Strikers

[vish]

Go on then, which should we get rid of in the summer? (if not all!)

 

I reckon at a minimum, Morientes. And if we need the cash to buy someone decent, I'm split between Crouch & Cisse. Would probably like to keep Cisse to be honest.

 

Not seen enough of Fowler yet, and I think Pongolle deserves to stay too.

[anfield]

Mori, Cisse and Garcia can all go. Fowler I still believe was a desperate buy in light of our failure to get any other strikers during the transfer break.

[Stanley Leisure]

Mori, Cisse and Garcia can all go. Fowler I still believe was a desperate buy in light of our failure to get any other strikers during the transfer break.

 

Seconded - Luis' is too hot and cold - Morientes and Cisse just not good enough/interested full stop.

 

Just think how good we'd be with a top striker.....

[Maldini]

I reckon at a minimum, Morientes. And if we need the cash to buy someone decent, I'm split between Crouch & Cisse. Would probably like to keep Cisse to be honest.

Seriously?? Why? He's the worst player in the first team squad now IMO, he's completely shot of confidence and just can't perform anymore. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if we have to release him on a free in the summer.

 

Crouch contributes more to the team than any of our other forwards

[Romario]

Wait till the end of the season. Cisse is gone. For me Fowler stays as he's free. If he's fit Rafa will keep him, if not he'll be told to go.

 

It's be between Crouch and Moro. I reckon Moro will go as Crouch still ha potential as a 3rd choice forward. Also if we keep Moro for another season he'll be worth feck all.

[Guest Red Mist]

I wouldn't care if Rafa got rid of all of them. Let's be honest, NONE of them are world class, hell NONE of them would get into the teams of our main rivals. Cisse and Mori simply have to go, Robbie and Crouch can stay as squad players but we need at least two top, top attackers.

Wouldn't care if Luis left either. We can't wait forever for him to do something special. I'd rather he'd be consistently and constantly average than sh*t most of the time with the occasional super performance.

[Romario]

I wouldn't care if Rafa got rid of all of them. Let's be honest, NONE of them are world class, hell NONE of them would get into the teams of our main rivals. Cisse and Mori simply have to go, Robbie and Crouch can stay as squad players but we need at least two top, top attackers.

Wouldn't care if Luis left either. We can't wait forever for him to do something special. I'd rather he'd be consistently and constantly average than sh*t most of the time with the occasional super performance.

If Garcia is happy to be picked for certain games only then I'd love his to stay. He's what Smicer was meant to be. A tricky player who can get important goals and that's what he does. Right now we need him but if we had a great wide player he'd be brilliant off the bench for us.

[vish]

Seriously?? Why? He's the worst player in the first team squad now IMO, he's completely shot of confidence and just can't perform anymore. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if we have to release him on a free in the summer.

 

Crouch contributes more to the team than any of our other forwards

 

The problem is we don't need Crouch to contribute to the team so much... We need him to score some FECKING goals!!

 

If Cisse was backed by the manager, a la Mori as a striker.. I'm convinced he would score quite a few.

 

Sitting on the bench & being played out on the wing is the reason for his low confidence and poor form IMO.

 

At the end of the day, we'll never know what Cisse might've been. It was different with Heskey. He played week in week out, and we knew exactly what he was about. Playing Cisse so inconsitently is not going to bring out his best form.

 

Wait till the end of the season. Cisse is gone. For me Fowler stays as he's free. If he's fit Rafa will keep him, if not he'll be told to go.

 

It's be between Crouch and Moro. I reckon Moro will go as Crouch still ha potential as a 3rd choice forward. Also if we keep Moro for another season he'll be worth feck all.

 

Yep, thats what'll happen.

 

Thing is, we probably could've got something for Moro in January

Edited March 9, 2006 by Vish

[Tones]

Crouch will stay. Im sure of that. Probably Robbie too, as he is Free. Moro and Cisse i believe will be gone.

[Maldini]

The problem is we don't need Crouch to contribute to the team so much... We need him to score some FECKING goals!!

 

If Cisse was backed by the manager, a la Mori as a striker.. I'm convinced he would score quite a few.

 

Sitting on the bench & being played out on the wing is the reason for his low confidence and poor form IMO.

 

At the end of the day, we'll never know what Cisse could've done. It was different with Heskey. He played week in week out, and we knew exactly what he was about. Playing Cisse so inconsitently is not going to bring out his best form.

Yep, thats what'll happen.

 

Thing is, we probably could've got something for Moro in January

Crouch has helped make Gerrard a better player this year. He has played pretty well throughout the season even when he wasn't scoring. Cisse is a sham now, I hate slagging off our players, but my patience with him ran out a long time ago. It says it all about him that he was praised on Saturday for just being poor as opposed to appalling.

