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Diedhiou


Spike

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22 minutes ago, Spike said:

Name a team who has been promoted from the Championship with their lead striker being the worst player in the starting 11...

Wolves - Bonatini ? (didn’t score at all second half of the season)

FWIW I don’t think he is our worst player, then again I don’t sit down and rate our players 1-11.  I rate individual performances in games, but overall it’s about the team.

14 minutes ago, lenred said:

Not sure why you've quoted me Dave as I was merely replying to a post requesting stats which I gave.  However with regards your post I wouldn't swap positions with Birmingham or Brentford no, but I'd 100% swap their strike force for ours and we'd only be in a better place for it. Sheffield U also have McGoldrick as you say, who has scored 2 more and also has 3 more assists than Fammy and so to say they aren't sharing the goals around could be debated.   None of these players cost more than Fam either and a majority of the top 20 Champoionship scorers didn't either.  Completely apppreciate we are playing a different game this year and Fammy is decent enough. But it's a shame we don't have more. 

Not sure, probably lost my train of thought as I read through!! ?

Re Brum - I really like Adams, but he needs Jutkiewicz imho to be effective.  Were Brum turning down £15m?

Re Brentford - I really like Maupay, but Brentford quoting £20m+.

Re Sheff Utd - yeah, I was saying beyond Sharp and McGoldrick, they don’t spread the goals around much.  Albeit our strikers (FD, AW and MT) have less than 20 between them.

For me the question is one for LJ....if you could afford them, how would you accommodate them?  Maybe it would be seamless.  Maybe it would be a natural evolvement.  I don’t know.

4 minutes ago, glen humphries said:

He still can’t trap a ball , his movement is non existent, never gets across his marker, I understand what you’re saying Dave , but movement and ball control are basic things for a professional and he’s poor at both.

He is inconsistent at most of those things granted.  Sometimes his touch can be sublime though.  Sometimes he gets across his man.  I think if you sat there on a Saturday afternoon and watched every striker asked to play predominantly back to goal, you’d see a lot of mis-controls, you’d see defenders blocking that run across the front man, etc.  You do see goals like Cavaliero’s today from a pull-back....these are Sharp and Abraham’s bread and butter.  We don’t get our wide players to the bye-line inside the penalty area very often.  It takes a Weimann run from a Palmer pass (Forest away) to give Fammy that type of chance.  How many times did Jiminez get a chance from getting in front of his marker today?  He didn’t.

I totally accept Fam is far from perfect, he’s also far from perfect for the role LJ has assigned to him, but he’s been a key part of a fantastic run.

Maybe the rest of the players are now much more confident through familiarity and successful results that Fam could be replaced by Taylor, or Semenyo or Eisa, without affecting the team.  It’s an interesting one to think about.

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30 minutes ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

Players that are better than Fam cost more money that we are obviously willing to spend. 

He's our level, which is basically alright/half decent. 

That is exactly right.  Would get in perhaps many Championship sides and be in the match day squad, but in this  league it is the 'fine margins' that make the difference as we hear so often. He is often the lone striker and he is not the player where it often 'sticks' to him.  Depending on FFP, if we remain in the Championship, and our  balance sheet allows and is better  I suspect we might have a real go next season.  That might be upgrade on FD ?

Also cast your mind back to when we got promoted, we were in the hunt for Gayle at £12M ???  If Diony had been any good he would have smashed out transfer fee as well.   

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9 minutes ago, lenred said:

Maupay was £1.7m. Sharp was £700k. Pukki was free. Che Adams was £2.2m. 4 of the top 5 scorers in the division cost less combined than Fams fee. They are out there it’s just a case of finding them! 

Bit of context - Sharp was about 4 years ago and was undisclosed. He’s also now 33 and unlikely to keep doing it long term. He also wouldn’t consider coming to City down south. 

Maupay is exactly the kind of signing I’d like to see - cheap, young and has grown into that team. 

Che Adams - this is his first decent goal scoring season. 

Pukki - you have to say that is a genius signing on a free and a real rarity. Just worked well but based on his time at Celtic it was a gamble. 

