Bournemouth V Boro 0-0

[edinboro 298]

Until we sort out the supply lines all our strikers will have awful stats. But Connolly seems to struggle with being in the wrong place a lot. Watmore always looks busy. Sprorar can link up well. I don't know what Balogan is good at.

I do know that Coburn scores goals and should be playing. That's the real mystery. The time has gone to manage his minutes. He needs to be starting and given chances to do what he does.

[AnglianRed 3,872]

24 minutes ago, Foxtrot Oscar Colin said:

Whos the worst out of our 5 strikers then just out of interest?

Statistically it is Connolly, if the BBC have it correct...

As I said previously Sporar and Watmore have over twice the number of games under their belts, but Balogun & Coburn have played pretty much the same as Connolly. Coburn even more impressive given he usually comes on as a late sub.

Liking the number of assists for Jonesy. 👍

 

Edited April 16 by AnglianRed

[Foxtrot Oscar Colin 318]

6 minutes ago, ManBearPig said:

But he’s not even getting played into goal scoring chances? I really do think what ever forwards we have, the way we are currently playing would have the same outcome. 

Coburn and Watmore have managed respectable goal contributions per minutes played. Even Crooks is in double figures. We're certainly not the best team in terms of creating chances but we're also good enough that others can contribute well enough. For me this can't be used as an argument. When we put 4 past Peterborough and 3 strikers got in on the act he was still anonymous and only when he went off did we look a real threat mainly due to Watmore because quire simply he's a much better player than Connolly.

[AnglianRed 3,872]

10 minutes ago, ManBearPig said:

But he’s not even getting played into goal scoring chances? I really do think what ever forwards we have, the way we are currently playing would have the same outcome. 

That is a definite issue and one Wilder needs to address in the Summer. I wouldn't argue that any striker would struggle to score with the way we are playing at the moment.

However, it does beg the question of what happened to the games where Sporar, Watmore and Crooks were banging goals in on a regular basis. Something must have been working for us back then, but whatever it was it appears to have stopped working. 🤷‍♂️

 

[ManBearPig 898]

Just now, AnglianRed said:

That is a definite issue and one Wilder needs to address in the Summer. I wouldn't argue that any striker would struggle to score with the way we are playing at the moment.

However, it does beg the question of what happened to the games where Sporar, Watmore and Crooks were banging goals in on a regular basis. Something must have been working for us back then, but whatever it was it appears to have stopped working. 🤷‍♂️

 

I think it stems from the impact of Jones. Early on in the season Jones was left with time and space but now teams double up on him. This stifles our only attacking threat really. 
 

Bola is too inconsistent on the left to constantly supply, and when Crooks has had his dip in form, our midfield contribution is also low down as well.

[Foxtrot Oscar Colin 318]

4 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Statistically it is Connolly, if the BBC have it correct...

As I said previously Sporar and Watmore have over twice the number of games under their belts, but Balogun & Coburn have played pretty much the same as Connolly - Coburn even more impressive given he usually comes on as a late sub.

Liking the number of assists for Jonesy. 👍

 

Yeh definitely Connolly. Then closely followed by sporar considering he's scored 4 or 5 pens so from open play he's atrocious really. Both of them are nowhere near good enough for the championship and the fact they are internationals too is quite staggering. Both have the presence of a paper bag on the pitch.

[Leesider 564]

2 hours ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Can you defend this, @Neverbefore?

 

Perhaps a bigger question is can Chris Wilder defend it.Starting him week after week just defies logic.Maybe it is something in his contract or is it just he can't  admit it was a huge error signing him so persists hoping he comes good. Concerning either way.

 

[Neverbefore 4,197]

I've received this kind of criticism on here over the last year a lot when I supported Spence and tav and when I said warnock was taking us nowhere long before popular opinion turned on him, so youll excuse me for not being too fussed when I receive it again about Connolly. 

[TheJew 1,137]

2 hours ago, Neverbefore said:

But I don't believe that to be the case, so why would I admit it? Why does it matter to you? Are you so insecure about your views that you can't stand someone holding one that's different to you?

Who's worse than him? I'd go to say he's the worst striker in the division.

[Neverbefore 4,197]

58 minutes ago, TheJew said:

Who's worse than him? I'd go to say he's the worst striker in the division.

Yes but you think Marvin Johnson was a good player for us so you have zero ground to stand on 

[White Band 693]

1 hour ago, Neverbefore said:

I've received this kind of criticism on here over the last year a lot when I supported Spence and tav and when I said warnock was taking us nowhere long before popular opinion turned on him, so youll excuse me for not being too fussed when I receive it again about Connolly. 

