Jayson Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyeyzzon Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 I don't think the squad is significantly weaker, in terms of quality. However, people seem to be forgetting the games in which Best played, and directly contributed to us getting points. I definitely think we're a striker light, and short of quality in defence. This summer was an ideal opportunity to strengthen these areas, and we haven't done that. That's what is annoying me at this point. Best gave me a sense of security last season that we could rely on someone who is hardworking and professional enough other than Shola if we lose our best forwards. Putting all the weight on Shola just does not inspire confidence, while Campbell is too young imo to be put weight on. Best didnt play last season after we got Cisse. He played because we only had Ba. People keep comparing the side that started the season as if Cisse was a part of it. He wasnt, he has more or less replaced Best. The extra striker we have lost is Lovenkrands. He's not the type of player you expect to play every week. He's the type of player that would give you security if things went wrong injury-wise. A good squad player. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanj Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Wake up each morning over here in the states hoping/clutching at straws that some good transfer news will come through....I'm officially resolved to the feeling that we will sign nobody. Hopefully I'm proven wrong. Massive, MASSIVE opportunity to push on from last season has been missed and all it really needed was 3 players for FFS. "Our Policy" may have worked last summer, winter, and partially this summer - but fact of matter is - come window closing and we've had 0 incomings (and God forbid 0 outgoings) we've failed to push on effectively from last season's finish. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliassenfredrik Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Ba. Cisse. Shola. Simpson. R.Taylor. That is all. There are other views, such as: Strikers: Cissé, Ba, Shola, Sammy, Campbell which is good enough cover at least if we play with a lone striker. Striker-esques: HBA, Marveaux, Obertan RB: Simpson, Raylor, Tavernier Players who can play RB: Santon, Anita, Saylor I'm obviously also hoping for either of these positions to be strengthened, but we're not desperate which I feel is how Pardew and the board sees it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neesy111 Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 We'll have played over half the league season by January. There are a lot of reasons why most clubs do the majority of their business in summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Flash Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 We'll have played over half the league season by January. There are a lot of reasons why most clubs do the majority of their business in summer. Plus loads of Uefa Cup/League Cup games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyeyzzon Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. And unless AC49 explodes like Rooney he's too raw to be put in the mix either. As said, the fact that we have two of the best strikers and the league, as well as one of the best prospects in the country covers up the depth problems we have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole_Toonfan Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 About Lovenkrands i don't know why people keep mentioning him as a striker, everytime he played he was on the left..... The likes of Marveaux, Sammy and even Obertan or Amalfitano more than replace him. I'm not concerned about that at all. We should have replaced Best as our 3rd choice striker, upgraded on Simpson and some competition for Saylor. Which we have failed to do and it's frustrating but at the end of the day we still have the team that finished 5th last season and added some quality as well as some kids showing promise it's not really anything to get majorly concerned over i'm still confident of a good season. It's just frustrating because if we are able to got those players then we could have really attacked all the competitions we were in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Dunno whether Pardew was bluffing with those comments but if he isn't, and we don't sign anybody, this summer has been close to a disaster. The only positive is not selling one of our stars but they'll be as pissed off as we are. Not strengthening our best team in years and building on our potential will backfire. I'd love to think we'll do something before Friday but past experience and the feeling coming from the club suggest otherwise. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neesy111 Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. And unless AC49 explodes like Rooney he's too raw to be put in the mix either. As said, the fact that we have two of the best strikers and the league, as well as one of the best prospects in the country covers up the depth problems we have. Exactly, I just fear an injury crisis upfront and having no suitable backup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc4eva Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 How many other teams around us are in better position for Strikers? Chelsea - Torres/Sturridge/? (Lampard/Hazard/Mata also offer goals) Spurs - Adebayor/Defoe (Van Der Vaart, Siggurdsson, Bale also offer goals) Arsenal - Podolski/Giroud (Arteta/Carzola also for goals?) Everton - Jelavic/Mirallas (Fallaini) Liverpool - Suarez/Borini/Carroll (Gerrard/Sahin/Adam) Us - Cisse/Ba/Shola (Cabaye/Ben Arfa/Marveux?) Are we really that much worse off than teams around us last year - excluded Man U and Man City for obvious reasons Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LFEE Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Lee Ryder @lee_ryder #nufc When asked on transfers AP said: "The players we have in mind all seem secure at their clubs" This and the other quotes don't make great reading... What would the harm be in saying we are still hopeful of 1 or 2 coming through the door if we were anywhere near close to doing something... I'm still hoping we are waiting to qualify for the group stages before pushing the boat out one last time to increase the squad size by improving the first team... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Pathetic transfer window tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayson Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. And unless AC49 explodes like Rooney he's too raw to be put in the mix either. As said, the fact that we have two of the best strikers and the league, as well as one of the best prospects in the country covers up the depth problems we have. Exactly, I just fear an injury crisis upfront and having no suitable backup. Chamakh, Harry Kane, Shola Ameobi, Naismith, Ruiz, Lita. These are the strikers we & those potentially around us are relying on if they lost both their strikers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc4eva Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Lee Ryder @lee_ryder #nufc When asked on transfers AP said: "The players we have in mind all seem secure at their clubs" This and the other quotes don't make great reading... What would the harm be in saying we are still hopeful of 1 or 2 coming through the door if we were anywhere near close to doing something... I'm still hoping we are waiting to qualify for the group stages before pushing the boat out one last time to increase the squad size by improving the first team... The harm would be in press coverage alerting other clubs potentially? - May just be bluffing - although it seems unlikely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 AP: "We are just watching the market and seeing if anything pops its head up that's appealing to us. "Agents keep ringing me and giving me all sorts of names - they must think we don't scout - but we are aware of the ones we are watching and if they decide to move on, then we might trigger ourselves. "But at the moment, the targets we have are all very much secure at their clubs." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neesy111 Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. And unless AC49 explodes like Rooney he's too raw to be put in the mix either. As said, the fact that we have two of the best strikers and the league, as well as one of the best prospects in the country covers up the depth problems we have. Exactly, I just fear an injury crisis upfront and having no suitable backup. Chamakh, Harry Kane, Shola Ameobi, Naismith, Ruiz, Lita. These are the strikers we & those potentially around us are relying on if they lost both their strikers. All much better than what we have. Have you seen Shola's injury record? He's injured now actually. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole_Toonfan Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 How many other teams around us are in better position for Strikers? Chelsea - Torres/Sturridge/? (Lampard/Hazard/Mata also offer goals) Spurs - Adebayor/Defoe (Van Der Vaart, Siggurdsson, Bale also offer goals) Arsenal - Podolski/Giroud (Arteta/Carzola also for goals?) Everton - Jelavic/Mirallas (Fallaini) Liverpool - Suarez/Borini/Carroll (Gerrard/Sahin/Adam) Us - Cisse/Ba/Shola (Cabaye/Ben Arfa/Marveux?) Are we really that much worse off than teams around us last year - excluded Man U and Man City for obvious reasons Most of those teams play with 1 striker though and they don't have the possibility of losing both their strikers for a month of the season either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 The Anita signing actually makes less sense now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc4eva Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Best was injured for most of the 2nd half of the season. Well we struggled without him for sure So what happens if Ba and Cisse are away in the ACON or both become injured. Shola and Sammy are the only options and they are both injury specialists as well. And unless AC49 explodes like Rooney he's too raw to be put in the mix either. As said, the fact that we have two of the best strikers and the league, as well as one of the best prospects in the country covers up the depth problems we have. Exactly, I just fear an injury crisis upfront and having no suitable backup. Chamakh, Harry Kane, Shola Ameobi, Naismith, Ruiz, Lita. These are the strikers we & those potentially around us are relying on if they lost both their strikers. All much better than what we have. Have you seen Shola's injury record? He's injured now actually. None are better than Shola tbh, Lita/Ruiz/Chamakh certainly not, Kane/Naismith unknown in league Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATB Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 And Shola is shit. He couldn´t do anything right last January. How was our record while Ba was gone? Did we even score? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 And Shola is s***. He couldn´t do anything right last January. How was our record while Ba was gone? Did we even score? Actually he came on as a sub and helped steady the team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LFEE Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Lee Ryder @lee_ryder #nufc When asked on transfers AP said: "The players we have in mind all seem secure at their clubs" This and the other quotes don't make great reading... What would the harm be in saying we are still hopeful of 1 or 2 coming through the door if we were anywhere near close to doing something... I'm still hoping we are waiting to qualify for the group stages before pushing the boat out one last time to increase the squad size by improving the first team... The harm would be in press coverage alerting other clubs potentially? - May just be bluffing - although it seems unlikely. If your not naming the club or the player or the position what and who are you alerting?... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc4eva Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 How many other teams around us are in better position for Strikers? Chelsea - Torres/Sturridge/? (Lampard/Hazard/Mata also offer goals) Spurs - Adebayor/Defoe (Van Der Vaart, Siggurdsson, Bale also offer goals) Arsenal - Podolski/Giroud (Arteta/Carzola also for goals?) Everton - Jelavic/Mirallas (Fallaini) Liverpool - Suarez/Borini/Carroll (Gerrard/Sahin/Adam) Us - Cisse/Ba/Shola (Cabaye/Ben Arfa/Marveux?) Are we really that much worse off than teams around us last year - excluded Man U and Man City for obvious reasons Most of those teams play with 1 striker though and they don't have the possibility of losing both their strikers for a month of the season either. That's true and looks like we are looking at January for someone. However we played a lot of games last year with just 1 up front and Ba out to the Left, no difference there and we were better in that formation, I reckon once Pardew realises 4-4-2 is shit he will move back to 4-2-3-1/4-3-3. Acon is an issue but hopefully Ivory coast can sort that out for us - and maybe that's what they are gambling on. They like a gamble Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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