Generally you can’t pay cheap money and pick up a player who will get 15 goals + instantly. 

The next lot cost a packet - like Tammy would, Rodriguez, Gayle, Grabban etc. 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Alex_BCFC said:

Bit of context - Sharp was about 4 years ago and was undisclosed. He’s also now 33 and unlikely to keep doing it long term. He also wouldn’t consider coming to City down south. 

Maupay is exactly the kind of signing I’d like to see - cheap, young and has grown into that team. 

Che Adams - this is his first decent goal scoring season. 

Pukki - you have to say that is a genius signing on a free and a real rarity. Just worked well but based on his time at Celtic it was a gamble. 

Generally you can’t pay cheap money and pick up a player who will get 15 goals + instantly. 

The next lot cost a packet - like Tammy would, Rodriguez, Gayle, Grabban etc. 

 

 

International who has also played for Schalke as well as the aforementioned Celtic spell. Has played for some good clubs as stated before as well as an international, so some pedigree but they took a chance and it has paid off in spades!

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19 minutes ago, lenred said:

Maupay was £1.7m. Sharp was £700k. Pukki was free. Che Adams was £2.2m. 4 of the top 5 scorers in the division cost less combined than Fams fee. They are out there it’s just a case of finding them! 

 

16 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

Agreed - we paid way over the odds for Diedhiou.

I agree.  But don’t forget we’d got Kodjia on the cheap in relation to what we sold him for, and Angers didn’t want there pants pulled down again....so I reckon we paid more than we really wanted.

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18 minutes ago, lenred said:

Maupay was £1.7m. Sharp was £700k. Pukki was free. Che Adams was £2.2m. 4 of the top 5 scorers in the division cost less combined than Fams fee. They are out there it’s just a case of finding them! 

What you forget is that we have done this in previous seasons. Kodjia was £2.2M, Tammy was a loan, and Bobby was one of our own. We have been lucky to have 3 different 20 goals per season attackers over 3 seasons. We were never likely to get 4 in 4 seasons, but Diedhiou does a reasonable job at Championship level, given the role he has to play.

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4 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

What you forget is that we have done this in previous seasons. Kodjia was £2.2M, Tammy was a loan, and Bobby was one of our own. We have been lucky to have 3 different 20 goals per season attackers over 3 seasons. We were never likely to get 4 in 4 seasons, but Diedhiou does a reasonable job at Championship level, given the role he has to play.

I think I’m obviously not explaining myself very well here given yours and a couple of other replies I’ve had. I’m not slagging off the club here or it’s transfer policy regards forwards whatsoever nor am I slagging Fam.  I was simply stating that cheap and successful options are available if they can be found! 

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15 minutes ago, lenred said:

I think I’m obviously not explaining myself very well here given yours and a couple of other replies I’ve had. I’m not slagging off the club here or it’s transfer policy regards forwards whatsoever nor am I slagging Fam.  I was simply stating that cheap and successful options are available if they can be found! 

But they are not guaranteed. Pukki was truly inspired on a free transfer. Billy Sharp is in the form of his life, but I guarantee he won't make it at Premier League level. Maupay waa not so good in his first season but has stepped up this season. Che Adams is having the best season of his career so far, but he needs a foil, which he has in Jutkiewicz.

There are no guarantees of finding a top striker. We have done well in previous seasons, but we can't always get it right, much though we might wish we did. Boro paid out a fortune on Assombalonga but he hasn't been consistent this season either. And looking at League 1, none of the current top scorers strike me as players who could score 20 league goals a season at this level. At whatever level, finding goalscorers is one of the hardest challenges in management.

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2 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

But they are not guaranteed. Pukki was truly inspired on a free transfer. Billy Sharp is in the form of his life, but I guarantee he won't make it at Premier League level. Maupay waa not so good in his first season but has stepped up this season. Che Adams is having the best season of his career so far, but he needs a foil, which he has in Jutkiewicz.

There are no guarantees of finding a top striker. We have done well in previous seasons, but we can't always get it right, much though we might wish we did. Boro paid out a fortune on Assombalonga but he hasn't been consistent this season either. And looking at League 1, none of the current top scorers strike me as players who could score 20 league goals instead a season at this level. At whatever level, finding goalscorers is one of the hardest challenges in management.