Connolly's big problem is that the vast majority of our fans were prejudiced against him before he even kicked a ball for us.  None of our strikers are doing well because none of them are getting any service.  Yes, Coburn has come on as a sub and scored (I think he may actually have been assisted by a striker both times) but I think he would struggle with the same lack of service if played from the start and then fans would turn on him as well.  You could put Mitrovic in our current team instead of one of our current strikers, and even he would struggle to score. 

[Blanco 3,095]

11 minutes ago, White Band said:

Connolly's big problem is that the vast majority of our fans were prejudiced against him before he even kicked a ball for us.  None of our strikers are doing well because none of them are getting any service.  Yes, Coburn has come on as a sub and scored (I think he may actually have been assisted by a striker both times) but I think he would struggle with the same lack of service if played from the start and then fans would turn on him as well.  You could put Mitrovic in our current team instead of one of our current strikers, and even he would struggle to score. 

Spot on

[Neverbefore 4,197]

12 minutes ago, Blanco said:

Spot on

Seconded. I think wilder had a January transfer window where he brought in players he knew would work hard in his system and would follow his instructions. That doesn't mean they're the players he thinks will fire us to promotion. January transfer windows are notoriously diffult to deal on, more so when you've only been in the job for a couple of weeks. Same goes for the goalkeeper situation. It's stupid to judge him on either.

[Changing Times 6,999]

1 hour ago, White Band said:

Connolly's big problem is that the vast majority of our fans were prejudiced against him before he even kicked a ball for us.  None of our strikers are doing well because none of them are getting any service.  Yes, Coburn has come on as a sub and scored (I think he may actually have been assisted by a striker both times) but I think he would struggle with the same lack of service if played from the start and then fans would turn on him as well.  You could put Mitrovic in our current team instead of one of our current strikers, and even he would struggle to score. 

Connolly's big problem is that he has been the worst of our strikers whilst playing far more than the rest of them.  That's it, and that's all it is.  He produces nothing, he isn't an especially hard working player like Watmore, he's not skilful, he doesn't create chances for others, he can't win the ball or hold it up, he's not especially quick.  None of that would matter if he could put the ball in the back of the net but he doesn't do that either.

Since Connolly arrived this is the following game time for our strikers in the Championship, from 16 possible games I believe:

Connolly 1112 mins having started 13 games

Balogun 772 mins having started 8 games

Sporar 647 mins having started 7 games

Watmore 478 mins having started 4 games

Coburn is almost pointless but for what it's worth - 84 mins starting none of them.

 

That's the issue, he plays, does nothing, then plays again anyway.  He's only failed to get on the pitch once in a league game since he came.  He started 13, came off the bench twice, and didn't get off the bench once.  The game yesterday completely passed him by.  He wasn't involved at all in any part of it.  He offered nothing, posed no threat, didn't get himself involved at all as those stats doing the rounds show.  He has been credited with two goals this season, neither of which were his goals, otherwise he'd have played over 1000 mins without a goal or assist to his name.  Why people keep trying to defend that is beyond me.  Every other striker we have has scored actual goals in that time, in fewer mins, and some like Watmore and Balogun have a couple of assists as well.  So it isn't just the service otherwise none of them would have any goals over that time just like Connolly.  Do people really think that if he had say half a dozen goals to his name since he arrived that he'd be getting stick cos of whatever he has going on in his private life?  Nobody would give a crap.  

[White Band 693]

38 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

Seconded. I think wilder had a January transfer window where he brought in players he knew would work hard in his system and would follow his instructions. That doesn't mean they're the players he thinks will fire us to promotion. January transfer windows are notoriously diffult to deal on, more so when you've only been in the job for a couple of weeks. Same goes for the goalkeeper situation. It's stupid to judge him on either.

January signings require there to be sufficient funds available (taking the often inflated prices into consideration) and a suitable player who wants to join us.  In the absence of the crazy funds needed to sign proven players in the January window, we were limited to unproven players or those who were not getting opportunities at their existing clubs.  People are expecting us to have a premier league standard goalkeeper and they rarely come cheap in January.  To sign a goalie from the premier league, we would probably have been looking at a reserve keeper of the sort of standard of Jones, Turnbull or Steele unless we were in a position to spend crazy money.  Lumley is typical of a championship standard keeper.  He has some good games but is inconsistent and prone to errors - if he was consistent then he would be playing in the premier league rather than for us.