Hooper love

[Holmowl]

12 minutes ago, George said:

I said in another thread, when players, coaches or fans of other clubs talk about Wednesday they mention Bannan and they mention Hooper. 

 

Mate of mine calls us "The Gary Hooper Show". 

 

Ok ok those of us that watch every week know it's far from the case, but to fans of rival teams, and I dare say managers of rival teams, he is the one they fear.

 

The Brian Cloughism of it only takes a second to score a goal is perfect to apply to Hooper. Quiet game then bang, or even bang band (Brum, Cardiff).

[Sgt Wednesday]

Gary Hooper is what he is, a top championship or lower premier league forward, more than capable of 20+ at this level.

 

We saw the best of him in spells last season where everything he touched went in, we also saw him on the periphery of games.

 

Its true he does most of his work in and around the box, even if he popped in 20 this season people would still question his work ethic, he like many strikers of his ilk will only really be judged on goals scored.

 

He is polar opposite of Atdhe Nuhiu, some people love him despite his complete lack of goal threat, why? Because he runs around a lot.

 

It would be interesting to know if the ones who don't really rate Hooper are the same ones who have this unhealthy love for Big Atdhe.

 

 

 

 

[Shifty Powers]

14 minutes ago, BC1867 said:

Brum away last season summed it up for me. 

 

Woman behind saying he was crap and lazy and would rather "poo poo in her hands and clap".

 

He went on to score a brace to win us the game.

 

Hes an out and out goalscorer. With a big man like fletcher next to him, he will score. Dont ask him to be the target man or the creator. Now we have the squad depth for him to play his best role full time.

 

Absolutely.

 

Was very quiet that game then bang, two goals and we win. That first one was my favourite goal of last season - that instinctive dummy first touch and then an unstoppable strike.

 

He seems very much a confidence player - goes on long goal scoring rolls, then lean patches, then it continues. 

 

However, he is an absolute class act. A proper, proven goal scorer at this level. I don't care he is lazy, we need someone not to leave the 18 yard box and score a few "ugly" goals. That second aganist Leeds springs to mind as an expample. Right place, right time.

 

I would go as far as to say, FF, Hooper and Fletcher is as good as any strike partnership in this league. Still feels weird to have some actual optamisim after years of absolute dross.

 

Edited August 6, 2016 by Shifty Powers

[Guest Kagoshimaowl]

Hooper is quality but FF and Fletcher are better which means there are times he will be on the bench!  That's all... Nothing to do with love/hate!

[oldishowl]

Let me put another way.

If I am right and we can't play all 3 against the top sides would the people wanting Hooper to play be happy to see FF on the bench.

 

I think the argument that it is ok to stick FF wide, problem solved, is flawed. We might have players now who play that wide role better than FF

[Sultan_Pepper]

I don't agree with the lazy tag. It's the easy cop out for people to tag someone as lazy rather than actually understand their play, the role they've been asked to play or other factors affecting their performances.

 

Remember when brunt was lazy?

 

Good knows how but Whelan got the same tag.

 

Maghoma and Maguire both got tagged with it despite playing wide in a Stuart Gray side. They covered more ground than any of our other players but were called lazy every week. They may not have been great but they were anything but lazy.

 

Just because Hooper makes shorter runs and finds space by dropping off the defenders or moving along the line instead of running round like Stevie May and never being near the box when the ball gets there it doesn't mean he's lazy.

 

Top class striker for this level. If he plays, he'll score plenty of goals this season

Edited August 6, 2016 by Sultan_Pepper

[StudentOwl]

3 minutes ago, Sgt Wednesday said:

Gary Hooper is what he is, a top championship or lower premier league forward, more than capable of 20+ at this level.

The simple fact is that, over the course of his entire career, he's averaged 1 goal ever 150 minutes of Championship football.

In grossly oversimplified terms, if you play him for 80 minutes in two games in a row, odds are he'll score at least one goal. He's limited as hell, but that type of arsenal in your team can't be ignored or understated in importance. He's never managed to score 20+ in a Champ season, which is why I'm saying he'll again fall short of that figure... but facts are that barring injury it seems highly unlikely he'll score less than 15. Might not start every game, but he'll do damage when he plays. 

Once he gets up to fitness, the ball will start rolling. 

[oldishowl]

Nobody seems to answer the big question.

If it becomes a straight choice between FF and Hooper with the other on the bench would you all still be saying Hooper has to play.

 

 

[Shifty Powers]

3 minutes ago, oldishowl said:

 

 

I think the argument that it is ok to stick FF wide, problem solvedWe might have players now who play that wide role better than FF

 

I slightly disagree with this last part.

 

I personally think FF is just as dangerous as anyone when he plays out wide, especially with a license to roam around. We saw how Bannan really struggled last season playing on the right, but he is obviously a completely different player to FF.

 

Id have FF out on the wing (free role really) with Fletcher and Hooper up top. 

[Holmowl]

1 minute ago, oldishowl said:

Nobody seems to answer the big question.

If it becomes a straight choice between FF and Hooper with the other on the bench would you all still be saying Hooper has to play.

 

 

 

The team is twice as good when they both play. I would never start a match without either one of them.

 

We have no-one even close to being as good as FF left. The player under threat is Wallace, from Buckley and from the possibility that Carlos may even prefer playing Lee or Abdi right.

