Billy Van Basten

[shrimpled]

Championship defenders in most cases are ex prem players and younger players who will one day play in the premiership, most could hold their own in the premiership. League 1 defenders can be very talented also and possibly move to a biggfer club or older players who hav dropped out of the prem, but a lot of the time they are just pretty average players who are just as good as some playing in L2 and the conference. There is a massiv gap in class is what i'm getting at. We should make more chances in this league, and what harrold isn't that bad a finisher to be honest. I can't remember him missing many.

 

[Mr. Benedict]

As to too slow, unfortunately he doesnt look that slow compared to Paynter or Harrold who dont look too pacy either!

Which is, I think, a big concern for many people about our attack. Last season I think we suffered from it - we had Gray for both our promotion seasons and he could use his speed to get in behind defences. Last season we relied on Eastwood's ability to create something out of nothing - when he didn't score we tended to run out of ideas other than whack it from 25-35 yards and hope.

 

[cockles is back]

We need to stop hoping people will be 'the next Freddy' as it only breeds comparison with the original. Freddy was a one-off, like Collymore was, and we probably won't see another like him for a fair while.

thats the trouble and how many years did we have to wait to find someone to score 20-25 golas a year, its no coinsidence that we were **** for years, and then haypresto we find a goal score and we do well!!!!

listen im no ****ing oooh freddie your god brigade, but he was a natural goal scorer and thats why he he costs 1.5 mill. its not ****ing rocket science that there are no strikers available, I think we were all clutching to straws if you actually thought we would be spending 300-400 g on an out and out striker, and for you plumbs that think harrold scoring 3 aginst a feking park team really havent lived really you havent

 

[Hooly]

I can only wonder at what a slow day it must be at the Hall if Scriv (or whoever wrote that rubbish) can even laughably link Billy Paynter with Mr van Basten.

Having seen it on Blues World it was a nice finish from an unmarked position in front of goal. A chance, which to be honest, you'd expect a £200k striker to notch against non league opposition 99 out of 100. Billy 1 Harry 4!

 

[Pubey]

thats the trouble and how many years did we have to wait to find someone to score 20-25 golas a year, its no coinsidence that we were **** for years, and then haypresto we find a goal score and we do well!!!!

i didn't think we did that well with connie? ldv final but 17th in the league?

 

[Suffolk Blue]

First off this thread presumably started off as a celebration of a very good strike from a player that has had his problems since joining us and who therefore needs any encouragement he can get during this pre-season.

It now seems yet again to have degenerated into yet another "why don't we sign a proven quality striker" thread. We might be able to sign a striker who had proven quality 5 years ago; Sherringham, Goat, Ricketts etc. but all of the other names I've seen bandied about cost too much and we can't afford them.

This club will have to continue growing slowly taking chances on up-and-coming players, players from Irish, Scottish, other countries' leagues, and filling the gaps in the squad with run-of-the-mill L1/L2 workmen.

If we can get a new stadium, keep out of debt, build up a larger fanbase still, get ourselves back into the second tier etc. then maybe we'll have a chance to upgrade our squad over time to one which will sustain us at a higher level and perhaps even provide the springboard to challenge for more. Don't let's think though that we can throw the Freddy cash around and buy promotion back into the CCC; it doesn't usually work and all you end up with is a big bill.

 

[Mr. Benedict]

i didn't think we did that well with connie? ldv final but 17th in the league?

Absolutely. Having a prolific striker does not necessarily lead to success, however I'd be interested to see how many teams have been promoted in the league structure without a 20+ goals-a-season striker....

 

[cockles is back]

sorry your right


No Goals = Promotion

 

[Sean 2]

I think the team as a whole looks more hungrier simply because of the work rate being put in as competition for places hots up.I think Harrold and Paynter have definetly improved and i loved the way little Tommy Black supported the front two quickly from midfield,a true thinker and when his fitness improves i see him as a Scholes/Strachan type that sets things up.

Will we struggle for goals? that depends on our wing play this season and the amount of crosses.We simply have to get behind teams, also break a damn sight quicker than last season.Put simply,no service= no goals.Fred used to dribble past defenders to get the space to shoot and what a shot he had!
But that style is no good to us now.Macdonald has some pace about him and so too Hoops,Paynter and certainly Harrold give us the height so we have options.Which is good.

It's the defence that worries me.We are such a small squad heightwise,like a team of midgets i heard last night.Can we compete?Time will tell.

 

[Mr. Benedict]

sorry your right


No Goals = Promotion

Don't think anyone's said that yet in this thread.
Just that lots of goals does not necessarily equal promotion.

