Except he is not. We need reliable players
The centre-forward market...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
It depends what's wrong with him. It's not so long ago he played basically a full season, if they are getting him right now then maybe he can be available the majority of the time. If he is just picking up lots of different injuries constantly then I would agree but I'm not a medical professional and don't know the details of his injuries so can't really say.
No idea but I lost hope and patience. Better we move on then hope for a miracle
I think Rashford's reemergence as our primary goalscorer means we need a link up and hold up striker that the creative three behind the striker can play with than we need a pure goalscorer. Think how the 06/07 team realised they needed Saha more, even if he scored less, than Ruud to get the best out of Cristiano and Rooney. This is where we are right now.
Our ideal striker is a fit Martial because he can play with and get the best out of Rashford and Bruno as goalscorer and creator respectively. So we need an upgrade on Martial and I think that is Kane. People say he will cramp Bruno's style but they forget that, at their best a an attacking trio, Martial would drop deep and let Bruno overlap him opening up the space for Rashford coming in from the left.
The striker we need is one who can enhance the structural strengths we already have not one who will force us to reinvent the wheel. If we can not get Kane and Toney is still in the authorities' crosshairs then maybe we should consider a project signing in Ramos or Ewan Ferguson because we already have our primary goal getter.
Our ideal striker is a fit Martial because he can play with and get the best out of Rashford and Bruno as goalscorer and creator respectively. So we need an upgrade on Martial and I think that is Kane. People say he will cramp Bruno's style but they forget that, at their best a an attacking trio, Martial would drop deep and let Bruno overlap him opening up the space for Rashford coming in from the left.
The striker we need is one who can enhance the structural strengths we already have not one who will force us to reinvent the wheel. If we can not get Kane and Toney is still in the authorities' crosshairs then maybe we should consider a project signing in Ramos or Ewan Ferguson because we already have our primary goal getter.
We won't need to sign two strikers. The form Rashford has shown through the middle this season means he's more than capable of deputising there if we sign a striker who plays the bulk of the games, and we'll still have two high quality players to play from the left in Sancho and Garnacho. I'd be surprised if Martial isn't still knocking around in the background next season either, even if he doesn't play many games.
I just don't really see him ever have genuinely bad games. 2 years left on his deal, value might be lower due to the gambling stuff. We could certainly do with getting 2 forwards next year and just move on from Martial and Weghorst.
If we can't get Kane, Osimhen, and don't pick or can't get Kolo Muani, Vlahovic or Ramos* then the obvious move is to sign a known quantity and the highest upside option around. So that would be I guess Sesko, Brobbey (Ten Hag seemed to want him and he's scoring goals), a South American (seem to be more Brazilian than Argentinian 9s in the pipeline?), or a guy who might be in jail like Wahi or Greenwood but is rated as a potential star (Toney might also be in jail but I mean not for anything actually gross) or someone who emerges in the next few months.
I also wonder if there's a chance Nkunku could get out of the Chelsea move. I assume not, but stranger things have happened in football and we should have CL and they won't unless they somehow win the tourney this year which at the moment you can probably retire if you bet on it.
The safe, 2nd tier options I would wildly guess that the club is looking into:
-Toney
-David (scored goals all 5 year of his career so far and on pace to hit 20 in the league for the first time, good presser, can play the quasi 10 role Weghorst plays for us at a much higher level in basically every respect)
-Thuram (because free and good physical qualities, not sure he's a serious consistent goal scorer the track record just isn't there)
-Gouiri (good prospect at a weak position, 1 in 3 in Ligue 1 from basically the day he turned 20 is a decent scoring record, lots of good players have produced similarly, doesn't seem like there's a ton of consistent 20+ goal guys in that league generally)
-Embolo (boring but strong and good back to goal, now scoring goals and Monaco bought cheap)
* or can't get him, he might prefer somewhere else and I could see Real Madrid (sign him up to backup Benzema and then compete/rotate with a different style of 9 like Endrick and let them battle it out like Higuain and Benzema while they're young enough to not lose their minds over starting like 15-20 total games some seasons while the other gets 30-35), Newcastle, Bayern, Chelsea even Arsenal if they get a huge offer for Nketiah from the mid-table and want to loan Balogun to a prem team for one year or Jesus has an injury set back) getting involved.
