For a long time now I've seen on here many comments about Izale McLeod, most of them slagging him off and giving him in my opinion unfair criticism and after all the comments I've seen being aimed at him after his performance against Oldham I've decided to stick up for the lad. As everyone knows McLeod's time here has been very frustrating to say the least, but I think he does have the potential to be a top player in this divison and hopefully the Championship however I think to get there he needs the support of everyone so he can build his confidence.
There has been a lot of expectation on him after £1.1 million was splashed out him, he often looked like troubling defenders with his pace in his first season as seen when he won 2 penalties against Norwich but then had frustrating games against Coventry - missing three 1 on 1's. Then he had a resurrgence when he was brought on against West Brom away and he scored his first goal for us causing them all kinds of problems, then he played against WBA in the FA Cup and was arguably our best player, then against Blackpool him and Varney put the Blackpool defence under all kinds of pressure. For some reason he was very unfairly dropped out of the whole squad when we played Watford, went out on loan to Colchester and did his knee. The season after he made an unexpected appearance against Burnley and was strangley brought off at half time when he was probably our best player, he then had another game against Coventry where he won us a penalty before being shipped out to Millwall where he had a fairly productive loan spell.
This season in nearly all of his appearances from the bench he has done well literally scaring the shit out of defenders with his pace and has been unlucky not to have scored more goals. He has worked very hard this season and that shows when he steps on the pitch he doesn't hide away and always wants the ball, yet because of our fans never taking to him after some bad performances he gets slated after 1 miss and has the piss taken out of him with stupid names like mcclown. He never gets big cheers when he comes on, and has never had a song sung about him yet Leon McKenzie gets a chant without ever playing a game for us and not doing much at all after coming on understandably though after his injury. All McLeod needs is some proper encouragement from the fans and most important RESPECT, no more stupid and pathetic names like dizzy mcclown and people getting on his back after one miss and they should instead look at the problems he causes defenders. Strikers don't have to score in a match to have a good game and people who think that don't know anything about football, McLeod will get the goals for us if we get behind him and Parky keeps giving him the chances that he's had.
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Agree with this - I've always hated it when our players are given degrogitiory nicknames - rate them or not they're on our side. Constructive criticism is one thing, but there's no real need for name-calling.
Agree with this - I've always hated it when our players are given degrogitiory nicknames - rate them or not they're on our side. Constructive criticism is one thing, but there's no real need for name-calling.[/quote]
What you mean like Kevin Missbee, except that poor sod actually managed to score some pretty decent goals at a much higher level and similarly terrorise defences on a regular basis. But it still didn't stop a large section of the Valley faithful ridiculing him.
I, too, can see no point in name-calling nor jeering, but the man is a well-paid full-time pro footballer playing as a striker, and at least two of the chances he missed v Oldham were 'disappointing' to witness from a player of his reputed ability.
Unfortunately there is little scope for sympathy when the man who is paid to score goals fails to convert an 'easy' chance in a key game, even if he did make a valued contribution to the game.
BTW names don't hurt!!
The miss was a miss. It happens to other strikers too. It was disappointing and he will know that he should have scored.
There has been plenty of debate on here before about how we criticise our own players on this forum. I truly believe that belittling and name calling our young players serves no useful purpose whatsoever.
Others on here think it is ok to do so and this site is largely about variety of opinions.
I would prefer McLeod etc to be given reasonable respect on here but others don't see it like that. So for every slag em off thread I welcome one like this that supports them if only to balance out our wide range of views on players at the club.
I certainly believe he made a difference when he came on yesterday; but ultimately a striker is going to be judged on goals.
He cannot afford to keep missing guilt-edged chances like yesterday.
Unfortunately, rightly or not, I think Izzy long ago lost the fans and I suspect that only a hatfull of goals will win them over.
As you say, he may need the fans backing to get there, so it's become a vicious circle.
I'm not sure he has the character or ability to turn it around now; but in the absence of money to spend on a new striker he will likely get some more opportunities.
It was probably his misfortune (and Varney's) to follow Darren Bent as the difference in quality is cruelly exposed; and the money Pardew spent on the pair of them maybe raised expectations.
Sometimes in those circumstances it is vital to rise to the occasion and make a good first impression; but I recall Izzy coming on against Palace away and having a great chance to bury the game one-on-one with Speroni, and he fluffed it.
Maybe that set the tone?
i think the amount of running and effort put in by luke varney was second to none and he is a better player imo
I think Pardew destroyed Varney by hyping him up as the wonder striker that he was going to build the team around.
I'd have liked us to have played Varney out wide; he could use his pace and his crossing was excellent.
The run and cross for Iwelumo's winner at Saints was worth the price of admission alone.
I'm sure he would have chipped in with goals as well without that weight of expectation.
Spot on. Agree with Large as well, we were only a threat up front once the changes were made yesterday.
Always gets me like that too.
I'd much prefer the team to do well and keep him well away from the pitch.
if anyone deserves that crap name he is your man. Izzy tries, thats all you can ask.
The lad is short on confidence so please stop with the boo-ing and angryness at every mistake.
We can say on here all we like about how it was a bad miss, and it really was a shocking miss, but we have to accept that Izale just isn't Darren Bent, and he will therefore miss chances like any other striker at this level.
Unlike most strikers at this level though, he is incredibly quick and worrys defenders. Count his blessings and stop with the, not just un-constructive, but sometimes destructive ( to player's confidence ) abuse.
Could've done with scoring one of those four chances on saturday though. I too, like Mcleod and agree with most of what you said and at least we did actually start to create chances when he was introduced. We had sturggled to even get the ball into the box before he came on. I hope I'm wrong but I can see him becoming another Kevin Lisbie - scoring goals everywhere but Charlton.
Kenny Achampong
Barry Endean
Dickie Plumb
Jones
He still is not great
Even if he doesn't score, him running onto things could create chances for others, even if it's just winning a free kick/throw in/corner. It could help us get further up the pitch, at the moment we have to pass our way up there or ask the midfield/full backs to run at them from deep. We're limited with the sort of passes we can play with Shelvey behind Burton, McLeod would allow us to play balls for him to run onto which at this level always creates chances. Only Sam on the wing really offers anything like that. Something for Parky to seriously consider, perhaps it would make the team stronger overall, even though McLeod offers less ability than Shelvey or Burton.
mcleod is an appalling footballer and in my opinion what we have seen of him this season has not really shown much sign for encouragement - he has done what he has done ever since he joined us, which is cause some defences problems with his pace, but in terms of ability/first touch/positioning/heading/finishing/reading of the game//passing and general use of the ball, mcleod is very, very poor, even for this level. regardless of his finishing, he doesnt look like a natural footballer, he has his head down all the time and doesnt abide by many of the basic techniques for playing football which you are taught when youre a kid.
in addition, he has a catalogue of unacceptable misses behind him (just off the top of my head, palace away, norwich away a couple of weeks ago, yesterday, a shocking miss at home to west brom in the cup game, plus many more which i cant instantly recall), and the only goals he has scored have been very fortuitous - that west brom goal was an appalling mishit which went in through incompetent goalkeeping and would have looked pretty embaressing on mcleods part had the keeper collected it, that goal against exeter = shocking goalkeeping. i dont really see how anybody can justify thinking that "he will start to finish these chances", it just isnt going to happen, he isnt suddenly going to develop that knack in my opinion, which is a shame as we are in desperate need of a striker and i honestly dont think its that difficult to find one at this level (imo we probably already have one who we have loaned out to a side just below us in the table)....