Waghorn

[Manwell Pablo]

But Cardiff are top and we are 4th, so actually the argument does have some weight doesn't.

Well I said as much didn't I.

Although as I also have said, I don't fancy Cardiff to go up automatically, and their irrelevant anyway it's rare a team goes up without one striker scoring a lot and another contributing a decent amount, or even does well, their an exception to the rule in the top half

Although fair play to Waghorn was a decent display today. Although Derby were awful for the most part of todays game, as they have been away from home for the vast majority of the season. and Nugents 23 minute contribution showed what a proper finisher could do to them

[Sampson]

Great post ..... Wish my memory would serve me that well!!!!

Ferdinand is still my favourite player to pull on a city shirt ..... the header he scored on his home debut from the edge of the box thundered home as he clashed into two defenders and knocked himself out ..... Proper brave number 9 .... and pure class.

If Ferdinand was playing now in a lack of England strikers I think he'd have got 80 caps for England, shame he had to play in the time of Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham. The same could be said of Andy Cole and Robbie Fowler too. We see players like Wellbeck and Bent lining up front for England these days, none of whom are near the quality of Ferdinand, Cole or Fowler. Shame England seems to have a real lack of striking options these days.

I think in terms of ability Collymore and Ferdinand have to be the best strikers we've had since the Lineker and Smith days. It's just a shame they were only here at the very end of their careers, but you could still see their ability shine through even at that age, what we'd have given to have either in their primes.

[Kitchandro]

All this talk of having two twenty goals a season strikers, they are the rarest thing in the game! We haven't had a 20 goal a season striker in the last 20 years( league goals in top two divisions) why does anyone think we could or should have 2 of them now?

We should be trying to improve our squad if possible. The last 20 years is not really relevant, what we are doing now is and we need to buy the players that we think are necessary in January.

I think the figure 20 is overused. We don't necessarily need our strikers to hit that exact number.

What we do need is more than one striker who we can rely on for regular goals and who will take chances presented to them.

We are certainly creating chances game after game and if we got a player like Nugent on a free I think we're capable of getting someone who can at least compete with him in the goalscoring charts. As Glen Murray has shown you don't need to be a world beater to score goals at this level (and yes I'm aware quite a few have been penalties, but still, defences aren't the best). But I don't think the strikers we have are good enough finishers to carry us to automatic promotion. That's not to say they don't have other assets, but you need to make the squad stronger in its weak areas, ie goalscorers.

[Danizen]

This. It's exactly this logic which led to me floating the idea of using Nuge as a Dzeko/Solksjaer style impact sub. A couple of users laughed at the suggestion but it seems tactically preferable to me to be able to change the game with your sub striker than only having weaker, less reliable players on the bench. In games where you need to change things up to get something out of them the lack of another prolific finisher may cost us precious points. Obviously Nuge is so clinical for us that it seems a daft idea, but what do we do when we start him and for whatever reason aren't making an impact?

I'm sure Nige is on top of it though.

Put our best player on the bench?

The obvious flaw in your idea is that we'd lose more points by not having our top goalscorer on the pitch than we'd gain by bringing him on when things aren't going our way. Also, it wouldn't be good for his morale. He looks as a happy as a pig in shit,these days and that's clearly having a positive effect on his form.

[Oxfordfox83]

If Ferdinand was playing now in a lack of England strikers I think he'd have got 80 caps for England, shame he had to play in the time of Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham. The same could be said of Andy Cole and Robbie Fowler too. We see players like Wellbeck and Bent lining up front for England these days, none of whom are near the quality of Ferdinand, Cole or Fowler. Shame England seems to have a real lack of striking options these days.

I think in terms of ability Collymore and Ferdinand have to be the best strikers we've had since the Lineker and Smith days. It's just a shame they were only here at the very end of their careers, but you could still see their ability shine through even at that age, what we'd have given to have either in their primes.

I think you can add Cottee to that list. Sensational technique, fought hard, scored all kinds of goals. Kept out of England by Lineker, Beardsley and then Shearer. Another who'd walk into England these days.

On Waggy, can we now agree that a bigger concern for us than his obvious brilliance in almost scoring (sincerely meant, I think he's a great support striker and he ran it today) is that our midfield just switches off, as a unit, in most games? That, more than anything else will cost us promotion if anything does.

Surely 5waller5 has some stats for that??

[Carl the Llama]

Put our best player on the bench?

The obvious flaw in your idea is that we'd lose more points by not having our top goalscorer on the pitch than we'd gain by bringing him on when things aren't going our way. Also, it wouldn't be good for his morale. He looks as a happy as a pig in shit,these days and that's clearly having a positive effect on his form.

I'm mainly playing Devil's Advocate there, but the theory behind it holds water. Say we're going into an away match against a strong side where Nige wants to adopt a more defensive approach to the match: Have Waggy & Vardy as the strikers and run the defenders down (hopefully getting a goal or two in the process), then bring on Nuge between 50-60 minutes depending on how it's going to capitalise on his talents and their tired legs, as worked so well when we were struggling a bit breaking Derby down.

