TWar

Has the spanish youtube link images gone blank for anyone else? Still commentary but no game atm.

The latter primarily I'd imagine, when he had that tiny bench midweek it was quite likely he'd do something like this. Maybe a little putting Long/Obafemi in the sales window. As I said midweek as well, could be a behind closed doors friendly today too. Split the team in half, one public friendly watched by Ralph, one private one, then swap. Keep youth players in the behind closed doors ones so a few people have to play both "open" ones.

Yeah we need one more, but I think JWP will be back and then we have three, and Armstrong can play there pretty well. I don't think it's too bad.

We are clearly rotating line ups across these two games. Only Salisu, Diallo, Romeu, and Perraud are playing both. This clearly isn't our strongest lineup or "the best we can do", this is giving the back up a run out to make sure they are prepared also, as well as a select few who's positions don't have sufficient depth so must play both. People need to stop panicking based off this, we will have Adams, Tella, KWP, JWP, and maybe a new striker back within the first week or two, no need to judge this line up as if it is the one going against Everton. This will be mostly our bench.

No because Long also doesn't get in good positions. The thing is it's very obvious when a player gets in a good position and misses but not so obvious when a player doesn't get in the good position in the first place but both of them don't lead to a goal. The hallmark of a good striker is both to get the ball in good positions and to put it away. I think you are being too "one or the other" about it. You need both.

A strikers primary job is to score. Scoring a goal requires both the opportunity to take a shot and the ability for that shot to go in. I would far rather a player who was slightly worse at shooting but much better at making runs and getting in good positions to score from personally.

Adam Armstrong not in the Blackburn squad. Feel something may be about to happen. Judging by us saying we will cool interest and come back later I don't think this is good news, maybe off to Palace. Who knows though.

Yeah it's a balance really. A striker who is clever and can make runs but can't finish will inevitably stick away a few tap ins. A striker who is bad positionally and never in the right spot but can finish will inevitably curl in a few worldies from 20 yards out. You need both to be a class forward though and they are pretty equally important imo.

Weird Walcott hasn't played in either this or the Levante one. As others have said, Long Obafemi feels very shaky.

Because on the rare occasion they do end up with a chance, like if a talented player makes space for them with a run or pass, they do a good job with it.

Similarly, a striker who can finish but is constantly marked, never makes the right runs, doesn't get into good positions is also a shit striker. That is also not complicated and doesn't require a playstation to understand... just a working brain. A good striker requires both the ability to finish and the ability to make good runs and find space. I honestly can't see how you don't understand that.

Seriously? So if a forward can shoot well it doesn't matter if they make good runs? Or take up good positions? Or find space? Sometimes talking to you I wonder if you've even watched football...

Finishing isn't everything, the mark of a good striker is just as much getting into a position to finish as it is finishing. With regards to that though, if you want that check out my stat analysis for last season, I compare xG and finishing for our exisiting forwards. Will work on it for potential ones at some point when more free.

Yeah 100%. Those are just the numbers but interpretation is obviously important. Tella does have a smaller sample size and also played a bit at attacking mid, as has Redmond, which no doubt disadvantages them. Plus Tella broke through last year, whereas most of the names on this list have been playing senior football for a lot longer. His potential probably hasn't been fully realised. Your other points are equally good and worth considering. Although Transfermarkt does say Sorloth played primarily as a center forward for Leipzig with 26 games at CF and only one on the right wing (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/alexander-sorloth/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/238407/saison/2020/wettbewerb/L1/verein/23826). If/when I do a full stats analysis things like playing positions will be taken into account but I just threw this together in 20 mins so didn't really look too hard into normalising for position. Consider it more a guideline I guess.

Made me think, how much is there in the non-penalty goals per 90 between our strikers so I made a table of non-penalty goals per 90 for our current forwards and four linked targets As we can see Ings is way out ahead, even his weaker seasons either side of his prolific season are ahead of Adams average by a fair margin. This shows Adams needs a good goal scorer next to him. Long, Redmond, Tella are not the answer from the limited sample we have here. Obafemi had a good season but the sample size was rather small of 661 minutes Of the new guys to sign, Tammy would be ideal. Great numbers and also in the prem, actually a better prem average than Ings, so would be a super replacement. Unlikely though! If one assumes that the Scottish premier league is a similar strength to the Championship then Edouard is clearly stronger than Armstrong, although Armstrong's most recent season is significantly stronger so has form on his side Armstrong has a better championship season last year than Tammy did before he stepped up. His average is a bit lower but he was a little younger in his first season which brings it down a bit Sorloth is poor and we should steer well clear, even with his stint in the turkish super lig pulling up his stats he is still the worst option of the potential signings. His average outdoes Adams but not by significantly enough as a target man, especially considering the weaker league, therefore him next to Adams would likely be a very poor idea. I might make another stats post about signings soon, want to let us make a few more though first as suspect there may be action before the first day of the season. EDIT: Note, there is an error in Austin's average in the table, it is, ofcourse, 0.18 which puts him above Tella and Long. I didn't set the divide properly so did it manually and must have missed Chaz.

To score the goals Ings does he we would need to get Ings' goals on top of his own. That way he would be filling the Ings void without leaving his own void. Atleast that's how I read it.

I, too, think Che is a superb player in the making. He needs an Ings type next to him though, he needs to be the deeper second striker/10.

To be honest if we are spending that sort of money I think I'd prefer Armstrong to Edouard. Both would be pretty tasty though, given we were in for Armstrong independent of Ings going.

Gazumping them twice in one window, too good to be true I'd imagine. Also they are offering £20m+ so not sure we go that high.

Agreed. Plus Liverpool are very good at selling. A player that might cost £10m from Arsenal or Chelsea Liverpool seem to be able to get £20m for. It's uncanny. I think Ings is probably their only bad sale of the last few years or so (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone)

Mine too, although I'm torn between Robbo ESR or Trent Tella. If Tella is out of position up top then the latter might swing it. ESR tends to be a lot more the pass before the assist than direct goal involvements which worries me from a fantasy perspective.

Probably a fair shout. I don't think it's a bad idea tbh at the right price, I just don't think he is comparable to ESR who in my opinion is on course to be incredible.

Depends on the price. I'd have him for £10m or so, maybe slightly more. If we end up spending closer to £20m and he becomes our main striker then it certainly isn't a sensible option.

In fairness most of those were subs and he only actually played 1100 minutes. 5 goals in 1100 mins is about a goal every 2.5 games which isn't dreadful. I don't rate him personally though as I say