saintant

Well as you were responding to my message I took it to mean you did so point taken.

How about a well flighted cross into a dangerous area where said 6'7 striker outjumps defenders and powers a header into the net? Opponents then have a totally different threat to deal with.

Wasn't aware I'd suggested this - perhaps you could enlighten me.

Why would another Premier League club come in for him? We haven't exactly put him in the shop window. Nobody is claiming he's the complete solution to our striker issues but at least give the guy a chance. Plenty of others have shit games but still keep getting selected. As for Peter Crouch - you do him an injustice with your comment as he was a very good footballer.

Surely not. That would be a ridiculous attitude to adopt.

So no plan B then - just keep doing the same thing over and over with no surprises for our opponents?

I know we play a different style now but having watched this club since 1965 my take is that we have always been most successful when playing a tall centre forward.

On the bench at most is my guess. Don't think RM will start him.

You're probably thinking of the West Ham game. I wonder if RM has even bothered looking at tapes of that game - probably not.

Not really because I imagine the way we train pre-season gives him very little chance to show what he can do. The rest of the time he's been mainly on loan.

In the case of Tall Paul my guess is that a lot is to do with the fact that he is not a RM signing. Can't come up with any other reason not to at least give the guy a try - it's not as though we have a squad packed with quality or even average strikers.

Someone else who might get on to the stream of crosses we put into the box - that would be radical and some might even call it sensible. Not going to happen however good this guy might be.

Depends how good your scouting system is.

I must have missed all those games where he was given a chance but failed to contribute. As far as I know he's started 4 games and come on as a sub 7 times. He may or may not be useless but, after buying him for not insignificant money, I'd have at least expected him to be given a reasonable chance.

I have no crystal ball.

Or it could be that Russ has his tactics wrong so Charley doesn't get much chance to showcase his talents. Also, he's far from the only player who gives the ball away cheaply, he has plenty of company. My point stands, Russ will end up with a bland midfield of ball recyclers unless he encourages more offensive pass and move and ball carrying plus getting between the lines.

Have to agree with you.

I also cannot fathom the reason we seem to buy a majority of small players. If they are super talented they can get away with it but most sides similar to us that do well usually have a core of strong athletes who can get about the pitch. I'm hoping Ugochukwu will help us in this respect.

Well the Brighton appointment was based on their previous good governance whereas SR have yet to demonstrate it so probably not a fair comparison.

That was kinda my point - maybe I worded it badly but I was trying to say that the 'bedwetters' could be deemed as realists if we don't show much improvement 10 games into the season. Conversely, if we suddenly click into gear, performances improve and we start picking up results over the next few games then bedwetters is apt. We'll see.

Doesn't make it any less painful if we sign him and he flops. Of course, if we sign him he could be a roaring success in which case the scouts of the said clubs are doing their jobs.

We are owned by SR whereas Brighton are not - hence they continue to leave us trailing in their wake.

Bedwetters or realists? I guess we'll find out after ten games.

Agree both games could have been draws but that's being generous in the case of the Nottingham Forest game. Ok, the only goal stemmed from a mistake but if we're honest they were streets ahead of us all over the pitch and should have won by more than the single goal. We had one harmless shot that went straight at the keeper.

Larios is not even close to being good enough to play in the Premier League.