Tony Bloom Just Sign a Proper Striker. End of.

[zefarelly]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

When you say change our style....it's not as if we are fizzing crosses in at head head for your midgets to miss. We ARE playing to suit our players, hence all of the shots. What we don't have are clinical strikers, and neither do a lot of the bottom half clubs. Take Palace, their strikers are roundly derided, but they are above us, only by playing the shite football that we all hated. It is so much easier to stop another team playing than to create something yourslef. Graeme Souness once said that he could take 12 strangers off the street and get them to stop almost any team in the land. You wouldn't pay to watch it tho!

I don't mean change permanently, but mix it up, we are predictable and easy to defend against.

Unless you're top 4 and let us play because you know you'll score 2 more than us.

[Seasidesage]

I think some on here have forgotten this is 2021. Every single element of a game is recorded, monitored and analysed within an inch of its life by both our boffins and a million other enthusiastic amateurs. They already know our forwards are a problem, they have known for some time.

The actual problem is we cannot either afford and/or possibly attract the right calibre of player to sign for us. We are going to have to muddle through with either what we have or what we can develop until such time as we can afford and attract the right players. Even if we find one and he starts scoring for fun, someone else will come in and buy them for silly money and the process will start again. It may not always be the strikers, but this squad will always be a work in progress until such time as our infrastructure/support match or exceed the current elite, so probably never...

Only way this changes is if someone comes along to buy the club with serious, serious money and who is prepared to waste it. This may or may not be better for the fans in the long term.

[Farehamseagull]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I think some on here have forgotten this is 2021. Every single element of a game is recorded, monitored and analysed within an inch of its life by both our boffins and a million other enthusiastic amateurs. They already know our forwards are a problem, they have known for some time.

The actual problem is we cannot either afford and/or possibly attract the right calibre of player to sign for us. We are going to have to muddle through with either what we have or what we can develop until such time as we can afford and attract the right players. Even if we find one and he starts scoring for fun, someone else will come in and buy them for silly money and the process will start again. It may not always be the strikers, but this squad will always be a work in progress until such time as our infrastructure/support match or exceed the current elite, so probably never...

Only way this changes is if someone comes along to buy the club with serious, serious money and who is prepared to waste it. This may or may not be better for the fans in the long term.

One things for sure, if you're a young, promising striker looking to make a name for yourself at the top level, we must be an attractive proposition. A talented, confident striker must look at our games and think they could score buckets of goals.

I always remember when Murray came back, him saying that one of his main reasons was that he looked at the players we had creating chance and putting crosses in and he thought he would be able to score a lot of goals. Surely other strikers must look at us and think the same.

[WATFORD zero]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I agree. I just don’t understand why we don’t counter these tactics by doing the same. A game of cat and mouse, draw the opposition out and quickly counter attack. Might be worth trying so we are not so one dimensional.

I think there is something here. Even the top teams struggle to play against the massed defences of some bottom teams. They seem to ease off the pressure, rather than forcing them backwards, to try to open up spaces to play in. We seem to dominate games so completely that the whole of the play is often in that final third, with no room to control or get a shot away.

Even the top strikers don't poach all their goals from close in. I wonder if in these games, we do need to sit back a bit and encourage them onto us (if they will come on to us, which if they are well drilled, isn't as simple as it seems).

[Neville's Breakfast]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I think there is something here. Even the top teams struggle to play against the massed defences of some bottom teams. They seem to ease off the pressure, rather than forcing them backwards, to try to open up spaces to play in. We seem to dominate games so completely that the whole of the play is often in that final third, with no room to control or get a shot away.

Even the top strikers don't poach all their goals from close in. I wonder if in these games, we do need to sit back a bit and encourage them onto us (if they will come on to us, which if they are well drilled, isn't as simple as it seems).

The game that comes to my mind is Villa away last season. We actually lost so it kind of doesn’t work as a good example. However it was a clear tactic to let them come to us and worked until a silly sending off. I haven’t seen it at all this year and , as you say, we are dominating games with little reward.

[Tim Over Whelmed]

If I were TB my response would be "If you can get the other 23,000 STHs to agree to a £2,000+ ST increase I'm in"

[Tom Hark, Preston Park]

It's more a case of RETAINING proper strikers shirley?

[Not Andy Naylor]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Well let's make sure we get one with the extended guarantee, because I guess when we splash out on this one special out and out striker, we will have to take a chance and won't be able to use the benefit of half a season's hindsight before we sign them.

Obviously, we wouldn't want to take a risk and get a Depoitre, Mousset, Locadia, Sturridge, Kean, Higuain, Benteke, Morata, Joelinton, Haller etc. We would want to be sure we were signing someone who is proven in the Premier like Wilson, Watkins (who we now know is proven because we have half a season's hindsight) or Edouard (who is proven in Scotland !) and isn't going to get injured

You forgot Rhian Brewster, a snip to Sheffield United at just the £23.6m and he's been ... [checks notes] ... shite! Yet Liverpool inserted a £40m buy-back clause in the deal. Somehow I think their money's safe.

I have to agree with some posters on here who say that charging slowly into the massed ranks of 11-man defences is getting us nowhere fast. We have done better against teams who have come at us, so maybe at home we should be drawing the opposition out rather than forcing the pace with wing-backs flying up the pitch. Save that for away games. With an empty Amex this would seem to be the time to give it a whirl, as there will be no crowd to moan at our apparently negative tactics.

Long-term, what's the answer? More of the same unless we discover a goalscorer or Tony B finds a few more bob down the back of his sofa, I suppose, if he hasn't had a good rummage already. But I love the idea that we could bring in some money by selling Ali J, Propper, BDB etc. Who would buy them?

[Baldrick]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I have had enough of fans making excuses about budgets and finances. If need be sell either White or Bissouma to fund it.

None of our current strikers are good enough for what we need. We have tried doing it on the cheap so many times and in different ways

I will always be grateful for what Bloom does for us but enough is enough. This has been a huge blind spot and needs sorted next season.

We tried hard to sign Darwin Nunez last summer. He is currently being touted as a successor to Aguero at Man City.

He chose Benfica over us, even though we reportedly offered him more money. We are good at identifying the players we need, but really good strikers that would improve our team prefer to join better known and established teams. That's life.

That's why we end up taking a punt with someone like Maupay from the Championship.

[macbeth]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I don't mean change permanently, but mix it up, we are predictable and easy to defend against.

Unless you're top 4 and let us play because you know you'll score 2 more than us.

Tbh I think the 'style' as such is right. The players are making the right passes. Unfortunately those passes are coming far far too late because the player has usually decided to take an extra touch. We need to move the ball much quicker