Ivan Toney pleads guilty to breaking FA gambling rules with lengthy ban set to start BEFORE the end of the season to dash the Brentford striker's hopes of an England call-up - though he will fight some of 262 charges
- Toney pleaded guilty in response to many of the 262 charges issued by the FA
- Striker is contesting others, however, with FA disciplinary hearing imminent
- He is expected to begin serving a lengthy ban before the end of the campaign
Rashford isn't going to continue to be our primary goalscorer. His 14 league goals this season have come from an expected 9.7. In other words he's overperforming and will inevitably revert to the mean, with that mean not being enough to be the primary goalscorer for a side with title ambitions (or at least not consistently so).
Especially given that as it stands we've already scored 23 goals less than the best attack in the league, who themselves are hardly in vintage form this season.
Whoever we sign and whatever else they add to the team, they'll need to be our main goal threat first and foremost.
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100%
Even if he maintains it we need more goals.
Also his xG will come down as our football improves and we control games more meaning less space on transition.
To the Norwegians and La Liga followers - what do you think of Alexander Sørloth?
1 in 2 goal scorer this season. He seems like a better version of Weghorst up front, if that's the profile of forward we want.
1 in 2 goal scorer this season. He seems like a better version of Weghorst up front, if that's the profile of forward we want.
I’d love to get Ferguson (Brighton) before someone else does, perhaps with Kane to learn from. I can’t see Martial staying, his injury record just rules him out due to not
Knowing if he will be available or not.
Rashford we can’t assume will keep this form up and has also had some issues with his back
Knowing if he will be available or not.
Rashford we can’t assume will keep this form up and has also had some issues with his back
Surely we move on from martial now. He’s a fantastic finisher with all the attributes but his injury record means we can’t rely on him. Surely we go for a a top striker like Kane or Osimhen and make Wout permanent
kids shown potential but much like Sasko probably too young to lead the line for a club of this status who'll be playing in the CL next year hopefully. Martial, while we all would love to see him go due to his injury issues and laziness, seems to be well liked by Erik.
That’s why I’d get him with Kane if possible, someone to learn from
man...getting Kane would put this team as instant title favorites but that's going to be a MASSIVE undertaking to get him away from Spurs....but yes, he'd be a brilliant young under study to Kane
Martial's numbers have been great is comparison vs minutes played. Maybe ten Hag has hopes for him regaining his fitness? I mean in the last statement he said he'll wait for him and hopes he's ready by the march international break, that he doesnt want to rush him since he's been constantly injured.
I think it'll depend on Martial fitness once he returns how can he perform and how healthy can he stay. If he gets another injury before the end of the season then its over, as much as ten Hag likes him he's useless if he's injured 80% of the time.
the question i have in the long run how will Martial fit in the style of play that EtH wants to put out there...between his lack of work rate and his injury history, it's going to take a hell of a lot
could be years, based on the amount of charges
I think he fits perfectly, without the lazyness obvioulsy, he's a number 9 that can retain the ball and has the skill to get into good positions. Problem is he never seem to score enough, if he's fit I think he's a great squad option to have. Anyway we will be looking for a starting 9 in the summer.
Couldn’t imagine it will exceed 1 year
i think it's a pretty much given we will be in for 9 this summer....Fergie even said Rashy isn't a CF
Barton got 13 months in the end for about 1800 bets and a couple of guys at Boston Utd got 5 months for nearly 800 between them. If those are used as precedents he may only be looking at 3-4 months, possibly less, some of which could be served over the summer.
I'm a Sociedad follower, I think he fits the bill quite well, big physical presence - but I would rather just sign Weghorst on the cheap and focus on someone with a higher ceiling. It would be a bit of a gamble considering his career.
Watching Weghorst every game shows that any useful striker would make us a fair bit better. Which is promising as there’s every chance we could get a really good striker, which could transform us. But any striker who can do some basics would improve us now. Danny Ings for example would make a big difference in this team, and we’ll likely get a striker far better than him.
Tried searching without any result, and never seen his name mentioned on here, but he's done quite well so far in 2023. Anyone that watches French football have an opinion on Thijs Dallinga? Young dutch #9.
Was scoring for fun in Dutch tier 2 last season (36 league goals), and seems to have been struggling first half of this season for Toulouse, but have scored double-digits already since the year changed.
Was scoring for fun in Dutch tier 2 last season (36 league goals), and seems to have been struggling first half of this season for Toulouse, but have scored double-digits already since the year changed.
He did it on a cold (but not rainy) night in Stoke this week. So he’s passed that test.
