Madine, Adebola's Apprentice?

[Andy Horsman]

Carlisle's 6'4" striker, Gary Madine is under contract until 2011, and has been scouted by Premier League clubs.At 17, he's big, raw, inexperienced, but must have enormous potential to be tied up for at least another 3+ years by John Ward.

We need striking options, and with Dele heading for the twilight of his career(with the greatest respect), a replacement, who is gifted and hungry to learn might be a worthy acquisiton.

I have no idea if they'd part with him, or whether he'd want to go, but it's a consideration, especially if Carlisle are still interested in buying Keogh.

With Vokes having gone to Wolves, from Bournemouth, young Madine might be a similar player worth thinking about, albeit slightly younger and with slightly less first team experience.

Your thoughts........

[sephjnr]

NO "TARGET MEN". PLEASE.

We've had too many of them and have had consistent proof that most of their goals have come from lucky positioning, instead of well-crafted moves with good supply. We need a little more skill and a LOT more speed up front, not more pointless reactionary hoofing towards Del Boy and Trunds when we can't see through well-placed midfielders.

[funky monkey]

NO "TARGET MEN". PLEASE.

We've had too many of them and have had consistent proof that most of their goals have come from lucky positioning, instead of well-crafted moves with good supply. We need a little more skill and a LOT more speed up front, not more pointless reactionary hoofing towards Del Boy and Trunds when we can't see through well-placed midfielders.

totally agree with that even though dele hasnt done anything wrong i feel it has effected our style of play the midfield seem to use him as a scape goat instead of using a bit more quality (just personal opinion). but definetly speed needed up front with abit more finishing quality. would love to see phillips up front with some one quick (dreaming)

[cidercity1987]

Isn't Madine quick as **** though?

I thought so when he came on against Leeds in the play offs.

[sephjnr]

You're both correct, but the "lump it" philosophy will set in once the other side figures things out, where we need to have attackers that give themselves time to react to their markers and make nuisances of themselves even when off the ball. That's why we need more of a speed/skill mix than size/skill. Granted, if Dele can do that we should bleedin' LET HIM instead of hoofing.

[Andy Horsman]

This aversion to a target man is a bit odd if you don't mind me saying so.Leroy Lita scored loads playing with Steve Brooker a target man, as did the legendary super Bob Taylor alongdside Robbie Turner.

Lets not confuse the use of an effective target man, with playing route 1 football bypassing the midfield.

What it gives us is attacking options/variations.

Shearer was an ideal target man, as was Les Ferdinand.Both were also great footballers, not just huge lump it up to 'em Devon Whites.

Trunds always said he played better with a big guy as his strike partner, and he is the last player you would associate with route 1 whooshball ala Watford.

[sephjnr]

Lets not confuse the use of an effective target man, with playing route 1 football bypassing the midfield.

Go over the Palace matches again, count the number of air-balls towards Dele and Trunds to see if they're coming more from the midfield than they are from the backs. It's not the midfield being bypassed, it's the midfield trying to bypass their markers the same way. I'm saying that more passes towards the front (at least at the away leg) were coming from the sky, and nothing came of most of them because midfielders were equal to ours and so were the defenders for the most part.

That's been a HUGE problem for most of the season. We haven't trained our strikers enough to give themselves space to think, and if we keep on buying 6-footers the temptation to do a slight lob into traffic from the mid isn't going to go away. Yes, we've had moments of utter delight from McIndoe, Sproule and - to a lesser extent - Marv, but don't most of those end in crosses towards the big man looking for the header?

Am I not giving big guys enough credit in general? quite probably. I'm just saying that now we've survived one season in the second tier we know what to expect from teams that stonewall whatever attacks we try, and we need to work towards clever flicks, rushing attacks and - most importantly - pulling the f*cking trigger.

[funky monkey]

Go over the Palace matches again, count the number of air-balls towards Dele and Trunds to see if they're coming more from the midfield than they are from the backs. It's not the midfield being bypassed, it's the midfield trying to bypass their markers the same way. I'm saying that more passes towards the front (at least at the away leg) were coming from the sky, and nothing came of most of them because midfielders were equal to ours and so were the defenders for the most part.

That's been a HUGE problem for most of the season. We haven't trained our strikers enough to give themselves space to think, and if we keep on buying 6-footers the temptation to do a slight lob into traffic from the mid isn't going to go away. Yes, we've had moments of utter delight from McIndoe, Sproule and - to a lesser extent - Marv, but don't most of those end in crosses towards the big man looking for the header?

Am I not giving big guys enough credit in general? quite probably. I'm just saying that now we've survived one season in the second tier we know what to expect from teams that stonewall whatever attacks we try, and we need to work towards clever flicks, rushing attacks and - most importantly - pulling the f*cking trigger.

Spot on there lets not forget in the first half of the season we were being compared to arsenal(football style). This was down to good movement and quality and mainly from the midfield, they were the ones scoring the goals. This wasnt the case in the second half of the season.

[little un]

Madine linked with Man Utd and Newcastle]

Maybe the lad knows how to play football? Might offer a little more than a hoofball option but don't think we would be in for him, likely to cost us alot, not so good when you consider he's an unestablished player.

In Johnson we trust.

[petehinton]

Would rather us play the ball to Trundles feet with his back facing goal so he can use his skills to turn and shoot

Since Adebola has joined i feel Mccoumbe in particular has opted to hoof the ball up; can't pick a pass for his life !