[Albion] End of the line for Locadia

[Cowfold Seagull]

Harsh to say the least , judging a player on so few starting games and several sub ins and then on a missed header when he obviously is low on confidence and has admitted heading is his weak spot.

I am not going to say he is the best thing since sliced bread but people are too quick to jump down a players throat for one bad miss , the bigger picture is he has made some very good promising runs not picked out by the supply chain & made some good decisions. Probably not enough to be a prem sucess but he isnt as bad and most the bed wetters on here are saying he is , get a grip people.

Well said Coz, my thoughts entirely.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Our formula at present, is reasonably successful for a club of our stature. We know we are not going to cut teams to ribbons from open play so set pieces are vital. In Murray, Dunk and Duffy, we cause teams problems. Most of our opportunities come from set pieces. We also need to be able to defend in depth and three strong headers of the ball greatly help our cause.
It was clear, if we were going to continue with our fairly pragmatic style, relying on counter attack and set pieces, that we needed a forward with similar abilities to Murray. i.e. a better version of Hemed. A good solid header of the ball. Not necessarily bilndingly quick but able to hold the ball and defend well in his own box. Baldock has been upgraded to Andone and we can all see the benefit. It therefore begs the question as to why we should spend all this money on a striker, who, by his own admission, is not a good header of the ball. We have seen the evidence of our own eyes. When Murray doesn't start we have no aerial threat upfront. What is the point of crossing the ball from open play? Our strikers are not going to get multiple chances. We don't create that many. Murray has a decent conversion rate. Yesterday, we had one golden chance. Both Murray and Hemed would have scored that.
Locardia has come from a lower level of football. Ask PSV fans if they were sorry to lose him or delighted at getting a lot of money for him and you will find that once the laughter has subsided, they are amazed at the fee they got for him. At that level, it tells you everything. Our recruitment team haven't quite got this one right but it can be corrected in January.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Our formula at present, is reasonably successful for a club of our stature. We know we are not going to cut teams to ribbons from open play so set pieces are vital. In Murray, Dunk and Duffy, we cause teams problems. Most of our opportunities come from set pieces. We also need to be able to defend in depth and three strong headers of the ball greatly help our cause.
It was clear, if we were going to continue with our fairly pragmatic style, relying on counter attack and set pieces, that we needed a forward with similar abilities to Murray. i.e. a better version of Hemed. A good solid header of the ball. Not necessarily bilndingly quick but able to hold the ball and defend well in his own box. Baldock has been upgraded to Andone and we can all see the benefit. It therefore begs the question as to why we should spend all this money on a striker, who, by his own admission, is not a good header of the ball. We have seen the evidence of our own eyes. When Murray doesn't start we have no aerial threat upfront. What is the point of crossing the ball from open play? Our strikers are not going to get multiple chances. We don't create that many. Murray has a decent conversion rate. Yesterday, we had one golden chance. Both Murray and Hemed would have scored that.
Locardia has come from a lower level of football. Ask PSV fans if they were sorry to lose him or delighted at getting a lot of money for him and you will find that once the laughter has subsided, they are amazed at the fee they got for him. At that level, it tells you everything. Our recruitment team haven't quite got this one right but it can be corrected in January.

Signing players of any real calibre in January, especially established goal scoring strikers, and at a sensible price, is always ridiculously difficult I do hope no one is holding their breath.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Signing players of any real calibre in January, especially established goal scoring strikers, and at a sensible price, is always ridiculously difficult I do hope no one is holding their breath.

Not advocating a prolific goalscorer just someone with a modicum of aerial ability. In our set-up, that is a pre-requisite. We are falling short because Locardia and Andone have no aerial prowess and neither do any midfielders we have.

 

[GT49er]

Signing players of any real calibre in January, especially established goal scoring strikers, and at a sensible price, is always ridiculously difficult I do hope no one is holding their breath.

We managed just fine last January with Locad...............






.........oh.

 

[GT49er]

Tomer?

'cough' Aaron......

'cough' Victor........

 

[FatSuperman]

Surely, some more patience is needed here? Some players take more time to settle than others, some need more games than others. I would imagine that spending that kind of money on a player and then effectively writing it off is not an easy decision. Of course, we cannot afford to lose out in the Prem due to not wanting to admit a loss on Locadia, but there is probably a middle ground - which the club appear to be taking. No doubt there are many examples of players that were passed on, only to show some real quality at their next club.

I hope that by the end of December, mid-Jan we are still in a strong position in the league, and therefore don't need another costly addition that may not be immediately effective.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Not advocating a prolific goalscorer just someone with a modicum of aerial ability. In our set-up, that is a pre-requisite. We are falling short because Locardia and Andone have no aerial prowess and neither do any midfielders we have.

Hey I'm not disagreeing! merely pointing out that I've a feeling it's going to be far from eay to bring quality players in mid season.

 

[nwgull]

Reminded me of Gross at Liverpool

Sent from my TA-1020 using Tapatalk

Gross at least forced a corner and a fantastic save out of the keeper. Locadia put his header about a foot over the bar - a significant margin to miss by from 6 yards.

 

[GT49er]

I hope that by the end of December, mid-Jan we are still in a strong position in the league, and therefore don't need another costly addition that may not be immediately effective.

Nobody needs a costly addition that may not be immediately effective!






Bit of a shame we bought one last year.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Surely, some more patience is needed here? Some players take more time to settle than others, some need more games than others. I would imagine that spending that kind of money on a player and then effectively writing it off is not an easy decision. Of course, we cannot afford to lose out in the Prem due to not wanting to admit a loss on Locadia, but there is probably a middle ground - which the club appear to be taking. No doubt there are many examples of players that were passed on, only to show some real quality at their next club.

