Who"s up front saturday then?

[Number 9]

Surely not Cameron again? We could have been sitting on a big pile of points if he had put away some of his chances over the past two games.

Mbokani.

Bamford, we won't know until he is tried.

Naismith, still not sure what happened with Naismith on Tuesday.

Lafferty, is he still around, don't think he has gone anywhere yet?

Any others I've missed?

To have so many chances & not score is criminal, especially when the defence are throwing in one or two each game.

 

[GJP]

Maybe we could have 2 upfront for a treat. 

We've played 1 up all season and look where it has got us.

 

[Fimbo]

To be fair I don't think Jerome had many chances against Chelsea. One excellent one that came at a slightly awkward height but he should have netted. A header that was always going to be hard to steer down. A tricky angle for a tap in near the post. But still agree with OP that change might be in order. Mbokani is not ideal - a slightly better finisher but doesn't do enough. Looked static when came on Saturday. And we have seen a few times that mboakni and Jerome don't work together. For me it's time to roll the dice. Bamford to the rescue. With Jerome or Naismith to replace or join him depending on how things work out.

 

[ZLF]

For me the choice is limited to between bamford and jerome.    AN has already said that he doesnt think bamford can do the sole striker bit and the tone of todays conference suggests it will be cj.

lets be honest,   none had a good goal scoring record.  and when mbokani starts we concede more, score less and gain near;y half as many points.    That leaves Bamford,  who is an unknown quantity but probably worth a risk;   that mbokani comes from the bench first probably sums up where he sits in the pecking order.

The other very option for me would be to start naismith up front.   What I wouldnt want is naismith to come in and replace wes,  or shift wes to the left flank,  both would be a negative move for me. 

 

[It's Character Forming]

Maybe we could have 2 upfront for a treat. 

We've played 1 up all season and look where it has got us.

we had 2 up front at Villa away

 

[morty]

Interesting.

Does two up front make us more effective?

If its two I would suspect Jerome and Naismith, which means that Wes would likely make way unfortunately. Which would mean a fluid switch between 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1.

Mbokani is more composed in front of goal, but won't do the tireless work for the team that Jerome will. And lets face it, we need to win this, so it is utterly crucial we don't concede first and give ourselves a mountain to climb again.

Bamford is still, obviously, an unknown quantity at this level.

 

[Number 9]

That'll be the Bamford AN hounded for so long that he agreed to come here, possibly under the extreme disillusionment that he might play some football.

We know Cam runs around alot, does all that hard work, that's why AN loved him, but if he can't worry a cow with a banjo then it puts an awful lot of pressure on the midfield to score.

 

[morty]

That'll be the Bamford AN hounded for so long that he agreed to come here, possibly under the extreme disillusionment that he might play some football.

We know Cam runs around alot, does all that hard work, that's why AN loved him, but if he can't worry a cow with a banjo then it puts an awful lot of pressure on the midfield to score.

Fact is that our team needs Jeromes workrate though. The single striker system only works if the number ten, or anyone in the midfield for that matter, gets himself in the box to support, or score himself. So I wouldn't call the expectation of the midfield to score goals an undue pressure. Howson, Brady and Redmond are more than capable of scoring.

I suspect that we only got Bamford because that was what was available, for the price we were willing to pay.

 

[GJP]

we had 2 up front at Villa away

But we didn't start with Redmond and had Mulumbu in midfield.

 

[It's Character Forming]

But we didn't start with Redmond and had Mulumbu in midfield.

could work with 3 CBs.

lets face it, we need to look after Jerome as Mbokani and Banford are loans.  But Bamford needs some sensible game time as a sub else why bother?

 

[GJP]

This is the thing. Jerome is likely to be a Norwich player next season Champ or Prem. Mbokani isn't.

As for Bamford, he should have come on against West Ham, particularly when it went to 2-2. If he's not here to get us a winning goal then what is he here for?

The striker situation has been a bit of a balls up similar to Hughton's 2nd season.

 

[Dubai Mark]

A lot of people seem to like the way we lined up in the last two matches, and in fairness against two top teams it gave us a chance of a point or more in both games. I personally thought it didnt really work vs Chelsea due to how Chelsea play (and it was changed on 60), but that's just grumpy me I guess. So, maybe AN will stick with it, but with Naismith reinstated in place of Wes as its away and Bassong in too. As for striker's, Naismith could play the Jerome role no doubt in my mind, and then after an hour see how things are going and give Bamford a chance, otherwise what a waste of time signing the boy. 

 

[Number 9]

Laffers plays in the U21 game tonight V MCFC.

I'm not saying he is the answer, but he has tended to score.

 

[It's Character Forming]

I think Laffs problem is that he's a bit of a loose cannon and AN is probably not willing to rely on him.  When I saw him play against Shrewsbury he had to be subbed to avoid getting sent off.

 

[Number 9]

I'll be interested to see how tonight goes

 

[morty]

Nil nil so far, only chance for City was Andreu rattling the crossbar.

 

[Number 9]

Laff scores, 1-1

 

[morty]

***He should start every week*** klaxxon sounds.....

 

[Number 9]

Who would be a manager?

#the hatrick is on

 

[Din]

For me, Jerome is the best of a below par bunch. Whilst his finishing leaves a lot to be desired (which is admittedly probably the most important aspect for a striker), and his 2nd touch is usually a pass, I think in most other areas of his game he is at a Premier League level. His work-rate is exceptional, he has great strength and great pace, is decent in the air, his hold-up play is good, and he also positions himself well in the box. Those are the main reasons he was so good last season.

Mbokani I see more as an impact player. He is probably a better goalscorer overall than Jerome, but the way we play just doesn't suit his style. The jury is still out on Bamford. Though in his, albeit brief, 2 appearances so far, I haven't been remotely impressed with what I've seen. He looks very slow and I don't know if he's actually successfully completed a pass yet. It says a lot really that Palace, who have had worse striker problems than us this season (going into their game against Watford on 13th February their strikers had 1 league goal between them, and that was a penalty from Wickham) were reluctant to play him. In my mind, to be honest, in this new 3-4-3 system, Naismith would be my 2nd choice behind Jerome to play up front.

The problem is despite a couple of new strikers coming and a couple going out, we haven't really made any significant improvements at all on our front line, despite having 2 transfer windows to do it. I for one was always a fan of Gary Hooper's. The fact that he scored 8 goals in our relegation season demonstrates that he is capable of scoring goals at this level, as well as the fact that he scored 12 goals last season even though he only featured in around half of our games, the majority of them off the bench. He was the only natural finisher we had in our squad really, and he's now proving that even further by scoring regularly for Sheffield Wednesday. I'm not saying that he would've solved our striking problems at all, but there would've been no harm at all in giving ourselves the option to have him.