After Church limped off last night (it seemed he took a knock in an aerial challenge), who plays up front on Saturday, with Kermorgant unlikely to be fit? Piggott still needs time to mature before becoming a starting striker in my view, so we are in desperate need. Obika to join before Saturday?
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Poor Pigott must have been wondering whether He would ever get on! Church was pretty much begging to come off!
PantsFootThe lack of power in his shooting boots is frightening
LMFAO
Another player who doesn't have the physical qualities or technical abilities necessary for a strong team in the Championship is Harriott. He was a liability yesterday, playing centrally just behind the strikers: regularly brushed off the ball and conceding possession - like Pritchard against Millwall - that could easily have been costly. He is ineffective on the wing, too: Championship defenders are wise to those step-overs, which ultimately fool no-one but Harriott himself. Again, he could make an impact in League Two.
Well, the "knock" must be quite low down on his body, because the fella can't jump more than 6 inches off the ground. It deffo won't be any sort of head wound, unless he head-butted his opponents hip.
IMHO, he is not going to get the goals to keep us out of the bottom three.
The left footed close range miss last night showed he is not a 15 goal a season predatory striker.
Hope you're all right about Piggott, but have to say I disagree that he had a decent ten minutes yesterday. He wasn't as pitiful as he was against Millwall but he was very cumbersome with the ball on the ground and missed a couple of good opportunities to help progress breaks by taking so long to get the ball under control. And the use of the word 'dire' may have been harsh in respect of Piggott's overall footballing ability, but it certainly wasn't for his attempts at heading.
I hope he improves and he may well do. But the point I am making is, as much as we'd all like him to crack on, score goals and establish himself, and regardless of whether he will be capable of doing that in the future, I don't think he is anywhere near good enough to do that now and we have a problem if we are looking at the possibility of him being in the first xi frequently this season.
Disagree with viewfinder about Harriot. He certainly isn't the finished article and does make mistakes, but he does also in periods cause problems and scare defenders. Unlike Piggott, worthy of being in the reckoning and competing with Stewart in my view.
He's got pace, skill and energy which immediately worries defenders and gives them something to think about. Having a player that occupies defenders, can beat a man and has a burst within him will free up others to play.
His usage of the ball needs more work, but will come with experience. People will always get frustrated with a stepover when it doesn't work because it looks bad. But that ability to make something out of nothing is something we lack without Fuller.
Still cheer him on though.
I was watching Church as he suffered his injury: he jumped to challenge, and was clutching his leg almost before he hit the ground. It wasn't a contact injury - looked like a muscle strain or pulled hamstring.
On the subject of Harriott, I've yet to be convinced of his merit. Have a look again at the approach to our goal against Forest, posted elsewhere on this site. It was quickfire passing on the edge of the box - the rapid geometry of movement - that made space and unlocked their defence. Step-overs on the wing with two defenders in your ear rarely achieve more than a throw-in.
Harriot was playing at the top of a diamond. Not a formation we have played often and he never (in the first team at least) and no I didn't think he did very well.
But as a site we seem to lurch from one good performance = great player, one below parr performance = League two at best. Cousins was part of a losing team at Burnley and scored 6.14 on the CL statbank. Four days later he is the next Parker/Bowyer/Gerrard.
Cousins, Harriot, Pigott are good, promising but most importantly young players learning their trade in a not so great side which is struggling for form and goals. They will have good games and bad games. At least give them a few months before we praise them to high heaven or write them off as "dire"
Young players, however talented, will always be inconsistent - and their bad days tend to stand out because they haven't yet learnt the tricks the old pros use to hide when they're having an off-day.
And youngsters are going to be doubly inconsistent in a side in which the older heads who should be showing them the way are themselves low on form and confidence. Even Shelvey, probably a class above any of the current crop of youngsters, struggled to make much impact in a failing Charlton side.
I think we saw enough of the good side of Joe Pigott's play in the cup game v Oxford to realise he could be a fine player.Given time there is no reason why he should not learn to perform like that against higher quality opposition.