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Firmino is going to be a free agent. A cheap short term fix? Will the fans accept him or is he loyal to Liverpool enough to reject us?
Are you mad?
If we're gonna take a player for Liverpool it might as well be someone really good who they desperately want to keep. Not a player past his best who they're very happy to discard.
he’s on a free. He is 31 and he’d replace martial in the rotation. I dont think he’d be the out and out starter but he could still play a role in a team. It’s not a horrible shout as long as it’s not for the starting 11.
Is Weg better at the things he is asked to do than Firminho ?
genuine question i dont watch Pool all that often
The reason we got Weghorst is because we had no transfer budget left and very few options in the January window. The same won't apply in the summer. That's not in any way justifying going for Firmino in the summer.
There aren't good strikers in the market anyways. The way I see it if we get new owners we'd have money for both a midfielder and a striker. If Glazers continue to own us next season, we can't afford both midfielder and striker. And we can't sell to raise money either, we never sell well. We could go all in for that creative central midfielder and use someone like Firmino as a stop gap.
How did you figure that one?
Choupo renewed with Bayern
Honestly, if he's only out until September or October I'd still seriously consider it. I rate him really highly, and if he's unavailable for the first two months, we may be able to get him quite cheap from Brentford, where Osihmen could cost over 100mil, and Spurs might not sell Kane to us for any price. We could make Wout permanent and just keep doing what we're currently doing until October, then bring Toney in knowing that he knows the league and will probably just hit the ground running.
I would be happy with getting another another dynamic forward like Leão or better still Kvaratskhelia and using Rashford and Weghorst in the central position. The best two PL teams in the past few years did not play with a traditional 9 and the same applies for the current best team in the league. Our best team IMO was in 2008 and that didn't have a traditional central forward so I don't really get the fixation that goals have to come from a typical central forward. There is a reason there aren't that many nowadays. Successful teams need goals and there are examples of all types of sources from a typical 9 like Benzema for Real or Bayern with Lewa or spread out like City, Liverpool or current Arsenal. If we get 10 plus goals from Antony, Sancho, Rashford, Garnacho and another dynamic front player, I don't really see why we need to force the center forward position.
Would go all in for Osimhen then rotate Eriksen and permanently signed Sabitzer as Casa partner, in regards to other options I would take a Ramos/Kolo-Muani IF (huge one) Benzema could be persuaded by the Real Madrid secret agents to join us for a season which looks an impossible ask.
I wonder if a dark horse like Shick or Morata might be more likely than discussed here.
Shick is having a down year (not his first) but he's a big rangy, technically good #9 who could play up top or in the role Weghorst has been playing as a 9/10 type with Rashford the highest player on the pitch a good chunk of the time. We'd probably want to sign a healthier more reliable forward type with him since he isn't an ironman type like a Bruno, and move on from Martial and Weghorst, like if we got Marcus Thuram on a free then a high risk, good fit like this makes more sense.
Morata is just a straight 7.5/10 plan F option if we can't get Kane, Osimhen, Ramos, Vlahovic or Kolo Muani, but there's really no guarantee we actually get any of our targets, if say Ramos and Kolo Muani are priced at 90M, which is not out of the realm of possibilities, the striker market has felt insane since Newcastle paid 30M for a 31 year old Chris Wood (there's other examples, I know they were desperate to avoid even a hint of relegation).
Shick is having a down year (not his first) but he's a big rangy, technically good #9 who could play up top or in the role Weghorst has been playing as a 9/10 type with Rashford the highest player on the pitch a good chunk of the time. We'd probably want to sign a healthier more reliable forward type with him since he isn't an ironman type like a Bruno, and move on from Martial and Weghorst, like if we got Marcus Thuram on a free then a high risk, good fit like this makes more sense.
Morata is just a straight 7.5/10 plan F option if we can't get Kane, Osimhen, Ramos, Vlahovic or Kolo Muani, but there's really no guarantee we actually get any of our targets, if say Ramos and Kolo Muani are priced at 90M, which is not out of the realm of possibilities, the striker market has felt insane since Newcastle paid 30M for a 31 year old Chris Wood (there's other examples, I know they were desperate to avoid even a hint of relegation).
Sometimes I can’t help myself, but honestly, if we signed Kai Havertz somewhat cheap from CFC, I would be pretty excited…
We'd be 3-0 up if we'd had a striker.