 

 

[trask43]

Its how we have set up as a team to play him regularly and get the best out of him. Ideally we would play with one up top as we have many good interchangable attacking players but no holding midfielder so we will be more suited to 5 along the middle. He needs to play with a partner and so that would mean including nuhiu who isnt good enough to start or fletcher.

 

Im sure there will be times in the season we will start with both fletcher and hooper but they have both had traditionally poor work rate throughout there careers. The pressing style we play is useless if everyone doesnt do it. Its nothing to do with praising average players for their work rate that was born out of watching over paid ex prem players not trying and our fans being glad for the ones who did put the effort in we've moved past them days thankfully. Its nothing personal hes a great player and will play a massive part in the season, many people leave wallace out of their starting 11 as well and hes been just as good a player for us with his goals and assists, we are spoilt for choice.

[Sgt Wednesday]

He's a goal scorer, if he plays games he will score.

 

Last season he had a good return and scored some important goals for us.

 

The non football members of our fanbase will love him when he scores and hate him when he doesn't.

 

I hope we can play all season with Hooper, Fletcher and FF in the team, that's 40 plus goals between them.

[Mr. Tom]

In addition to his own tally, a lot of our goals last season involved Hooper in the buildup, either drawing heat and creating space or - more commonly - taking half a second to ping a simple ball wide/into a less congested area and giving us a chance to get a foot on the ball in a rushing attack move that was on the verge of tripping over itself.

 

He's like a nurse shark, just lies around conserving energy until he smells blood, and then BAM, one precision attack. I love that we have one player with that real killer instinct - it makes us more deadly than just having 10 constantly nipping piranhas.

 

#Blue(AndWhite)Planet

Edited August 6, 2016 by Mr. Tom

[Paolo Di Catio]

21 minutes ago, oldishowl said:

Nobody seems to answer the big question.

If it becomes a straight choice between FF and Hooper with the other on the bench would you all still be saying Hooper has to play.

 

 

Hooper and Fletcher front 2. FF free role to do what he wants, left wing, behind front 2, even changing into front 3. Job done 

[Holmowl]

24 minutes ago, StudentOwl said:

The simple fact is that, over the course of his entire career, he's averaged 1 goal ever 150 minutes of Championship football.

In grossly oversimplified terms, if you play him for 80 minutes in two games in a row, odds are he'll score at least one goal. He's limited as hell, but that type of arsenal in your team can't be ignored or understated in importance. He's never managed to score 20+ in a Champ season, which is why I'm saying he'll again fall short of that figure... but facts are that barring injury it seems highly unlikely he'll score less than 15. Might not start every game, but he'll do damage when he plays. 

Once he gets up to fitness, the ball will start rolling. 

 

Just a point about the never scoring 20 in the Championship.

 

TBF 19 in 35 for a dross team like Scunthorpe is pretty damned good.

 

And I think most would agree, that had we continued to play Hooper with Joao or Nuhiu instead of FF, he would have scored (conservatively) another two or three instead of drying up completely, so last season's pro-rata 21 should really be more like 24.

 

Im really optimistic over Hooper Fletcher partnership with FF roaming. Could be very special.

[daleblue]

1 hour ago, steveger said:

No one hates him, he's a Wednesday player...

And he likes cakes..

 

Yeh! too many if you ask me.

[Holmowl]

33 minutes ago, Shifty Powers said:

 

 

He seems very much a confidence player - goes on long goal scoring rolls, then lean patches, then it continues. 

 

 

 

Sounds like a firm of solicitors, but Rooney and Rhodes?

 

Take a look at their most prolific seasons. Drought then unstoppable.

[mike312]

Thought this thread was going to be about barrels but hey-ho. I watched Hooper a lot in a game towards the end of last season, can't remember who it was against now but the amount of times he got on the shoulder or started to make a run only not to be found was quite surprising. He does wonder around in between though which is where he gets some of the lazy tag from. I recon he is just one of those strikers who doesn't waste energy if he feels it unnecessary. As long as he keeps scoring and the team keep winning, I'm not bothered.

[Sgt Wednesday]

1 minute ago, mike312 said:

Thought this thread was going to be about barrels but hey-ho. I watched Hooper a lot in a game towards the end of last season, can't remember who it was against now but the amount of times he got on the shoulder or started to make a run only not to be found was quite surprising. He does wonder around in between though which is where he gets some of the lazy tag from. I recon he is just one of those strikers who doesn't waste energy if he feels it unnecessary. As long as he keeps scoring and the team keep winning, I'm not bothered.

 

Some would call it intelligent, some would call it lazy.

 

 

[oldishowl]

9 minutes ago, Holmowl said:

 

The team is twice as good when they both play. I would never start a match without either one of them.

 

We have no-one even close to being as good as FF left. The player under threat is Wallace, from Buckley and from the possibility that Carlos may even prefer playing Lee or Abdi right.

 

 

 

I think you are wrong.

If we  start FF out wide teams, especially good teams, will target him and make him spend his time defending. Pudil ain't the best defensively and will be exposed.

 

You have very limited evidence to say starting FF wide against a top side works . We basically have not done it.

 

FF has said he wants to play up front. He performed fantastically in pre season to make his point and has done enough to make that position his own.

He got shunted out at Watford in exactly this way , lost his appetite and his place in the team and eventually moved on. I think his skill, work rate and relationship with the fans completely reflects our club at the moment and don't want that to happen