I hope that by the end of December, mid-Jan we are still in a strong position in the league, and therefore don't need another costly addition that may not be immediately effective.

Yes absolotely this, your final paragraph is especially true. The signs so far are that we will have done enough by the end of the season to have done enough to retian our Premier League status anyway, (although l hope the club don't take that as a given), and I think that is the extent of our ambition at the moment.

Therefore the club may well wait until the summer transfer window, when it shouldn't be quite as difficult, to procure a Locasia replacement, IF they feel it is still necessary.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Gross at least forced a corner and a fantastic save out of the keeper. Locadia put his header about a foot over the bar - a significant margin to miss by from 6 yards.

Give him a bit of rope, even the best miss chances like that sometimes. The guy probably feels under a lot of pressure at the moment too, and that won't have helped.

 

[Mackenzie]

Yes absolotely this, your final paragraph is especially true. The signs so far are that we will have done enough by the end of the season to have done enough to retian our Premier League status anyway, (although l hope the club don't take that as a given), and I think that is the extent of our ambition at the moment.

Therefore the club may well wait until the summer transfer window, when it shouldn't be quite as difficult, to procure a Locasia replacement, IF they feel it is still necessary.

Ferguson’s secret was strengthening from a position of strength. IF we are still up and around mid-table in January why not at least try and sign that seemingly unattainable player whilst we are looking like a good thing.

 

[Acker79]

It was clear, if we were going to continue with our fairly pragmatic style, relying on counter attack and set pieces, that we needed a forward with similar abilities to Murray. i.e. a better version of Hemed. A good solid header of the ball. Not necessarily bilndingly quick but able to hold the ball and defend well in his own box.

One of the cliches of team criticism is 'there's no plan b' (A bizarre criticism that I personally feel is a big indicator that people don't really understand football tactics - and I say that as someone who doesn't claim to know a lot about football tactics, so that isn't borne out of a sense of 'I know more than them'). But having said that, a frequent requirement of new signings is 'they offer us something different to what we have'. We have a Murray who, touch wood (no, not that one), should be with us for another season at least. If a better version of him becomes available to the likes of us, let's get him, but that isn't a priority right now.

I'm not saying Locadia is the right man, but signing someone different to Murray gives us alternatives. That's probably why we bought him. Something different, not another Murray. But if we go down that route, fans need to change their expectations, and the team needs to adjust their play to suit whoever comes in as an alternative tactic. But that alternative also needs to produce the goods.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Ferguson’s secret was strengthening from a position of strength. IF we are still up and around mid-table in January why not at least try and sign that seemingly unattainable player whilst we are looking like a good thing.

I'm sure that the recuitment team are forever looking to strengthwen the existing squad, (or if not they should be), it's just such a difficult process half way through the season, when so many clubs are after the few quality players that are available, and bidding wars escalate as a result.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Surely, some more patience is needed here? Some players take more time to settle than others, some need more games than others.

He’s had a year, how much longer do you suggest?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Give him a bit of rope.

Willingly.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

One of the cliches of team criticism is 'there's no plan b' (A bizarre criticism that I personally feel is a big indicator that people don't really understand football tactics - and I say that as someone who doesn't claim to know a lot about football tactics, so that isn't borne out of a sense of 'I know more than them'). But having said that, a frequent requirement of new signings is 'they offer us something different to what we have'. We have a Murray who, touch wood (no, not that one), should be with us for another season at least. If a better version of him becomes available to the likes of us, let's get him, but that isn't a priority right now.

I'm not saying Locadia is the right man, but signing someone different to Murray gives us alternatives. That's probably why we bought him. Something different, not another Murray. But if we go down that route, fans need to change their expectations, and the team needs to adjust their play to suit whoever comes in as an alternative tactic. But that alternative also needs to produce the goods.

Andone gives us something different from Murray in that he has the pace to run in behind defences. I'm not sure Locadia has that, even though we were told he was fast. He says he likes to play as a support striker, which is a role we don't start games with, and if he means a number ten, then Gross fulfils that role and March appears to be the understudy, Clearly Hughton didn't fancy Locadia there. He also likes attacking on the left of a three, another role that doesn't exist in our present set-up, and one that Izquierdo could fill if we did.

Maybe we could do a six-month swap with a team that wants a Locadia and has someone more like Murray, because there's no back-up if he gets injured, unless we recall Hemed.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

He’s had a year, how much longer do you suggest?

A year in which he has played so few games. Not the club's fault perhaps with Glenn playing so well, but without a run of games no one will ever be sure whether he is up to Premier League football or not.

It's Catch 22 l guess.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Andone gives us something different from Murray in that he has the pace to run in behind defences. I'm not sure Locadia has that, even though we were told he was fast. He says he likes to play as a support striker, which is a role we don't start games with, and if he means a number ten, then Gross fulfils that role and March appears to be the understudy, Clearly Hughton didn't fancy Locadia there. He also likes attacking on the left of a three, another role that doesn't exist in our present set-up, and one that Izquierdo could fill if we did.

Maybe we could do a six-month swap with a team that wants a Locadia and has someone more like Murray, because there's no back-up if he gets injured, unless we recall Hemed.

I agree that there is no chance of Locadia becoming our number ten. That is Pascale Gross's role, and he is very much one of the first names on Chris Hughton's team sheet. If he doesn't play there then that role would go to Andone or March, or even Davy Propper who occupies that position for the Netherlands.

As I mentioned on a thread a while ago, it may well have been felt by the club, that we wouldn't be seeing nearly as much of Glenn in the starting eleven this season, so they formulated another way of playing that would have accommodated Locadia, unfortunately for him, it hasn't turned out that way.