Goals from wide

[Sharpe's Fox]

Did we ever seriously look at Jarrod Bowen? Possible that BR and the scouting team dismissed him after proper analysis but he seems to me a great fit.

[sdb]

31 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Did we ever seriously look at Jarrod Bowen? Possible that BR and the scouting team dismissed him after proper analysis but he seems to me a great fit.

It was probably seen as a risk due to no PL experience, and the fact we could've attracted better with the promise of CL football in the summer.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and the irony is that if we'd signed him, we'd more likely have finished top 4.

 

[Ric Flair]

33 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Did we ever seriously look at Jarrod Bowen? Possible that BR and the scouting team dismissed him after proper analysis but he seems to me a great fit.

Not done that much at West Ham yet has he? His lack of pace was the obvious concern as he is a creative type with ridiculous skill to negate that, he's a very good finisher at a lower level. Will be interesting to see how he does next season but there's several others out there i'd hope we'd prioritise over Bowen.

[Ricey]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Not done that much at West Ham yet has he? His lack of pace was the obvious concern as he is a creative type with ridiculous skill to negate that, he's a very good finisher at a lower level. Will be interesting to see how he does next season but there's several others out there i'd hope we'd prioritise over Bowen.

He's done really well as far as I know. Certainly looked the business whenever I've seen him.

 

Seemed like a perfect fit for us in January, especially considering how successful we've been with recruits from the Championship in the past.

[Guest Mickyblueeyes]

Get Kevin Phillips back to work with Barnes on composure and he will fly. Barnes did very well for first season and if he could add that composure to his finishing, he will be an exceptional player. Big fan of his, it’s a shame we don’t have a long pre-season before next because I think his work over the summer will only develop him further. 
 

A right winger is a must in this window.

[messerschmitt]

4 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Calvin Stengs

Victor Tsygankov

Tete

Matheus Pereira

Takefusa Kubo

Samuel Chukwuese

Riccardo Orsolini

David Brooks

Brais Mendes

Maxwel Cornet

Bryan Mbuemo

Dennis Man (rough diamond in the making)

Alex Collado (just watched some highlights of high - PHWOOOAAR)

Which ones do you think are genuinely better than what we have, I think Barnes and Gray are underrated, some guy on YouTube is always better till we get him here, and which ones do you think we could realistically get?

[Ric Flair]

48 minutes ago, messerschmitt said:

Which ones do you think are genuinely better than what we have, I think Barnes and Gray are underrated, some guy on YouTube is always better till we get him here, and which ones do you think we could realistically get?

Stengs, Tsygankov, Brooks and Orsolini would immediately improve us from the right. I'd imagine Pereira will make the step up to the PL given how gifted he looks and his goals and assists last season in the Championship are unbelievable. Chukwuese is a star in the making and the others are all at varying stages of their careers but I think are better than Gray, Albrighton and possibly Perez (we know his limitations as a winger as opposed to playing centrally) without question.

[messerschmitt]

47 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Stengs, Tsygankov, Brooks and Orsolini would immediately improve us from the right. I'd imagine Pereira will make the step up to the PL given how gifted he looks and his goals and assists last season in the Championship are unbelievable. Chukwuese is a star in the making and the others are all at varying stages of their careers but I think are better than Gray, Albrighton and possibly Perez (we know his limitations as a winger as opposed to playing centrally) without question.

Thanks for your info, you should be on the staff at City. I'm not sure about Brooks though.

[FoxFossil]

Wouldn't it be better value to get a top finishing coach, what with super new training facility? Have we currently got a specialist, anybody know?

Edited 29 July 2020 by FoxFossil

[Stadt]

Perez was a mistake really, not that he’s a bad player but more the opportunity cost of spending £30m on a player that wasn’t going to have a transformative effect on the team. His signing is enough to dismiss the idea of “proven premier league players” for me, this is a player in his prime that’s played in England for 6 years and he’s scored 8 goals. @Dan LCFC has mentioned that his goals have all came when we’ve already been winning too (aside from Sheff Utd), so his goals haven’t been match winners or even equalisers. 
 

I’m not really buying the “he's out of position” argument either, he’s not pulled up any trees centrally and doesn’t create enough to change our system to get the best out of him at the detriment of others.

Edited 29 July 2020 by Stadt

[Freeman's Wharfer]

As soon as Barnes finds his finishing touch he’ll be one hell of a player. Bring in a finishing coach to work with him one-to-one for a few months and get him doing extra after training. He more or less has at least two or three chances a game currently and if we can up his conversion rate then he’ll be a great asset.

