Freddy's Had Enough!!!

[Bob Cratchitt]

I was always happy with Freddys work rate, I didnt want him chasing lost balls for 90 minutes, I wanted him to use energy for when he had the ball.

I did not want Freddy to run around like a headless chicken, I just wanted him to look interested in playing for us, and maybe score a few more than he did in those last 4 months.

Upto and including the Man Ure game he played 19 and scored 10, after that fateful day, he played 30 games and scored 6. So did the team quality fall apart in that time or did he just not have the hunger to play for Southend any longer? You decide??

 

[OldBlueLady]

When we were coming up from 2nd through 1st, Freddy was getting acres of space in amongst the defences and he was getting great service from Maher, Guttridge and Gower amongst others. Once we hit Championship he was regularly getting marked out of the game, and only really scoring goals from flash in the pan runs or cannonball shots rather than the free scoring from all ranges he'd enjoyed previously. Maher also was getting more attention, meaning a lack of supply, and JCR all too often failed to make the cross. Compare the difference in the goals scored in those earlier days with the later ones, not so much a change of attitude just not able to enjoy the same amount of freedom. Agree his head did go down towards the end, but we were playing pretty poorly by then.

 

[HudsonNo1]

I did not want Freddy to run around like a headless chicken, I just wanted him to look interested in playing for us, and maybe score a few more than he did in those last 4 months.

Upto and including the Man Ure game he played 19 and scored 10, after that fateful day, he played 30 games and scored 6. So did the team quality fall apart in that time or did he just not have the hunger to play for Southend any longer? You decide??

Or did defenses clock on that we had no other attacking threat what so ever and mark him out every game, because that's what i witnessed.

 

[Jam_Man]

I did not want Freddy to run around like a headless chicken, I just wanted him to look interested in playing for us, and maybe score a few more than he did in those last 4 months.

Ill take that to mean he just didnt score enough singlehanded then.

Upto and including the Man Ure game he played 19 and scored 10, after that fateful day, he played 30 games and scored 6. So did the team quality fall apart in that time or did he just not have the hunger to play for Southend any longer? You decide??

I have decided, he didnt score because we werent good enough and languishing in the relegation zone all season! Who else was banging them in when he wasnt ?

How many chances did he actually miss ?

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

JCR all too often failed to make the cross.

Maybe because nobody was in the box for the crosses to made early enough, so JCR would cut back.

Eastwood is not a fox in the box type player, or a player who runs the line, he is the type of striker that picks up the ball and runs at the defence. His close control is amazing and allows him to be this type of striker. As mentioned before I loved the excitement he gave us, but so far he has not proven to be Championship quality striker, I am hoping he proves me wrong.

Now if we had someone like Barnie last season then who knows with the different type of attacking styles it may have helped us stay up.

 

[sufcintheprem]

It's hilarious how many people are going to remember Eastwood as the reason we got relegated, it really is. It's as though the gravity of conceding over 80 goals in one season just passes everyone by. It's almost like the clamouring for new strikers when we're on course to concede one fewer goal than Hull (the worst team not relegated in the Championship) and more than both Bradford and Chesterfield (both relegated from League One) conceded last season.

Who needs an organised defence anyway?

Just to turn the argument around a bit, the leakiest defence to make the playoffs last season conceded 49 goals. That would allow us 6 goals in the remainder of the season. Depressingly, we've now conceded the same number of goals in 30 games as two years ago when we won this division in 46 games!!

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Well as the point was about Eastwood, I tried to stay on that point, i never said Eastwood was at fault for our decline, just that he has yet to prove himself Championship quality. Collymore proved himself at championship and made good inroads at Premiership level until the demons started to haunt him.

without doubt our defence was terrible last season as we conceded far too many from set pieces and bad positioning but until some starts a thread, Adam Barrett/Peter Clarke is Championship quality or another thread about did we have enough disposal money to stay in the Championship. I will not go into that side of our relegation in this thread. :p

 

[sufcintheprem]

Well as the point was about Eastwood, I tried to stay on that point, i never said Eastwood was at fault for our decline, just that he has yet to prove himself Championship quality. Collymore proved himself at championship and made good inroads at Premiership level until the demons started to haunt him.

without doubt our defence was terrible last season as we conceded far too many from set pieces and bad positioning but until some starts a thread, Adam Barrett/Peter Clarke is Championship quality or another thread about did we have enough disposal money to stay in the Championship. I will not go into that side of our relegation in this thread. :p

Sadly Comrade Mao, I think you are the tip of the iceberg of opinion on this.

I agree that he has not proved himself as a Championship player but he had so little chance of achieving anything in a team so devoid of creativity last season and the timing of McCarthy dropping him from the first team this season was criminal really.

He can't claim to be a decent Championship striker yet but I don't see why others wouldn't be tempted to give him a go and not sign 38 other strikers too.

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

Cheeky ****s saying "he scored 20 goals (in a bad team)" :finger:

I know!! ****ers!! We were good in league 1 (where he scored those goals)

 

[OldBlueLady]

See he came on for Wolves in the 90th minute - amazed he bothered.