 

[Hooly]

I think Harrold and Paynter have definetly improved

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :thump: :guns:

You simply can't make statements like that after 2 games against miniscule opposition. If Paynter & Harrold can't look better against Witham & Wakering than they did against the likes of Wolves & West Brom then start worrying big time. But FFS you can't judge that they've improved after a couple of pre-season jogs! :(

 

[Sean 2]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :thump: :guns:

You simply can't make statements like that after 2 games against miniscule opposition. If Paynter & Harrold can't look better against Witham & Wakering than they did against the likes of Wolves & West Brom then start worrying big time. But FFS you can't judge that they've improved after a couple of pre-season jogs! :(

Fair enough.My view is different to yours.Though i never said i was making my views on the evidence of two freindlies and a jog round the park,that sir was your assumption.
Since those two players have been playing for us,they have improved.

:thump: :thump:

 

[Shrimper James]

Fair enough.My view is different to yours.Though i never said i was making my views on the evidence of two freindlies and a jog round the park,that sir was your assumption.
Since those two players have been playing for us,they have improved.

:thump: :thump:

I have to say that, although we can't really judge on the two friendlies so far (easy games), Harrold does look a lot sharper than he did throughout last season. His movement in and around the box was much better last night and Paynter scored a stunner last night (he didn't even look like hitting the target last season did he?).

Again, too early to judge but there's nothing wrong with saying they look better, because they do. But it's how they perform in the league games that matters.

 

[Hooly]

Fair enough.My view is different to yours.Though i never said i was making my views on the evidence of two freindlies and a jog round the park,that sir was your assumption.
Since those two players have been playing for us,they have improved.

:thump: :thump:

I know it's all a matter of opinions but I can't see how you can say that either. Paynter came to us heralded as a promising player who we signed to play in the Championship. So improved was he that we loaned him to a team that was relegated from the division below. Neither of those are assumptions, they're facts. Harrold was no more that a bit part player at best last season.

How can that be classed as an improvement? :confused:

 

[Beefy]

Will we struggle for goals? that depends on our wing play this season and the amount of crosses.We simply have to get behind teams, also break a damn sight quicker than last season.Put simply,no service= no goals.ll.

Yep, there's a huge issue with the make up of the midfield and a lot of it, in my opinion, is down to the lack of mobility of the captain which is compounded by having another essentially defensive-minded player next to him. Hopefully Nicky Bailey or Tommy Black will be the answer to that problem.

 

[Reg Martin]

First off this thread presumably started off as a celebration of a very good strike from a player that has had his problems since joining us and who therefore needs any encouragement he can get during this pre-season.

It now seems yet again to have degenerated into yet another "why don't we sign a proven quality striker" thread. We might be able to sign a striker who had proven quality 5 years ago; Sherringham, Goat, Ricketts etc. but all of the other names I've seen bandied about cost too much and we can't afford them.

This club will have to continue growing slowly taking chances on up-and-coming players, players from Irish, Scottish, other countries' leagues, and filling the gaps in the squad with run-of-the-mill L1/L2 workmen.

If we can get a new stadium, keep out of debt, build up a larger fanbase still, get ourselves back into the second tier etc. then maybe we'll have a chance to upgrade our squad over time to one which will sustain us at a higher level and perhaps even provide the springboard to challenge for more. Don't let's think though that we can throw the Freddy cash around and buy promotion back into the CCC; it doesn't usually work and all you end up with is a big bill.

Good post, Suffolk Blue.
I think we all need to get a bit of perspective - thinking back 2 years ago how many of us were worried about our ability to stay up in this division, now its taken for granted we should be challenging for promotion. Thinking back even longer, over the last few decades how often have we even been thought of as a potential front runner when we've been at this level?

We have come a long way in a short time, admittedly from the point of oblivion, but I think we've been spoilt a bit in the last few seasons and expectations have been raised too high as a result.

In the long term we can't compete at higher without a bigger stadium and fanbase and we may have to accept this may not come as quick as we would like.

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

class

on the official webpage

it was a good goal hopefully he'll score some like that next season

"what that coming over the hill its billy paynter, billy Paynter!"

Ummm no, what thats comming off of the bench its Gray Hooper, its Gary Hooper!!

:thump:

 

[mattytheshrimper]

Ummm no, what thats comming off of the bench its Gray Hooper, its Gary Hooper!!

:thump:

gray hooper??????

 

[mattytheshrimper]

paynters goal last night was quality, but i agree that we can't really judge either billy or matty until the season starts. witham were poor and wakering weren't amazing. but good to see our strikers scoring.

 

[grayhound]

Billy Van Basten haha.

Lets just hope he doesn’t try to shoot from the half way line like he did against Stoke on his debut.

I think he looks a lot better this year admittedly its against lower opposition but he looks a fair bit sharper then before. He looks as though he wants to prove himself.