! not one striker!!

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I dont think so, we certainly dont carry the threat that say Leeds, Cardiff or Forest do going forward although in many ways I think we have the best "team"

With the excepton of the scum we have never looked like giving anyone a hiding which is one reason our goal difference is poorer than most of the top 6.

With another decent striker we would have undoubtably beaten Preston and Doncaster , I just dont think its worth the gamble on 90 Million and potentially losing players and a manager in the summer for the sake of 1 player.

Im glad everyone is so positive and I hope you are right I just dont think we will make it and dont fancy the playoffs

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[quote user="KeelansGlove"]I dont think so, we certainly dont carry the threat that say Leeds, Cardiff or Forest do going forward although in many ways I think we have the best "team" With the excepton of the scum we have never looked like giving anyone a hiding which is one reason our goal difference is poorer than most of the top 6. With another decent striker we would have undoubtably beaten Preston and Doncaster , I just dont think its worth the gamble on 90 Million and potentially losing players and a manager in the summer for the sake of 1 player. Im glad everyone is so positive and I hope you are right I just dont think we will make it and dont fancy the playoffs[/quote]

We looked like giving Reading a hiding until Harte screamed murder

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But to get 3pts all you need to do is score one more than the opposition, as nice as it would be, we don''t need to give them a hiding. The only team I want to see us thrash, was done with a convincing 4-1 win.

In relation to Preston have you seen their results of late? Since Phil Brown came in they''ve improved dramtically. Also, surely spending 2mil on a loan (being that these players you''ve named are certainly not guaranteed to move to us) is a huge gamble considering our finances?

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Im certainly not suggesting we spend 2 Million on a loan but if we spent 500K+ with this being part of the agreed purchase price in the summer some of these players may be within our grasp.

I trust Lamberts judgement and as we know he has been trying to get another striker.

I would rate our chances of top 2 currently around 30% if I could be sure we would still have all our players and manager and play as well next season I would not be concerned if we did not get promoted.

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[quote user="KeelansGlove"]I dont think so, we certainly dont carry the threat that say Leeds, Cardiff or Forest do going forward although in many ways I think we have the best "team" [/quote]

 

We''ve scored more goals than Cardiff or Forest [:O][;)]

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Goal difference certainly sorts the men out from the boys. QPR are out on their own in this respect with a GD of +35 and I think they''re nailed on to win the league. But after that there''s nothing in it. Swansea come next with a GD of +17 then it''s Forest and Cardiff with +14 followed by us on +13 and Leeds on +11. So as you can see had we not conceded that late free kick on Tuesday only Swansea of the chasing pack would have a better GD. I was quite surprised when Neil Adams said that goal didn''t matter because in such a tight league GD could well have a part to play at the end of the season.

 

Suggestions that we don''t score enough goals or have a poor GD are so wide of the mark. Only Leeds in the top six have scored more than us and they have the worst GD. Sometimes I really do think some folk believe that goals scored by midfield and defence are not worth the same as those scored by strikers like others seem to believe points won away from home are worth less than those won at home. As the weeks go by I believe more and more we have a chance of second and look nailed on for the play-offs. This has been achieved by a real team effort and any signings would have to fit in with that to be of any help at this stage.

 

 

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I agree with most of what has been said on here and of course like everybody else I hold a high opinion of Lambert too. However, that doesn''t mean his judgement is always perfect and his signings of Wilbraham, Jackson and MacNamee are IMO far from being the best or even shrewd. Of course, I realise that in saying that I invite the sort of instant facetiousness that Keelan''s Glove ''s very reasonable post did earlier in this thread but I really couldn''t give a fig. My concern is this : when the game is ebbing away and we need to throw on players who can clinch three points for us (never mind enhance our goal difference) who have we got on the bench apart from non-impact subs such as Jackson and Wheelie - yes, I know he scored the other night and I hope he scores loads more and shows what a shrewd signing he turned out to be .......but the facts speak for themselves, neither Jackson nor Wilbraham are fit for purpose - that''s not to say they won''t be in the future but right now we need a striker who can make that difference, who does have an eye for goal and whose arrival at the club will give us that turbo charged boost to talk us across the line in the final ten matches of the season and a fecking great pot of £90M gold at the end of the rainbow. Personally, I think that Lambert does recognise this and I still believe he will come up with a trump card.

