I see Stuani is still knocking them in for Girona

Didn't Karanka try and play him like he played for Uruguay - on the right of a three? I think our 3 was a different setup though as he had more defensive responsibilities up and down the wing, as opposed to being more of a striker like he was for his country.
 
18MFC76 said:
Playing Stuani on the wing was unbelievable when you look back. Every person inside the Riverside could see he was a number 9 apart from Aitor Karanka. I liked Karanka but that was a prime example of his stubbornness getting in the way and holding us back.

The most frustrating thing was we had an unbelievable talent on the bench in Adama Traore who could have been on that wing providing the assists for Stuani. Some people always doubted Adama's end product, however I always felt give the kid a run of games and he would be unstoppable, as he proved under Tony Pulis.

That Premier League season could have been a whole lot different IMO if AK would have given Adama a run of games and used Stuani in his best position.
Click to expand...
His goal-scoring record wasn't that great before he came here. He had been playing in La Liga, for an average side, but most of the league is probably championship standard, and the top three teams obviously miles ahead. He'd scored a lot in the Segunda Division but that's probably more like bottom-end Championship/top-end League 1.

It was quite clear to tell that he was very good at timing runs and being in the right place at the right time though, but he was never getting a game up front in a Karanka side, when we had Negredo.

We would have had to play two up top, and played a lot less defensive and we didn't even do that in the championship, so were never going to do it in the prem. Playing him up on his own won't work, as he'll be sandwiched between two centre-backs, and not be able to find the space without support.

Not a criticism of Karanka though, we were stronger in defence than attack, so playing defensive was the only game in town, even though we were not even strong enough there for the Premiership.
 
Fearless Fish said:
Didn't Karanka try and play him like he played for Uruguay - on the right of a three? I think our 3 was a different setup though as he had more defensive responsibilities up and down the wing, as opposed to being more of a striker like he was for his country.
Click to expand...
They play a lot more attacking/ gung ho with the three up top, for us he was more of a right midfielder, and because we were poor, most of that time was spent defending.
 
Andy_W said:
His goal-scoring record wasn't that great before he came here. He had been playing in La Liga, for an average side, but most of the league is probably championship standard, and the top three teams obviously miles ahead. He'd scored a lot in the Segunda Division but that's probably more like bottom-end Championship/top-end League 1.

It was quite clear to tell that he was very good at timing runs and being in the right place at the right time though, but he was never getting a game up front in a Karanka side, when we had Negredo.

We would have had to play two up top, and played a lot less defensive and we didn't even do that in the championship, so were never going to do it in the prem. Playing him up on his own won't work, as he'll be sandwiched between two centre-backs, and not be able to find the space without support.

Not a criticism of Karanka though, we were stronger in defence than attack, so playing defensive was the only game in town, even though we were not even strong enough there for the Premiership.
Click to expand...

Not sure i agree with that. The previous season Karanka played Bamford and Vossen together a lot. Neither (at the time, Bamford has since developed his game) were that capable of playing up front on their own. It worked because although Vossen was nominally the "10" he played more like a striker. It was pretty much 442 in possession. He certainly wasn't a midfielder.

I think Stuani and Nugent would've worked the same way. Although granted AK was a lot more cautious that promotion season.
 
festa5 said:
Not sure i agree with that. The previous season Karanka played Bamford and Vossen together a lot. Neither (at the time, Bamford has since developed his game) were that capable of playing up front on their own. It worked because although Vossen was nominally the "10" he played more like a striker. It was pretty much 442 in possession. He certainly wasn't a midfielder.

I think Stuani and Nugent would've worked the same way. Although granted AK was a lot more cautious that promotion season.
Click to expand...
He once said a 1-0 defeat was a good result. That’s when you knew we were doomed
 
festa5 said:
Not sure i agree with that. The previous season Karanka played Bamford and Vossen together a lot. Neither (at the time, Bamford has since developed his game) were that capable of playing up front on their own. It worked because although Vossen was nominally the "10" he played more like a striker. It was pretty much 442 in possession. He certainly wasn't a midfielder.

I think Stuani and Nugent would've worked the same way. Although granted AK was a lot more cautious that promotion season.
Click to expand...
Yeah I suppose he did. I didn't really see them like two really attacking central strikers, or we just didn't play in a way which made them seem that way. Both of them ended up quite deep or wide a lot.
 
Stuani was poor playing on the right during our Premier League season. Himself and Barragan just didn't compliment each other at all - we'd have been much more effective in an attacking sense if we'd kept Nsue and Admoah and had them on that side, or Traore.

It's frustrating to think Stuani never got a run playing as a no 9. Imagine if we'd kept hold of him following relegation and had Stuani and Bamford as our front two, or had them competing for the lone striker role and we then used the £30m to sign a quality no 10 and left winger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top