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Leon Best


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True enough. There's nowhere near enough goals in the midfield for us to be playing a striker who doesn't get too many, which is one of the reasons I wanted Best up there instead of Ben Arfa to begin with. I'm sure Best will get one and he'll go on a run again, but we do need a new striker in January.

 

Exactly. If we had goals coming from other departments then it would matter less that one of our strikers wasn't scoring, but with a midfield which lacks goalscorers the front men both need to be notching regularly.

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15% of our league goals have come from midfield, 10% from defence and 75% from forwards (I've excluded an own goal as we didn't score it).  Ba has scored 55% of the league goals scored by our players.  I don't think any of our players have scored enough goals other than Ba and Ryan Taylor.

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I'd be very surprised if the midfield get 10 between them this season.

 

We're not shooting enough from the edge of the area, Cabaye was peppering the goal from distance early on, can't even remember his last effort now other than his goal against Wigan, although he has been playing deeper while Tiote's been out.

 

Other than Ba off the post the closest we came to scoring on Saturday was Jonas who has notched several from outside the area for us, which goes to show you don't have to be Laurent Robert to have a dig. That was another reason actually which made Pardew's reasoning for not bringing HBA on on Saturday look even more ridiculous. An effort from range might have been the only way past Swansea's defence and we know how well he can hit them.

 

While I'm not a huge fan of Jermain Defoe as a first XI striker, I love watching how easy it is for him when he picks the ball up 20 yards out, he makes it look like he could stick it in the corner 99 times out of 100 without the keeper getting near it. He doesn't have fantastic technique or a rocket shot but he hits it low, hard and into the corners and that generally gets the job done.

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I'd be very surprised if the midfield get 10 between them this season.

 

We're not shooting enough from the edge of the area, Cabaye was peppering the goal from distance early on, can't even remember his last effort now other than his goal against Wigan, although he has been playing deeper while Tiote's been out.

 

Other than Ba off the post the closest we came to scoring on Saturday was Jonas who has notched several from outside the area for us, which goes to show you don't have to be Laurent Robert to have a dig. That was another reason actually which made Pardew's reasoning for not bringing HBA on on Saturday look even more ridiculous. An effort from range might have been the only way past Swansea's defence and we know how well he can hit them.

 

While I'm not a huge fan of Jermain Defoe as a first XI striker, I love watching how easy it is for him when he picks the ball up 20 yards out, he makes it look like he could stick it in the corner 99 times out of 100 without the keeper getting near it. He doesn't have fantastic technique or a rocket shot but he hits it low, hard and into the corners and that generally gets the job done.

 

In terms of technique, the way he hits a ball is completely wrong, he's like a pinball machine launcher with the plunger pulled all the way out constantly, out of no-where - PING - .. wtf did that come from? He does it damn well though, love it when he scores those goals that make the defence/goalkeeper scratch their heads.

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Guest bimpy474

I'd be very surprised if the midfield get 10 between them this season.

 

League and cup ?

 

5 i can remember as it stands now but 3 of those in the cup.

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Guest bimpy474

5 goals in 19 games, man. That's f***ing disgraceful. :lol:

 

EDIT: Or 2 in 16. :lol: :lol:

 

Aye :D hold on though 3 in 16 ahhhh see not so bad  :p

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He's done well all season, been fairly consistent at what he's good at but my only concern would be that he seems to be getting less and less likely to score every week. I'd be interested to know how many chances he's had since his goal at Villa, I bet it's less than 5, very different to the back end of last season and start of this where he was finding it very easy getting on the end of stuff.

 

Interestingly the Villa game was the one before Ba got off the mark with his hat trick against Blackburn, Best may see himself as more useful trying to create chances and space for Ba than himself. He is good at that but I'd like to see him looking a greater threat. We don't have enough goals from elsewhere to accommodate a striker who's not getting goals or even chances and we can't depend on Ba entirely.

 

Funnily enough i watched the Swansea game again and Besty was making runs that go unnoticed, creating space for others, vital part of team play that but one worry was when we had the ball out wide he kept moving into the same spaces as Ba, if and when the cross came in.

 

There were 3 crosses where Ba and Best made exacly the same run, if one just held back they would have had a chance to score from about 10 yards. 

 

Must be difficult trying to guess where Obertan and Joans are going to cross it though, I don't think even they know, they seem to just hit it and hope.

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I'd be very surprised if the midfield get 10 between them this season.

 

We're not shooting enough from the edge of the area, Cabaye was peppering the goal from distance early on, can't even remember his last effort now other than his goal against Wigan, although he has been playing deeper while Tiote's been out.

 

Other than Ba off the post the closest we came to scoring on Saturday was Jonas who has notched several from outside the area for us, which goes to show you don't have to be Laurent Robert to have a dig. That was another reason actually which made Pardew's reasoning for not bringing HBA on on Saturday look even more ridiculous. An effort from range might have been the only way past Swansea's defence and we know how well he can hit them.

 

While I'm not a huge fan of Jermain Defoe as a first XI striker, I love watching how easy it is for him when he picks the ball up 20 yards out, he makes it look like he could stick it in the corner 99 times out of 100 without the keeper getting near it. He doesn't have fantastic technique or a rocket shot but he hits it low, hard and into the corners and that generally gets the job done.

 

In terms of technique, the way he hits a ball is completely wrong, he's like a pinball machine launcher with the plunger pulled all the way out constantly, out of no-where - PING - .. wtf did that come from? He does it damn well though, love it when he scores those goals that make the defence/goalkeeper scratch their heads.

 

WTF am I reading here? Defoe has excellent shooting technique from those positions. The way he gets so much power and accuracy with such little backlift is due to excellent technique.

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We need a new striker and we all know it.

 

As for chances, he isn't Ba in that he can't spin straw into gold. The wingers did him (nor Demba) no favours.

 

 

his movement didn't give the  providers much to go for didn't show for anything short and made ba look even getter for doing the job of 2.. he's now based his game round winning headers 30yds out and not knowing where they're going.
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That's a bit like saying Colo's based his game around hoofs up the pitch. They can't help what they're being told to do.

can't believe he was told not to make runs, be behind the play and just play for headrers 30yds out.
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wouldn't play him on boxing day on current form. but the bigger issue is how he's being used - what's the point of pumping diagonal passes to his head or chest when nothing comes from them? i sincerely hope pardew wasn't thinking of bringing in a big man like maiga or giroud so we can continue that pointless practice.

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