Woodrow and "the plan". Devil's Advocate.

As the title of this post suggests, it purely to stimulate discussion rather than to advocate one position or another.

There are strong arguments to suggest that Woodrow's best goalscoring days for us are behind him. This could quite successfully be backed up by the statistics for the last season and a half, especially if we remove penalties from the equation. Woodrow's peak market value in his career was almost certainly reached in January 2020, with him having just turned 25 and scoring goals regularly in the Championship in a struggling side. It's not outlandish to suggest that in that January window after the Fulham game, we could have sold him for a fee of around £8 million, possibly even higher. Had that happened, the meltdown among supporters would have been absolutely incredible.

Fast forward two years, and Woodrow has not kept up his previous goalscoring form, at least not from open play. If we were to sell him in January 2022, I would expect his fee to be £2 million as an absolute maximum.

Obviously this post ignores a lot of other factors like non-goalscoring contributions, whether we'd have stayed up in 2020 or been so successful the season after without Woodrow in the side etc, but according purely to the club's financial modus operandi, there are convincing arguments to say that selling Cauley Woodrow in January 2020 would have been the right thing to do.

Edit - this post is intended not to discuss the merits and deficiencies of Cauley Woodrow, as that's been done to death in other posts. I'm genuinely interested in people's opinions in relation to the question - should we have sold Cauley in January 2020?

 

I like Woodrow and would love him to go on and score a lot more goals for us. I'm not saying he won't but I'm a firm believer in statistics and they tell the story that over the last couple of seasons, from open play, he hasn't been much of a threat.

 

I think that much of it is due to how he's been utilised in the team and in a system that suits him he'd hit double figures from open play. But we used a system last season which was probably not optimal for Cauley as a goalscorer, yet is very difficult to argue against looking at the number of points we accrued.

 

He needs to get back to just being a “player “ rather than trying to be captain, on field manager, spokesman, etc. He’s lost his focus.

 

He's good at putting his hands on his head 'in despair' when he's fouled or offside but would love him to score some goals again.

 

Fair points. But should we have sold him in January 2020?

 

Not sure about £8m mate….

 

Check what other regular Championship goalscorers were going for at that time. I think it's a pretty fair price. But even if we reduce it to £5 or £6 million, my point still stands.

 

He hides in plain site now. He's lost his bottle as a striker and has dropped deeper because he realises if he's not scoring he isn't benefitting the team. It's quite humbling but not what you need. Somebody easily bumdled off the ball dropping deaper. It just puts the midfield and defence under more pressure. If he could hold the ball up like Morris it would be o.k but he doesn't. I'd take £2 million for him.

 

All the evidence suggests we should although I think your estimated price is somewhat inflated.
Tony Mowbray mentioned him specifically as a problem opponent after we played Blackburn so I reckon he still has a residual value circa 2 million as you say.

 

Sadly, I think I would too.

 

No. His time will come again

 

Speaking with the benefit of hindsight - yes.
Speaking as of Jan 2020, with him scoring for fun and not knowing he was about to dry up - no.

 

Nothing really against him, but I don’t rate him. Doesn’t do enough for me. Yes, he may link up play at times, but ultimately a forwards/strikers job is to score goals. Something that he doesn’t do on a regular basis. (Penalties aside)

Iseka looks a real prospect & with Morris to come back, he slipping down the pecking order for me. No-one should be untouchable from being dropped. I certainly think he needs a rest.

 

No. I think we'd be at least £6m worse off without him, by virtue of having been relegated.

 

If they can both stay fit, I can only see Morris and Iseka as our first choice strikers, plus one other depending on the system.

 

If he gets his confidence back, I can see him evolving into the Hignett role. At times last night that's where he was playing.

 

I am not sure how you can remove penalties from the equation as you suggest , penalties get missed all the time & a good penalty taker is priceless, therefore this art is one of Cauleys strong points & should be part of any discussion on the lad. I find it laughable the amount of stick our better players get when the team are struggling & the key point is the word team , this season since Morris got injured Woodrow has had little or no support often against teams who are playing two or three big experienced centre backs , Schopp has hung him out to dry , not only with no support but with his continuing meddling with midfield which has resulted in little or no supply for our main striker , he continually has to drop deeper to look for the ball which is pulling him away from where he needs to be, Schopp also lumbered him with making him captain & also having him take corners which has done him no favours but when his critics say lets get rid I ask the question " who would you replace him with ? " , strikers are very expensive & we do not shop in the expensive outlets , critics site what kind of fee we could get for him , well thats fine but if you want someone better then its going to cost a lot more than we receive for him , Woodrow has been a vital cog in our machine for a while now & to get the best out of him we need him in the box , who ever takes over the job of HC will know this & hopefully he can get a regular partner to help him out & shoulder the burden , if & when this happens Woodrow will start firing again ,but to get rid of a quality striker in my opinion is madness .

 

I think he's been asked to play deeper. Might not be ideal for him, but he's our best option in that role imho.

 

Should never have been made captain, Helik was the obvious choice for me.