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Assombalonga the main man


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I don't have a soft spot for him.  I wasn't convinced when we bought him unlike most on here and I rated Bamford as the better player as I also said repeatedly on the forum, preferring to keep him and

Yes, horribly, in my opinion!  He's not a complete footballer (which is why he's still a championship player) but I would argue we haven't had a goalscorer as good as him in a decade or so. 

Bamford is clearly the better of the 2 it’s not and never has been up for debate for me.

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1 hour ago, AsheAshe said:

He will get goals if played right. I don't really get the obsession with charting league performance of who he scores against. Scoring goals get you points no matter who they are against. He isn't a lone striker, and shouldn't be played as one. He also had a lot of games last season where he was subbed early or came on as a sub, so that will have impacted his opportunities to score goals. 

It's about quality and glass ceilings. Podraig Amond scores goals, but that's because he is marked by poor League Two defenders. Put him against League One sides and he scores less, if you dared put him in the championship he doesn't have the pace, power or intelligence to regularly score against any of the top half teams. Britt, post injury has been very poor against the top half teams, the ones with the best defenders generally. He can be marked out of it. As a striker he is only really effective within 8 yards from goal. Look at any youtube of his Forest or Boro goals and you will see the majority are in front of goal, within 8 yards. Good defenders can mark crosses into that area all day long. Strikers need to have a bit more ability to create space for themselves around the box, hit corners not keepers with 12 yard shots. Britts accuracy and clinicalness (?) from 12-18 yards is poor. Look at the last game as a great example. Great finish for the goal, but missed a superb chance from 15 yards, hit it straight at the keeper, then another shot from 16 yards thrashed wide. That is typical Britt, but not typical of recent top championship strikers.

If you pay 15mill for a CF you are not paying for someone to score against Barnsley and Burton and Bolton, but against Fulham, and Wolves, and Norwich. To make a difference in the big games, and he simply hasn't shown that other than West Brom (A)  last year.

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1 hour ago, wilsoncgp said:

It still baffles me we paid £5m more for Britt than Leeds did for Bamford given the difference in all-round quality.

I like Britt, I do, but his decision making at times is dreadful, so far this season, the only time I've seen him play well individually was after we scored against Wigan. Even then, some of his decision making was poor and whilst you have to credit how he got into the position to score after the goal, he really should have done better with the chance.

Still, it's early days for everyone, I don't think the lad has had the greatest 18 months and yet has still got the goals for us, now Pulis is gone I hope we can keep bringing his confidence back up. Now he's not working on his own at the top end of the pitch, I hope we'll get more goals from him.

It isn't just his decision making, he's a number 9, have you ever seen him dink it over an onrushing GK? go around the GK putting him on his butt? turn his man in the box to get a clever shot away? score a volley or even get one on target? His finishing ability is very limited, no variation or coolness. His goals are largely, headers or tap ins within 8 yards, from crosses, or through ball and finish, usually at the near post. He needs more variety 

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11 minutes ago, BoroMart said:

It isn't just his decision making, he's a number 9, have you ever seen him dink it over an onrushing GK? go around the GK putting him on his butt? turn his man in the box to get a clever shot away? score a volley or even get one on target? His finishing ability is very limited, no variation or coolness. His goals are largely, headers or tap ins within 8 yards, from crosses, or through ball and finish, usually at the near post. He needs more variety 

I mean that was a pretty special volley with his weak foot no less... the best part of his game and that of any top goalscorer is arriving in the positions to score so surely the sheer amount of opportunities he puts away in the 18 yard box is a plus? Players are going to score less against top teams, that's just the way football works especially in a Pulis team where he'll play 2 attacking players against top teams. The reality is he matches most strikers conversion rate in the division.


You can't hang that he's a £15m striker over his head, it's not his fault he was bought at twice his value, he's the best striker at the club and we'd really struggle to replace his goals if we were to sell him. You can point to Paddy, but his wages were even higher and he was the only one people were actually going to buy for a decent fee even though I would've preferred to keep him. 

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18 minutes ago, BoroMart said:

It's about quality and glass ceilings. Podraig Amond scores goals, but that's because he is marked by poor League Two defenders. Put him against League One sides and he scores less, if you dared put him in the championship he doesn't have the pace, power or intelligence to regularly score against any of the top half teams. Britt, post injury has been very poor against the top half teams, the ones with the best defenders generally. He can be marked out of it. As a striker he is only really effective within 8 yards from goal. Look at any youtube of his Forest or Boro goals and you will see the majority are in front of goal, within 8 yards. Good defenders can mark crosses into that area all day long. Strikers need to have a bit more ability to create space for themselves around the box, hit corners not keepers with 12 yard shots. Britts accuracy and clinicalness (?) from 12-18 yards is poor. Look at the last game as a great example. Great finish for the goal, but missed a superb chance from 15 yards, hit it straight at the keeper, then another shot from 16 yards thrashed wide. That is typical Britt, but not typical of recent top championship strikers.

