Interesting to watch these two as we'd been linked with both. I thought that Dykes looked very useful. Big, strong, holds the ball up well. Just what we've been missing in fact. 2 million looks like money well spent, although reading their forum, their fans seem split so for. As for Bonne, he was completely anonymous, and most of their fans seem to think he's absolute pony and they've been sold a dud. Not sure how seriously we were looking at him mind (or whether we even were), but in any case I'm glad he doesn't play for us on that showing.
After last nights display, I’m not sure Dykes would’ve got many games here you know. No doubt he had abit on the ball, but as we all know, especially up front now, our players are expected to put a shift in with the high press style we use. Dykes off the ball didn’t look interested, didn’t close anyone down. Just walked about. The recruitment team would’ve got slated if he put in a performance like that for us. It is going to be hard to find a big man who’s going to work hard off the ball.
They both look like grafters agreed. But they never threatened Walton's goal. Where as Woodrow and Chappers both scored and should have doubled tally. Then Schmit made some great runs and should have had a couple late on! On balance. Looks like money well saved! And better spent on other areas bringing James, Britain and Kane to the club.
Add to that. I thought Dykes was luck to stay on the field with persistant fouls. He can press, he can run, he can score pens, but one thing he cannot do is tackle!
I thought Dykes looked poor. He made it difficult in the air for the CB’s but they still won 80% of the aerial battles. When your biggest strength is in the air you need to be winning more than that for over £2 million. He was poor with the ball in to feet and didn’t run the channels well. Think we’ve dodged a bullet personally. Although I disagree he looked lazy, but more frustrated that his own efforts of chasing down weren’t backed up by his teammates so he was wasting energy. He tried to lead a press that just wasn’t there, which made our defenders look comfortable on the ball the whole game. That’s two big physical strikers we’ve played against recently now in Dykes and Martin. We’ve come off best against both.
So we’re after a big striker who can hold the ball up, run channels, play the high press, score 20 goals a season, under 23, under 2m and < 10k a week.....see our dilemma?
Strange how you can watch the same game and have such a different impression. I thought Dykes looked good, we missed out. He was a real handful throughout the game and should have got a goal. A very different striker to any we have and would be good alongside Woodrow. I was also delighted to see Schmidt get game time, I know he missed easy goals but put himself about and took up great positions. I think he will come good.
I was thinking exactly the same after the game, I wasn't impressed overall with Dykes and I'm glad we didn't spend £2M quid
All about opinions mate. When should he have got a goal though? Scoring in an offside position aside, did he have a shot at goal? I think Helik and Madds dominated him. He was a handful and gave them a game, but when your biggest attribute is your size and physicality I think you'd want more from your front man. He didn't look good enough on the ball to play for us to be honest. That doesn't mean he isn't a good player, and the way we play might change over the next half a dozen games, but we need more from someone up front than just being available for the long ball, and if he dropped deep for us or tried to interchange with the other strikers I think he'd look even worse. Kind of player you'd look to make an impact for us off the bench though.
Wow opinions hey....I thought Dykes played really well .....I bet our lads knew they'd been in a game last night ....for me weve missed out .....its what we need a striker to put himself about ....I'm of the opinion that Woodrow would have a field day following him into the box week in week out....
