Do we still need a striker in to replace Norwood?

Actually having looked it up his record is even worse. 18 league goals in 9 years. 52 starts in 9 years. 7 clubs. Definitely a hard no from me.

 

If you're saying shaw and Dallas aren't ready for the first team, then neither is watters based on last week.

 

The sale of James Norwood on the eve of the season without having a replacement sorted looks a very, very poor decision.

 

Exactly. Bonkers…..

 

We missed him last night when we were under the cosh.

 

That’s what happens when you have a bunch of idiots running a football club

 

You simply cannot come on here and say such things, what about fast pints, pork gyros and Lebanese flatbreads ? You’ll give the BBS bed wetters palpitations.

 

Or when we revert to a more direct style. When we get the ball out wide and into the box, like we did against Port Vale, we're alright. When we go a bit more direct, or when there's no outlet in midfield to transition into attack quickly, we miss him as an outlet.

That was as poor of a performance I've ever seen from a striker last night in Watters.

I'm still not against Norwood leaving, but it is blatantly obvious that we need another striker. Cole's the only one who looks up to it, but even he needs the right person next to him. Maybe Dallas with time. I'm not sold on Shaw or Watters.

 

Troy Deeny on a seasons deal.

 

I think we miss a replacement for mads and Thomas in defence more. We're wide open at the back we could have got beat 6 - 1 last night and 7 or 8 on Saturday the amout of chances and free headers we gift teams. Although watters is making us miss Norwood just turning up and going through the motions.

 

Rather have Troy Tempest.

 

To be fair Watters was much more effective than Cole on Saturday, who was by and large a passenger.

 

Early days yet but I don't see much in Watters. His overall play is poor as is his first touch. My dad (x scout) makes very very good appraisals of players after a couple of games, he thought last year he wasn't the answer but I wanted to give him more time (I still do).
I just hope he's carrying a knock....so far we have played 3 teams and each one had better strikers than him. Fingers crossed he improves.....bringing in a capable target man has to be the clubs number one priority anyway but thats kinda something we all knew.

 

Watters was ***** Saturday mate. Most of the mdt were calling for him to be dragged at half time he lasted until the somewhere around 65th minute. 3 games and he looks worse than he did on loan last season. No wonder duff never picked him.

 

Defending starts from the front though. Obviously Mads is a huge loss - but we've bought replacement defenders, one who made his debut last night.

The press and niggle that Norwood brings up top though has not been replaced. His work ethic and appetite to get involved really set the tone in a number of games last season.

To allow him to leave on the eve of the season without sourcing a replacement is gross negligence.

 

To me, Watters doesn't seem to be a player that suits our style. I think he's an old fashioned type striker who needs to be in the box to get on the end of crosses and balls played in. His goals last season were ones that dropped to him and his finishing was decent.

If that is his game, it is very strange that we brought him back and gave him such a long contract.

 

He got the assist, which is more than we got out of Cole, who was highly ineffectual. Make no mistake, when Watters finally got hauled off I did think his head was down and I thought to myself, he's got to be disappointed with that performance. I reckon it's a fitness issue though. Still, got an assist. Cole did nothing on Saturday mate, zilch.

 

They both did nothing Saturday but coles performance doesn't make watters any better. He got a assist by passing the ball backwards. Cadden took a man on a shot. The goal was all about cadden. We should probably try watters with Shaw or dallas see how that pans out.

If Cole put in as much effort as watters has these past 3 games the pitch forks would be out and there would be about 30 threads on him.

 

It's funny because as I was typing my earlier post I was thinking that Cole massively benefitted from having old man Norwood by his side to take the pressure off, and that if we tried Cole with Shaw or Dallas (as you suggest Watters with them), I've no doubt the result would be much the same. I think he'd soon grow frustrated with the lack of quality/output next to him, and his own game would suffer as a result.

Watters and Cole need to form that partnership, because that is what we've got. But we need Cole to step up as the main striker now, the main man. The hat-trick against Vale was a great start, but perhaps flattered to deceive. It's clear to most that we need another striker.