If you pay 15mill for a CF you are not paying for someone to score against Barnsley and Burton and Bolton, but against Fulham, and Wolves, and Norwich. To make a difference in the big games, and he simply hasn't shown that other than West Brom (A)  last year.

But most of the cited examples he was probably played as a lone striker in a defensive setup and picking the ball up too deep. Lots of strikers will fluff chances. I just disagree with this line that Britt only scores against poor teams - even when he scores against  a team that finishes higher up its caveated that they were in poor form at the time, like that mnatters? 

 

Looking at his last few seasons last season he scored goals against Bristol (8th) Hull (13th) West Brom (4th)  despite many sub appearances. Season before that  Derby(6th) & Millwall (8th). Season before that a double against Reading (3rd) , season before that he was injured, before that Bournemouth (1st) Derby in both legs (8th), norwich (3rd) Wolves (7th) Birmingham in both legs  (10th). But none of this matters because the opposition is the one in front of you not the one that finishes weeks, or even months, in a different league position He gets, but even if it did the above shows he can and does score against teams that finish well and scores goals when he plays - who else do we have that is getting goals? Fletcher is getting some, but remains to be seen if he is going to be consistent. 

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I mean if you go back and watch his goals from the last 2 seasons, he has had a few scenarios where he's had to think on his feet in the box, turn a man and put it away. He also had the chip against West Brom last year. I don't think a striker is as likely to get volleying opportunities as a midfielder either, if the ball is in the air where Britt is, it's likely he's going to have to win it with his head and he has scored a fair few headers.

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With Britt it’s not his finishing that frustrates me tbh, although it’s still not the best. 

Its how bad he is with his back to goal, and his general build up play that’s poor. For a stocky lad, he’s often found easily getting beat to the ball or knocked off balance, this is also due to his pretty poor first touch. I reckon he’s a pretty immobile, un-athletic player to sum it up.  

Hes a good striker at this level, he scored goals at the end of the day, and at least he’s getting into positions to score, which is the hardest hit. He works hard tbf to him.

But to back up my point about his build up play, he didn’t manage a single assist last year, and failed so far this year. In fact he’s only got 2 assists since he came. That’s pretty awful for a player who’s been the focal point of our attack for that time.

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I think for Britt you have to build the team to supply him in the box for him to be most effective. He has done well therefore to get as many as he has, though it is a little infuriating the amount of chances he needs. He is the main man though, as his competition is so weak. 

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Jesus I know everyone is entitled to there opinion on Britt but what have you been smoking? He is by far one of the best strikers in the league. He scores goals and consistanly does. It's easy to look at what he can't do or how many he misses. Simple fact without those goals last year and the year before we would of finished even lower. The same people who criticise him are the same people praising and singing his name when he scores ?

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In terms of goals per game, there aren't many players better than him currently active in the division (unless you count the players with like a really small sample size)

Lewis Grabban (0.42)
Alex Mitrovic (0.41)

are the only two active players who score more regularly than Britt. Britt is tied for third with Paddy Bamford at 0.38

In terms of minutes per goal

Charlie Austin (147 min)
Alex Mitrovic (150 min)
Sam Winnall (161 min)
Paddy Bamford (163 min)
Lewis Grabban (165 min)
Gary Hooper (169 min)
Britt Assombalonga (170 min)
Rudy Gestede (170 min) <- did not expect this one, guess Rudy is still riding the coat tails of that one season at Blackburn! Probably cause he's barely played any minutes since then.

In terms of just flat out goals,

Dave Nugent (120 in 391)
Daryl Murphy (93 in 329)
Chris Martin (84 in 317)
Danny Graham (80 in 231)
Lewis Grabban (76 in 183)
David McGoldrick (75 in 318)
Lukas Jutkiewicz (68 in 282)
Charlie Austin (66 in 131)
Gary Hooper (61 in 166)
Britt Assombalonga (61 in 159)
Martyn Waghorn (60 in 251)

Britt is in some pretty good company goal scoring wise. Where he falls behind a lot of the other strikers on this list is in assists, with only 4 to his name ever.

Data from transfermarkt so no promises it's 100% correct.
 

 

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47 minutes ago, Brunners said:

Britt is in some pretty good company goal scoring wise. Where he falls behind a lot of the other strikers on this list is in assists, with only 4 to his name ever.

If indeed that is true, I can't say I'm surprised. One thing Britt doesn't do in most situations is pass the ball to someone in a better position. If he's got an eye on goal, be it 2 yards to 50 yards, there's one thing in his mind and it's to have a go. I sincerely hope that's something he's going to work out of his game and something that only got worked into it because he so often only had one or two chances a game under Pulis.

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