 

Cisse has played more games than any of our other forwards this season. How many good games or even good spells in games has he had? You could count them all on the hand of a leper.

[BG]

Off the top of my head the majorish strikers I can remember us signing under the last four managers:

 

Saunders - ok nothing more

Clough - never really did it

Riedle - good but past it

Collymore - erratically good for a while

Heskey - flattered to decieve

Diouf - less said the better

Baros - did ok, never looked completely convincing as a starter

Cisse - we're not playing to his strengths but looks quite average

Morientes - it's been all over for a while

Crouch - doing ok but cannot carry the goalscoring burden

 

 

Not too many success stories in that bunch...

[Shanklyanfield]

Crouch has helped make Gerrard a better player this year. He has played pretty well throughout the season even when he wasn't scoring. Cisse is a sham now, I hate slagging off our players, but my patience with him ran out a long time ago. It says it all about him that he was praised on Saturday for just being poor as opposed to appalling.

 

Cisse has played more games than any of our other forwards this season. How many good games or even good spells in games has he had? You could count them all on the hand of a leper.

 

Sorry but how many games has Cisse actually played as a striker? his natural position? Let's stick Nando or crouch out on the right and see how many they score especially when Nando can't even score playing up-front!

 

Don't forget Cisse is still our leading goalscoerer (Strikers) and IMHO hasn't been given a fair chance up-front in his rightful position unilke Nando who has been given far too many chances!

Edited March 9, 2006 by Shanklyanfield

[Barnesy_10]

Off the top of my head the majorish strikers I can remember us signing under the last four managers:

 

Saunders - ok nothing more

Clough - never really did it

Riedle - good but past it

Collymore - erratically good for a while

Heskey - flattered to decieve

Diouf - less said the better

Baros - did ok, never looked completely convincing as a starter

Cisse - we're not playing to his strengths but looks quite average

Morientes - it's been all over for a while

Crouch - doing ok but cannot carry the goalscoring burden

Not too many success stories in that bunch...

 

 

bit harsh on Baros there I think...

looking back though, if Anelka had stayed I think he would have been a massive success story, but we got Diouf who is/was a c***

[oojason]

Just the strikers out?

 

 

Would many people be surprised if...

 

Kirkland, Dudek, Traore, Warnock, Whitbread, Medjani, Diao & Cheyrou (end of contract?), Potter, Le Tallec, Mellor, Morientes and Ciise

 

were sold in the Summer?

 

 

could well add Pongolle to that, or maybe even Garcia (to help generate funds for a couple of right mids, a decent 2nd leftback and a forward or 2?)

[fyds]

Just the strikers out?

Would many people be surprised if...

 

Kirkland, Dudek, Traore, Warnock, Whitbread, Medjani, Diao & Cheyrou (end of contract?), Potter, Le Tallec, Mellor, Morientes and Ciise

 

were sold in the Summer?

could well add Pongolle to that, or maybe even Garcia (to help generate funds for a couple of right mids, a decent 2nd leftback and a forward or 2?)

He might keep Pongolle - we'll see. Mori and Cissé will be the ones going - whatever we think. Crouch is a decent or better assist striker - you know the sort that could do the job that Heskey was supposed to do for Owen.

 

I can't - barring a miraculous change of luck and form - see us NOT getting two new strikers of some sort of proven class. A 23 year old Fowler would have had a dozen tonight from Crouch's knockdown's, Gerrard's through balls, Finnan's crosses and Xabi's passes - I'll be fecked if the one he DID get had gone out first - never did from where I was and the lines man was behind the fecking line!

 

Anyway - a few Djimi slips and Warnock wobbles aside, we did absolutely everything right tonight except score - the one thing of course we really needed to do.

 

I expect Moro, Luis and Crouch will have the riot act read to them tomorrow in extra training - quietly, but insistently. Cissé probably won't as in the time he had he pretty much did what he could with what he got. It must be dispiriting to be told to play out wide right anyway, but when you do it, get in a good position and look up and find your strikers 20 yards off the pace with no-one to cross to...all you've got is play it back down the line for Finnan to plonk it in without whip or power once the whole defence is back, or play off the defender for a corner so more bodies can come forward.

 

Next year we'll have two new forwards - as well as Hyppia and Riise back in, Gonzalez, Agger and Kronkamp able to play for starters...maybe more - almost certainly so - with Anderson and Hamill knocking on the door.

[Guest AnfieldGrass]

Fernando Morientes - OUT (2.5mil)

Djibril Cisse - OUT (5mil)

Neil Mellor - OUT (2mil)

Florent Sinama Pongolle - IN (Needs at least a run of games that Morientes has been given to be judged fairly. Great attitude. Experience with Blackburn will have been invaluable.)

Peter Crouch - IN (Proving to be an excellent target man / holder up of the ball, needs to work on finishing and aggression. Great attitude.)

