Assombalonga the main man

[Barnaby 73]

23 hours ago, ManBearPig said:

I think hes rated, just not clinical for 15m in my opinion. 

I'd expect a 15m man to score (his chance vs Wigan) in front of the keeper. 

I think as the prices for footballers in general has increased, 15m is about 7m before the player price boom. So therefore I'd say he is a 10m striker of old, with a 15m price tag.

 

I agree he should be scoring more,but every striker goes through spells when scoring seems to desert them It'll come back,Penalties are another thing,Twice now He's blazed over,that smacks to me he's leaning back on impact get your head over the ball...Robbie would be telling him this

[ManBearPig 159]

3 hours ago, Barnaby said:

I agree he should be scoring more,but every striker goes through spells when scoring seems to desert them It'll come back,Penalties are another thing,Twice now He's blazed over,that smacks to me he's leaning back on impact get your head over the ball...Robbie would be telling him this

He isn't going through spells when he consistently misses 1 v 1 goal scoring chances though. Hes good, but like I said for me, he needs to he more clinical.

[wilsoncgp 1,123]

I mean, he's had spells of scoring in 1v1s, he's had spells of not scoring in them. He doesn't always miss 1v1 chances.

[Boro Scot 58]

Our problem has been that we just don't score goals, we've been amongst the lowest scorers in the championship both pre and post our 1 season recently in the PL. This season, although it's early on, seems to be going the same way. While Britt does get goals, he's not what you'd call prolific, we've been set up as a defensive team for a few years now through different managers and scoring has been an added bonus to not conceding goals.

[AsheAshe 31]

12 hours ago, Boro Scot said:

Our problem has been that we just don't score goals, we've been amongst the lowest scorers in the championship both pre and post our 1 season recently in the PL. This season, although it's early on, seems to be going the same way. While Britt does get goals, he's not what you'd call prolific, we've been set up as a defensive team for a few years now through different managers and scoring has been an added bonus to not conceding goals.

yep, agree with that - we've definitely been set up in a way that has not been conducive to goals - Britt has got them for us each season he has played but other players contributions have not really added up - Saville was our top scoring non-striker last season with 4 goals - if you look at the top scorers of teams that do well, its usually a prolific striker or two and then lots of other players chipping in with goals and thats what we are missing really. I can see Britt getting 15+, fletcher getting 10ish, McNair got 5 for sunderland in half a season so like to think he can at least match that? Beyond that its tough to guess who is going to get more than a couple. 

[BoroMart 116]

On 8/23/2019 at 11:49 AM, Foogle said:

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. 

so a volley in a friendly against League Two opposition. Now show me him score a volley in a league game

[BoroMart 116]

On 8/23/2019 at 6:09 PM, Brunners said:

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.
 

 

Th problem with that assessment is that the better strikers that have played int eh champo during the last 5 years are all now playing in the prem. He is 7th or 10th of the list of strikers that flopped in the prem or in his case never got picked up.

So you could make an argument for many of the following to be better champo strikers than Britt during parts of the last 5 years:

Pukki

Abraham

Maupay

Gayle

Sharp

Adams

McBurnie

Rodriguez

Vydra

Reid

Jota

Wood

Murray

Grey

Hernandez

Kodjia

Hemed

Deeney

Rhodes

Murphy

 

He is about the 30th best striker in the champo during the last 5 years, that makes him an average champ striker, and is backed up by his best ever season being 15 and 7th in the charts that season.

 

For balance, I thought Britt made some intelligent runs, with limited service on Saturday. He only made one mistake, a mis-control in the box.

Edited August 25, 2019 by BoroMart

[BoroMart 116]

On 8/24/2019 at 9:45 AM, Barnaby said:

I agree he should be scoring more,but every striker goes through spells when scoring seems to desert them It'll come back,Penalties are another thing,Twice now He's blazed over,that smacks to me he's leaning back on impact get your head over the ball...Robbie would be telling him this

he should know this already, he's been a pro for about 8 years. He is leaning back because he is hitting them too hard, that is the root cause of his penalty woes.

[BoroMart 116]

On 8/23/2019 at 5:14 PM, Dan_Boro_Till_I_Die said:

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 ?

Yes it's a fact that if we played with 10 men every match then we would have gotten relegated. ?

