Hemed and Baldock

[JBizzle]

Hemed can't be judged on last night, and to be fair he was decent when he was on. Baldock and Wilson... Hmm... I guess the question I'd ask is: after Hemed and Sidwell went off, where was their service?

Skalak was ok but didn't create much, Knockeart's most significant contribution was getting injured and Towell looked (understandably) way off the pace. I'm in no way saying that we don't need replacements, but what I am saying is that sometimes the issue is deeper than the strikers.

This season took all of us by surprise and frankly, our squad is still not quite deep enough yet. Look at Stephens for example, he gets injured and we don't have a good enough back up. Hemed gets injured, the same applies and if (and it is still an "if") we don't go up, we still need to strengthen in some key areas.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I repeat, from an earlier post, we are joint top scorers in the league - what more do you want?

Well said. I trust Hughton and Bloom to get good players in and to try to hold on to the good ones that we have.
We fought off Fulham & Derby last summer for our players. It's only if Prem clubs come in that we have to worry. I'm not sure that any of our players are on their radar as we're seen as a team of sick notes.

 

[JBizzle]

If people didn't see how useful Baldock was for us last night when the shit hit the fan and defense was our priority - I'm surprised, he was a major reason we still have a pig in hells chance on Monday. OK, his job is to create and score - but the all round shift he put in last night when we we're on the brink of annihilation was admirable.

Oh, and this is something with which I agree.

 

[Bold Seagull]

If people didn't see how useful Baldock was for us last night when the shit hit the fan and defense was our priority - I'm surprised, he was a major reason we still have a pig in hells chance on Monday. OK, his job is to create and score - but the all round shift he put in last night when we we're on the brink of annihilation was admirable.

He was decent in trying to unlock chances and got in some great areas first half. Second half his work rate and desire for the cause was beyond reproach. Superb shift. Has to start Monday.

 

[BensGrandad]

I repeat, from an earlier post, we are joint top scorers in the league - what more do you want?

You are totally missing the point is is ok scoring a hatful of goals a couple of times against poor opposition it was the ability to score goals against the top 6 that we needed to complement Hemed, Once it became apparent that BZ was finished or nearly we should have spent the money getting a loan striker/target man in to relieve the pressure on Hemed. At the time CH said he was happy with what we had and that was his 2nd big mistake, that has cost us bar a surge from the team Monday evening to turn it all around.

 

[Nixonator]

To me, far too much time was wasted on trying to get those South Americans, who didn't want to come, to sign for us, effort that should have been spent on getting an established Championship or out of favour Premier League striker. I was disappointed that we didn't go in (or if we did, harder) for Gary Hooper, especially with Hughton's Norwich connections. Yes, I hear all the "but Tony's put in xxx millions", and "he'd have cost £40,000 per week" stuff, but surely that sort of investment would have been worth it, selling the player if we didn't go up. After all, we were prepared to go for the former option, weren't we?

The thinking was to spend big but not put on ridiculous wages. That's why we've been looking abroad rather than at home.

Foregoing that they are a rare breed to begin with and would require a similar transfer fee, to acquire the proven high championship/lower PL pedigree striker you are suggesting would require complying to significant wage demands for no less than a 3 year period. Once you put the player on this kind of salary it's hard to get rid of him should it not work out and could cause a decline in itself.

 

[symyjym]

It's shame that Howe blocked our attrempt to get Murray.

There said it

I think Hemed and Murray would have made goals for each other.

 

[Poyningsgull]

Only Gray has scored more than Hemed in 2016. Bit harsh to criticise him.

 

[GT49er]

This season took all of us by surprise and frankly, our squad is still not quite deep enough yet. Look at Stephens for example, he gets injured and we don't have a good enough back up. Hemed gets injured, the same applies and if (and it is still an "if") we don't go up, we still need to strengthen in some key areas.

Precisely - and isn't strengthening the team in the summer window what we're always going to be trying to do anyway? No doubt CH will be looking for a forward who is better than what we've already got (and we will need replacements for Bobby and Wilson anyway), but the same applies to all positions (maybe except GK) really - if we can get a midfielder who is better than Kayal, yes please! And we'll be needing to replace some ageing defenders too.
Quite looking forward to the close season really - whichever division we'll be playing in next year.

Plus, of course, CH will be looking to recruit a small battalion of PL standard left backs - you can never have too many of those!

 

[BensGrandad]

The thinking was to spend big but not put on ridiculous wages. That's why we've been looking abroad rather than at home.

Foregoing that they are a rare breed to begin with and would require a similar transfer fee, to acquire the proven high championship/lower PL pedigree striker you are suggesting would require complying to significant wage demands for no less than a 3 year period. Once you put the player on this kind of salary it's hard to get rid of him should it not work out and could cause a decline in itself.

Obviously everybody is referring to Glenn Murray so a loan fee of whatever within reason plus his wages at Bournemouth would have been an investment with very little risk attached as he is a proven striker at this level and has not played for them since the March deadline.hardly, if at all. So the right price would have got him and us automatic promotion and what an estimated £180m

 

[el punal]

You are totally missing the point is is ok scoring a hatful of goals a couple of times against poor opposition it was the ability to score goals against the top 6 that we needed to complement Hemed, Once it became apparent that BZ was finished or nearly we should have spent the money getting a loan striker/target man in to relieve the pressure on Hemed. At the time CH said he was happy with what we had and that was his 2nd big mistake, that has cost us bar a surge from the team Monday evening to turn it all around.