Robbie Fowler - IN (Fitness will come and once he bags the first then I predict happy days again for God. Attitude has been a revelation.)

"New World Class Striker" - IN (Looks like a lot of big names will be up for grabs in the summer, I just hope we don't fork out another 6mil for a galacticos' retirement fund.)

 

With the likes of SG, LG, HK etc nicking goals from the midfield, four strikers should be enough when the team is in scoring form and we only need to fork out for one, partially with the money we get for the ones we ship out.

Edited March 9, 2006 by AnfieldGrass

[Nebraska Red]

like someone else said, get rid of them all and start from scratch.

 

with Crouch in the side we have resorted to lumping it to his head too often, mostly in desperation.

 

Cisse has clearly pi$$ed off the Boss once too often, Morientes has done sod all for a long time and Fowler was a feel good pick up at at a time when we needed something else.

 

If i was keeping 1, it would be Fowler as he does appear to have the desire, but just not the power right now , to do a job for us. Pongolle should come back as a back up to the right winger we are going to get.

[fred milne]

Crouch is the only one I'd keep for sure.

 

Morientes and Cisse should go. Fowler has still got it all to prove.

 

I don't want to see Garcia being used in midfield but he could be retained as an option to play off the main striker. Having said that, if we are strapped for cash I could live with him being sold.

[floyd]

Tis a shame we never picked Yakubu up for the £7.5m Boro payed for him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing

[Zoob]

Crouch is the sort of player who should in theory at least get better as time goes by. What he needs is an out and out intelligent goal scorer playing alongside him. i.e. someone who can read flick ons, and finish good moves off.

 

Morientes just looks unbelievably off it. It's like he is constantly running in quicksand or in slow motion. He does sometimes contribute to good build up play, but we have midfielders and Crouch to do that. Other than one good season in the CL for Monaco, his scoring record over the last 4 years has been pretty dismal. Seeing Crouch and Morientes start up front together never inspires me with confidence.

 

I had such high hopes for Cisse, and although he's been played out of position much of the time, he just doesn't seem to have the off the ball intelligence to be a starter. I guess the Auxerre team must have been build around him just as ours used to be built around Owen for him to have scored so many goals.

[Poolfrog]

Go on then, which should we get rid of in the summer? (if not all!)

 

I reckon at a minimum, Morientes. And if we need the cash to buy someone decent, I'm split between Crouch & Cisse. Would probably like to keep Cisse to be honest.

 

Not seen enough of Fowler yet, and I think Pongolle deserves to stay too.

 

Frankly they can all go. I saw enough of Fowler before he left and was glad he did - and he isn't defying logic and improving with age from what he's shown. Get rid. I suspect Crouch will stay but I couldn't care less if he went

[Guest RedLegend]

Would sell Cisse and Morientes in a heartbeat.

 

Would keep Crouch as I think he does have something to offer. Don't feel he should be our number one striker but he's a good option to have if he had some proper goalscorers around him.

[Taipan]

The following list is the minutes played per goal scored not including penalties for a selection of strikers. Where a player has scored one or more penalties the figure in brackets is the minutes per goal including penalties. It is for the league only.

 

Note that this is only a selection. There are lots of strikers, particularly from middle and lower ranked teams not included. The list is current as at March 10.

 

129 - Owen

130 - Crespo

130 - RVN (116)

139 - Henry (123)

146 - Hasselbaink

174 - Robbie Keane (157)

180 - Drogba

189 - Bellamy (165)

196 - Mido (178)

198 - Saha

200 - Helguson (143)

206 - Defoe

209 - Camara

215 - Yakubu (165)

220 - Van Persie

223 - Kanu

235 - Horsfield

240 - Rooney

249 - McBride

253 - Beattie (221)

308 - Sheringham (231)

340 - Baros (283)

397 - Fowler

420 - Crouch

441 - Cisse (331)

490 - Morientes

502 - Heskey

[floyd the barber]

i expect morientes,cisse and garcia to be sold...all can generate decent funds and all havent really proven themselves to good enough(in moro and cisses case) or consistent enough..(in garcias case)

 

Go out on a limb and would say we can get potentially around 15million for the 3...possibly more if they perform well in the world cup.

 

Pongolle has been doing well at blackburn,which im sure Rafa has taken notice of, i expect him to be given another shot next season.

Crouch is here to stay

Fowler will get a new contract

 

Which leaves one possible big name striker..Defoe, and maybe a player who can equally do a job on the right if needed.........hello dirk Kuyt.

 

Defoe and Kuyt for me.

[mooks]

Tis a shame we never picked Yakubu up for the £7.5m Boro payed for him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing

We could have got Eto'o a couple of seasons ago. He said he would 'drive us crazy' with his goals.

 

Unfortunately, we picked up another Real Madrid reserve forward who is driving us crazy.