Hence my ‘if they can be found’ comment. 

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10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

 

I agree.  But don’t forget we’d got Kodjia on the cheap in relation to what we sold him for, and Angers didn’t want there pants pulled down again....so I reckon we paid more than we really wanted.

Agreed.

And I think he was signed to play a different role than he is now which is why the club paid a bit more.

I think, when he comes short for passes and turns, he looks the real deal. But playing with his back to the opposition he looks clumsy and is immobile in the box. Not his fault he's had to try to change his game, but he aint very good at what he is asked to do imo. His scoring isn't bad taking that into consideration, but if we want a player to do what he is being asked to do, there is better out there. He'd be much more effective with two up top imo.

But we are playing with one up top and its working at the moment so no complaints.

 

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Not his best game yesterday. He could do with a rest IMO but unfortunately we don’t have the depth in the squad for that position. Look at the sides around us they have 4 strikers that they can rotate. Look at Sheffield United for example. And IMO that will unfortunately be our undoing. Hope we can secure a new striker or 2 in the summer 

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25 minutes ago, MRSATAN said:

From those 22 goals can you tell me how many he has scored after coming on as sub please?

22 in 48 starts doesn’t really work as you’ve not added sub appearancea

?

No idea - I'm sure someone can be bothered to do it. The goals per minutes that someone put us is probably a better measure and that isn't far off 1 in 2.

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36 minutes ago, MRSATAN said:

From those 22 goals can you tell me how many he has scored after coming on as sub please?

22 in 48 starts doesn’t really work as you’ve not added sub appearancea

?

 

8 minutes ago, Alex_BCFC said:

No idea - I'm sure someone can be bothered to do it. The goals per minutes that someone put us is probably a better measure and that isn't far off 1 in 2.

It is indeed.

For info it’s 3 goals from the bench.

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13 hours ago, Trueredsupporter said:

in your opening post???

That's the point, yesterday Fammy was so pointless that we abandoned using him, if we're not willing to play the long ball he no longer becomes the only suitable player in that system. If we're not going to use our forward as a target man when we have no other options then we don't need big and strong meaning there is no reason we couldn't play Semenyo, Eisa or even Weimann there. Weimann may not have the strength but he makes up for it with clever runs that create space. If Fammy is not going to be used as a big target man then Weimann may actually be a better option when you consider the movement he has. 

I'd love to see the ratio of headed shots from Fammy because I genuinely belive Taylor to be better with his head too. I know people will say "but Fammy has scored more with his head" but that's because when it comes to heading he's always the prime target because of his size. His ability in heading is 50/50 on target at best, I've lost count of the times that he's missed the target with his head and its an easy opportunity. 

Put it this way, in this system we need a big, strong player capable of holding up the ball, getting in the box and putting his head on the ball to score. 

Fammy:

Holding up the ball - 50/50. Some days he looks like the player we need, others he looks like the ball is doing everything in its ability to get away from his foot

Strong - 50/50 For someone his size Fammy gets pushed off of the ball a lot and goes down a bit too. 

Heading - 40/60 Some days he looks like what you'd expect from him, a big striker able to win the ball in the air. Most of the time when he actually does get on the cross or lofted pass he misses the target completely. 

This is why I say he doesn't suit the system, because he's far too inconsistent in the areas he needs to be consistent in. 

When I say "he's the only player that sits the system" I guess I need to elaborate by saying he's the only big, strong, tall player we have who looks like he fits the system because the truth is none of our players are consistent doing those things I've mentioned. 

I think at some point we need to give Eisa l a chance to play that position but not use him as that target man, instead give them the freedom to come short and play simple passes when it comes to build up and then let them loose in the final third. It is an option as we proved yesterday when Fammy went missing entirely and we still created chance after chance. Had we had a goal scorer in the box like Eisa that could have been a very different result. 

Either way Fammy needs to have some drive to perform, I know he cares but he has that cushion right now that no matter what happens his name will be on the starting 11 and that's not what a promotion chasing team needs, they need a striker who is fighting for his place, not one who cares but doesn't need to worry if his performance isn't up to scratch. 

