[Albion] will Baldock ever play for the club again ?

[blockhseagull]

At least three out of the four you named will not be on the bench, often all four of them, so you haven't really addressed the question. Nobody's asking about why CH starts with those players ahead of Baldock.

Weren’t 3 of them on the bench at Chelsea ?

Just saying

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I love a good old fashioned scurrilous rumour on NSC.

 

[chaileyjem]

Not too sure remarkably prescient are the right words.

The club were never going to sign 2 strikers, while most of us knew a long way off the club weren't even going to be able to sign one.

You obviously knew all along it was completely doomed but the club when committing Baldock to a contract certainly thought they were bringing 1-2 strikers to the club.

 

[chaileyjem]

All of that is totally fair, we play a formation and a style right now that makes Baldock unplayable. So why is he sitting on the bench wasting a spot when his chances at getting on are at exactly 0? Why do YOU think Sam hasn't had a single minute of football in such a variety of games since being included on the bench? It's all well and good just telling everyone else they are wrong, stick your neck out and tell us why you think he's never getting an opportunity.

He is getting an opportunity. After a long period out he's been on the bench, three times. There's a lot of good football reasons, tactical reasons which i'm sure many on here disagree with , as to why SB hasn't yet made it onto the pitch but they all seem plausible to me and CH knows what he's doing. If left up to me I'd have brought him on at Watford but i'm just the manager of Chailey Colts u15s so not to be trusted.
As for all the other guff that people keep alluding to then i'm sticking my neck out and saying its er, guff.

 

[chaileyjem]

I do hope so, I miss his goal celebrations

Dunk parodied one of his goal celebrations when SB, who was warming up at the time, and got caught up in the celebrations of Gross goal v Watford.

 

[Machiavelli]

At least three out of the four you named will not be on the bench, often all four of them, so you haven't really addressed the question. Nobody's asking about why CH starts with those players ahead of Baldock.

They have done. Last season we played 4-4-2 as we did the season before, and that was most successful when Baldock was the support striker. This year, CH indicated before the season began, that he'd be playing 4-5-1, and the recruitment team bought players to fit that season. We have started and finished every game playing that system. Baldock doesn't really have the attributes to play as a lone striker, and that's probably why we haven't seen him this season.
And this leaves two questions (which don't confuse with the answer to the question that you claimed hadn't been addressed):
-- why doesn't CH resort to playing 4-4-2 in certain matches, or in a period of a match? My hunch is that he probably should have done and brought Baldock on (this has only been an option when he's been fit, however, and that hasn't been too often), but then again, I accept that he knows more about such things than I do.
-- why have we retained Baldock in the squad? To which the answer is, we can only start shipping strikers out when we've bought others in, which we haven't done thus far. On this, it was Hemed that was touted for a departure in the last window, but that was dependent on signing not one, but two strikers.

 

[Stat Brother]

Someone else posted a very pithy:-

'CH doesn't trust Baldock to defend'.

It's tough to look beyond that simple fact, and seems pointless to start delving into scurrilous rumours.
If, God forbid, Brighton had a 2 or even (mercy me) a 3 goal lead we may well have seen more of Baldock.

Holding on to 1 goal or chasing meaningless minutes in a dead game, with all the risks associated, Sam's not your man.
Although I still can't get my head around swapping Hemed for Murray in that situation.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Swap deal for Bobby Reid at Bristol City is my guesswork conspiracy speculation.

I thought that also last night

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

Someone else posted a very pithy:-

'CH doesn't trust Baldock to defend'.

It's tough to look beyond that simple fact, and seems pointless to start delving into scurrilous rumours.
If, God forbid, Brighton had a 2 or even (mercy me) a 3 goal lead we may well have seen more of Baldock.

Holding on to 1 goal or chasing meaningless minutes in a dead game, with all the risks associated, Sam's not your man.
Although I still can't get my head around swapping Hemed for Murray in that situation.

