[Albion] Ali J as a striker?

[Icy Gull]

I get what you're saying but its not true. Players become available for sale at the right price all throughout the window. Not just at the beginning.
Especially as other signings are made and squads/teams firm up.
As for Nunez - not sure why he is "proven" - in the Spanish 2nd Division for sure - but how come he's not "who the hell knows"?

Fair enough, care to list the quality strikers who are left for us to potentially purchase? Which ones, Brewster apart, maybe, are there? Put me out of my misery because I am struggling to think of any.

Nunez APPEARED to be our best option but I totally get why he chose Benfica.

I guess I’ll just hang my hat on Ali J

Watkins went for crazy money imo, glad we didn’t go there at that price.

 

[chaileyjem]

Fair enough, care to list the quality strikers who are left for us to potentially purchase? Which ones, Brewster apart, maybe, are there? Put me out of my misery because I am struggling to think of any.
.

I don't think you can be put out of your misery until the window is over so lets wait until then shall we !!

 

[Swansman]

Fair enough, care to list the quality strikers who are left for us to potentially purchase? Which ones, Brewster apart, maybe, are there? Put me out of my misery because I am struggling to think of any.

Nunez APPEARED to be our best option but I totally get why he chose Benfica.

I guess I’ll just hang my hat on Ali J

Watkins went for crazy money imo, glad we didn’t go there at that price.

In every top 25 league or so in Europe there is at least one striker who would do well in the PL. Trouble is just to identify those players but its not impossible.

 

[blue'n'white]

I presume that all this speculation is after what Potter said in the fan's forum yesterday when he mentioned strikers and included AJ in those names (I haven't read the rest of the post so apologies.
I'm all in favour of him staying and having a go at being a striker - he scored plenty in Holland and football is littered with players who've changed roles and been successful.
There's something very likeable about AJ and I hope that he's a success.

 

[Nibbler]

Yup I would like to see AJ in a more advanced role alongside Maupay and Trossard. We just haven't seen the best of him yet so need to try something different this season. The guy can finish and and with Lallana pulling the strings in midfield it could bear some fruit.

I would also try him on pens as well which would boost his confidence.

 

[FF1]

rw

View attachment 128216

Here's the goals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsgbWyTjPNI

It is so nice to see him play with confidence in Holland. If Potter is going to use him this year, he needs to re-inject the confidence that he sapped away from him last year when he did not play him or even including him in the roster month after month... So much of football is psychological...

 

[Perkino]

Last season was often a back 4 but we have looked to be favouring a back 5 during preseason. As we have seen with England it can make a team quite predictable.

It all depends on our formation and our attacking intent. We don't have the firepower or attacking threat to play 4-3-3 or 4-5-1. I can see Potter wanting to play 3 CB's which he has done previously so a 5-3-2 if we get another striker or possibly just a 5-4-1 and rotate Maupay/Connolly. AJ could work well as a RW and an attacking trio including Trossard could be interesting but I think that would require a 4-3-3

 

[AlbionBro]

He always seems a bit lightweight to me, I wonder if he is a bit of an image lad. He needs some roughing up if we are going to see him shine this season.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Yes I know I have split the no vote

Indeed you did. Would have been much fairer if you'd added a second yes option of "Yes, back in Holland". I'd have voted for that.

 

[Stat Brother]

and an:-

'I always want him to be a success'

option.

 

[Whitechapel]

What part of the pool of quality strikers is diminishing day by day aren’t you getting?

If we’d got Nunez, yes maybe midtable. If we get some unproven foreign striker or Championship/League One punt in three weeks who the hell knows?

So let me get this straight.

Nunez; an unproven foreign striker from the Spanish version of the Championship - Good.
An unproven foreign striker or one from the English version of the Championship - Bad

I didn't realise strikers worked on a basis of double negatives cancelling each other out.

 

[vagabond]

The club should never have said they want to be consistent top ten side, fans now have expectations and in reality it’s another season of Solly & Dale ****ing things up.

Only because some people are wilfully or ignorantly misconstruing their intent.

It’s a long term aim. Not the next few seasons necessarily or even THIS season. It’s good to have an objective like this in life, sport or business.

Things can change very quickly in football. I can certainly see teams like Everton, Saints, Spurs, Wolves not always having good seasons.

Where did Burnley finish couple of years ago? (7th?).

 

[vagabond]

Its hard to see it period. I did the BBC guess the final table positions thing and when you do (and considering the resourses advantages others have) its hard to see how tbh.

Liverpool - Citeh - Man U - Chelsea - Spurs - Arsenal - Leicester - Everton - Wolves - Stains - hard to see us finishing above any of the them, anytime soon

If Burnley can do it, there’s no excuses.

One day we can.

 

[Icy Gull]

So let me get this straight.

Nunez; an unproven foreign striker from the Spanish version of the Championship - Good.
An unproven foreign striker or one from the English version of the Championship - Bad

I didn't realise strikers worked on a basis of double negatives cancelling each other out.

Are a club as big as Benfica after any of the other unproven strikers?

 

[b.w.2.]

Are a club as big as Benfica after any of the other unproven strikers?

No


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[Guinness Boy]

Are a club as big as Benfica after any of the other unproven strikers?

I hate answering for other people, so crack on if you read this [MENTION=29779]Whitechapel[/MENTION] but this has slightly boiled my piss.

Sheffield Wednesday are big. Leeds are big. Celtic are big. We've spent several of the previous few months arguing that one of them won't fly up the EPL just because of their bigness, another are way below the standard of our third or fourth choice centre back and several years arguing the remaining one are a club filled with deluded idiots.

Benfica have virtually no competition and the attendences in Portugal are generally awful. It's Monkey Tennis on speed.

Plus, "a big side" being interested in a player doesn't make them good. See all Man U's failures.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'd love to see him on the right of a front three, with Trossard on the left - perfect position for him as well. Maupay in the middle, and Connolly could fit into all three positions.

But that means you have to play 433 (too attacking) or 523 - could work, but very light in midfield.

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That means we would have 4 strikers.

That's a luxury. Need to get rid of one so we can bring in a new full back, Shirley?

 

[Icy Gull]

I hate answering for other people, so crack on if you read this [MENTION=29779]Whitechapel[/MENTION] but this has slightly boiled my piss.

Sheffield Wednesday are big. Leeds are big. Celtic are big. We've spent several of the previous few months arguing that one of them won't fly up the EPL just because of their bigness, another are way below the standard of our third or fourth choice centre back and several years arguing the remaining one are a club filled with deluded idiots.

Benfica have virtually no competition and the attendences in Portugal are generally awful. It's Monkey Tennis on speed.

Plus, "a big side" being interested in a player doesn't make them good. See all Man U's failures.

So we have now moved on to Nunez is probably not all that anyway and we shouldn’t read anything into the fact that he chose Benfica over us, because they are not very big anyway?

OK, so why did he chose them over us? (I do know the answer btw!)

 

[Guinness Boy]

OK, so why did he chose them over us? (I do know the answer btw!)

I know you think you know the answer but no one on here knows the full ins and outs of our transfer bids. You could guess at more money, you could also guess we weren't THAT interested. And both would be guesses. But he's going to have a much easier life playing for one of that league's decent teams against the Portuguese equivalent of Falkirk.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

It is so nice to see him play with confidence in Holland. If Potter* is going to use him this year, he needs to re-inject the confidence that he sapped away from him last year when he did not play him or even including him in the roster month after month... So much of football is psychological...

Yeah. What an idiot. Why doesn't Potter understand that psychology is an important part of football success?

*ever noticed when people want to be disrespectful they drop a person's Christian name?