2019-20 Transfer News and Squad Discussions

[Davycc]

Strikers miss chances, that's a given. How many good chances they get is what's important, and where I think we're lacking.

Great point Si, sums it all up in a nutshell.

[Barlow Boy]

Strikers miss chances, that's a given. How many good chances they get is what's important, and where I think we're lacking.

An interesting observation.

I thought I saw something somewhere about the number of chances we created compared to other teams and we were quite high, so you’d expect the goals ratio to improve with it. There is an argument, of course, as to how good those chances were, which is subjective to each individual I suppose. However, Bielsa himself said we were needing more chances to score later in the season than we did than we did at the beginning, so surely that’s down to finishing, which by definition comes down to the strikers (although you make a good point about contributions from elsewhere) I think only Hernández and Klich reached double figures, in addition to Roofe and Bamford.

You obviously know your stuff, and I sincerely hope you are correct about Bamford and Roofe, but I’d be far more comfortable if we had a top striker to go with those two. From memory, Roberts scored 3 or 4, albeit not as a striker, so personally I wouldn’t be relying on him or Wilks for that matter.

[isrodger]

Strikers miss chances, that's a given. How many good chances they get is what's important, and where I think we're lacking.

An interesting observation.

I thought I saw something somewhere about the number of chances we created compared to other teams and we were quite high, so you’d expect the goals ratio to improve with it. There is an argument, of course, as to how good those chances were, which is subjective to each individual I suppose. However, Bielsa himself said we were needing more chances to score later in the season than we did than we did at the beginning, so surely that’s down to finishing, which by definition comes down to the strikers (although you make a good point about contributions from elsewhere) I think only Hernández and Klich reached double figures, in addition to Roofe and Bamford.

You obviously know your stuff, and I sincerely hope you are correct about Bamford and Roofe, but I’d be far more comfortable if we had a top striker to go with those two. From memory, Roberts scored 3 or 4, albeit not as a striker, so personally I wouldn’t be relying on him or Wilks for that matter.

I think it was something like 5 chances per goal at Sheff Utd & Norwich vs 11 for us

[Barlow Boy]

Strikers miss chances, that's a given. How many good chances they get is what's important, and where I think we're lacking.

An interesting observation.

I thought I saw something somewhere about the number of chances we created compared to other teams and we were quite high, so you’d expect the goals ratio to improve with it. There is an argument, of course, as to how good those chances were, which is subjective to each individual I suppose. However, Bielsa himself said we were needing more chances to score later in the season than we did than we did at the beginning, so surely that’s down to finishing, which by definition comes down to the strikers (although you make a good point about contributions from elsewhere) I think only Hernández and Klich reached double figures, in addition to Roofe and Bamford.

You obviously know your stuff, and I sincerely hope you are correct about Bamford and Roofe, but I’d be far more comfortable if we had a top striker to go with those two. From memory, Roberts scored 3 or 4, albeit not as a striker, so personally I wouldn’t be relying on him or Wilks for that matter.

I think it was something like 5 chances per goal at Sheff Utd & Norwich vs 11 for us

Then surely that is down to finishing, the fact is we scored the fewest goals in the leagues top 5 teams, even accounting for injuries that’s not good enough, and must improve if we are to be successful.

[PhoenixUnited]

Strikers miss chances, that's a given. How many good chances they get is what's important, and where I think we're lacking.

Great point Si, sums it all up in a nutshell.

As with other types of players I suppose, Strikers are a funny breed. Stating the obvious, all that counts is the number of times they hit the back of the net. There are those that are poetry in motion with power and grace (liker Tony Yeboah) and there also also those that never seem to score a goal of beauty but it was about quantity more than quality (like Lee Chapman. Right place right time and all that. Chris Wood was probably the last one we had.

For all the dominance that we demonstrated in all the games last season, there were lots of games where the opposing keeper had hardly anything to do. We lacked creativity and guile to make the "good chances" IMHO and we need to spread the goals more throughout the team.

To put that right we need reinforcements not just in the striking department but also in midfield as well as defence and then hope to find the right mix that gels together. Easy for us on the sidelines to shout the odds I suppose but hell (!) that what us fans are meant to do............

[isrodger]

Might sound ridiculous however if we are only operating a short term strategy in the transfer market and signing loans, this summer. Given the quality of loan like Derby and Villa signed would cost £2m to £3m - how about signing Lorente from spurs and paying him £3m for the season.

[Deleted User 728]

Might sound ridiculous however if we are only operating a short term strategy in the transfer market and signing loans, this summer. Given the quality of loan like Derby and Villa signed would cost £2m to £3m - how about signing Lorente from spurs and paying him £3m for the season.

In the AR thread you said early on that "In terms of the loan market, £3m plus a season is a very short term strategy, great when it works but very costly when it doesn’t" and yet now you're suggesting Llorente ?

He'll turn 35 in February and since leaving Juve in 2015 has scored 21 goals in 92 games for Sevilla, Swansea and Spurs combined.

I thought we were looking for a 20+ goals per season striker ??

I'd rather spend the money on a centre-half and give Edmondson some game time ..

[isrodger]

Might sound ridiculous however if we are only operating a short term strategy in the transfer market and signing loans, this summer. Given the quality of loan like Derby and Villa signed would cost £2m to £3m - how about signing Lorente from spurs and paying him £3m for the season.

In the AR thread you said early on that "In terms of the loan market, £3m plus a season is a very short term strategy, great when it works but very costly when it doesn’t" and yet now you're suggesting Llorente ?

He'll turn 35 in February and since leaving Juve in 2015 has scored 21 goals in 92 games for Sevilla, Swansea and Spurs combined.

I thought we were looking for a 20+ goals per season striker ??

I'd rather spend the money on a centre-half and give Edmondson some game time ..

I stand by my initial statement and the words of Cellino- why train (and add value) someone else’s players, with no option to buy. As a result I would be loathed to trade say Clarke to pay for 3 or 4 loans, which I suspect will happen.

That said if the club is wedded to that strategy, I suggested Lorente as the drop in level might see a significant increase in his output back to his best days working with Bielsa.

[SCOTTISH LEEDS]

Villa have let Micah Richards, Albert Adomah, Mile Jedinak, Alan Hutton, Tommy Elphick, Glenn Whelan, Ritchie de Laet and Mark Bunn go.

Would we be interested in Adomah and Elphick as a winger and centre half?

[isrodger]

Villa have let Micah Richards, Albert Adomah, Mile Jedinak, Alan Hutton, Tommy Elphick, Glenn Whelan, Ritchie de Laet and Mark Bunn go.

Would we be interested in Adomah and Elphick as a winger and centre half?

Adomah ... could do a job ... better than Harrison imo.