See I disagree, Baldock may not be your man for defending set pieces but he showed last year some very decent examples of defending from the front. Very good at closing down his man and forcing passing and errors. He’s exactly the man you want if you want to press at the end instead of sit back and cling on for dear life. Unfortunately the latter is usually our game plan.

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

and then totally ordinary second season where his lack of goals cost us the title (how many games did he play in the first half of the season, and how many goals did he score? Any?), let alone promotion. He was bang average in a very strong team last season and scored a fair number of goals, for the first time in his Albion career, and was generously given a new contract in the summer. He is being overrated in the hideous extreme on this thread and based on absolutely nothing at all. He would be useless at this level, absolutely useless and he's extremely privileged to be sitting on the bench watching the talented players playing the game.

.

I don’t disagree re his first season with us, but everything else is utter nonsense. You say he was ‘bang average’ but at times last season he was sublime (watching ‘we’re on our way’ reminded me of how could he can be). Anyone with eyes could how much his absences during the 2015/16 and 16/17 campaigns hurt us. He was pinnacle to both pushes and to discredit his contributions is just ignorant in the extreme.

 

[Birdie Boy]

Someone else posted a very pithy:-

'CH doesn't trust Baldock to defend'.

It's tough to look beyond that simple fact, and seems pointless to start delving into scurrilous rumours.
If, God forbid, Brighton had a 2 or even (mercy me) a 3 goal lead we may well have seen more of Baldock.

Holding on to 1 goal or chasing meaningless minutes in a dead game, with all the risks associated, Sam's not your man.
Although I still can't get my head around swapping Hemed for Murray in that situation.

That's because he can defend at corners, nothing to do with attacking.

 

[Lush]

If he doesn't, I have this season's shirt with Baldock 9 on the back for sale.

 

[Scunner]

I don’t disagree re his first season with us, but everything else is utter nonsense. You say he was ‘bang average’ but at times last season he was sublime (watching ‘we’re on our way’ reminded me of how could he can be). Anyone with eyes could how much his absences during the 2015/16 and 16/17 campaigns hurt us. He was pinnacle to both pushes and to discredit his contributions is just ignorant in the extreme.

Bang on. SB is the best finisher of a half chance at the club, he can score with both feet - neither Murray nor Hemed could have scored that goal against QPR - he has pace which is sorely lacking with TH and GM and PG, and he was pivotal to promotion with both the type and amount of goals he scored. Anyone that thinks differently calls their matchday companion Fido.

 

[nwgull]

Take out Sidwell's goal of his career against Bristol, and Baldock would probably have won goal of the season 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for his strikes against Reading, Barnsley and QPR.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Will he feature today though?

 

[GT49er]

Weren’t 3 of them on the bench at Chelsea ?

Just saying

True. First time this season though!

 

[jasetheace]

Got round to watching my Xmas Prezzie, We're on our Way yesterday. The thing that struck me when seeing them all in one place was the quality of Baldock's Goals and contributions to others.

He has always been a bit marmite for me but I had an uncomfortable "humble pie" type feeling after watching the DVD.

 

[GT49er]

Got round to watching my Xmas Prezzie, We're on our Way yesterday. The thing that struck me when seeing them all in one place was the quality of Baldock's Goals and contributions to others.

He has always been a bit marmite for me but I had an uncomfortable "humble pie" type feeling after watching the DVD.

Can he cut it in the PL? We won't know until he's been tried - I think that is what many of us find frustrating that he hasn't been given a 10-15 minute run out now he's available to come on from the bench.

 

[Technohead]

Personally I think the combination of Hemed and Baldock works really well together. If we are chasing the game and Gross and Murray have started, I would like to see Hemed and Baldock given 20 minutes or so together coming off the bench.

 

[Invicta]

If he doesn't get on at 0.2 v Chelsea or 0.0 v Newcastle then you have to wonder when he might get a run out