Mo Eisa - the clinical striker we are missing?

[bcfcnick]

Credit to Lee Johnson and Mark Ashton for a lot of the recent transfer dealings (including the loan signing of Afobe) but I feel they got this one badly wrong.  Mo Eisa is an instinctive and prolific goal scorer who averages about 1 in 2 at every level he has played at.  These type of natural goal scorers can usually replicate what they do right up to Championship and even Premier level as well.

Mo Eisa:-   10 goals, 1 assist , a goal every 104 mins on the pitch, 25 shots and 18 (72%) on target 

Our most successful striker Andi Weimann:- 4 goals, 2 assists, 21 shots and 6 (29%) on target

Weimann adds other positives to the front line and presses more but there is little doubt that we could have done with someone as clinical in front of goal as Mo Eisa. His transfer value must be a significant multiple to the circa £1m City got for him. 

It's an odd one that he was offloaded especially as the number one target was Nketiah who is similar in the sense that he has that natural striker instinctive right place at the right time eye for goal.  Obviously Nketiah has had a more traditional route through at a high level but Eisa was our own player and was 'owned' at a fraction of a cost of the potential striker loan fees. 

I believe, given game time, he would be towards the top of the championship goals stats and be the much needed player that converts  a higher % of the chances that we create. 

 

 

[forbespm]

Very odd,he wasn't given a chance.I work with a few Cheltenham fans who spoke highly of his natural goalscoring ability.

Apparently he didn't impress lj in training and looked "lost" during one substitute appearance.

Semenyo looked a little lost last home game too but has been given a chance by lj despite a vastly inferior goal record than eisa.

 

[77 punk]

eisa is a much better player than semenyo it is a shame we sold him i would have liked to have seen him on the bench this season and coming on late in games

[Mr Popodopolous]

I've always thought that once you get up to this level you need a stronger all-round game- let alone above, but certainly this level.

Perhaps I'm wrong! Or maybe Eisa is just brilliant and excelling in League One, but not good enough that next step up- there is a definite gap between the 2, though it isn't unbridgeable either- both for teams and individuals. Higher you go, the more you need surely.

Do wonder though, had we loaned him to say a Charlton, a Portsmouth or perhaps a Sunderland last season- and he had been scoring well, whether he would have come back ready to hit the ground running at this level, confidence up- shown that he could do it. Especially Charlton though given that they were riding quite high and his links to Greenwich.

[Cider-Head23]

The gap from league one to the championship is massive. Going from playing teams fresh up from league 2 to teams who’ve just dropped out the top flight is huge. 
 

Glad Eisa is doing well but don’t feel like it’s one that got away. Was off the pace in training just like Engvall was. The Quality possibly to much for both. 

[And Its Smith]

Have you seen Eisa’s goals and the general standard of League one defending? He wouldn’t be getting anything like these chances at our level. His general play is not good enough. Move on. Matt Taylor scores loads at that level too. I don’t see anyone wanting him in our team 

[Tipps69]

He had a season to prove himself here & clearly didn’t, be that because of ability or attitude or both?

The club basically got their money back & under the circumstances that probably wasn’t a bad deal at the time. Sometimes a player works out at a club & sometimes he doesn’t, it happens & we move on, unfortunately that's life.

[reddogkev]

It will be interesting when he steps up into the Championship again.  Will he score goals at this level?  Perhaps yes, perhaps no, we'll have to wait and see.

If he does, I'm sure he's reserving a hat trick in his locker to unleash against us.

[Robbored]

8 minutes ago, RedDave said:

Have you seen Eisa’s goals and the general standard of League one defending? He wouldn’t be getting anything like these chances at our level. His general play is not good enough. Move on. Matt Taylor scores loads at that level too. I don’t see anyone wanting him in our team 

Exactly right RD.

Eisa wasn’t quite up to Championship standard and having trained and been around the City squad to prove his ability he unfortunately wasn’t able to make the step up and it was decided between LJ, Deano and Macca to let him move on.

Hope I’m wrong but I have the same feeling about Semenyo.

[JoeAman08]

There are a lot more things to this than just the goals he is scoring.

Firstly, the competition. It is League One and while I am certain there are a few good sides there it isn’t quite as competitive as the championship. Last time we were in that league  we got 14 goals from a CB and 18 from a 35 year old. 
 

