Odion Ighalo

Despite him being the top scorer in all four divisions in 2015 (while playing more than half of his games in the top flight)?

Some of our fans are a bit hard to please.

 

all decent strikers hit barren patches. all decent strikers tend to be greedy and go for the shot rather than the pass. I've said before, we are genuinely lucky to have him. If the rest of the team chipped in even occassionally it wouldn't highlight this issue. I was mad at him the other night, but it goes with the territory. I've seen Kane go for the shot this season on numerous occassions when there was a better positioned team-mate. Whether Iggy stays or goes next season, ( and if he goes he WILL be difficult to replace) it is goals from the rest of the team we need to address.

 

It isn't a case of pleasing me. I am just being honest.

When it comes to formations/set-ups/tactics, etc, I feel that I am struggling a little compared with many posters on here who seem to understand the "coaching" side better than me, but after 50 years of playing and watching football I feel that I mostly have a reasonable idea of what makes a great striker - and Iggy isn't one for me.

Having said that, throughout 2015 he absolutely made the best of what ability he has, so full marks to him, and I am grateful for his goals. Hopefully he will continue to get more goals and no one will be more pleased than I will. But I just don't go overboard about him.

I suffered the same sort of criticism when I said much the same about Abdi last year, amidst all the hero worship.

We need to do better than these level of players if we are to stay in the top half of the Prem.

 

First time I've seen that. That is ****ing scandalous.

 

And it amazes me that you haven't yet figured out that the reason for the crucifying is because of Iggy's selfishness on Wednesday night and not the goal drought.

 

Why? Maybe Ighalo thought that if he looked behind at that point, he'd lose control of the ball - I don't blame him for thinking that way.

 

Happened to me once. I went to the wrong car park and got a beating from entirely the wrong person. Embarrassing.

 

Right, I'm over my anti-Iggyness. After all, for all I know he might be following QSF instructions. I'm pretty sure it will work out in the end.

 

I'm not anti Iggy

I just believe players who are off form should be dropped

 

Despite still not scoring today, I thought his all round game today was better than normal.

 

We'd struggle to put an XI on to the pitch right now if we followed that mantra.

 

Played as well as Deeney.

 

Mmm, not sure about that. Crying out for a spell on the bench, as his confidence has evaporated, seemingly. Could play against Huth and Morgan till a week next Friday without scoring.

 

On a couple of occasions yesterday I honestly think he wasn't selfish enough....and notice twice Vardy did the unselfish thing & squared the ball when clear in the box, but no goal ensued even when supporting players were free in the box. It's just not as straight forward as people would like to portray.

 

Ighalo isn't the same level of all round footballer as the rest of the team. When his not scoring, which is is very very very good at, he contributes a lot less than the rest of the team.

At the moment we aren't creating a great deal of clear cut chances, which in effect takes any contribution he could make out of the team.

Time to rest him and see if using him in an impact role helps

 

I don't see we have any option but to play him. Without him we have very little attacking ability. Basically there is no one else who can step up to the plate.

We have to play Ighalo and hope somewhere along the line he finds his form again.

 

Yes, that's the problem. If we were a more conventional side we'd have a pool of 4 out and out strikers.

As it is we have just 2, plus a teenager who is one for the future and has barely featured. And a new signing still finding his way who is really a winger and who hasn't a great career goal scoring record.

In the transfer window we got rid of Diamanti and Ibarbo, both of who can play up top as back-up.

I'm loving this season and excitedly looking forward to the cup QF, plus I think there are 3 or 4 more league games we can win, but it's so annoying we didn't sign a proven back-up striker in January. At 0-0 v Muff and at 0-1 yesterday that could be have been very useful off the bench!

It remains a damning statistic that a player who hasn't been with us since late August remains our THIRD highest joint scorer of the season!

 

I don't think he needs a rest as he's been sub in the FA Cup games.

The only way to regain form is to play, he won't score whilst he's on the bench.

Might be a bit risky but maybe a 3-4-1-2

Gomes
Cathcart Prodl Britos
Nyom Capoue/Watson/Beharami/Suarez Ake
Jurado (When he's back)
Deeney Ihgalo/Amrabat

Bottom line is we want to carry an attacking threat then Deeney and Iggy need to be closer together, they're too far apart at this point.

