James Collins

[Srg]

1 minute ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

I do.

Even if at times i don't agree with what he says, he is still a valued member of this forum and I'd rather read his posts all day than someone's who is willing to attack another poster.

 

I may not agree with @RoyMac5’s undying love for Chris Martin, but I’d still rather have them than another Oldben nonsense. 

[RoyMac5]

8 minutes ago, Srg said:

I may not agree with @RoyMac5’s undying love for Chris Martin, but I’d still rather have them than another Oldben nonsense. 

Lol. I'm still trying to figure out if OldBen is real or AI. 😄

[tomsdubs]

He looks sharper than last season, fancy to score a decent amount this season. Ward's crosses providing some serious ammunition.

[Tamworthram]

37 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Lol. I'm still trying to figure out if OldBen is real or AI. 😄

A possibly but probably not I. 😀

[Ram1988]

Collo is banging them in throughout preseason. Hopefully this will be his year!

[DerbyAleMan]

Great finish from Collins, led the line well today, with more quality balls in the box for him, think he could hit 20 plus next season. 

[Guest]

I tend to go easy on Collins because he works so hard, but if ever there was a living huffing-and-puffing manifestation of "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", it would have to be him. 

When is he going to learn to stop giving away stupid free-kicks by charging in on defenders who are already under pressure? Has no-one mentioned this to him or does he just forget literally every time?

That isn't the end of what I thought was a poor performance by him yesterday but I'll vent what's left of my spleen on the player ratings thread in a moment.

[valakari]

He really is a poor player...poor touch, poor finisher...no class

[valakari]

On 21/07/2023 at 00:49, The_Sheriff said:

Runs his socks off unlike martin who is far too lazy for warnes style of play.  

If only Warne realised that Chris Martin would actually suit his style of play...better in the air to get on the end of crosses, better technically to hold the ball and deliver passes., better at gaining free kicks..rather than giving them away...in general, just a much,much better player..and still available on a free..

[TomTom92]

4 minutes ago, valakari said:

If only Warne realised that Chris Martin would actually suit his style of play...better in the air to get on the end of crosses, better technically to hold the ball and deliver passes., better at gaining free kicks..rather than giving them away...in general, just a much,much better player..and still available on a free..

Signed for Bristol Rovers.

[Archied]

26 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Signed for Bristol Rovers.

Ah that explains why there isn’t a multitude of posts from him on here after the Notts county game , and here was me thinking it was because we won 😂

[angieram]

Did he get any free kicks last night? 

 

[MadAmster]

Some fans really are desperate to prove their point. Over on FB, a chap posted a couple of seconds of video from last night to "prove" how crap Collo is. In the video, he's central inside the 6 yard box and the pass goes behind him, he manages to reach back with his left foot but, obviously, can't get it on target. This is proof, said the poster, of how crap Collo is. 

Half a second later the ball is in the air around the right hand post, gets nodded back across goal by, possibly, Bird (?), Collo executes a decent overhead kick, keeper sticks out a hand and knocks it away... straight to Sibs' left foot and he gets his, and our, 2nd of the night.

How the bloke took no more from what happened than "Collo is crap" is a total mystery.

Do I think Collo works hard, does his defensive duties well and has a great work rate? Yes.

Do I think his control could be better, he should foul less, jump more often for high balls and spend more time in the opposition box than he does? Yes.

Do I think he's possibly the best player we currently have for the wat PW wants us to play? Yes.

He's not Coldplay. He doesn't have the hold up game CM has. He does have the likes of NML, Bird, Barks, Sibs who could do the "running on to the ball" that the likes of Hughes, Hendrick and Bryson did when playing together with CM. Unfortunately Collo isn't a CM playalike. Of the #9s we have, I think he's better in the role, as required by PW, than Wash or Waggy. I've not seen enough of Dajaune Brown to make a call on him.