Second, style of play. I am no expert on how Peterborough play but they have another striker on 10 goals and their 10 has 6. It seems pretty certain the attack is based off exclusively these 3 players. Fair play for knocking them in but could we have played a style solely to get Eisa goals? Not too sure

Third, the age of Eisa. Now the argument could be made Eisa is a better third or fourth option than Semenyo or Szmodics. I won’t argue against it but at the time the only minutes available would have been Semenyo’s and they were probably going to be less than he has played due to Afobe’s injury. So when you are looking at the two of who to keep and who to sell you look at it like this:
 

One is 25 and had a year to impress in training and didn’t. You can get your money back and plus some(?) worth about 1.25m. One is 19 and while not super impressive is only 19 and you feel you can coach some things into him. His value is roughly 2m. So who do you choose? I’d probably have kept Semenyo as well even if Eisa is a bit more of a player now. 

[Carey 6]

Just hope we’ve got a big sell on % because they’ll end up getting something silly like £8m for him knowing Peterborough. 

[ashton_fan]

Given we were in the market for a top-end forward (we got Afobe in the end) Eisa would have been well down the pecking order, LJ couldn't have expected to lose Afobe after a few games so it was the right decision for both parties at the time.

[petehinton]

Someone came in for him on deadline day in August, even though he’d just signed for Posh. Was a championship club by all accounts, bit of an odd one..

[CliftonCliff]

If we want to dwell on missed opportunities and ones that got away, I feel we should be thinking about Woodrow, not Elisa. I may be in a minority, but I’m not the only one who saw something in him and regretted the fact that, like Elisa, he wasn’t trusted and was given very  few chances to establish himself in the team. He must have left regretting he came here and thinking it had been a waste of his time. I believe we had him on loan with an option to buy. Had a good season in a L1 promotion-winning side last year and has made a decent start to this campaign, considering he’s playing at a club that is quite likely to find life tough at the higher level. Two goals last night against the league leaders. I wouldn’t have minded having him here.

[Tipps69]

15 minutes ago, CliftonCliff said:

If we want to dwell on missed opportunities and ones that got away, I feel we should be thinking about Woodrow, not Elisa. I may be in a minority, but I’m not the only one who saw something in him and regretted the fact that, like Elisa, he wasn’t trusted and was given very  few chances to establish himself in the team. He must have left regretting he came here and thinking it had been a waste of his time. I believe we had him on loan with an option to buy. Had a good season in a L1 promotion-winning side last year and has made a decent start to this campaign, considering he’s playing at a club that is quite likely to find life tough at the higher level. Two goals last night against the league leaders. I wouldn’t have minded having him here.

You may of found a new best mate in @Davefevs for this post

[Xiled]

As expectations rise, we're going to see more players come and go in the same way.

Some will come in and make an impact, others will be moved on.

Ironically, Webster's transfer to Brighton was similar in many ways. Eisa was deemed not good enough and sold without a loss. Webster was too good for us when Brighton put their money on the table.

[HiddenGem7]

Semenyo is in the squad because of the home grown player rule.  Johnson has said this multiple times.  Eisa would not have counted.  Even last week the Bristol Post was saying - "will Rodri coming mean Semenyo missing out?" - No!  He needs to be in the squad for that reason.

 

[BRISTOL86]

History is littered with players who haven’t been able to make the step up. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

I imagine the offer was too good to turn down if he wasn’t in our immediate plans, did I imagine it or was Posh’s club record fee? 

Posh being Posh he’ll probably go somewhere for £10m in the summer - I’m sure Mr Ashton put a hefty sell on clause in the deal. 

[Guest]

People say LJ should have played Eisa, but if the levels he was playing in training was that of what we saw on the pitch, then why on Earth would LJ pick him. He looked poor.

Surely if he looked much better than that then LJ would have played him. League one is not the championship. People say Diedhiou is not good enough. Imagine how good he might be in league one with much more space and time in and around the box.

[Red-Robbo]

I'm not sure anyone can say he "wasn't up to Championship" when he was given so little game time to establish that.

If he was only assessed on training, I think that's wrong. Most players can reel off a long list of half-hearted trainers who actually perform well in live games.

We'll never know, but add me to the list of people who think the club may have messed up here.

