Our front two if Fred goes

shooter mcgavin · Apr 2, 2007

Yorkshire Blue said:
I disagree that Freddy is in anyway average.

Freddy has 16 goals in a struggling team. He's also hit the woodwork five(?) times this season. Not only is he our best goalscorer, he's also our best goal-creator. He's struggled with virtually no support to carve chances out of nothing.

Statwise he matches up to pretty much anyone in the division. The top scorers have only 5 more than him, despite playing for teams much higher up the table. No-one else in the bottom 8 has scored nearly as many.

Of the 6 strikers to have scored more than him, 3 of those are only one or two goals better off than Freddy and Chopra is the only other striker to feature on both the top scorers and top assist list.

Nugent got called up for England for scoring as many as Freddy has managed.

Fair points, well made and duly noted.

However I'm sure that if you take the handful of penalties out of his tally and if we look at league goals only, a return of 11 goals is nowhere near the top of the scorers chart in the Championship.

Comparing Nugent to Eastwood is a good one, since whilst Nugent may not score the "great goals" that Eastwood gets, his work rate and all round footballing brain is infinitely superior. He offers a load more to the team than Eastwood does at present and I'm not convinced that Eastwood will ever offer that.

The point I'm trying to make is that Eastwood has been great for us, but in order to be a £5m centre forward, you have to offer a team more than the odd goal threat. His all round game needs to be dramatically improved if he has aspirations of playing at the highest level IMHO.

Cricko2 · Apr 2, 2007

Billy Best @ Bill Garner....;)

Yorkshire Blue · Apr 2, 2007

shooter mcgavin said:
Fair points, well made and duly noted.

However I'm sure that if you take the handful of penalties out of his tally and if we look at league goals only, a return of 11 goals is nowhere near the top of the scorers chart in the Championship.

Comparing Nugent to Eastwood is a good one, since whilst Nugent may not score the "great goals" that Eastwood gets, his work rate and all round footballing brain is infinitely superior. He offers a load more to the team than Eastwood does at present and I'm not convinced that Eastwood will ever offer that.

The point I'm trying to make is that Eastwood has been great for us, but in order to be a £5m centre forward, you have to offer a team more than the odd goal threat. His all round game needs to be dramatically improved if he has aspirations of playing at the highest level IMHO.

Football365 has Freddy down as 3 penalties this season - although I can think of 4 (Stoke, Bournemouth, Coventry and Spurs). Nugent is actually the only striker in there who hasn't scored a spot-kick this season and most seem to have 2 or 3 (or SIX in that lump Iweulomo's case).

I agree Freddy still has to work on his all round game, but worryingly I don't think Southend is the club for him to do it. I think playing with lesser players at Roots Hall is holding his game back. His off the ball-running isn't being helped playing with inferior players like Maher and JCR who all too rarely see his runs. Freddy is better holding up the ball than many give him credit for. The number of bad balls he turns into good balls is staggering. Few players can match his ability to somehow drag down a wild pass and its much rarer to see him knocked off the ball these days.

Nugent has got the edge in terms of a more developed an all-round game, but talent wise few in the division come near Freddy. IMHO that is worth investing in. He's still young and he's still learning.

I don't think its his lack of all-round game which scares managers and chairman off, but his background. What is making managers think twice is the stories of him living in a caravan and driving a pony and trap around. Managers panic and think how can I deal with him? He's not like my other players, I won't know how to handle him.

THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK · Apr 2, 2007

I'd personally put this cillit bang Toilet Cleaner up front ,after all ,she has been knocking on the Door and she can't do any worse than Bradders ,probably Faster and may even pass the Ball Forward instead of the Tap Tap Backwards .

BrettieAngell · Apr 2, 2007

If we go down then I would get Paynter and Hooper back and see how they get on presuming Panyter wants to come back that is.

If we stay up then who knows Freddy might still be here next year.

CC51DAS · Apr 2, 2007

Yorkshire Blue said:
Football365 has Freddy down as 3 penalties this season - although I can think of 4 (Stoke, Bournemouth, Coventry and Spurs). Nugent is actually the only striker in there who hasn't scored a spot-kick this season and most seem to have 2 or 3 (or SIX in that lump Iweulomo's case).

I agree Freddy still has to work on his all round game, but worryingly I don't think Southend is the club for him to do it. I think playing with lesser players at Roots Hall is holding his game back. His off the ball-running isn't being helped playing with inferior players like Maher and JCR who all too rarely see his runs. Freddy is better holding up the ball than many give him credit for. The number of bad balls he turns into good balls is staggering. Few players can match his ability to somehow drag down a wild pass and its much rarer to see him knocked off the ball these days.

Nugent has got the edge in terms of a more developed an all-round game, but talent wise few in the division come near Freddy. IMHO that is worth investing in. He's still young and he's still learning.

I don't think its his lack of all-round game which scares managers and chairman off, but his background. What is making managers think twice is the stories of him living in a caravan and driving a pony and trap around. Managers panic and think how can I deal with him? He's not like my other players, I won't know how to handle him.