Seems strange that there are still those – TalkSport’s Simon Jordan among them – who believes David Moyes has made a mistake in not signing a back-up striker for the new season.
It’s become increasingly clear over the past week and signings last winter that this really isn’t part of the manager’s thinking and a look at last season’s goals tally and the scorers shows the reason why..
Midfielders Tomas Soucek (11) Lingard (9), Jarrod Bowen (8) Pablo Fornals (6), Declan Rice (3), Manu Lanzini (1) and Ben Johnson (1) contributed over half – 39 – of the 62 goals we scored in our sixth placed season.
Ten came from Mikey Antonio and the remainder from defenders with Dawson leading the way with four of them.
Unless you have a quite brilliant front man – Mikey is certainly that at his best – you need players who will creep into scoring position with stealthy and creative runs to score goals and that is clearly the Moyes agenda.
With Bowen having shown he can play through the middle quite successfully should Mikey not be available there’s really no reason for any of us – and I was among them – to carry on moaning about the striker thing.
By and large I think it may be fair to say with those who have been added to the squad look capable of keeping the Moyes approach going with Vlasicv having scored 14 last season.
No striker? No problem!
I would not agree that Bowen has shown he is a good 9, in fact I am not a fan of him at 9. I would much prefer to see Yarmo play at 9 then Bowen. I watched Yarmo at times in the Euros and he was switched into CF on a few occasions and his movement was really excellent. The only reason I believe we did not sign another striker is that I think Yarmo will be back up to Antonio.
Yarmolenko us also injury prone. My feeling is this is a mistake. Happy to be proved wrong.we will know by the next window.
Let’s see how the new signings settle in, Vlasic has played in PL before and hopefully will settle quickly and offer a forward threat but until we see, the jury’s out, we have no back up forward and Bowen or any of the others are not able to fill Mikey’s boots, hopefully an u23 can step up if required or Vlasic but we need another. Forward ASAP. Love the positivity Hugh we have spent a decent amount again but will personally reserve judgement until we see the evidence on the field and also aware that it takes players time upwards of a year sometimes to settle in.
Top Strikers are more expensive than any other position because they score goals right? Well not always. look at a player like haller, what does he contribute in other areas of the pitch, and if he’s not scoring goals then what use is he? There are not many strikers that can drop back into midfield and be a play maker or offer something defensively. Sometimes the striker becomes the focal point of the team and it becomes a case of get the ball up to the striker and everything becomes a bit static. What I like about what Moyes is doing is he’s going for a more fluid team that is interchangeable with goals from all areas. Look at Man City who often win four or five nil without playing a single striker. The false nine when it’s done properly works fantastically well. I agree with what Moyes did, he had a set amount of money to spend and he spent it wisely getting maximum bang for his buck, buying players in key areas that we needed the most. If Antonio gets injured in the next four months it will be interesting but I’m not worried. I think we have enough goals from our attacking players. We have Bowen who can play up front and Yarmolenko who can play right wing. If Bowen gets injured we have Yarmolenko can play up front and Fredericks or Johnson who could play right wing. The players Moyes has bought provide multiple possible line ups, or tactical changes, or rotations. We can now rest key players when needed, when they are carrying knocks and they need a break. We now have quality and strength in depth.
Come the January window, who’s left to buy? A striker, maybe a left back. That’s it. We might not need to buy anyone and save our money for the summer. Wouldn’t that be novel.
There is a full game on you tube from a few months ago in the Russia league makes interesting viewing. Search for Spartak vs cska, week 27, English commentary. You get to see a game with Nikola Vlasic playing against Alex Kral.
Time will tell. Maybe even Vlasic will fit the bill.
And then of course there’s always the January window.
We are seeing a lot less of out and out strikers because a lot of clubs are now relying on false 9s or attacking midfielders.
Great signings from moyes and i was on hear moaning about lack of signings so i’m prepared to eat humble pie.