Does Collo frustrate? Yes. However, IMO, and some will disagree and that's fine, he's the best we have for the role PW wants his #9 to play.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, MadAmster said:

Some fans really are desperate to prove their point. Over on FB, a chap posted a couple of seconds of video from last night to "prove" how crap Collo is. In the video, he's central inside the 6 yard box and the pass goes behind him, he manages to reach back with his left foot but, obviously, can't get it on target. This is proof, said the poster, of how crap Collo is. 

Half a second later the ball is in the air around the right hand post, gets nodded back across goal by, possibly, Bird (?), Collo executes a decent overhead kick, keeper sticks out a hand and knocks it away... straight to Sibs' left foot and he gets his, and our, 2nd of the night.

How the bloke took no more from what happened than "Collo is crap" is a total mystery.

Do I think Collo works hard, does his defensive duties well and has a great work rate? Yes.

Do I think his control could be better, he should foul less, jump more often for high balls and spend more time in the opposition box than he does? Yes.

Do I think he's possibly the best player we currently have for the wat PW wants us to play? Yes.

He's not Coldplay. He doesn't have the hold up game CM has. He does have the likes of NML, Bird, Barks, Sibs who could do the "running on to the ball" that the likes of Hughes, Hendrick and Bryson did when playing together with CM. Unfortunately Collo isn't a CM playalike. Of the #9s we have, I think he's better in the role, as required by PW, than Wash or Waggy. I've not seen enough of Dajaune Brown to make a call on him.

Does Collo frustrate? Yes. However, IMO, and some will disagree and that's fine, he's the best we have for the role PW wants his #9 to play.

I echo all of your points above. I've said elsewhere that if we ever put him up for sale, other (good) teams in our league will be interested, because he has a lot of good qualities, especially at this level.

Now, how do we stop him from giving away silly free-kicks in every game he plays? That's enough to shut me up. It's been going on too long and I can't understand why he keeps doing it.

[YorkshireRam]

While Collins scores goals, most criticism is sort of nullified. 5 in 11 so far, averaging 1 every 138 mins is good going. He might not be the most technically gifted, but he's delivering the main objective of a striker at the moment, and I'm not huge on bashing a player, signed in the circumstances he was, when he IS scoring... 

[Gerry Daly]

Luckily he is one of those who’s big contract runs out at the end of this season

[I am Ram]

He was unlucky not to score the overhead kick.

[Srg]

He was dropped for a large portion of last season because he wasn't good enough. That alone makes me wonder why Warne suddenly thought he would be good enough this year. 

We are no where near good enough in the other attacking areas to carry Collins doing what he does, and even if we were, a different striker to Collins would still give us a better return.

There's a hard ceiling on this team while we have to rely on him to play most games and score the bulk of our goals. Just hope we're in reach in January and we can replace.

[TINMANTED]

nobody can question collins effort and work rate,but,as some sugest on here,for collins to score 20 goals this season,it would mean he has missed 60/70 clear cut chances a half decent striker would score.i would sooner have a clinical striker who ambles about over a worker with little ability in putting them away

[Ian Buxton's Bat]

50 minutes ago, jameso said:

I echo all of your points above. I've said elsewhere that if we ever put him up for sale, other (good) teams in our league will be interested, because he has a lot of good qualities, especially at this level.

Now, how do we stop him from giving away silly free-kicks in every game he plays? That's enough to shut me up. It's been going on too long and I can't understand why he keeps doing it.

There's a fine line between letting defenders know you are there and silly free kicks.

I think a lot of this comes down to what they refer to in rugby as the ref 'seeing a picture' i.e. they decide early on in the game who they are going to award free-kicks to in 50/50 battle situations (penalties in rugby) and then pretty much always give things one way.

I agree with you and the previous poster re Collins' positive attributes but one area where he could improve is by keeping the aggression in the challenges but being less gobby, less arm-wavy and sulky when a free kick is given against him.

It sometimes seems to me that big, ugly hard defenders (who look like butter wouldn't melt...) get the refs on their side early doors and Collins is then up against it.

A lot of the refs we have are pretty rubbish but, if I were them, I'd be tempted to give 50/50s in the direction of the player not giving me lip. The quiet "think you got that wrong ref" approach by Fozzy or Hourihane probably is more effective.