Chuba Akpom.

Block21 said:
Yeah they were poor crosses to be fair. Had no back spin on them just straight into the keeper.

What i did notice though, even if the crosses were a bit better Akpom was no where to be seen on any of them. He needs dropping
Click to expand...

maybe but the last thing we need is to bring Brit back in as it’s like playing with ten and against 12 the amount of time he loses the ball or blazes it over.

I’d rather try Roberts, Johnson or a midfielder upfront give a false 9 a go, can’t be any worse than the other two.
 
coluka said:
I think the signing of Chuka is yet another example of us trying to fix the wrong problem, our goal scoring problems will not be rectified until we buy pacy wingers and utilise a ball carrying midfielder
Click to expand...
I want those players too Col as you know, but we do create chances even now and simply don't take them.
Akpom is not there often enough and Assombolonga is 1 in 6 conversion even in the 6 yard box (he always has his boots on the wrong feet)
We desperately need a goalscorer, as well as some pace width and creativity.
Our problems are all in the final third.
 
Its hard to judge Akpom, given we have been relatively poor in the final third of the pitch. I also feel a little bit for Britt too, has he actually played in a Boro team that's created plenty of chances? Monk's team probably more than any other and he fared pretty well in that set up.
 
tonybiriyani said:
Both poor, Akpom has been anonymous in the opposition box lately, Britt not much better and keeps insisting on taking all free kicks outside the box when better options are already stood over the ball.
Click to expand...

What Tonyb says is spot on and thus it does not take a genius to ascertain that Boro desperately need at least one good goalscorer in January to maintain a promotion challenge. In the meantime, if we had a young,fit, hungry talented striker in the club he would walk into this team.

In looking for a new striker in the transfer window we can act on the basis that losing either or both of the present strikers would not weaken the team, and please stop Assombalonga taking free kicks because he has not got a clue.
 
Priv said:
maybe but the last thing we need is to bring Brit back in as it’s like playing with ten and against 12 the amount of time he loses the ball or blazes it over.

I’d rather try Roberts, Johnson or a midfielder upfront give a false 9 a go, can’t be any worse than the other two.
Click to expand...

Respect your opinion mate but we need a striker on the pitch. Warnock isn’t one for false 9s. Britt has scored in his last 2 starts and missed sitters and blazed free kicks. He is certainly frustrating and he will frustrate me tonight and no doubt I will hammer him after the game for doing something stupid.

But having said all that, I still think he’s our best chance of a goal of the options we have up front. Hopefully he’s up for the fight as we need him.
 
Possibly taking time to adjust back to the Football League from Greek football and maybe like Britt would prefer to play alongside and off Ashley Fletcher (our top scorer last term) who we really miss at the moment.
 
indeedido said:
I want those players too Col as you know, but we do create chances even now and simply don't take them.
Akpom is not there often enough and Assombolonga is 1 in 6 conversion even in the 6 yard box (he always has his boots on the wrong feet)
We desperately need a goalscorer, as well as some pace width and creativity.
Our problems are all in the final third.
Click to expand...

I don’t disagree with any of that as I appreciate you will know. I just think that we are doing everything in the wrong order. I am not a fan of Britt as you know. Akpom to me looks worse albeit on much limited evidence to be fair to him. However, if we put the jigsaw in the right order, ie the pacy and creative side then the strikers may have a better opportunity to improve their conversion rates. Whether it will be as decent as we hope is a moot point mind. If they can’t improve with even better opportunities then they really need binning too (which I think they will anyway).
We are creating chances, but not many really clear cut ones, although Britt's recent open goal miss was extraordinary, even by his standard. That said, Chelseas €50M buy, Timo Werner, tried his best to outdo him for the miss of the season so far.
 
I was always impressed by Akpom the few games he played for Arsenal and then a few for Hull. I do wonder though when money was tight, why went spent £2.6 mill on him when we needed an instinctive striker. I will always maintain there must be someone out there playing in a lesser league who could do a job. I always think of Pukki. Must be more of them plying their trade in Scandinavia.
 