Obviously it shouldn't be the primary tactic because you're essentially giving up one substitution slot before the match kicks off, but it's certainly something we have in our locker.

[Saxondale]

[Brenfox]

Martyn "woodwork" Waghorn.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Glad he scored, hope he keeps scoring for us. He's a hard worker and appears a likeable bloke good for the team morale if his doing well the teams doing well ala our playoff season.

[dannythefox]

Looking back to his best, hope people get off his back now hes was again the best player on the pitch yesterday!

[MikeyT]

Anybody got that photo of when Waghorn took out Nigel in the dugout and then they had that little "cuddle" on the ground?

I can't find it on Google.

[davieG]

Anybody got that photo of when Waghorn took out Nigel in the dugout and then they had that little "cuddle" on the ground?

I can't find it on Google.

[davieG]

[MikeyT]

http://www.foxestalk...hl__competition

Thank you, sir!

[Rusko187]

Good to have him coming back into a bit of form, ill admit I've not been one of his fans recently but I haven't ever given him some stick about it... All he's needed is game time and to me he gave their defence a job to do.

[cambridgefox]

Glad to say I was wrong,gave him a little stick about his scoring ability and overall play,but he has probably been our best outfield player this season and my gripe was his scoring and lack of composer missing easy opportunities.As the season has progressed his outfield play when I have seen him has been superb and word of mouth and radio commentary has also backed this up.He has kept the work rate ,movement,teamwork and passing to a high level and slowly become a player who couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo to unlucky to converting chances.i can't ask for more from a player.

Big enough to admit I was wrong and chuffed for him and us,I said he needs to step up when Nugent was injured and score a few and he has.

Mark w and Babylon this ones for you!

[5waller5]

Glad to say I was wrong,gave him a little stick about his scoring ability and overall play,but he has probably been our best outfield player this season and my gripe was his scoring and lack of composer missing easy opportunities.As the season has progressed his outfield play when I have seen him has been superb and word of mouth and radio commentary has also backed this up.He has kept the work rate ,movement,teamwork and passing to a high level and slowly become a player who couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo to unlucky to converting chances.i can't ask for more from a player.

Big enough to admit I was wrong and chuffed for him and us,I said he needs to step up when Nugent was injured and score a few and he has.

Mark w and Babylon this ones for you!

2

Bit early to change your mind!!??

[Corky]

That's 2 in 4 games though, when Nugent wasn't involved, as cambridgefox pointed out.

[cambridgefox]

2

Bit early to change your mind!!??

probably change it back in a month,he is on probation!

[Bluetintedspecs]

That's 2 in 4 games though, when Nugent wasn't involved, as cambridgefox pointed out.

Also think it's about run of games and confidence, strikers thrive or die on it!

[indierich06]

Absolutely fantastic peformance from Waggy on Saturday. Those two free kicks were sublime, lovely corner for Whitbread's goal and unlucky not to score with that awesome scissors kick. I can't remember a striker creating so much and being so unlucky. He must have hit the crossbar about 10 times so far this season and various keepers have pulled off some outstanding saves against him. I'm sure some of the numpties on here will use that to prove that 'he's shit' and 'he'll never score enough goals' but if he keeps doing what he's doing, they're going to go in sooner rather than later. He should definitely be Nugent's strike partner from now on, probably one of the best players in our team at the minute and when (not if) he starts putting them away on a regular basis, he will be a class act in this league.

[Captain...]

Absolutely fantastic peformance from Waggy on Saturday. Those two free kicks were sublime, lovely corner for Whitbread's goal and unlucky not to score with that awesome scissors kick. I can't remember a striker creating so much and being so unlucky.

I can, there was a game last season when Beckford just tore them shreds, including a scissors kick that was well saved, I think it was someone shit, and it was on the telly, he looked amazing, did everything but score, I really thought it was the moment when he was going to turn that corner.

...it wasn't.

Just saying.

[indierich06]

I can, there was a game last season when Beckford just tore them shreds, including a scissors kick that was well saved, I think it was someone shit, and it was on the telly, he looked amazing, did everything but score, I really thought it was the moment when he was going to turn that corner.

...it wasn't.

Just saying.

The difference with these two is that with Beckford, it was a once in a blue moon thing - since Waghorn's come back into the side, he's been getting better and better and he's getting consistent. It's almost at the point where I think he's playing a lot better now than when he was on loan with us.

[Captain...]

The difference with these two is that with Beckford, it was a once in a blue moon thing - since Waghorn's come back into the side, he's been getting better and better and he's getting consistent. It's almost at the point where I think he's playing a lot better now than when he was on loan with us.

I wasn't really comparing the 2, just when you said that I couldn't help think of that game where Beckford looked immense but couldn't score.

[indierich06]

I wasn't really comparing the 2, just when you said that I couldn't help think of that game where Beckford looked immense but couldn't score.

Oh yeah, I realise that. Just pointing out that I'm a lot more confident that this one won't be a false dawn - Beckford never really looked bothered about pushing on and improving, you can see in Waghorn's game that he wants to get better and better.