[BoroMart 116]

21 hours ago, Boro Scot said:

Our problem has been that we just don't score goals, we've been amongst the lowest scorers in the championship both pre and post our 1 season recently in the PL. This season, although it's early on, seems to be going the same way. While Britt does get goals, he's not what you'd call prolific, we've been set up as a defensive team for a few years now through different managers and scoring has been an added bonus to not conceding goals.

spot on, I think you have to go back to the season with Merson and Beck for us to have 70 league goals in a champo season........6 teams scored 70 goals in last seasons championship and Norwich got 93

[Brunners 963]

14 minutes ago, BoroMart said:

Th problem with that assessment is that the better strikers that have played int eh champo during the last 5 years are all now playing in the prem. He is 7th or 10th of the list of strikers that flopped in the prem or in his case never got picked up.

 So you could make an argument for many of the following to be better champo strikers than Britt during parts of the last 5 years:

 Pukki

Abraham

Maupay

Gayle

Sharp

Adams

McBurnie

Rodriguez

Vydra

Reid

Jota

Wood

Murray

Grey

Hernandez

Kodjia

Hemed

Deeney

Rhodes

Murphy

 

He is about the 30th best striker in the champo during the last 5 years, that makes him an average champ striker, and is backed up by his best ever season being 15 and 7th in the charts that season.

 

 For balance, I thought Britt made some intelligent runs, with limited service on Saturday. He only made one mistake, a mis-control in the box.

But a lot of those you've listed are premier league quality strikers. I'm not trying to say Britt is a premier league quality player.

A lot of those players you mentioned also have like 1 seasons body of work to consider, so it's difficult to know if that was a one season thing or not - Rudy Gestede has a 20 goal season ffs. 

Britt is a consistent 15 goal a season striker and those are rare. I think he has a lot of flaws to his game, which is why he's still here in this league with us, but I think you horribly underrate him!

[BoroMart 116]

30 minutes ago, Brunners said:

But a lot of those you've listed are premier league quality strikers. I'm not trying to say Britt is a premier league quality player.

A lot of those players you mentioned also have like 1 seasons body of work to consider, so it's difficult to know if that was a one season thing or not - Rudy Gestede has a 20 goal season ffs. 

Britt is a consistent 15 goal a season striker and those are rare. I think he has a lot of flaws to his game, which is why he's still here in this league with us, but I think you horribly underrate him!

Some of those strikers have 1 season this level and move higher up, so clearly better. If there are any you have a contention with feel free to point them out.

The fact they are premier league strikers is because they proved they had ability that is beyond Britt, they also cut their teeth at this level, or dropped down to this level to get a head start. Fact is they all played at this level and all were way above Britt. By discarding them from discussion you are saying 'Britt is one of the best championship strikers, that isn't good enough to move onwards in their careers and play at a higher level', you are actually backing up my claim that he is an average (not good enough for promoted 6th-14th place) championship striker, it is his glass ceiling.

I absolutely agree with you, he is one of the better strikers (but not the best) of those championship strikers that are too limited to play higher or even be first choice in a promotion winning side.

I've said before, he is good enough to keep you out of trouble, but not good enough to help us win promotion. If the ambition is to sit midtable at this level then fine keep him as our number 9, if we want promotion we need to sell him and reinvest his considerable fee and wages elsewhere.

Edited August 25, 2019 by BoroMart

[mendieta420 214]

Whether Britt is the best value for money or not, you still need to give the ball to your strikers in dangerous positions, which we are not. How many times was he screaming for the ball only for it to be go back out wide or spooned over the bar?

[BoroMart 116]

1 hour ago, mendieta420 said:

Whether Britt is the best value for money or not, you still need to give the ball to your strikers in dangerous positions, which we are not. How many times was he screaming for the ball only for it to be go back out wide or spooned over the bar?

Some truth in that, the problem is a dangerous position for Britt is right in front of goal 8 yards out. That is always going to limit his goal return because you simply won't get that many chances from that range in a match. Maybe 1 or 2 against poor sides, or 0 to 1 against good ones. He needs to work on his finishing from 8-14 yards to be a better all around striker.

[Borodane 618]

While he is certainly our best striker and a top striker in this league I can't help but think we'd probably be better off had we sold him for 12+ million in the summer and spent some of that fee and wages on one or two quality wingers and another striker. It would have been a blow to lose him for sure, but for the greater good I think in hindsight it would have been the right thing to do (if we could get a decent replacement obviously). I can see it happening in january.