City v Cambridge United (a)

[Suffolk Canary]

Of course injuries have plagued him, but I've still felt really disappointed with how Ryan Bennett has progressed so far. He's still relatively young, but by now he was expected to be at least pushing to being a regular starter. 

Obviously it's hard to judge as we dont actually know what these guys are like, but he seems like he's happy being a reserve player. He's never even been linked with a loan to a lower club, which gives the impression he's not bothered about playing regularly. But I guess every team needs to have back-ups 

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Similar to RvW's second goal against Braintree last year  0:43

That was the first thing I thought when i saw the highlights yesterday!

It's almost like he's a 6 yard box player who specialises in poaching goals from balls whipped across the box.....  Maybe next year we'll play Johnson on the right wing so he can float slow, high balls into the box, and then blame Ricky for not scoring  :lol:   :lol:   :lol:

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

The thing is though, his game is scoring tap-ins. That's what he's done his whole career, and it was incredibly successful for him up until his move here. It's also ultimately why he failed here. We had a left footer in Snodgrass playing on the right, and a right footer in Redmond playing on the left, so the service into the box was always going to be floated aerial balls, rather than low, hard, whipped balls in that he thrives on. Nowadays we have Redmond on the right, and Johnson on the left (and Brady looking like he'll join soon enough as well, who's a left footer), which would suit him much more. If he had someone more physical who was prepared to do all the gritty, hard work off the ball, such as Jerome, then I think potentially we may get to see the player we paid £8.5m for.

I hate to say it, because I've wanted us to get rid of him ever since we were relegated, but I think maybe the best thing would be to keep him. I'm sure that if there's anyone who could get the best out of him it's Alex Neil. I'd still want us to bring in another striker though, even if he does stay. 

What would people say to the suggestion that perhaps RvW is similar to Gary Lineker in his game?

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

OK I am lazy, so this is what I put on the other site.......

The 'other site'? Whatever do you mean?  

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I've always maintained that RvW can do a good job for us, but only if we provide him with the sort of supply that suits his game

What a slap in the face it would be for Hughton if Alex Neil got Ricky scoring...

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Yet Bennett has left to rot at times whilst the likes of Hooiveld, Cuellar and others got the nod over him.

Yey like Becchio before him though, you have to ask why he has been consistently overlooked by successive managers. I dont really see what he does well, he looks quite strong and has scored a few headers, but dont see anything in his overall game that suggests he'll ever be true Premier League quality imo. 

 

[Gaffer]

In the Premier League RVW is not going to find himself in the box receiving a cross with the opposition defenders a mile away like in a pre-season friendly at Cambridge or Braintree. He looks great against low quality opponents but I see no evidence he could hack it the Premier League, even with better service.

 

[CanaryNath]

How many prem teams play a true 'goal poacher' these days?

The most effective strikers, and therefore the teams that score more goals, have strong, large, powerful strikers, capable of holding the ball up and bringing midfielders/wider players into play.

RVW is not going to do this for us. His playing attributes are about 5-10 years out of date to be effective in the prem.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

In the Premier League RVW is not going to find himself in the box receiving a cross with the opposition defenders a mile away like in a pre-season friendly at Cambridge or Braintree. He looks great against low quality opponents but I see no evidence he could hack it the Premier League, even with better service.

Probably not, but what it perhaps does show is RvW's ability to get in good positions and find space/get away from his marker. Most people commented in the first part of the season before his injury RvW was making runs and trying to find space, only to see Snodgrass finally cross 30 seconds too late when he was effectively marked after having dawdled on the ball in an effort to turn onto his preferred side or just a general lack of awareness, or Redmond shank one into row Z.

With Hughton's famous 'slow build up', RvW's efforts went unnoticed, and by the time we were even contemplating passing to him, having huffed and lethargically wheezed our way into the final third, whilst simultaneously managing the team nosebleed, RvW was crowded out and thoroughly marked.

Teams defended with ease against Hughton's 'attacking' tactics, as they were afforded the time to get back, regroup and organise.

With the team playing the way it has been of late, looking for the forward pass, looking to play people in earlier, and getting people forward to support the striker, RvW could have a lot more joy.

Most strikers who convert chances created for them, rather than those who carve out chances for themselves would have struggled to be a success in Hughtons system.

Feed the Wolf and he will score they used to say.

Well we didnt feed him, plain and simple. His Norwich career was not a catalogue of fluffed chances and missed sitters, it was anonymity. To blame RvW for that is a massive over-simplification.

When we see him failing to convert chances over and over again, for me that will be when we decide he is rubbish. Perhaps the reason so many fans wont give up on him is that same reason. We acknowledge the team failed to create chances for him and we remember the Lambert swashbuckling, where attacking intent saw us become the 6th highest scorers in the division.

We havent been given the opportunity to see what the Wolf allegedly does well, which is why so many of us still wonder if a better manager with a less regressive approach could get him scoring.

If you dont water a prize orchid and it withers and dies, you blame the gardener, not the plant

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

His playing attributes are about 5-10 years out of date to be effective in the prem.

That may well be it in a nutshell - the game (at least in the top leagues) has made this type of striker obsolete. Only the top teams can carry such a player and serve it up on a plate for him. I've always maintained RvW is perhaps somewhat of a luxury player and would probably score a lot of goals for a team like Arsenal, whose midfield would do all the work and his only job would be to pop up in the right place and put it away.

This was never the type of striker we needed to replace Holt and is the single biggest example for me of why Hughton is a poor manager

 

[KeiranShikari]

To be fair to Hughton we did go after a 6 foot 2 powerhouse in Ola Toivonen. Had we gotten him I could see a few things about that season being rather different.

For me the player recruitment of Hughton and the board during his spell in charge was very good. Yeah we missed out on a couple but the squad improved massively.

Hughton's biggest faults imo were his total lack of a plan b and seeming inability to motivate. 

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

seeming inability to motivate. 

Makes you wonder what happened here with Bassong really doesnt it. A player who was very devoted to him, yet despite this slumped in form in his second season. You'd expect someone like Bassong who loved Hughton to be running through walls for him, especially when his job was on the line

 

[Boyerboy]

I think that's the point. Bassong was willing to run through walls for Hughtin. That meant he played when not fir and struggled. He got caught out so often not because he wasn't bothered but because he had injuries and came back too soon.