Ah! The " great, let's get a striker on loan " scenario. Well, that's worked really well for us in the past, hasn't it. The reason that we've got a top three place, 89 points on the board, still in the play-offs, is because it's more important to retain a team spirit, a group of players who will fight for each other, a team that will not give in.

Finally, just going back to the stats, our last 20 games of the season (discounting last night) produced 13 wins, 6 draws, 1 defeat. That's 45 points out of 60 gained, that's a win ratio of 65%, that's 2.25 points per game. I somehow think you'll agree that on that basis Mr. Hughton seems to be getting it right. My final, final point is that it's how the team fares in 46 games, rather than against the so called top 6, is the important issue.

 

[amexer]

Can we please stop praising work rate. Any park footballer who trains 5 days a week could run around for 90mins. Its skill and ability we want up front. If its work rate you want bring back CMS who we watched running around aimlessly for 2 seasons

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Number 10......second striker. Pretty interchangeable, really. A lot of 4-4-2 is effectively played as 4-4-1-1. Like Hemed spearheading the attack with Baldock supporting him.

You're right, a lot of it is. But not the way we play it. Our two forwards lack the required skills to play as anything approaching a number 10. Texeira from last year... Now he was a number 10. But our forwards lack the same skills to sit in deep, to drive at defenders and to move off the ball between the lines effectively.

 

[durrington gull]

I had a downer on ballsack all season. Was shouted down by certain nscers but then empty vessels make most noise. He is not good enough for top end championship. 4 goals (but he was injured they bleat, we hadnt lost when they played together zzzzz) to them I say idiots.

Hemed I love as he will run thru brick walls but he is def second striker material. We need a striker in the summer.

This.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

The thinking was to spend big but not put on ridiculous wages. That's why we've been looking abroad rather than at home.

Foregoing that they are a rare breed to begin with and would require a similar transfer fee, to acquire the proven high championship/lower PL pedigree striker you are suggesting would require complying to significant wage demands for no less than a 3 year period. Once you put the player on this kind of salary it's hard to get rid of him should it not work out and could cause a decline in itself.

Yes, that's a fair point, and I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make the decisions. Having said that, we were willing to pay a pretty high amount for the South Americans, and they would surely have wanted a fairly large wage. Hemed to me has been extremely good value, and in giving the MK example I was not criticising him - to me he scored a legitimate hattrick and was overruled by poor officials. Had he not hit his lean patch (at the same time as all the injuries), he would probably have got us the necessary goals. However, the support to him hasn't been good enough, though Knockaert and Skalak have certainly helped. I think the point I am trying to make, and badly I'll admit, largely out of frustration, is that the gradual approach is going to become harder and harder, both to get promotion and to stay in the Premier League. Yes, you'll get a Bournemouth or Swansea from time to time, but with the likes of Newcastle coming down it will be more difficult. Whatever, I shall be along at the start of the new season, come what may. For 17 of the 31 years I've been an Albion fan we've been out of the top two divisions, so the Premier League isn't everything. I do trust Bloom and Hughton, though one is of course worried that Hughton will attract other clubs, especially Watford.

 

[BensGrandad]

Ah! The " great, let's get a striker on loan " scenario. Well, that's worked really well for us in the past, hasn't it. The reason that we've got a top three place, 89 points on the board, still in the play-offs, is because it's more important to retain a team spirit, a group of players who will fight for each other, a team that will not give in.

Finally, just going back to the stats, our last 20 games of the season (discounting last night) produced 13 wins, 6 draws, 1 defeat. That's 45 points out of 60 gained, that's a win ratio of 65%, that's 2.25 points per game. I somehow think you'll agree that on that basis Mr. Hughton seems to be getting it right. My final, final point is that it's how the team fares in 46 games, rather than against the so called top 6, is the important issue.

You are still missing the point. Yes we did rollover the lower sides but we didnt have the ability to score against the top 6 teams the major teams examples being against Middlesbro, Derby and Sheff Wed how many did we score against those in the 6 games we played and how many points did we get. 1 win and we would have been promoted and the lone striker could and probably would have changed that statistic.

 

[HantsSeagull]

Strange that we somehow managed to be joint top scorers in the league. Now I wonder how we did that?

yeah cos we have had scorers all over the pitch. Wilson and Baldock have scored 9 between them. Or are you suggesting we are joint top scorers because we have prolific bunch of strikers?

 

[BensGrandad]

Gray and Vokes at Burnley have scored 40 goals between them had we had a scorer to equal Hemeds we would be promoted by now.

 

[el punal]

yeah cos we have had scorers all over the pitch. Wilson and Baldock have scored 9 between them. Or are you suggesting we are joint top scorers because we have prolific bunch of strikers?

No, I'm suggesting that because we have players who have the ability to score goals who are not recognised strikers is a benefit. It means that you are not totally reliant on a one man scoring machine. Hemed I would consider is our main striker and he's scored 17(?) this season which is not too bad. I agree with you about Baldock and Wilson. The fact that our goals are being shared out throughout the team means that the opposition have a lot more to worry about than if it was one lone striker.

Blimey, in the end does it matter? If the team are scoring goals that's what matters, where ever they come from.