Pukki is an interesting one, when he was at Celtic he couldn’t hit a cows **** with an Banjo.

Yet in English football he looks an absolute natural. His movement is up there with the best at this level and for me that’s the key, movement and being in the right place. He’s a top striker for this league
 
Nobby_Barnes said:
Not specifically you Block but plenty on this board, slag him off one week get rid waste of money, get Akpom in etc etc.
Then the next week they want him back in the side......you couldn't make it up ???
Click to expand...

I think initially it was get Akpom in because we all had seen Britt and we wanted to see what Akpom had to offer. He started brightly with the 2 goals but recently he isn’t offering much and I think back to recent games, while Britt is so unpredictable and can miss the easiest off chances at least he gets them. Akpom just never seems to get them. We clearly need a new striker but for these next few games I would play Britt until he needs a rest. Hopefully he has a little run of goals, of course he will frustrate and miss chances and take woeful free kicks but that’s what he does.
 
We are desperately short of quality up front at the moment, neither Akpom or Assombalonga can play with their back to goal which means we’re always looking to play down the channels. Fletcher offers more pace and physicality but again isn’t a player that you can play the ball into as a fulcrum to develop attacks.

Roberts has been underused and is one player who could give us more creative spark but it seems Warnock doesn’t trust him, Browne would probably have featured more if he’d not been injured and Watmore, especially given the circumstances of his signing, has exceeded expectations.

We’re not far away from being a team that can challenge at the top of the table but we do need a bit more quality to back up the endeavour.
 
The real trouble with the side is we get lots of crosses in but don't have any real aerial presence up front. A lot of the crosses don't have a great deal of quality either as our players struggle to beat their men and get space to knock the ball in. Our strikers are the sort of players that need a quality midfielder to play a through ball, but we don't have that player who will either thread a ball through or play it quickly.
This is what happens when you flip flop between styles. Karanka patient possession play, to vague ideas of playing attacking football under monk, to Pulis big strong blokes playing unadventurous football, to woody trying to press and attack quickly. Monk to Pulis I think was especially damaging.
We do however have a combative midfield, and a solid fairly mobile and composed defence. We can execute a high pressing game and marking game much better.
Coming up against a few weaker teams we could either find ourselves dominating games and winning by having the balance of chances, so that sooner or later the pressure tells and we snatch a goal or two. Or we could find ourselves struggling to break teams down, and our players all getting worn out as the fixtures come thick and fast.
We really need a creative player and a striker. It seems like we've been saying this for ages, but going a few years back any two of Adomah, bamford, Tomlin, Ramirez, Nugent, kike or vossen even would improve the team no end.
 
Block21 said:
Respect your opinion mate but we need a striker on the pitch. Warnock isn’t one for false 9s. Britt has scored in his last 2 starts and missed sitters and blazed free kicks. He is certainly frustrating and he will frustrate me tonight and no doubt I will hammer him after the game for doing something stupid.

But having said all that, I still think he’s our best chance of a goal of the options we have up front. Hopefully he’s up for the fight as we need him.
Click to expand...
Totally agree - Britt is the lesser of the two evils
 
Been disappointed with Akpom since his flying start, you barely know he’s on the pitch half the time. At least Britt is getting in positions to score even if he misses sitters. Really hope we can get a striker and a winger in Jan. Watmore has to start tonight imo, at least he will take a player on.
 
As frustrating as Britt can be, at least he actually looks to make runs. I didn't see Akpom even attempt to make runs in behind on Saturday.

It was frustrasting that Britt wasn't quite sharp enough to get on the end of Roberts' through ball but one thing I noticed was that every time Roberts had the ball Britt was on the move. I think now is the time to give them a run of 2 or 3 games together and give them the chance to develop an understanding with eachother.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top