David Connolly Goal Machine

[Hullfox]

Not sure how the conversation can be based around getting rid of Connolly when the priorities have to be elsewhere.

Will getting rid of him make De Vries good, Wright the finished article, Blake hungry, Dublin younger?

No, probably not.

Is it any wonder he's nervous in front of goal, he knows he's our only realistic chance of a forward scoring.

He undoubtedly has ability but he needs supporting by those around him. That in my opinion is where we have been lacking.

Replacing Connolly with another player will at best put us back where we are now. It will not cure any of the other faults we have with our forwards.

[Guest]

I still think that comparing him to Akinbiyi is disgusting though. Your reasons add up fairly, but if you asked anyone involved in football they would tell you David Connolly is a hell of alot better than Akinbiyi. My opinion doesn't come in to it really, I rate Connolly but he certainly doesn't bowl me over when I watch him. I just know that he's a million times better than that piece of shit we had in Akinbiyi and he's better than all our other current strikers.

Time is a great healer and obviously people have forgotten how disgarceful Ade Akinbiyi was.

92659[/snapback]

Not at all, Ade was a shocking player, but he was brought here to play 2nd fiddle to Collymore, not be the main striker. The price tag put him immediately into the firing line. If Taylor had paid £250,000 for him, and not pissed of Collymore, then I think Akinbiyi would have escaped the criticism.

Connolly arguably has more skill than Akinbiyi, and works as hard, but he was brought here to be the main striker, and for any number of legitimate reasons it isn't working. If Adams had paid a couple of million for him, I'm sure the majority of fans would be calling for him to be sold to the first available buyer.

But isn't this what makes football interesting?

[Ric Flair]

I still think that comparing him to Akinbiyi is disgusting though. Your reasons add up fairly, but if you asked anyone involved in football they would tell you David Connolly is a hell of alot better than Akinbiyi. My opinion doesn't come in to it really, I rate Connolly but he certainly doesn't bowl me over when I watch him. I just know that he's a million times better than that piece of shit we had in Akinbiyi and he's better than all our other current strikers.

Time is a great healer and obviously people have forgotten how disgarceful Ade Akinbiyi was.

92659[/snapback]

Not at all, Ade was a shocking player, but he was brought here to play 2nd fiddle to Collymore, not be the main striker. The price tag put him immediately into the firing line. If Taylor had paid £250,000 for him, and not pissed of Collymore, then I think Akinbiyi would have escaped the criticism.

Connolly arguably has more skill than Akinbiyi, and works as hard, but he was brought here to be the main striker, and for any number of legitimate reasons it isn't working. If Adams had paid a couple of million for him, I'm sure the majority of fans would be calling for him to be sold to the first available buyer.

But isn't this what makes football interesting?

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It does make football interesting, but it makes it frustrating aswell! Now adding Collymore to the same sentance as Akinbiyi, your asking for trouble

Personally I don't think the price tag made any difference to my opinion of Akinbiyi, it just made me feel physically sick everytime he nutmegged himself and sky'ed an open goal. I am the first to admit, Connolly has been ineffective this season. But I put that down to the team he's playing in and other circumstances. Connolly has a far superior record than Akinbiyi ever has in front of goal and I think that allows people to back him up for having a bad season. Akinbiyi has continued to have bad seasons since he proved how woeful he was when he came to us, where as Connolly has had one bad season.

[TrickyTrev]

God knows where he got the '1 goal since boxing day' fact from and that he didn't score many for Watford in the games he played. Connolly only played about 10 games for Feyenoord, so again you can hardly question his record there.

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The truth is that he scored 4 goals (2 pen) in the League and 2 in the FA Cup for West Ham after Boxing Day 2003.

92649[/snapback]

I said 'I think' before saying he had only socred the one goal dince boxing dayas I was rellying on memory. If I had the fact right I could have wrote 'Connolly did not score in open play after boxing day for West Ham last season in the legue', which is 100% accurate.

I also wrote that he had limited oppurtunities for Feyrnoord, which is pretty much exactly what you are saying.

I'm just lloking for explanations because from what I have seen of him his record is extremely suprising. I can only judge what I have seen of him and I am far from impressed. I would be delighterd to be prooved wrong next season and for him to bag 20 goals next season.

[step]

Hoof, you are taking this totally out on context. The comparison was not between akinbadbuy and Connelly football skills. It was the possibility that CL would rely on Connelly to come good, that was compared to PT relying on AA to come good. I do agree with Lisa that both players have a good work rate, but neither produced the results. But that does not mean he will start producing the results. We all know that any player can move club and for what ever reason that player’s game could suddenly improve enormously. Or as is so often the case, the opposite occurs.

As someone you dislikes PT and what he did to us, you will fully appreciate that PT’s blind determination to continue trying to get AA to score, cost us, you will also appreciate that PT did every thing possible to make AA a goal scorer, which included trying to mould a team around AA.

I remember, after AA did one of his miss kicks at an open goal, AA pointing to the floor a yard from where the ball landed and shouting a load of abuse at guppy, obviously blaming guppy for AA shity miss. It was a brilliant cross and deserved praise not abuse but Guppy was taken of by PT. PT’s attempts to mould the team around AA was one of the things that lead to the destruction of the team

Like most fans I like Connelly, I don’t think he is a bad player, everyone agrees he has an excellent work rate and his past achievements at what ever level are not questioned. The concern is that CL could end up repeating the same mistake PT made. It may not even be CL’s fault. (I should imagine CL would love a few million pounds to spend on a striker) but if we start next season hoping that Connelly will come good and for what ever reason Connelly don’t come good, we will probably not get promoted next season.