 

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1 hour ago, Alex_BCFC said:

No idea - I'm sure someone can be bothered to do it. The goals per minutes that someone put us is probably a better measure and that isn't far off 1 in 2.

It was 0.39 per 90 minutes, it may not look it but that is far off 1 in 2. In the goals to 90 minutes played 0.39 works out as roughly 18 goals in 46 league matches. That sounds great but simply put most strikers do not play 46 games out of 46 games making his projected is just under 15 goals. 

In comparison with someone like Jay Rodriguez (currently 1 in 2), not in the top 3 goalscorers but certainly in the top, he works out as 24/25 goals in 46 but when using the same formula as I did for Fammy's 15 he would still end up with a projected 20 goals which is what we need from Fammy if he's not going to live up to the hold up /big man striker position,which currently he is not because of his lack of consistency. 

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22 minutes ago, Spike said:

That's the point, yesterday Fammy was so pointless that we abandoned using him, if we're not willing to play the long ball he no longer becomes the only suitable player in that system. If we're not going to use our forward as a target man when we have no other options then we don't need big and strong meaning there is no reason we couldn't play Semenyo, Eisa or even Weimann there. Weimann may not have the strength but he makes up for it with clever runs that create space. If Fammy is not going to be used as a big target man then Weimann may actually be a better option when you consider the movement he has.

To be fair to you, that is a good point (sorry, that isn’t meant to be condescending).  What we don’t know at this point is whether playing someone else in Fam’s position in the 4141 will work....it’s become Fam and nobody else.

There is a part of me that says when we first switched to 4141, we needed Fam as the focal point 100%.  I do think through familiarity and improvement / confidence we could probably play Taylor there now or Weimann.  I do seriously think though if we played Taylor there, all the good things he does like coming short, drifting wide, would mean we lose our focal point that occupies two CBs (sometimes three).  The question is whether we lose balance as a result.  Do we lose a target for our crosses...even if Fam doesn’t get on the end of them?

I don’t know.

The other consideration is if we play two, we lose our solidity.  We scored goals at a better rate last season, but we also conceded them at a bigger rate too.  I think our current system is a fine balancing act at the mo’.

Goals may come back to haunt us in the play-offs (should we get there), but let’s not forget Huddersfield got promoted through the play-offs without scoring, 0-0, 1-1 (og), 0-0!!

13 minutes ago, Spike said:

It was 0.39 per 90 minutes, it may not look it but that is far off 1 in 2. In the goals to 90 minutes played 0.39 works out as roughly 18 goals in 46 league matches. That sounds great but simply put most strikers do not play 46 games out of 46 games making his projected is just under 15 goals. 

In comparison with someone like Jay Rodriguez (currently 1 in 2), not in the top 3 goalscorers but certainly in the top, he works out as 24/25 goals in 46 but when using the same formula as I did for Fammy's 15 he would still end up with a projected 20 goals which is what we need from Fammy if he's not going to live up to the hold up /big man striker position,which currently he is not because of his lack of consistency. 

15AFC3CD-BCB5-4DED-8369-F4BAFB587A64.thumb.jpeg.a036c6ba035919a6225376062971bbf4.jpeg

There’s the stats.

Total - a goal every 204 mins / 0.39 goals per game.

League - a goal every 192 mins / 0.47 goals per game.

Neither of those ratios are bad, they are pretty good....and get you around 18/20 goals per 46 game season....the supposed benchmark of a striker, when in fact only the top echelon of strikers at this level get to the magic figure.  This season is a bit different to normal.

You could argue its the other players letting down Fam by not getting enough goals.  Fam, you could argue is our Robbie Turner...where’s our Bob Taylor?

Lets not ignore we have the second best defence, as the counterbalance to our reduced goals scored.

Rodriguez is an international (one cap!!) playing in a team who are free-flowing.  He’s a Prem striker in reality.

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9 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

To be fair to you, that is a good point (sorry, that isn’t meant to be condescending).  What we don’t know at this point is whether playing someone else in Fam’s position in the 4141 will work....it’s become Fam and nobody else.