I guess no one could have foreseen the Afobe disaster, but even with him fit, we had less cover in the front line than more or less anywhere else, especially when Taylor went out on loan. 

Seems a daft decision to discard Eisa.

[old_eastender]

3 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I'm not sure anyone can say he "wasn't up to Championship" when he was given so little game time to establish that.

If he was only assessed on training, I think that's wrong. Most players can reel off a long list of half-hearted trainers who actually perform well in live games.

We'll never know, but add me to the list of people who think the club may have messed up here.

I guess no one could have foreseen the Afobe disaster, but even with him fit, we had less cover in the front line than more or less anywhere else, especially when Taylor went out on loan. 

Seems a daft decision to discard Eisa.

Completely agree.

Interesting from OP to see Wiemann's stats this season: 4 goals, 2 assists, 21 shots and 6 (29%) on target. I'm not surprised his shots on target ratio is so poor, look at Saturday's chance when still 0-0 which he lobbed both high and wide. Shows that he is never likely to provide more than a 10-12 goals per season even when played up front. All his running and press play does not make up for that, we need better if we are to ever make promotion.

 

[BRISTOL86]

9 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I'm not sure anyone can say he "wasn't up to Championship" when he was given so little game time to establish that.

If he was only assessed on training, I think that's wrong. Most players can reel off a long list of half-hearted trainers who actually perform well in live games.

We'll never know, but add me to the list of people who think the club may have messed up here.

I guess no one could have foreseen the Afobe disaster, but even with him fit, we had less cover in the front line than more or less anywhere else, especially when Taylor went out on loan. 

Seems a daft decision to discard Eisa.

Tbh how else is a manager meant to pick a team? If you’re consistently poor in training why on earth would you be picked for the match, and more to the point, what message does that send to those who are ecbellent?

Also when our fan base now pretty much expects a top six finish, you don’t have much headroom to chuck players in who have been poor in training just in the hope that they somehow deliver something at odds to what you’ve seen in training. 

If as a fan base we’re content with mid table then maybe you can do that, but not sure how we can take that approach and align it with fan expectations. 

[Red-Robbo]

1 minute ago, old_eastender said:

Completely agree.

Interesting from OP to see Wiemann's stats this season: 4 goals, 2 assists, 21 shots and 6 (29%) on target. I'm not surprised his shots on target ratio is so poor, look at Saturday's chance when still 0-0 which he lobbed both high and wide. Shows that he is never likely to provide more than a 10-12 goals per season even when played up front. All his running and press play does not make up for that, we need better if we are to ever make promotion.

 

I love Weimann, but really he is an attack-minded midfielder. And with Famara not firing on all cylinders - and far too slow to fulfil the loan striker/target man role - we are reliant on the unknown element of Rodri to give our attack some teeth.

Eisa would've been another card to play. He's got pace. We know that. 

Being able to unleash Eliasson and Eisa on a tiring opposition might've given them something to think about!

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I'm not sure anyone can say he "wasn't up to Championship" when he was given so little game time to establish that.

If he was only assessed on training, I think that's wrong. Most players can reel off a long list of half-hearted trainers who actually perform well in live games.

We'll never know, but add me to the list of people who think the club may have messed up here.

I guess no one could have foreseen the Afobe disaster, but even with him fit, we had less cover in the front line than more or less anywhere else, especially when Taylor went out on loan. 

Seems a daft decision to discard Eisa.

But then we could say that about any young player that doesn't look ready yet in training. Will they be much better in a proper game? I'd say probably not most cases.

LJ knows what he wants a player to bring to the team, and Eisa looked lightweight, had not so good a touch, not much skill and not a target man. Those goals he is scoring in league one, I can't imagine him getting that space and time at this level.

He may improve. But LJ sees him as being worse than what we have, and worse than Taylor. LJ is not scared to give players games if they look good enough.

[Red-Robbo]

3 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Tbh how else is a manager meant to pick a team? If you’re consistently poor in training why on earth would you be picked for the match, and more to the point, what message does that send to those who are ecbellent?

Also when our fan base now pretty much expects a top six finish, you don’t have much headroom to chuck players in who have been poor in training just in the hope that they somehow deliver something at odds to what you’ve seen in training. 

If as a fan base we’re content with mid table then maybe you can do that, but not sure how we can take that approach and align it with fan expectations. 

