The need for a goalscorer

[IslandExile]

All teams need a goalscorer. No sugar Sherlock. Ok but hear me out...

@RoyMac5 pointed out on one or more threads that not keeping or replacing CM in the summer window was a fatal mistake.

I agree though we disagree why that happened. Roy will just say it's Cocu's incompetence; I'd argue that it was circumstances: Mel tightening the purse strings, Covid, the transfer embargo etc.

The lack of goals wasn't helped by our most creative players being injured at the start of the season.

Yet, I think we saw an example of how Cocu - and me - would like us to play in the game against those in red from down the road.

Waghorn, Joswiak and Lawrence as a mobile, interchanging, high pressing forward three. It was working well until the returning Waghorn and Lawrence tired towards the end of the game.

I hoped we would continue to play like that. But when Rooney returned from his isolation, Joswiak was dropped in order to accommodate him and the exciting promise of that evening evaporated.

I would still like us to play that way. Even so, none of those three are natural goalscorers. We need to add one to the mix.

I did have high hopes for Marriott but that doesn't appear to have materialised.

Maybe it can be Stretton or Duncan in the future. For one reason or another, fitness in Duncan's case, it's possibly too soon to burden them with the responsibility.

So, we will look to signing Dursan or somebody in January.

In the meantime, it looks highly probable that Cocu will be sacked.

I do not want this to be another Cocu in/out thread but, just to return to @RoyMac5's point, not having a goalscorer could be the fatal mistake that did for him.

Had we scored a few more goals, won a few more points, things would not look anywhere near so bad.

The biggest worry for me about sacking Cocu - and Mel walking - is that we lose that emphasis on growing our own players in the academy.

COYR ?

[BBG83]

3 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

All teams need a goalscorer. No sugar Sherlock. Ok but hear me out...

@RoyMac5 pointed out on one or more threads that not keeping or replacing CM in the summer window was a fatal mistake.

I agree though we disagree why that happened. Roy will just say it's Cocu's incompetence; I'd argue that it was circumstances: Mel tightening the purse strings, Covid, the transfer embargo etc.

The lack of goals wasn't helped by our most creative players being injured at the start of the season.

Yet, I think we saw an example of how Cocu - and me - would like us to play in the game against those in red from down the road.

Waghorn, Joswiak and Lawrence as a mobile, interchanging, high pressing forward three. It was working well until the returning Waghorn and Lawrence tired towards the end of the game.

I hoped we would continue to play like that. But when Rooney returned from his isolation, Joswiak was dropped in order to accommodate him and the exciting promise of that evening evaporated.

I would still like us to play that way. Even so, none of those three are natural goalscorers. We need to add one to the mix.

I did have high hopes for Marriott but that doesn't appear to have materialised.

Maybe it can be Stretton or Duncan in the future. For one reason or another, fitness in Duncan's case, it's possibly too soon to burden them with the responsibility.

So, we will look to signing Dursan or somebody in January.

In the meantime, it looks highly probable that Cocu will be sacked.

I do not want this to be another Cocu in/out thread but, just to return to @RoyMac5's point, not having a goalscorer could be the fatal mistake that did for him.

Had we scored a few more goals, won a few more points, things would not look anywhere near so bad.

The biggest worry for me about sacking Cocu - and Mel walking - is that we lose that emphasis on growing our own players in the academy.

COYR ?

Stick with Cocu and actually give him a fighting chance (i.e. a window with some money). Might surprise everyone.

[Coneheadjohn]

Might sign someone.

[IslandExile]

1 minute ago, Van Cone De Head said:

Might sign someone.

Dursan in January or Sturridge now, as a free agent?

[lagavulinram]

"A" striker?

we should get a brace to be sure.

[Macintosh]

1 minute ago, CocuCrazyCocuMad said:

Stick with Cocu and actually give him a fighting chance (i.e. a window with some money). Might surprise everyone.

The targets we were after, like Jozwiak – obviously, Harry Wilson, Dursun, Junker, especially Ferdi Kadioglu, they were names associated solely due to Cocu being here and if money allowed, maybe they would be propelling us up that table. The reason they never did came was down to money, that there was only ever a budget of around £3-4m. Same with Rooney begging Austin to come here, it wasn't for want of trying, all down to no money.

[RIMBAUD]

Remember the heady days when we had Tom Ince and scoring goals was all he did?