If we don’t get promoted the club will have some major financial problems and we will then follow the path the trees took to self destruction, selling the better players, replacing management team etc, On the other hand if the club was to let CL spend some money on another striker then we would vastly increase our chances of promotion. Which, IMO must happen

[Ric Flair]

Hoof, you are taking this totally out on context.  The comparison was not between akinbadbuy and Connelly football skills.  It was the possibility that CL would rely on Connelly to come good, that was compared to PT relying on AA to come good.  I do agree with Lisa that both players have a good work rate, but neither produced the results.    But that does not mean he will start producing the results.  We all know that any player can move club and for what ever reason that player’s game could suddenly improve enormously. Or as is so often the case, the opposite occurs.

As someone you dislikes PT and what he did to us, you will fully appreciate that PT’s blind determination to continue trying to get AA to score, cost us, you will also appreciate that PT did every thing possible to make AA a goal scorer, which included trying to mould a team around AA. 

I remember, after AA did one of his miss kicks at an open goal, AA pointing to the floor a yard from where the ball landed and shouting a load of abuse at guppy, obviously blaming guppy for AA shity miss.  It was a brilliant cross and deserved praise not abuse but Guppy was taken of by PT.  PT’s attempts to mould the team around AA was one of the things that lead to the destruction of the team

Like most fans I like Connelly, I don’t think he is a bad player, everyone agrees he has an excellent work rate and his past achievements at what ever level are not questioned.  The concern is that CL could end up repeating the same mistake PT made.  It may not even be CL’s fault. (I should imagine CL would love a few million pounds to spend on a striker) but if we start next season hoping that Connelly will come good and for what ever reason Connelly don’t come good, we will probably not get promoted next season.

If we don’t get promoted the club will have some major financial problems and we will then follow the path the trees took to self destruction, selling the better players, replacing management team etc, On the other hand if the club was to let CL spend some money on another striker then we would vastly increase our chances of promotion.  Which, IMO must happen

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I didn't take it out of context. The thread went that way when me and Lisa had a debate about Shady Ade. As for your comments that Connolly will hinder the team if he is given chance after chance, I think again your wrong. With Akinbiyi he had players in that team that could supply him with quality passes and it was his shocking finishing that meant he only scored 10 goals that first season.

Can you honestly say Connolly gets supplied with crosses and through balls that Guppy, Izzet, Lennon and Savage would freely give to Akinbiyi? I think not. Gudjonsson couldn't pass wind, let alone a ball. Williams is a good passer, but whenever he gets the ball the rest of the team don't move for him. Gillespie can't beat a man, let alone cross the ball and Tiatto is becoming a liability. Hughes looks like he could link up well with Connolly and give him the passes he needs, but time will tell.

If you can guarantee me that if Connolly is dropped and either one of our current strikers or a new striker comes in and starts scoring the goals we need to succeed then i'll accept that Connolly is bad for the team. But I doubt that will or could happen, given the state of the rest of our team who struggle to play to strikers strengths.

Perhaps i'm being harsh on our current team and perhaps it is all Connolly's fault as I do admit he has missed a fair few chances. But then again, when was the last time you saw our wingers fire plenty of good crosses in to the box in a match? Or defence splitting through balls from the midfielders to put Connolly through? Very rare, about as rare as the Leeds United shiny sticker in the 94/95 premier sticker album.

I admit that we can't rely on Connolly's past and sometimes it just doesn't work out for players at some clubs, but I don't see a better option than Connolly at the minute. He works hard for the team, scores almost every penalty he gets which is a handy asset to have and he's our top scorer.

PS Tricky Trev, Connolly did score from open play after boxing day in the league. As Steven pointed out he scored 4 goals in the league and 2 in the FA Cup after boxing day. The 4 in the league consisted of 2 penalties and 2 goals from open play. Hence he did score from open play after boxing day in the league.

Back to the drawing board..............

[step]

You right it connelly dont get the service he should and he is probably the best option we have. but when we are safe from relegation, i would like to see Moore on for 90 mins.

I donty have to be anyones fault, maybe connelly aint gelled with the rest. Maybe the rest of the sqaud are crap. I dont realyu know. But what I do know is connelly has missed opertunities that he should have scored from.

Is it his nerve, confidence again I dont know. but do you think we should risk waiting until half way through next season before we panic that we aint got a goal scorer? I certainly dont.

Get one in now.

[funnkyh]

i think that the high expectations on both him and the club at the start of the season have affected his performances.

However, he has scored goals in a medicore (though improved in recent weeks) team and there isnt a sensible alternative:

de vries

dublin - old plus we need him in defence!

wright - ok hes not been in the first team but loan spells at other clubs have shown he isnt in the same class as connolly

scowcroft - enough said

and moore - hasnt been particularly impressive for the reserves - though think he deserves a couple of games ahead of de vries.

ditching him after a season will not achieve anything, we need to build the team for the future. By all means, another striker in the summer would be good, but this doesnt mean getting rid of connolly. He is the best we have got and we cant afford to 2 new forwards (under 30) in the summer of his calibre or better.

Also, he seems to care about the club and gives 100% consistently, again putting him above the other strikers.

You dont turn into a bad player overnight and his record at wimbeldon speaks for itself. got high hopes for next season, once the squad is settled and the team starts to believe in itself once more hell be fine! (hopefully! )

think its a shame that we didnt get andy kirk though - hes scored in every game he has played in for a very poor northampton side!