He wasn't given a proper chance, B86.

We know he can find the back of the net. Defences are much weaker in L1 and L2, but the goal isn't any bigger.

If you're a natural goal poacher, you're worth more of a try than one late sub appearance.

I'm not saying Eisa "would have been" the answer. I'm just saying - given our paucity of strikers - it looks like a mistake to have released him.

Someone said he "looked lost" in his limited time on the pitch. Well compared to Semenyo's recent start he looked like Pele!

People who are, rightly, pointing out that Semenyo might learn and improve with age, do not seem to extend this courtesy to Eisa, another young player. 

 

[Rob k]

3 hours ago, Carey 6 said:

Just hope we’ve got a big sell on % because they’ll end up getting something silly like £8m for him knowing Peterborough. 

This has always been what I’ve said - they have an eye for a striker do Peterborough, i can’t imagine we needed a million that badly so we will see in a couple of seasons weather we were premature with letting him go 

[Red-Robbo]

6 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

But then we could say that about any young player that doesn't look ready yet in training. Will they be much better in a proper game? I'd say probably not most cases.

LJ knows what he wants a player to bring to the team, and Eisa looked lightweight, had not so good a touch, not much skill and not a target man. Those goals he is scoring in league one, I can't imagine him getting that space and time at this level.

He may improve. But LJ sees him as being worse than what we have, and worse than Taylor. LJ is not scared to give players games if they look good enough.

Lee's not infallible and I think his decision to move Eisa on was predicated on Afobe bring here all season.

So in that respect it was a mistake.

As I say above, Mo looked more engaged with the game in his limited time here than Semenyo, who got game time because we were so short of strikers.

I'm not writing Semenyo off. But clearly there's a lot more work required there. Equally, I don't think we should have written Eisa off. I'm pretty sure that we'll see him playing and scoring in the Championship. Maybe next season.

[redrob]

12 hours ago, bcfcnick said:

Credit to Lee Johnson and Mark Ashton for a lot of the recent transfer dealings (including the loan signing of Afobe) but I feel they got this one badly wrong.  Mo Eisa is an instinctive and prolific goal scorer who averages about 1 in 2 at every level he has played at.  These type of natural goal scorers can usually replicate what they do right up to Championship and even Premier level as well.

Mo Eisa:-   10 goals, 1 assist , a goal every 104 mins on the pitch, 25 shots and 18 (72%) on target 

Our most successful striker Andi Weimann:- 4 goals, 2 assists, 21 shots and 6 (29%) on target

Weimann adds other positives to the front line and presses more but there is little doubt that we could have done with someone as clinical in front of goal as Mo Eisa. His transfer value must be a significant multiple to the circa £1m City got for him. 

It's an odd one that he was offloaded especially as the number one target was Nketiah who is similar in the sense that he has that natural striker instinctive right place at the right time eye for goal.  Obviously Nketiah has had a more traditional route through at a high level but Eisa was our own player and was 'owned' at a fraction of a cost of the potential striker loan fees. 

I believe, given game time, he would be towards the top of the championship goals stats and be the much needed player that converts  a higher % of the chances that we create. 

 

 

Taylor could (by some) have been classed as 'prolific' at that level (16 in 27 at League One) but he could not cut it at Championship level. Think other posters are right in that the gulf in class is huge between top of League 1 and top 10 Championship. 

[Dolman Original]

Eisa obviously not rated by management. As some have already said - will probably go for big money next year. 

Macauley Bonne for Charlton came from non league now scoring in the Championship (probably will tonight!) Realise LJ 

couldn’t have known he’d lose Afobe but a pity he wasn’t given the same chance as Semenyo

 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

Lee's not infallible and I think his decision to move Eisa on was predicated on Afobe bring here all season.

So in that respect it was a mistake.

As I say above, Mo looked more engaged with the game in his limited time here than Semenyo, who got game time because we were so short of strikers.

I'm not writing Semenyo off. But clearly there's a lot more work required there. Equally, I don't think we should have written Eisa off. I'm pretty sure that we'll see him playing and scoring in the Championship. Maybe next season.

I thought Eisa looked poor in every appearance. Semenyo at least has played well a couple of times. 

Seems to me loaning out Taylor may have been the mistake. Or just bringing in another striker. Hoping rodri is that striker.