 

We still weren’t happy. 
 

Yes we need a decent striker. We haven’t got one. 

[Coneheadjohn]

7 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Dursan in January or Sturridge now, as a free agent?

No comment.

[Wolfie]

18 minutes ago, RIMBAUD said:

Remember the heady days when we had Tom Ince and scoring goals was all he did?

 

We still weren’t happy. 
 

Yes we need a decent striker. We haven’t got one. 

Neither was he. Face like a smacked arse most of the time. Boooooo

[Jimbo Ram]

26 minutes ago, RIMBAUD said:

Remember the heady days when we had Tom Ince and scoring goals was all he did?

 

We still weren’t happy. 
 

Yes we need a decent striker. We haven’t got one. 

and all the assists don't forget......

[ramboy63]

Its our recruitment thats a concern spent to much over the last few years on bang average players,then when we had chance to sign Ollie Watkins for less than 2 Million he was seen not to be good enough and not worth taking the risk

[Millenniumram]

It was a blindingly obvious problem for the outset really. I know there’s those posters who will defend Mel / the recruitment team to the hilt, but surely even they will admit we’ve made a fatal error here. We lost our best striker in Chris Martin, and our only real senior cover in Jack Marriott, and somehow contrived to only replace both of them with Colin Kazim-Richards. I mean ffs. We almost deserve relegation for that level of incompetency. And it’s exactly what’s going to head our way if we’re not careful.

We needed a new striker even before Martin and Marriott left imo, so to still not get a new first choice after all that is ridiculous imo. Especially when we made signings like Ibe who we didn’t need as much. We didn’t have our priorities in order over the summer, so it’s no wonder we’re struggling to score goals / win games at the moment. And that isn’t all Cocu’s fault. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think he’s doing an absolutely atrocious job at the moment, so bad that you could probably pull a random bloke off the street and he’d do a better job. The squad isn’t relegation quality.

But equally, it isn’t the top 6 quality Cocu has been promised from the start either. Without the new striker, it’s probably bottom half quality, worse than last season. It’s unacceptable how we’ve regressed as a club these past couple of years imo, and I just hope the new owners can turn things around. We’re a sinking ship at the moment, and relegation is inevitable if we continue down the path of the last couple of years, whether it’s this season or next. 

If we do get relegated, the short term blame will naturally fall on Cocu, quite rightly. However, I think the longer term blame lies, as we’ve all said for years, on the poor recruitment. Pretty much every season our squad gets worse and worse. It’s no wonder we’ve plummeted down the league. It’s been shocking for years, and it still doesn’t appear to have changed.

[RoyMac5]

12 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

We needed a new striker even before Martin and Marriott left imo, so to still not get a new first choice after all that is ridiculous imo.

I agree. Not that both left but there was no incoming bar Colin. I find that stunning and impossible to understand. Who did they put forward and who said yes or no to whom? 1000s Rosenior said!

[EraniosSocks]

Still bemuses me, that JHI did not get a fair crack 

[BramcoteRam84]

The way we have been playing recently you could stick Watkins in this team and he would only marginally improve us. What’s the point having a striker who is going to be isolated due to how we’ve been playing.

Back end of last season when we lost games with Chris Martin in the team, he barely touched the ball and didn’t affect games. Not a criticism of Chrissy, he was isolated and had no players around him.

signing a no 9 would improve us yes but it won’t solve our problems alone. 

[Dimmu]

Steve Bruce once said that a team can be only as good as their best striker is. I'm bound to agree.

[Rampage]

2 minutes ago, Dimmu said:

Steve Bruce once said that a team can be only as good as their best striker is. I'm bound to agree.

Let us see what I've can do as CF. Cannot do worse probably.

[Tyler Durden]

Fatal mistake sounds terminal - have you already written us off as relegation fodder. 

[Yani P]

Our recruitment team has been dire for a good while..the odd gem but plenty of bottom of the shoe material.. 

[IslandExile]

4 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Fatal mistake sounds terminal - have you already written us off as relegation fodder. 

Not at all. I am confident we will not be relegated.

However, I do think it may be fatal for Cocu, in terms of him losing his job with the impatience over the club's current plight.

Whether that happens or not, we do need a goalscorer in January, be that Dursan, a rejuvenated Marriott, a fully fit Duncan.

I would emphasise again, I would like us to play three up front, mobile, interchanging positions, as we did in the most part against Forest.