 

As for the right-wing, I’d quite happily bin them all off.
 

- Albrighton needs to be playing about the same number of games Fuchs has this season, next season - Leicester legend and reliable but doesn’t suit the style or contribute goals.

 

- Powderpuff Perez flatters to deceive. One productive game in every 7 or 8 but too soft and ineffective the rest of the time. To improve us, he needs to become a bit-part player from the bench with 15 or 20 minutes here or there plus cups.

 

- Gray needs selling before his contract runs down even more. He has the technical ability but not what you need between the ears unfortunately. Can strike a ball perfectly well and has all the attributes of speed, ball control and strength but if the brain can’t help you bring it all together consistently then you’ll only ever play in flashes.

 

Spend some serious money on a proven right winger, have Barnes on the left and then have Perez and another promising youngster on the bench.

[Ric Flair]

8 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Perez was a mistake really, not that he’s a bad player but more the opportunity cost of spending £30m on a player that want going to have a transformative effect on the team. His signing is enough to dismiss the idea of “proven premier league players” for me, this is a player in his prime that’s played in England for 6 years and he’s scored 8 goals. @Dan LCFC has mentioned that his goals have all came when we’ve already been winning too, so his goals haven’t been match diners or even equalisers. 
 

I’m not really buying the “he's out of position” argument either, he’s not pulled up any trees centrally and doesn’t create enough to change our system to get the best out of him at the detriment of others.

 

 

To be fair the amount of games we win by more than 1 goal means a fair amount of our players goals this season weren't match winners. When we win, we tend to win very comfortably.

[PhillippaT]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Stengs, Tsygankov, Brooks and Orsolini would immediately improve us from the right. I'd imagine Pereira will make the step up to the PL given how gifted he looks and his goals and assists last season in the Championship are unbelievable. Chukwuese is a star in the making and the others are all at varying stages of their careers but I think are better than Gray, Albrighton and possibly Perez (we know his limitations as a winger as opposed to playing centrally) without question.

How many right-sided Pereira's are we allowed to sign/field, btw?   

[honeybradger]

6 minutes ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

As soon as Barnes finds his finishing touch he’ll be one hell of a player. Bring in a finishing coach to work with him one-to-one for a few months and get him doing extra after training. He more or less has at least two or three chances a game currently and if we can up his conversion rate then he’ll be a great asset.

 

As for the right-wing, I’d quite happily bin them all off.
 

- Albrighton needs to be playing about the same number of games Fuchs has this season, next season - Leicester legend and reliable but doesn’t suit the style or contribute goals.

 

- Powderpuff Perez flatters to deceive. One productive game in every 7 or 8 but too soft and ineffective the rest of the time. To improve us, he needs to become a bit-part player from the bench with 15 or 20 minutes here or there plus cups.

 

- Gray needs selling before his contract runs down even more. He has the technical ability but not what you need between the ears unfortunately. Can strike a ball perfectly well and has all the attributes of speed, ball control and strength but if the brain can’t help you bring it all together consistently then you’ll only ever play in flashes.

 

Spend some serious money on a proven right winger, have Barnes on the left and then have Perez and another promising youngster on the bench.

 

30 minutes ago, messerschmitt said:

Thanks for your info, you should be on the staff at City. I'm not sure about Brooks though.

Brooks had 7 goals 5 assists in 2300 minutes in his first season in the PL and offers a lot more than goals/assists as well. No coincidence when he was injured last year for 5 games and injured this year that bournemouth's form dropped massively/got them relegated.  Think he would do really well in our team with more quality players around him than he had at bournemouth.

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, Ric Flair said:

To be fair the amount of games we win by more than 1 goal means a fair amount of our players goals this season weren't match winners. When we win, we tend to win very comfortably.

Agreed but only scoring the opening goal against Sheffield United is a bit of a problem. I can’t be arsed to look at the score lines in great detail but 5 of his goals came against Southampton and West Ham when we’d already won the games. Whereas Vardy and Barnes goals have came at more crucial junctures 

[Ric Flair]

33 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Agreed but only scoring the opening goal against Sheffield United is a bit of a problem. I can’t be arsed to look at the score lines in great detail but 5 of his goals came against Southampton and West Ham when we’d already won the games. Whereas Vardy and Barnes goals have came at more crucial junctures 

Opened the scoring away at Brighton and Newcastle too as well as setting up both goals away at West Ham.

[Stadt]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Opened the scoring away at Brighton and Newcastle too as well as setting up both goals away at West Ham.