Release Jurado from the majority of his defensive duties and have him sit on the edge of the centre circle as an out ball, With Deeney and Iggy up front, the defence will have to keep at least 3 back...4 if you have Jurado pushed up.

If they attack down the flank, one of the CBs pushes out to support Nyom and Ake, leaving 2 CBs to defend the middle.

 

Nyom can't do any kind of offensive job for us, that's Paredes' role now, as ridiculous as that sounds seeing as they're both awful at it. I love Nyom as a defender but I'm reaching breaking point with his crossing and sloppy passes. I still can't work out how he manages to scoop crosses into the air rather than kick the ball properly.

 

We do have our work cut out in order to resolve this problem. Do we have the talent from within to score goals? Well apart from Ighalo, it appears we do not.

Now, as been reported, it seems quite likely Ighalo will go in the summer, so the situation will then become critical.

Peranada and Success look decent enough, but there are question marks over if we have actually signed Success and Peranada might not even be playing for us next season. Doucoure almost certainly will be in our team for next season, and he looks like a very good addition, so that will help to improve us.

If we do lose Ighalo, then I think we need a proven striker. Someone like Defoe, Austin....not exactly those players, but that type of player. We need someone in the team we can rely on. I'd go on to say we'd need that type of player even if Ighalo stays.

We've all seen what we are like when Ighalo is not playing or if he is off form. I believe we will not stay up next season unless we rectify this goal scoring problem we have right now.

 

I thought the same.

It boils down to decision making and his isn't great.Moreover his confidence is low so he is rushing at chances.

It is a real problem for Quique to solve.Confidence is so key in sport and you could almost feel Iggy's anxiety yesterday,compounded by hardly getting a look in against those two monsters at the back!

I would take him out of the 11 and hope that refreshing the side works.We could then bring Iggy on if required or when the pressure is off.

As my first coach said to me 'no one is irreplaceable.'

 

said that to my first wife....

 

I certainly wasn't impressed with Success in Granada's match today. He seemed to spend most of the game on his arse.

 

We have the 4th best defence in the country. That is partly due to the way we are set up and to the detriment of our attack in the way we do not support our forwards. As much as I have been annoyed with Ighalo recently a lot of the blame has to fall on QSF whose tactics mean that even more pressure is on Iggy to score, compounding his lack of confidence anyway.

Maybe QSF and the Club are happy to totally sacrifice attack for defence.

Just look at the players that are there to stop goals. Our GK's, defence and and defensive midfield area are populated (almost entirely) by international, or well established top flight players.

Who do we have up front with top flight pedigree or International experience?

Ighalo, and Amrabat.

I think the priority has been clear so far and it looks like we will get away with it, but hopefully we can put a little more emphasis on scoring goals next season

 

A few more games like this and I doubt we'll get any offers in the summer for ighalo worth taking anyway

 

I was thinking about this earlier. I reckon China will be an option again for big money for both us and him, but would he go there?

 

Yes that's what we need - a team built entirely of generic, hard-working, all-round technically proficient, but limited and with no single exceptional attribute players!

With Jurado, Watson, Abdi and Amrabat that's the midfield already sorted. Patrick Bamford will probably be in need of another new club next season, or we could bring Danny Graham back - either of them could comfortably partner Deeney.

Our defence will need a bit of a reshuffle though - Britos and Ake are both too good at actually doing their primary jobs of defending. John O'Shea and Joey O'Brien are a couple of likely obtainable utility players who could step up in their place.

And of course Gomes would have to go!

 

I'd drop him from our next game. He's been huge for us this season, but is suffering a massive loss of confidence and could probably do with a game or two to just collect his thoughts.

It also means other players will have to step up and start shipping goals. If by leaving him out we're still not scoring, then it's clear and obvious where our main problem lies and we can deal with it in the Summer.

 

I would replace Abdi with Joey Barton!

 

Ighalo will score a goal again soon and life will start looking a lot better again.

Good runs always end, and therefore so do bad ones.

Sooner or later he, or somebody else, will get a lucky goal in off their backside or something and the recent 3 game drought will be confined to history.

Keep the faith!

 

Ian Wright putting the boot in a bit:

https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/706857998950469632

 

Ian Wright. Famous for all his assists.

 

I think you mean, always believe in your soul, not keep the faith.

 

No, but famous for scoring a lot of goals where his team mates provided him with assists.