Recently on here I've seen people suggesting playing Odour or Styles in the front 3. In my eyes very sensible suggestions. What I haven't seen mentioned is Woodrow. I don't believe Cauley has the pace to do what is being asked of him in out front 3. However, the kid has technical ability, vision and awareness of his surroundings. All the traits of making a cracking central midfielder as his career progresses. Some players as their careers progress lose a yard of pace and can no longer play that position (aka a certain Mr Rooney). It by no means makes them a terrible footballer overnight and I think Cauley is taking some flack at the minute due to physically not being strong enough or quick enough. I would love to see him in central midfield alongside Mowatt trying to provide opportunities for the front 3 (Christ knows where they get their energy from). Yes his tackling may not be up to standard but with his vision and ability I think he could provide some cracking goalscoring opportunities for our front 3
Not sure about midfield but he gets my admiration for absolutely running his blood to water for the good of the team game in and game out.
Could say he's now playing his third position of the season. Starting in a no.10 role under Struber, then playing the middle of a front three, now playing one of the wider roles. I think the switch to a wider role is quite a big one, but if he can get on top of the off the ball side of it, it could be his best position on the ball. But he does seem a bit slow to press compared to Chaplin and Frieser, and even Vic and Morris.
I think his more languid style masks how competitive he is, how much he closes down and the ground he covers. The most effective he's been has been as a front two and allowed to roam from left to centre and sometimes be a little deeper. Sadly, I think we're completely wasting his talents and it's probably in his best interests that he finds a club who play football. Absolute shame as he's one of my favourite players by a distance.
He definitely covers a lot of ground, and gets through a lot of graft every game. When I said he was slow to press, I didn't mean slow across the ground, but just a slight delayed reaction to triggers to press. Particularly against QPR, who were able to work the ball wide early on. Not sure we're wasting his talents, he's into double figures again, but there's been some chances that he's just not looked as clinical in taking. Whether it be a first time finish, or a strike from distance. If he works on the training ground on pressing wider defenders, I think he'll do well playing up front with Morris and Dike.
I thought there were varying aspects to the press? Sometimes we aim to channel it wide? And of late, we don't really press, not as a unit anyway. Yes, he's into double figures, but he looks a shadow of himself. He gets so little opportunity in this hoof style that anything he does get he snatches at. I thought one of his main skills was his serenity and calmness under pressure. But that has been seldom seen this season and aside from penalties which he's exceptional at, and maybe the finish at Rotherham, he's not been allowed to operate in his best areas or, when chances have fleetingly occurred, he's not been at his sharpest. He's more rapier than blunderbuss. We're currently operating largely as blunderbusses with very rare sightings of rapiers.
You saying he is not clinical in his chance taking which is fair comment but he has more goals than Chaplin, Victor & Frieser put together & for me should be the second name on the team sheet behind Mowatt every match , I find it baffling why he is always being scrutinised whilst players with less ability hardly get mentioned
We need to find a way of creating more chances for Cauley in and around the box. He's so good there but with our style he's not getting these chances.
I dont think he should have started against Derby after playing almost the full match against Birmingham, same applies to Dike, they both looked absolutely knackered and hopefully they will be on the subs bench on Saturday.
Am a big fan of Woodrow, but at the moment, I think we look more like scoring when we have both Dike and Morris on the pitch, so it's a case of who would complement those two the best. I personally think Woodrow needs some time to get used to that role alongside them, but wouldn't play him there on Saturday.
I wouldn't move Styles personally, I think he is doing a good job at LWB. If he is getting moved anywhere, I would guess it would be central midfield. Oduor is a bit of a strange one. When he came into our side last year, he looked like one of our better players. But I'm not really sure what his position would be in this team? I don't think he is defensively astute enough to play LWB (and Williams is ahead of him) and I'm not sure if he has the stamina/work rate to be part of our front 3. I do like him though so would quite like to see him get some minutes before the end of the season. I think the 6 players we have for the front 3 positions all compliment each other well and all run their knackers off. It's about getting the combinations correct.
Think there is a danger of over complicating things or trying to fix something that isn’t broken. Not winning every game between now and the end of the season was always going to happen and putting square pegs in round holes very seldom works. BTW - there’s a very good reason Cauley gets a lot of time (more than most) on the pitch!
Woodrow's our best centre forward. We'd soom realise how good he is if we played Adeboyejo or Chaplin until the end of the season instead. There's been some bloody good chances missed because he hasn't been on the pitch. I bet Woodrow was fuming watching Simoes, Chaplin and Schmidt miss them sitters v QPR at home.