There is a part of me that says when we first switched to 4141, we needed Fam as the focal point 100%.  I do think through familiarity and improvement / confidence we could probably play Taylor there now or Weimann.  I do seriously think though if we played Taylor there, all the good things he does like coming short, drifting wide, would mean we lose our focal point that occupies two CBs (sometimes three).  The question is whether we lose balance as a result.  Do we lose a target for our crosses...even if Fam doesn’t get on the end of them?

I don’t know.

1

I agree about Taylor, he's a hard worker but he's starting to give me the vibe that he's more of a winger than a striker. He looked great when he pushed out wide against Wolves which makes me wonder if he's actually more suited as a winger than he is a striker, either way I wouldn't put him ahead of Fammy, not because I rate Fammy in the position but more that I don't think Taylor suits the CF position at all at this level.
Weimann is questionable, he was decent at the beginning of the season as part of a two up front in the middle, the issue is we really aren't in a place to take that gamble to see if he clicks there so I can accept if LJ doesn't give him a chance.
Then we have Semenyo and Eisa... these two I do not understand and would love to know the logic behind them not being involved. Eisa has proven he's a goalscorer so why isn't he on the bench, coming on for the last 20 minutes to replace Fammy and see if he can threaten the opposition in a way Fammy doesn't.
Semenyo, not sure about him at all, doesn't have the scoring ratio but people seemed to rant and rave about his ability and Chelsea were interested which considering the lads we've got from them speaks volumes IMO. So I question why he's not being given those 20 mins or so here and there too.

Ultimately Fammy probably is the best option based on what we know but with two strikers just sat out doing nothing it begs the question if they are good enough to ever feature if they aren't getting a chance when we're arguably at our worst point in a good few recent years when it comes to striker choice.
 

9 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

The other consideration is if we play two, we lose our solidity.  We scored goals at a better rate last season, but we also conceded them at a bigger rate too.  I think our current system is a fine balancing act at the mo’.

Goals may come back to haunt us in the play-offs (should we get there), but let’s not forget Huddersfield got promoted through the play-offs without scoring, 0-0, 1-1 (og), 0-0!!

3

That's what bothers me, is it genuinely a good strategy to literally hope that we'll scrape our way up? I also think when Huddersfield did it the competition wasn't as fierce as it is this season. When you look at Norwich, Sheffield United and Leeds you have to accept that one of them will not make automatic promotion which means we'll be in the play offs with one of them, all three teams look capable of automatic promotion and then after them you have West Brom and a team with a better defensive record than our own who have a more prolific and much higher ability in Assombalonga.
It's a big ask to get promoted this season, it's an even bigger ask when our main and arguably only striker that we use is nowhere near prolific, it definitely puts more pressure on the rest of the team to score.
 

9 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

15AFC3CD-BCB5-4DED-8369-F4BAFB587A64.thumb.jpeg.a036c6ba035919a6225376062971bbf4.jpeg

There’s the stats.

Total - a goal every 204 mins / 0.39 goals per game.

League - a goal every 192 mins / 0.47 goals per game.

Neither of those ratios are bad, they are pretty good....and get you around 18/20 goals per 46 game season....the supposed benchmark of a striker, when in fact only the top echelon of strikers at this level get to the magic figure.  This season is a bit different to normal.

You could argue its the other players letting down Fam by not getting enough goals.  Fam, you could argue is our Robbie Turner...where’s our Bob Taylor?

Lets not ignore we have the second best defence, as the counterbalance to our reduced goals scored.

Rodriguez is an international (one cap!!) playing in a team who are free-flowing.  He’s a Prem striker in reality.

I went through the top goalscorers as of this morning, a total of 23 before Fammy although he's joint 20th.

