Britt Assombalonga

What on earth makes you think he'll score that many? He won't
That’s at most, I mean he’s got 2 league goals in 12 months in Turkey, so yes, he might struggle to get 4 or 5 even against defences like Birmingham. He did score 4 in cup game against a Turkish 3rd tier team recently though, I guess he’s too good for Turkish tier three but not good enough for top half championship
 
Would he get a hero's welcome if he came back playing for an opposing team?

Did he fire us to promotion?
Did he laugh and snigger after he nearly put a penalty in the river tees ?

I remember him for 1 of the above ...
Unable to find the video but will never forget the game cinching penalty he hoofed into the rafters in the 84th minute at Kenilworth Road on Woody’s managerial debut in 2019.
Here’s his Riverside hoof versus Reading in 2018…
 
Ridiculous statement, unless you've only been watching the club since 2019, and even then you're wrong
I was judging him on what his overall cost to the club , against what we got in return.
Couldn't trap a bag of cement
Lousy at winning headers
Lousy at scoring headers
Big grin on his face every time he missed a penalty or one on one .
If you add up transfer/signing on fee and wages he probably cost us about £25 million, which works out at about half a million quid per goal , yeah what a player , absolute bargain.
 
I would have accepted his goal to game ratio if he didn’t have such lazy attitude. I’m not saying he was a bad egg, he was actually quite a nice chap but his lack of effort on the pitch at times was rank and should be rightfully called out by people paying their hard earned cash to watch him. You can get away with being a lazy footballer if you’ve got class, he didn’t.

I don’t hold any bad will against him because of the fee but he was also on an absolute wedge and spent too much time tossing it off instead of busting a gut. Probably because of his literal gut and lack of proverbial guts.

Can you imagine Grant or even Scott McDonald who was a whining tart ever laughing when they missed a pen?
 
Speaking of Grant, QPR tells you everything you need to know about what should be the expected attitude of a professional when missing a pen.
 
Yes that was one of the two games out of 48 where he did score. I can list the lot out if you l don’t believe it?
sorry I read the 46 as 48

What I will say about those 48 games he played he will have played the majority up top and asked not to play on the shoulder. He is not a striker who can play up top by himself and he wasn’t used in the right way.

Add in that Pulis throw him under the bus pretty much in his first post match interview and then continued to destroy him publicly it’s no surprise his confidence was shot

Ultimately he was a waste of 15 million. That wasn’t his fault and neither was the fact we didn’t play to his strengths
 
sorry I read the 46 as 48

What I will say about those 48 games he played he will have played the majority up top and asked not to play on the shoulder. He is not a striker who can play up top by himself and he wasn’t used in the right way.

Add in that Pulis throw him under the bus pretty much in his first post match interview and then continued to destroy him publicly it’s no surprise his confidence was shot

Ultimately he was a waste of 15 million. That wasn’t his fault and neither was the fact we didn’t play to his strengths
He just wasn’t good enough for a team aiming for promotion. We would have literally been better off not signing him and his dopey mate, who is currently stinking the place out at Wigan, and Gibbo just spending the money on a golden crapper for his new gaff.
 
He just wasn’t good enough for a team aiming for promotion. We would have literally been better off not signing him and his dopey mate, who is currently stinking the place out at Wigan, and Gibbo just spending the money on a golden crapper for his new gaff.
I mean having a quick look, even though Pulis destroyed he can back in the team towards the end of the season and scored 2 important goals against derby and Millwall. Millwall was a 6 pointer and derby ended up in the playoffs. At the time those games were about as big as it got for us under Pulis

I mean we had a pitch invasion after the Millwall game
 
What I’d also be interested in, in those 48 games how many goals did we score, what was our xg etc in those 48 games.

I can imagine our ability to create in games against better teams under Pulis and Warnock was very limited
 
I mean having a quick look, even though Pulis destroyed he can back in the team towards the end of the season and scored 2 important goals against derby and Millwall. Millwall was a 6 pointer and derby ended up in the playoffs. At the time those games were about as big as it got for us under Pulis

I mean we had a pitch invasion after the Millwall game

A goal against Milwall and a tap in against Derby doesn’t really do much to change my mind.

