Is this Part of the Reason we Cannot Score?

[London Irish]

But claiming a partnership is underperforming because after ONE game they have not scored is very short sighted.

Not if you take into account the context of those changes, which is the disciplinary problems of a player on his way out of the club, suspensions, injuries, the form of these players and the analysis of the various different defences we face (big and susceptible to pace, or quick and maybe vulnerable to a targetman?)

McGhee puts hours and days of thought into making changes. It's just an immature insult to simplistically label them "short-sighted", each has a rationale that you could try and make more of an effort to understand rather than just play to the Magoo-out mob on here. This is a man whose worked successfuly with strikers for many, many years in management following on from his own experience as a top-class European striker.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

We need a left back, and I'm not convinced that CKR was the best use of the Coca Cola money.

I guess it was a one off opportunity and we took it. Fending off Leicester and Wigan (supposedly). Hindsight, you are probably right.

I think the main reason for our lack of goals is that someone capable of scoring at this level is out of our price range. There are no two ways about it. Strikers are the most expensive and we can't compete....

 

[Uncle Buck]

Not if you take into account the context of those changes, which is the disciplinary problems of a player on his way out of the club, suspensions, injuries, the form of these players and the analysis of the various different defences we face (big and susceptible to pace, or quick and maybe vulnerable to a targetman?)

McGhee puts hours and days of thought into making changes. It's just an immature insult to simplistically label them "short-sighted", each has a rationale that you could try and make more of an effort to understand rather than just play to the Magoo-out mob on here. This is a man whose worked successfuly with strikers for many, many years in management following on from his own experience as a top-class European striker.

To be honest you can only use the disciplinary issues and suspensions in the last 2 months.

From August until November he was chopping between Knight and CKR and Knight and Robinson, but never giving them enough games together.

It is not immature to say it is short sighted, as the selection policy is not getting us the results.

 

[London Irish]

If you actually READ posts you would see I said I would have liked to see Kazim-Richards and Knight paired together.

I did see that post, but I disregarded it as I would any one who would have paired Zamora and CKR. If you had any belief in the simplistic theory you are championing, it should be no problem for you to name two actual players who play for the Albion?

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

This is a man whose worked successfuly with strikers for many, many years in management following on from his own experience as a top-class European striker.

Ive said before Magoo was a half decent striker in his day. But I would argue that he isnt quite working successfully with our shot shy strikers.

 

[London Irish]

It is not immature to say it is short sighted, as the selection policy is not getting us the results.

Well, your belief that we would have got the results playing (insert two players names here?) really lacks any credibility.

 

[LDH]

I did see that post, but I disregarded it as I would any one who would have paired Zamora and CKR. If you had any belief in the simplistic theory you are championing, it should be no problem for you to name two actual players who play for the Albion?

But... Knight has been available (apart from suspensions) for every league game this season. It's too late now though obviously.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Well, your belief that we would have got the results playing (insert two players names here?) really lacks any credibility.

Ah Steve, you are boxed in the corner, so you are making things up.

I never said it would get us results, what I said was the current policy is not getting results.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I would pair Kazim-Richards and Robinson

It would be a risk because they are both young and if our form continues to dip then it could shatter their confidence BUT Robinson's movement is the best we have and he hassles defender which means the balls they are playing forward are not as good.

Giving him a run in the team may also relax him infront of goal.

I would start with those two and once Jake has run himself into the ground bring McCammon on to the hold the ball up for the last twenty minutes as our defence tires and the balls forward are perhaps not as accurate.

 

[London Irish]

Now I have no idea, with what is in the squad probably Knight and Robinson,

 

[Grendel]

I guess it was a one off opportunity and we took it. Fending off Leicester and Wigan (supposedly). Hindsight, you are probably right.

I think the guy has got talent, and has scored some cracking goals, but that's not much consolation when you're in the bottom three.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Magoo played Harty upfront against Hull to embarrass CKR into working harder.

Maybe Harty could actually teach our younger strikers a thing or two by being picked to play.

I think Hart - CKR should be the partnership for the moment.

 

[London Irish]

I never said it would get us results

Well, that's a fantastic criticism of McGhee's methods then.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

McGhee puts hours and days of thought into making changes. This is a man whose worked successfuly with strikers for many, many years in management following on from his own experience as a top-class European striker.

It's amazing, therefore, that a manager with such experience hasn't brought in a targetman worthy of the name when it's been blindingly obvious to even the most casual of observers that Albion have been badly lacking in that department for a season and a half (at least).

 

[Easy 10]

I would start with those two and once Jake has run himself into the ground bring McCammon on to the hold the ball up for the last twenty minutes as our defence tires and the balls forward are perhaps not as accurate.

Nice theory. But frankly, the distribution from the back is hardly laser-guided from the first minute anyway.

Hard though innit ? Choosing a front pairing for the Albion is like choosing what you'd rather have your nuts sawn off with - a rusty pen knife or a blunt spoon.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Well, that's a fantastic criticism of McGhee's methods then.

But his current striker rotation policy is not getting us results, so maybe trying a bit of consistancy with us selection might help. It might also help if we worked out what our strengths are and played to those, rather than consistently worrying about the oppostion and so having some very strange game plans.

 

[TrevorDove]

If the strikers would of been given a chance to gel we might of got better results, that's not having a go at McGhee, it is a widely held opinion in football that a settled strikeforce works better.

As for my choice I would have gone for:

Knight - Kazim-Richards but now Kazim-Richards - McCammon.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

I think it is quality of strikers rather than continuous partnerships. If the strikers cannot score, then no matter who they are paired with, they still won't score. In the Coventry match, we had 17 chances on goal compared to their 6 (according to Yahoo stats). The strikers don't need to be with someone they know to be able to slot them away. Look at teams like Chelsea (granted, a universe away from us) - they use squad rotation, and they have high-calibre strikers to slot in when required. We simply don't. We have strikers who need some work (CKR, Jakey), or strikers that we are not sure about (Turi), or strikers that seem unable to score for whatever reason, not necessarily because they are shit (McC). We need one striker who can come in, and score - he will give the others strikers confidence, and give the team confidence. We should have one before long, hopefully.

 

[Sid James]

The different pairings being put forward say it all. What do you expect him to do, guess and then stick with that guess !!!!

The players aren't there. Maybe he should have seen / done that in the summer and he probably tried but it didn't happen so here we are and we are still trying. But it ain't easy to sign people with no money and no ground.

 

[London Irish]

He gave up on that because Leon didn't have the team spirit to to bring the best out of CKR, hence picking Hart to help CKR up his workrate. Seemed a fair comment to me

As the senior striker Leon let his co-strikers and teammates down big time with his hot and cold displays interspersed with tantrums

That's spot on. Leon and CKR were a poor partnership because neither were fully fit, and the movement between the pair of them wasn't good enough.

They were of course tried in a number of games together to demonstrate that point, and all of us saw it pretty clearly. McGhee would have been seriously remiss carrying on playing them together in every game.

Interestingly, of our 4 wins this season, the most successful front pairing has been Leon and Jake. How many people would have wanted us to have played that all season?