Here are the stats when you convert minutes played to goals and get a goals per 90 minutes played number. This is in order of goals scored rather than most prolific:

1 - Teemu Pukki - 0.77 goals per 90 minutes played
2 - Billy Sharp - 0.86 goals per 90 minutes played
3 - Tammy Abraham - 0.77 goals per 90 minutes played
4 - Che Adams - 0.67 goals per 90 minutes played
5 - Neal Maupay - 0.65 goals per 90 minutes played
6 - Jay Rodriguez - 0.55 goals per 90 minutes played
7 - Jarrod Bowen - 0.53 goals per 90 minutes played
7 - Dwight Gayle - 0.81 goals per 90 minutes played
9 - Lewis Grabban - 0.60 goals per 90 minutes played
10 - Oliver McBurnie - 0.50 goals per 90 minutes played
10 - Kemar Roofe - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played
12 - Bradley Dack - 0.40 goals per 90 minutes played
12 - Alan Browne - 0.40 goals per 90 minutes played
12 - David McGoldrick - 0.44 goals per 90 minutes played
15 - Lukas Jutkiewicz - 0.32 goals per 90 minutes played
15 - Fraizer Campbell - 0.50 goals per 90 minutes played
15 - Danny Graham - 0.42 goals per 90 minutes played
15 - Harry Wilson - 0.46 goals per 90 minutes played
15 - Britt Assombalonga - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Harvey Barnes - 0.36 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Ollie Watkins - 0.37 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Callum Robinson - 0.54 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Lucas Joao - 0.63 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Famara Diedhiou - 0.43 goals per 90 minutes played

and here is the order of most prolific:

1 - Billy Sharp - 0.86 goals per 90 minutes played
2 - Dwight Gayle - 0.81 goals per 90 minutes played
3 - Teemu Pukki - 0.77 goals per 90 minutes played
3 - Tammy Abraham - 0.77 goals per 90 minutes played
5 - Che Adams - 0.67 goals per 90 minutes played
6 - Neal Maupay - 0.65 goals per 90 minutes played
7 - Lucas Joao - 0.63 goals per 90 minutes played
8 - Lewis Grabban - 0.60 goals per 90 minutes played
9 - Britt Assombalonga - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played
9 - Kemar Roofe - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played
11 - Jay Rodriguez - 0.55 goals per 90 minutes played
12 - Callum Robinson - 0.54 goals per 90 minutes played
13 - Jarrod Bowen - 0.53 goals per 90 minutes played
14 - Oliver McBurnie - 0.50 goals per 90 minutes played
14 - Fraizer Campbell - 0.50 goals per 90 minutes played
16 - Harry Wilson - 0.46 goals per 90 minutes played
17 - David McGoldrick - 0.44 goals per 90 minutes played
18 - Famara Diedhiou - 0.43 goals per 90 minutes played
19 - Danny Graham - 0.42 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Bradley Dack - 0.40 goals per 90 minutes played
20 - Alan Browne - 0.40 goals per 90 minutes played
22 - Ollie Watkins - 0.37 goals per 90 minutes played
23 - Harvey Barnes - 0.36 goals per 90 minutes played
24 - Lukas Jutkiewicz - 0.32 goals per 90 minutes played

The one thing I want to highlight as it's being thrown around a lot is that Fammy is not a one in two striker, there are only 15 strikers who can argue that they are a one in two striker and they are the top 15 in the list above. 

Another thing I wanted to point out was after so many people said Assombalonga wasn't that much better than Fammy, Britt has a one in two ratio and is in the top 10 most prolific strikers in the league when you bring in the statistic that compares the goals on a level playing ground.

As you said, his ratio isn't bad, it's just not a lead striker ratio. Of the teams who are competing with us currently in the top 6 these are the strikers who play for one of those 5 teams:

3 - Teemu Pukki - 0.77 goals per 90 minutes played (Norwich City)
1 - Billy Sharp - 0.86 goals per 90 minutes played (Sheffield United)
17 - David McGoldrick - 0.44 goals per 90 minutes played (Sheffield United)
9 - Kemar Roofe - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played (Leeds United)
2 - Dwight Gayle - 0.81 goals per 90 minutes played (West Bromwich Albion)
11 - Jay Rodriguez - 0.55 goals per 90 minutes played (West Bromwich Albion)
9 - Britt Assombalonga - 0.57 goals per 90 minutes played (Middlesbrough)

and here is Fammy in comparison: 

18 - Famara Diedhiou - 0.43 goals per 90 minutes played

Every one of our rivals have a one in two goalscorer, Sheffield United and West Brom have two.