Pulis dropped the far superior Bamford and the playoffs ended up being a complete waste of time. They were miserable miserable years. I had more time for Brit than Fletcher but neither ultimately good enough.

Forss is literally better than them both and cost 2M
 
A goal against Milwall and a tap in against Derby doesn’t really do much to change my mind.

Pulis dropped the far superior Bamford and the playoffs ended up being a complete waste of time. They were miserable miserable years. I had more time for Brit than Fletcher but neither ultimately good enough.

Forss is literally better than them both and cost 2M
That isn’t assombalongas fault that Pulis

I think someone said britt won’t score in big games, but in some of the most important games we’ve had britt has scored in them

Did someone say he scored 4 when Warnock came in when the games were absolutely massive, league 1 would have been unthinkable

Im just countering that arguement that he can score in big game
 
A goal against Milwall and a tap in against Derby doesn’t really do much to change my mind.

Pulis dropped the far superior Bamford and the playoffs ended up being a complete waste of time. They were miserable miserable years. I had more time for Brit than Fletcher but neither ultimately good enough.

Forss is literally better than them both and cost 2M

He didn't drop him, he was taken off with a concussion in the first half against Bristol City and wasn't allowed to be included in the next matchday squad because of concussion protocol.

Assombalonga scored against Derby, so understandably kept his place for the next game, where he scored again, so he kept his place again.

Pulis definitely played it wrongly in the two play-off matches after that, especially with Bamford scoring off the bench in the final game, he should have either started him or introduced him far earlier, but Bamford wasn't dropped.
 
I was judging him on what his overall cost to the club , against what we got in return.
Couldn't trap a bag of cement
Lousy at winning headers
Lousy at scoring headers
Big grin on his face every time he missed a penalty or one on one .
If you add up transfer/signing on fee and wages he probably cost us about £25 million, which works out at about half a million quid per goal , yeah what a player , absolute bargain.
Other than he was actually ok at scoring headers if unmarked and within 8 yards, spot on. I think he got 1 assist in his time here, didn't close down intelligently, didn't run in behind often, rubbish at link up play
 
What I will say about those 48 games he played he will have played the majority up top and asked not to play on the shoulder. He is not a striker who can play up top by himself and he wasn’t used in the right way.
That's nonsense it's 48 games against half decent defenders and he scored as many goals as planting a wheelie bin 8 yards out would score. His problem is he has poor technical and tactical ability, so he can't create space for himself with the ball at his feet. Once he blew his knee he couldn't run in behind very often either, so he is totally reliant on defenders switching off and the perfect ball being supplied. Decent defenders rarely switch off, which is why he can score 4 vs a Turkish tier 3 team, but score 3 in 48 games vs decent championship sides. It'll always be the way for him, because he lacks the technical and tactical ability.
 
Add in that Pulis throw him under the bus pretty much in his first post match interview and then continued to destroy him publicly it’s no surprise his confidence was shot
it can't always be someone elses fault. Other players scored for Warnock and Pulis over the years.

Ultimately he was a waste of 15 million. That wasn’t his fault and neither was the fact we didn’t play to his strengths
What exactly are his strengths?

He just wasn’t good enough for a team aiming for promotion.
exactly, he was fine for a team needing to beat Burton and Birmingham and stay out of the bottom 3. He can make the difference between relegation sides and push one towards midtable safety. But for a team with play off aspirations, he's a hinderance

I mean having a quick look, even though Pulis destroyed he can back in the team towards the end of the season and scored 2 important goals against derby and Millwall. Millwall was a 6 pointer and derby ended up in the playoffs. At the time those games were about as big as it got for us under Pulis
Derby was indeed the only other top 6 (after WestBrom) side that he scored against in 4 years. You've brought those two up now lets look at his anonymous showings against Aston Villa, 4 times in that play off season. Wolves opening day Wolves, Cardiff, Fulham did nothing, a passenger. On the balance of his performances against the good sides, he wasn't up to it, easy to blame the manager, but even under Monk he did nothing against those teams. He stunk the place out for 4 years, we couldn't get rid and for 6 seasons he FUBAR'ed our FFP. Next summer is the first time since since 2017 that we can budget without having a 5.5m/season black hole caused by that transfer. Not his fault of course, but I could forgive some of it if he was actually a good footballer.
 
Back
Top