2016/17 Premier League & General Football Discussion
- Thread starter Liquid
- 2,138 comments
- 69,890 views
- 9,401
- Western Sydney
- mustafur
- 87,620
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Well, let no man say that doing literally the worst thing you can do professionally and being filmed doing it, forcing you to resign, is any barrier to continuing to work in that profession... Allardyce signs for Palace .
- 15,908
- wrexham
- jameskent86451
- Jamobomb86
First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone here, secondly here are the Boxing Day games.
26th December
Arsenal v West Brom
Burnley v Middlesbrough
Chelsea v Bournemouth
Hull v Man City (5.15 Sky)
Leicester v Everton
Man United v Sunderland
Swansea v West Ham
Watford v Crystal Palace (12.30 Sky)
27th December
Liverpool v Stoke (5.15 Sky)
28th December
Southampton v Tottenham (7.45 Sky)
Loads more games to come next week as well, Sky have pretty much got the games and not BT.
26th December
Arsenal v West Brom
Burnley v Middlesbrough
Chelsea v Bournemouth
Hull v Man City (5.15 Sky)
Leicester v Everton
Man United v Sunderland
Swansea v West Ham
Watford v Crystal Palace (12.30 Sky)
27th December
Liverpool v Stoke (5.15 Sky)
28th December
Southampton v Tottenham (7.45 Sky)
Loads more games to come next week as well, Sky have pretty much got the games and not BT.
- 87,620
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Meanwhile the runaway Championship leaders, on a 3 game winning streak, were beaten 1-0 at home by an outside promotion bet, meaning that now just 9pt separates the entire top 6 (admittedly there's a slight goal difference issue) and they've opened up a 4pt gap below them.
The bottom two also played each other and bottom club Rotherham won 3-2 after taking a three goal lead into half time. They're now just 9pt from safety...
The bottom two also played each other and bottom club Rotherham won 3-2 after taking a three goal lead into half time. They're now just 9pt from safety...
- 9,401
- Western Sydney
- mustafur
It's SPL half the teams are barely professional level, when he had a high scoring season for Celtic back in the late 2000s he got a call for for the Australian National team and well he was absolutely terrible, then he went to middlesborough and only went backwards by then most people knew he only scored off good asissts.
- 9,401
- Western Sydney
- mustafur
When he was playing for Australia was when he had our best ever team, he never scored a single goal as a striker in 26 apperences, say what you want but there is no excuses for that, our national team is not a powerhouse but with the majority of our players back then playing in 1st teams in major leagues around the world you can't say it's too terrible of a team to score with.
There are leagues with less money, but the league gets farmed by Celtic and now probably Rangers too, so all the lower teams get stripped apart(allthough Aberdeen and Hearts have seemed to manage to avoid most of that).
- 36,697
- Scotland
- GTP_daan
Football is littered with players who have flourished with some systems and teams, yet died a death at others. Torres at Chelsea and Forlan at United to name but 2. They didn't become bad players overnight. McDonald has been prolific at most of the clubs he's been at with the exception of Millwall and Australia. Perhaps they didn't play systems that suited him. As an example, if you're used to playing Mark Viduka up front, and then stick Scott McDonald in the same system, he's not going to do much.
Strikers, more than any other position, rely on others to get them the ball in a position that they can do something with it. They also rely on confidence and knowing they can score.
The bottom line is that no one who has 157 goals from 461 appearances at decent clubs is a terrible player. Perhaps you just expect too much from a player.
Strikers, more than any other position, rely on others to get them the ball in a position that they can do something with it. They also rely on confidence and knowing they can score.
The bottom line is that no one who has 157 goals from 461 appearances at decent clubs is a terrible player. Perhaps you just expect too much from a player.
- 87,620
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Sheffield Wednesday, for example, is a club where strikers come for a bit of a rest between prolific scoring streaks elsewhere.
My favourite example of this is Darko Kovacevic. In three-and-a-bit seasons in the Yugoslavian leagues he scored 74 goals in 88 appearances (84% strike rate), including one-and-a-half years at Red Star Belgrade.
He came to Wednesday in December 1995 for £2m and promptly forgot how to score. This was a Wednesday side that still included Chris Waddle, John Sheridan, David Hirst, Des Walker, Mark Bright and new international signings Marc Degryse and Regi Blinker, but Kovacevic scored 4 goals in his 16 game half season (25% strike rate) at what should be the peak of his career and was promptly flogged to Real Sociedad for both halves of joss all.
At Real Sociedad he scored 41 goals in 98 games (42%) before being bought by Juventus. His league strike rate at Juventus was, to be fair, broadly similar to at Wednesday, but he finished the 2000 season by being the top scorer in the UEFA Cup - in a team that included Inzaghi, Trezeguet and Del Piero! He left Italy with a 33% strike rate and an eight-figure valuation (meanwhile Wednesday's purchase of the player for £2m is still ranked at one of the 50 worst transfers in history), returning to Sociedad to score 51 goals in 180 games, then spent two years at Olympiakos and returned 31 goals in 60 games.
We have others. Guy Whittingham had a 50% strike rate everywhere, sinking to 20% immediately upon arrival at Hillsborough. Andy Booth played ten matches more for Wednesday than he did for Huddersfield Town in his first stint, but scored 20 fewer goals (then went back to Huddersfield and returned to a 1 in 3 rate). It was almost a disease for the entire 1990s.
In fact the only two forwards I can think of that actually improved at Hillsborough were Gary Madine - who went up to a 1 in 5 rate and then got sent to prison for assaulting two fans - and current red-card magnet Fernando Forestieri at 40%.
- 882
- Londongrad
- 4,897
- UK
Man Utd are set to sign Lindelof for around £40mill with Nelson Semedo looking to join him as well but Benfica will not let him go until next summer.
Nikola Kalinic has been linked to a £50mill move to China. He has been in great form for Fiorentina since joining from Blackburn.
Gabbiadini will look to leave Napoli with Everton heavily interested in the player.
Nikola Kalinic has been linked to a £50mill move to China. He has been in great form for Fiorentina since joining from Blackburn.
Gabbiadini will look to leave Napoli with Everton heavily interested in the player.
- 15,908
- wrexham
- jameskent86451
- Jamobomb86
Current coach Alan Curtis as boss until the end of the season is a good shout too, short term solution of course but at least we would have someone steady who knows the club and players like the back of ones hand to help us out.
Similar threads
Latest Posts
-
-
-
-
-
Aston Martin Confirms its Valkyrie Hypercar Will Race at Le Mans in 2025- Latest: ScottPuss20