Missing Famara

[mozo]

We need either 2 new strikers for 2022-23 or 1 and 1 from the U23s who is by then ready to hit the ground running.

[Rocking Red Cyril]

Honestly behave you lot fammy is/was good enough . Martin decent but a stop gap. I still feel Wells needs a bigger run but he not the answer. As previously said this year the job to make us difficult to beat , more organised, fitter and make sure all parts of the playing staff on the same page. I do not see a top striker being bought until the closed season and that if one of the yung bucks has not really come on and doing it in the first team. It's a slow rebuild. In 5 years I fully expect to be in contention for the big promo. Until then I will watch support And Cher our boys on.

Ps thinking of going to see the lady's at HP centre saterday , sorted out the bus but do I need ticket in advance or pay on the day 

[MattWSM]

11 hours ago, JonDolman said:

If a proper fit Diedhiou like of 18/19 season then I agree

That is what I am meaning. Not last season version. Not even as main striker but an impact substitute 1819 version. All hypothetical I know. 

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

Am I the only person who thinks that Fam was a valuable player for us who always gave 100% until his last six months or so when, frankly, he wasn’t the only player whose performances dropped off (including some players who are still with us)?  Inevitably his contract situation affected his game, but before that I remember a player who seemed to love playing for us, who scored a lot of goals, and who - until 2021 - I never felt was not giving 100%.

[swanker]

For all his faults, i quite liked Fammy when he was here but he wasn’t one of the best strikers to put on a city shirt. Would I want him back? No chance, he’s gone and won’t be missed. 

[JoeAman08]

I think Fam is a better player than Martin but possibly not value for money. Idk what either of their wages are but guessing Fam was higher with his 5.2m fee. Factor in what Fam wanted to stay(rumours of 30k or more). Then Martin is a better option for the price. 
 

All that said, needed an upgrade on Fam and need an upgrade on Martin. Idk if we need a target man or a pacy player or a mix of both(probably not a goal scorer if you get both physical and quick). I just know we need different. I was a big advocate of Keinan Davis on loan. Still think I’d lean that way as it would allow us to play in a similar manner. Just that Davis can bully defenders better and run channels better than Martin. Not sure he’d score any less either. Thinking more a forward who creates opportunities for others rather than himself. 

[Hampshire Red]

One of our best for many years. we shouldntforget he was also one of our best defenders and if people dont think this is important then consider what flint meant to us and also what Baker (if he lasts 10 mins) could be for us.

Anyone watching Afobe closely at the Den would realise we have let some good uns go, even if the club could do little about it at the time

Hope he is now sending lots of Senegal Francs back to his villagers

[Cowshed]

Just now, Hampshire Red said:

One of our best for many years. we shouldntforget he was also one of our best defenders and if people dont think this is important then consider what flint meant to us and also what Baker (if he lasts 10 mins) could be for us.

Anyone watching Afobe closely at the Den would realise we have let some good uns go, even if the club could do little about it at the time

Hope he is now sending lots of Senegal Francs back to his villagers

No the player was not. If you want to compare stats he was no higher performing than another centre forward doing the same zonal marking task. 

The player did entirely differing tasks to Flint. 

Defending as making tackles, pressing, interventions, interceptions x recovery the player was poor. That is called defensive tactical intensity. DTI = Below average. The player was inept at defending from the front.

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Am I the only person who thinks that Fam was a valuable player for us who always gave 100% until his last six months or so when, frankly, he wasn’t the only player whose performances dropped off (including some players who are still with us)?  Inevitably his contract situation affected his game, but before that I remember a player who seemed to love playing for us, who scored a lot of goals, and who - until 2021 - I never felt was not giving 100%.

No, your not the only person, just that several of us, me included have different opinions.

My opinion was that after his first season, he pretty much had spells where it looked like LJ had to give him a “rocket up the arse” to get him playing.

When he came back from 6 game ban he was good, then drifted back into being a bit complacent.  He lost his place a couple of times, but came back resurgent, then dropped off again.

My view was he got his profile up, was looking for the next big move, and coasted a bit.  I’m not saying he didn’t try, but he wasn’t putting it all in either.  I also don’t think we played to his strengths either, but that’s another story.

His final months here were a disgrace imho.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

His final months here were a disgrace imho.

No more than Nakhi Wells at the same time, IMHO.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

No more than Nakhi Wells at the same time, IMHO.

We can agree to disagree….Wells imho still put a shift in playing out of position.  Still ended up as our top scorer too, despite playing 40%+ on the left wing.  But Wells doesn’t smile, nor does he beat his chest in front of the South Stand, nor come from Knowle!

[supercidered]

On 30/09/2021 at 11:08, Red-Robbo said:

If you're talking about the motivated Diedhiou then I agree, but the unmotivated, demoralised Diedhiou we saw last season would have less effect on results than the girl at the pasty stall has.

One of the great things about motivated Fam was he was so excellent at heading away our opponents' corners and free kicks.  His scoring rate of just under one in three was reasonable, but adding in his defensive work is what made him central to what we were doing at the time.

His problem was his immobility and lack of first touch meant things had to be presented to him on a plate, meaning when he played the team had to all be focused on him, robbing us of other outlets. 

I've had her.

[The Journalist]

22 hours ago, Bazooka Joe said:

We'd have a  lot more pace and goals if we simply stuck Atyeo's statue on the pitch in place of Martin or Diedhiou.

They are two of the laziest/disinterested/slow strikers we have ever had.