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I agree with most of what has been said on here and of course like everybody else I hold a high opinion of Lambert too. However, that doesn''t mean his judgement is always perfect and his signings of Wilbraham, Jackson and MacNamee are IMO far from being the best or even shrewd. Of course, I realise that in saying that I invite the sort of instant facetiousness that Keelan''s Glove ''s very reasonable post did earlier in this thread but I really couldn''t give a fig. My concern is this : when the game is ebbing away and we need to throw on players who can clinch three points for us (never mind enhance our goal difference) who have we got on the bench apart from non-impact subs such as Jackson and Wheelie - yes, I know he scored the other night and I hope he scores loads more and shows what a shrewd signing he turned out to be .......but the facts speak for themselves, neither Jackson nor Wilbraham are fit for purpose - that''s not to say they won''t be in the future but right now we need a striker who can make that difference, who does have an eye for goal and whose arrival at the club will give us that turbo charged boost to take us across the line in the final ten matches of the season and a fecking great pot of £90M gold at the end of the rainbow. Personally, I think that Lambert does recognise this and I still believe he will come up with a trump card.

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Could you imagine missing out on automatic promotion on goal difference, would be a bitter pill to swallow and how would that affect the players to then have the lottery of the playoffs to deal with?

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Its weird to look at the stats because to me it doesnt feel that we have won many games comfortably and only against Ipswich did we score at will but we are keeping with the moneybags striker brigade in terms of goals scored and goal difference.

Just imagine how many goals Crofts might score if he were played further forward in more games (if only there were 2 Andrew Crofts !)

The team comes into its own away from home or against teams that want to win , we have struggled to find a way through teams set up to defend especially at carrow road, maybe I am being over cautious and we will storm through and win the title, having 2 strikers capable of regularly scoring would surely see us through

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how many posts is this now about a loan striker. its getting boring let me guess"kevin phillips it is we need" yawn or some one more like " yakubu" yawn cant we just get behind the squad weve got for the final stage of the season PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[quote user="Al Catraz"]I agree with most of what has been said on here and of course like everybody else I hold a high opinion of Lambert too. However, that doesn''t mean his judgement is always perfect and his signings of Wilbraham, Jackson and MacNamee are IMO far from being the best or even shrewd. Of course, I realise that in saying that I invite the sort of instant facetiousness that Keelan''s Glove ''s very reasonable post did earlier in this thread but I really couldn''t give a fig. My concern is this : when the game is ebbing away and we need to throw on players who can clinch three points for us (never mind enhance our goal difference) who have we got on the bench apart from non-impact subs such as Jackson and Wheelie - yes, I know he scored the other night and I hope he scores loads more and shows what a shrewd signing he turned out to be .......but the facts speak for themselves, neither Jackson nor Wilbraham are fit for purpose - that''s not to say they won''t be in the future but right now we need a striker who can make that difference, who does have an eye for goal and whose arrival at the club will give us that turbo charged boost to take us across the line in the final ten matches of the season and a fecking great pot of £90M gold at the end of the rainbow. Personally, I think that Lambert does recognise this and I still believe he will come up with a trump card.[/quote]

You get it, I get and Lambert gets it otherwise why would he bother trying to sign another striker?  Its called the big picture, if we signed anyone of the good suggestions mentioned are people really going to moan because I sometimes wonder.  How can some fans seriously argue that it might not be a good thing, unsettle the team spirt, take time to gel and get upto speed well thats just aload of crock.  Anybody who''s played the game will tell if your in a team doing well with a real chance of winning something that you get another quality player joining your squad that can give you just that little bit extra they wouldnt be welcomed with open arms?  What do think the rest of the Norwich squad said when we signed Huckerby and Crouch, oh no dont want them in our team!  We want options, we need options, we have 10 games to go to get to the land of milk and honey lets get behind the team all the way but please stop trying to argue that a quality striker could be a bad thing.  Yes its getting boring yes its doing my head in but for very different reasons.

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