Fair enough. £30m on a 26 year old (27 today actually) with 8 goals and 4 assists isn’t enough. Considering “Barnes can’t finish” and Perez has played over 200 PL games only scoring 2 more goals is disappointing 

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Fair enough. £30m on a 26 year old (27 today actually) with 8 goals and 4 assists isn’t enough. Considering “Barnes can’t finish” and Perez has played over 200 PL games only scoring 2 more goals is disappointing 

Yeah I'm not impressed with his output this season, I expect a significant improvement next season.

[AKCJ]

3 hours ago, Stadt said:

Perez was a mistake really, not that he’s a bad player but more the opportunity cost of spending £30m on a player that wasn’t going to have a transformative effect on the team. His signing is enough to dismiss the idea of “proven premier league players” for me, this is a player in his prime that’s played in England for 6 years and he’s scored 8 goals. @Dan LCFC has mentioned that his goals have all came when we’ve already been winning too (aside from Sheff Utd), so his goals haven’t been match winners or even equalisers. 
 

I’m not really buying the “he's out of position” argument either, he’s not pulled up any trees centrally and doesn’t create enough to change our system to get the best out of him at the detriment of others.

I think you should really remember we signed him as a side that had just finished 9th.

 

He's scored some important goals and has generally been a good player for us. I think now we're a European team he should really be used as depth or a squad player but it's tough to say he's been a mistake.

[adam1]

21 hours ago, Stevosevic said:

BR made it pretty clear last summer that he wanted more players chipping in with goals from the wide positions.

 

I would say he hasn't been to enthused by the returns from Barnes, Gray et al.

 

I would not be surprised if this is our main target area for improving this summer - I hope it is too.

 

Money from Chilwell will hopefully allow us to add more quality up top without impacting our strong defence too much.

I said this last summer. Not enough talent wide up front, not just from goal scoring but creating as well.

 

It was obvious in the last few months of last season - too narrow, no natural width. No threat out wide. We didn't look like scoring, I could not see where a goal was coming from. 

 

I thought this season we could do very well if we did sign such a player. I was waiting to back us top 6, 4, and to win the league (mug) if we did so. No such signing and the money stayed in my pocket. I knew we would have games where we will struggle and lose points.

 

Wolves first game of the season. Norwich at home. These are two examples in the first part of this season.

 

Lack of a signing in that position has cost us top 4. Injuries are irrelevant as we were playing carp before them. Injuries may have cost us 2nd.

 

Problem is - do those in charge have the mindset of injuries being the reason we missed and so not strengthen in this area?

 

 

As for Barnes - talented but not clinical (passing or finishing).

 

Gray - not good enough. Hasn't improved enough. Pace gives us a spark but thats it. Credit where credit due - he doesnt appear to be holding on to the ball too long like he used to.

 

Food for thought - if we cannot sign a winger, do we stick Vardy out wide and play another striker in the middle?

[sacreblueits442]

13 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I joked yesterday but I really think he needs to exaggerate his shooting to try and hit it wider of the goal, a bit like a golfer with a hook needs to try and hit a vicious fade to eventually get the feeling of being able to swing the club more on line. If Barnes could deliberately try and hit it wide then whilst his normal technique sees him hit it down the middle of the goal almost every shot (except the ones he skies over the bar) then it might actually see him hit the corners of the net and from there hone his technique back to a more natural way. I've never known anything like what we've seen this season from him, it's like the middle of the goal is a magnet whatever position he finds himself in.

...I posted in another topic that when it came to shooting he was copping out!!!

  There was nothing wrong with his technique when playing for WBA. He was putting the balls in the corners of goals with great finishes.

  He is afraid to be himself, swinging at balls using power is his way of going through the motions. Perhaps he feels that he needs to get his shot off earlier now he is in the Premiership or he just does not believe in what he is doing.

  He has the technique, and where he is, is in his head. He will continue going through the motions until someone gets in his face and force him to bring what he does in training to the game.

  I would say that Demarai has been allowed to get away with failing and someone needed to be on his case, we have in effect failed him as he has failed himself due to his inability to critique himself.

 I can see Chilwell going to another team and going to another level very quickly, just by giving him the knowledge and confidence to take on a defender, whilst driving into the box. Just how difficult is that to coach?

  You see him do the same thing every week, after all this time, that part of his game should have been sorted!!

 

 

Edited 29 July 2020 by sacreblueits442

[Oldblueyes]

I just wish that Harvey Barnes would go back to WBA and pick up his scoring boots he left whilst playing there. He should be worth at least 10 goals a season to be any good for us.