Glad we got rid of one of them. It's now time to get rid of the other.

 

 

 

To call Martin lazy/disinterested is incredibly harsh. Slow/immobile? By all means.

The guy, at nearly 33, needs a rest instead of us running him into the ground for the second season running.

[Edgy Red]

Unfortunately, i don't think Chris Martin suits us at this moment in time. He is clearly technically superior to Fam, but in a side that struggles to create lots of chances and doesn't play much in the final third, he isn't the answer.

Fam had his good and bad points but he had the physicality to cause defenders problems. Whilst he wasn't lightening quick, he could also (now and again) provide more of a threat to balls down the channel.

We just have to accept where we are at this moment in time and i'm sure Nige will continue to tweak our forward play over the next 12 to 18 months

[The Journalist]

35 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Martin works as hard as he can. He just isn't performing to the levels he was earlier in the season.

Wouldn't disagree at all. He was the best player on the pitch at Cardiff.

The international break will do him good, but more generally I do wish we weren't so reluctant to hook him after an hour occasionally.

I guess that's the lack of forward options for you...

[Super]

If Fam was still here he would be first choice striker. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, The Journalist said:

Wouldn't disagree at all. He was the best player on the pitch at Cardiff.

The international break will do him good, but more generally I do wish we weren't so reluctant to hook him after an hour occasionally.

I guess that's the lack of forward options for you...

Martin really needs to be a “play 2 rest 1” type of player….needs to be sharp…and that’s different from being fit, which he is this season.

Personally I wouldn’t have played a back 3 the other night, because bar our spell second half, we couldn’t get our midfield close to CM and AW to pick up loose balls.  It wasn’t the back 3 that was the problem per se, but playing a flat 3 in midfield.  I think James has been at his best with King or Massengo alongside him, where he can join up when it’s his turn.  Bakinson left side of a three didn’t really work because he wants to do his work with the play in front of him.  Williams was decent though.  I just think we are better structured in a 442/4411, especially with narrow wide midfielders….that in theory should allow Tanner and Dasilva to overlap without us feeling exposed.

[Bazooka Joe]

3 hours ago, The Journalist said:

To call Martin lazy/disinterested is incredibly harsh. Slow/immobile? By all means.

The guy, at nearly 33, needs a rest instead of us running walking him into the ground for the second season running.

From what I've seen, the words "running" and "Martin" are a mis-match.

The problem is, he's been doing too much resting on the pitch.

 

[The Bard]

People who think we don't miss Fam are blind. An aggressive player who always contributed defensively and on occasion was a match winner.  

[Davefevs]

4 minutes ago, The Bard said:

People who think we don't miss Fam are blind. An aggressive player who always contributed defensively and on occasion was a match winner.  

Thanks.  So a number of us can’t have a different opinion then?  Come on?

Aggressive?  Occasionally, usually against Birmingham! he rarely battered his CB opponent, allowed himself to be knocked off the ball far too often.  If I was a Championship CB I wouldn’t be worried about the physical battle with Fam I can tell you.  Didn’t use his size.  As per my other posts I don’t he really fitted the target man profile, just that he was big.  Better drifting into the left-half and facing up his man that back to goal.

Have we lost set-piece goals at the near post when he’s not played in the past or this season?  He did a good job there but I don’t think Martin has done any worse, but it doesn’t get picked up on.

He was a match winner on occasion, granted.

Overall he disappointed me, not just the last 3-4 months, capable of more imho.

[Davefevs]

27 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I think he was a good championship striker who had obvious strengths and weaknesses, just like all our current strikers have, but just different. I did not often like his performances in a 442, but LJ and then Holden quite often played him in a pair.

I preferred him on his own up top in the 18/19 run of 15 games unbeaten in all competitions. 13 games in the league and 2 cup games against prem and championship opponents. We won 11 of those 15 games, what a run of results! I don't think we could have played the way we did if we had someone incapable of doing what Fam would do up top.

In 19/20 season we won 4 games in a row with Fam leading the line in the 4141 system before the signing of Wells confused things.

And even if we look back to 17/18 I thought his best overall performance in that first season was the 1-1 draw at home to Fulham who at the time looked unstoppable. Probably one of the only occasions that season LJ went with Fam up top in the lone role and it really worked that night.

If we are talking about that version of Fam then I imagine Nige would go with him now, considering how unthreatening we look in attack.

I think it would likely mean a change of system. It was only the first 45 minutes of Pearson's first game that he played Fam with a strike partner in Wells, but that was only following on from Downing's and Simpson's tactics from the Boro game as it was completely unchanged after a great win, which I'm sure would have seemed to have made sense before the game.

In the 2nd half Nige went with Fam as the main striker with Wells and Palmer on the wings. From then on Pearson's selections showed he felt the same as me that Fam is not so good in a pair as I don't think he ever went with that again.

His ability at defending corners was a big bonus. But what he did up front is the most important thing.

Jon. I think he was a decent enough Championship striker, certainly not denying that….just think he was capable of a lot more, mainly for the team.  That was my biggest frustration. When he seemed in the mood, he was great, just didn’t happen enough for me.

[joe jordans teeth]

On 30/09/2021 at 10:40, Robbored said:

A fully fit Martin can do that but he wasn’t at the races last night for whatever reason.

At Senior Reds a while ago Flint was asked who his hardest opponent was - without any hesitation he said “Chris Martin”

When is he fully fit would be the question,he’s not a patch over the season when it comes to fammy let’s be honest,we are desperate for a powerful big man up top now