I'm not saying "we're not going to be promoted" and I'm not trying to be negative, as you and many others have pointed out, we could scrape through, we could come good in the play-offs should we make them, anything can happen, it's football.
What I am saying is as much as I love Fammy, his desire etc I do not rate him as a starting striker in a promotion chasing team and the lack of a plan B when he's not in form is certainly not a strong position for a promotion push. 

I'd love to be proved wrong and for Fammy to become consistent in the final 15 games we have left to play but come the end of those 15 games I think that striker position could be the difference between making the Premier League and not making it, especially when you consider we've got adequate cover in every other position.

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Good post @Spike.

Its a tough one.

Just looked at Boro because of Assombolonga.  They haven’t found a way to accommodate Britt and Hugill together.  They’ve effectively got £24m of talent that doesn’t work together (I know Hugill is on loan, but cost West Ham £9m).  We can’t play that same game.  They also don’t have goals from elsewhere in any greater number than us, in fact they look worse!

I guess another useful comparison, albeit a one off, was West Brom away.  Played well, created chances, very open game.  Lost 2-4.  The home game, albeit with our new 4141, will be a good barometer in terms of Dan we keep Gayle, Rod and Murphy (not Barnes anymore) quiet whilst doing enough at the other end?

At the end of the day, it’s gonna be a really interesting run-in.

I wasn’t expecting a real play-off push....always thought we’d be playing catch up and not quite making it, e.g. although 3/4/5 points off the pace, having hope but not getting there.

Ive really enjoyed our style, it’s not flamboyant i’ll grant you, but I see the logic to it.

Back to strikers, here’s last season.  Much lower goals / goals per game in 17/18.  Ignore Grabban, they forgot to add his Sunderland appearances!!  Only 2 hit the magical 20.

https://www.eurosport.com/football/championship/2017-2018/standingperson.shtml

and 16/17 - only 4 hit 20.

https://www.eurosport.com/football/championship/2016-2017/standingperson.shtml

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The last game I went to was Blackburn away. I took along my daughters mate for her 1st City game. I told her our main striker Fammy will either be great or you will think he has never played before. A bit harsh and tongue in cheek but that I think that sums him up. But with all these things you have to take into account transfer value, wages and the fact we are Bristol City. If he was good every week he would be a £15m+ striker on double the wages we can afford - that's why he's at Bristol City not one of the higher paying more glamorous teams.

If we had Tammy I'm sure we'd be higher up the league and possibly still in the cup, we don't and I guess that was down to money.

Should we have got someone in - yes but for whatever reason we didn't. Would any of the better strikers on those lists a) been allowed to leave b) wanted to come to Bristol City or c) would we been able to match their wages. If we are honest I think we know the answer to all of those that's why we have Fammy.

He's not the best but he's the best we've got - and he lives in Knowle !

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19 hours ago, pongo88 said:

There are about 16 players in the Championship who have scored more than him this season. If he was a second striker, supporting the main striker that would be ok.  Unfortunately, he’s the main man. If he provided good link up play like Taylor, that would also be ok. Unfortunately, he doesn’t, but instead falls over and is easily pushed off the ball

Watching on BT did have to laugh when the commentator said something along the lines of ‘big, strong and difficult to shrug off the ball’.  Shows they don’t do their research and just make a guess based on size.

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24 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Good post @Spike.

Its a tough one.

Just looked at Boro because of Assombolonga.  They haven’t found a way to accommodate Britt and Hugill together.  They’ve effectively got £24m of talent that doesn’t work together (I know Hugill is on loan, but cost West Ham £9m).  We can’t play that same game.  They also don’t have goals from elsewhere in any greater number than us, in fact they look worse!

I guess another useful comparison, albeit a one off, was West Brom away.  Played well, created chances, very open game.  Lost 2-4.  The home game, albeit with our new 4141, will be a good barometer in terms of Dan we keep Gayle, Rod and Murphy (not Barnes anymore) quiet whilst doing enough at the other end?

At the end of the day, it’s gonna be a really interesting run-in.

I wasn’t expecting a real play-off push....always thought we’d be playing catch up and not quite making it, e.g. although 3/4/5 points off the pace, having hope but not getting there.

Ive really enjoyed our style, it’s not flamboyant i’ll grant you, but I see the logic to it.

Back to strikers, here’s last season.  Much lower goals / goals per game in 17/18.  Ignore Grabban, they forgot to add his Sunderland appearances!!  Only 2 hit the magical 20.

https://www.eurosport.com/football/championship/2017-2018/standingperson.shtml

and 16/17 - only 4 hit 20.

https://www.eurosport.com/football/championship/2016-2017/standingperson.shtml

Yeah the numbers in the last two seasons are low surprisingly but in a way that shows how much better the strikers this season. It may sound harsh but I'd say this is the worst season for us and strikers in a fair while. It's a shame because looking at our last few season, Abraham, Ried, Kodjia, any one of those three still being here and it could look a lot different but it is what it is and we have to make do with it.

 

8 minutes ago, cityfan said:

He was given nothing, supplied nothing, a few long balls in the air with no close support, even if he did win the header.

I think the problem was supply and proximity of players to him or lack thereof.

He's a goal scorer, but he needs help.

 

Unfortunately, as a lone striker a big part of the game is making yourself available to be that player to link the plat, all game long he was static and even the commentators said around the 70th minute mark that he'd been static all game long.

In order to get that supply to need to make yourself an option, Fammy just stood still allowing him to be marked out so the long ball wasn't on. On the occasions when the play was around him he didn't move to make space to receive the ball so he didn't get the passes. As the game went on we switched formation and used the wings a lot more, Fammy stayed central at all times, barely moved to offer anything different and he spent most of his time walking unless the ball hit the wing at which point he was in the box.... not moving.

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Tin hat time but Tammy...much as I think he is a great striker and was brilliant 2 years ago- our saviour in fact.

Would he have the all-round game to be the lone striker in our formation? I question it.

@Spike Agreed- Diedhiou's movement, it is always noticeable or often noticeable perhaps more accurate that he is very slow, jogging pace almost when out of possession- not saying he has to charge around like crazy for the sake of it but he should be exerting more energy. V Millwall I was very disappointed with him 2nd half until he went off not least because of this issue, with the exception of one moment when he charged down their defender out wide to win us a throw in. Unremarkable, but like his take down and excellent cross-field ball v Sheff Wed in October a key reason these things stick in the mind for me is because these moments, these flashes- often they're so infrequent and sporadic from him!

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1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Tin hat time but Tammy...much as I think he is a great striker and was brilliant 2 years ago- our saviour in fact.

Would he have the all-round game to be the lone striker in our formation? I question it.

@Spike Agreed- Diedhiou's movement, it is always noticeable or often noticeable perhaps more accurate that he is very slow, jogging pace almost when out of possession- not saying he has to charge around like crazy for the sake of it but he should be exerting more energy. V Millwall I was very disappointed with him 2nd half until he went off not least because of this issue, with the exception of one moment when he charged down their defender out wide to win us a throw in. Unremarkable, but like his take down and excellent cross-field ball v Sheff Wed in October a key reason these things stick in the mind for me is because these moments, these flashes- often they're so infrequent and sporadic from him!

Quite often he doesn't look "sharp" and half a yard off the pace, which might explain that his control looks a bit "bouncy". He has a languid running style, so that even when he's springing he seems to be doing so in semi slow motion.

However, I also think is one of those players whose contribution often goes unnoticed and unappreciated by fans. I suspect he is a player that defenders hate having to play against and he takes a lot of physical punishment, often tying up 2 defenders. 

A few have pointed to the goal scorers in other top teams and how much better their scoring records are compared to Famara's, but how many would Billy Sharp, Pukki or Ched Adams score if they played in this City team, with our playing style and in Famara's role?

Personally I would prefer us to have a more mobile player in the lone striker role, even if he didn't have quite FD's physicality. If toy add on being a decent goalscorer as well then you are looking at a fair few million on the price tag and such a player being on the radar of  bigger clubs than us!

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