Rate the Strike Partnerships

[shandypants]

On 08/10/2020 at 08:27, Holmowl said:

Ridiculous to ask you to judge our strike partnerships after 4 games, but our manager has to. We can’t afford to be farting around with the front two after 10-12 games given the massive handicap we started with.

 

What have you thought so far?

 

Windass-Rhodes

60 minutes v Cardiff 

60 minutes v Watford 

 

Windass-Kachunga 

84 minutes v Bristol City 

Windass-Paterson 

90 minutes v QPR

 

(I’ve left out the up and coming jazz ensemble,The Adam Reach Experiment, on the basis that it was fekkin stupid).

 

Has one of the above looked a potential winner? Is there another duo you’d like to see start? 

Here we go; yet another veiled attempt to have a go about Rhodes losing his place. 
 

My choice is any of the partnerships without Rhodes. He’s had three and a half seasons to stake his claim and hasn’t done so.  We need to give our new players their chance to stake their claim. 
 

Holmowl et al decry the fact that Rhodes isn’t being played but we’ve had four or five managers that haven’t played him and that is too much of a coincidence. Those managers see him in training day in/day out so if he’s not being picked then he’s not impressing himself enough on the manager outside match day. Surely the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers can appreciate that?

 

Also, the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers must be able to see that if Rhodes isn’t scoring, he contributes little else. 
 

If Monk picks Rhodes, then fine, that’s Monk’s prerogative but I won’t be surprised if Rhodes returns to his bit part. 

[theowlsman]

Hirst and Bright

[Holmowl]

26 minutes ago, theowlsman said:

Hirst and Bright

Too old and one’s too fat.

 

Probably both make the bench though.

[Holmowl]

20 hours ago, Emilianenko said:

Based on what we've seen so far Windass and Rhodes should have been kept together longer.

At Cardiff the first goal was from Rhodes pressing the defender into a mistake, he gave the ball away to Brown who slipped in Windass for a great finish.

The second gooal came from a free kick which was won by Rhodes getting in front of his man to hold the ball up.

Windass flicks on and Rhodes got in front of his man to poke home.

Against Watford our best chance was possibly the penalty shout. A deft flick on by Rhodes and Windass latched on to it. Not sure it was a penalty though.

Not a lot to go on but better than anything else we have put out this season.

 

1 hour ago, shandypants said:

Here we go; yet another veiled attempt to have a go about Rhodes losing his place. 
 

My choice is any of the partnerships without Rhodes. He’s had three and a half seasons to stake his claim and hasn’t done so.  We need to give our new players their chance to stake their claim. 
 

Holmowl et al decry the fact that Rhodes isn’t being played but we’ve had four or five managers that haven’t played him and that is too much of a coincidence. Those managers see him in training day in/day out so if he’s not being picked then he’s not impressing himself enough on the manager outside match day. Surely the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers can appreciate that?

 

Also, the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers must be able to see that if Rhodes isn’t scoring, he contributes little else. 
 

If Monk picks Rhodes, then fine, that’s Monk’s prerogative but I won’t be surprised if Rhodes returns to his bit part. 

What do you think about Emilianenko’s summary above?

 

Which pairing has impressed you so far or do you think will be most successful?

[Ian]

6 hours ago, room0035 said:

We have 5 points in 4 games over the season that gives us, 58 points less 12 = 46 most season that gets you relegated.

 

 

teams starting on -12 will mean the points requirement to stay up wont be as high this year.

 

[DSandersonOWL]

I do not rate any of the current ones.

Fantham and Layne - but never had time to develop.

Bannister and Varadi - the great partnership. 

[shandypants]

4 hours ago, Holmowl said:

 

What do you think about Emilianenko’s summary above?

 

Which pairing has impressed you so far or do you think will be most successful?

I think Emilianenko has cherry picked or seen what he wants to see. The fact that Rhodes is back out of the side tells you everything you need to know. 
 

Humour me while I use an analogy. Many years ago, my dearly departed dad (whom I miss terribly) had an oldish Cortina 1600e that he thought was the bees knees. He used to wax lyrically about how it was specc’d and what it could do but the truth was that the car was a shell of its former self and that time had moved on and it just wasn’t that good anymore. My dad would chug it around the streets and report back to us about it turning people’s heads - he believed it was turning heads because people thought it was great but it was really turning heads because it was clapped out and people were probably wondering how it was running.  He could get a journey out  of it and that was about its lot. It did little more than go from A to B in a basic sort of way - the quality it had previously was long gone. 
 

This above is the same situation with Rhodes; he was top drawer a few years ago but he isn’t now. The problem is that some people see Rhodes in the same way my dad saw his 1600e - they believe the quality is there and they find ways to state that it is when, actually, the majority know it isn’t. 

[DSandersonOWL]

5 hours ago, theowlsman said:

Hirst and Bright

Complementary heading skills.

 Hirst for how to head a goal.

 Bright on how to head past the post.

Both expert ! 

[shandypants]

Just now, DSandersonOWL said:

Complementary heading skills.

 Hirst for how to head a goal.

 Bright on how to head past the post.

Both expert ! 

Bright was excellent for us. 

[DSandersonOWL]

Just now, shandypants said:

Bright was excellent for us. 

Great at repeatedly heading just the wrong side of the post from scoring opportunities, but good overall. 

[shandypants]

3 minutes ago, DSandersonOWL said:

Great at repeatedly heading just the wrong side of the post from scoring opportunities, but good overall. 

Our top scorer for three years and one of a few in the last thirty years to score more that 20 goals in a season for us. 

I believe he also equalled the record for the number of consecutive games scored in (eight I think). 

 

Yeah, fvvcking rubbish weren’t he pal?

[gurujuan]

Can you have a good pairing who don’t score many goals? Deon Burton and Marcus Tudgay had an almost telepathic understanding, and were probably one of the best pairings in my time. They didn’t score many goals but they helped that team function, way beyond its individual parts

[shandypants]

I think one of the general characteristics  of modern day forwards is that they don’t really form partnerships like they did yesteryear where a front two “would hunt as a pack”. Take the Prem, of all the top teams in that league, the nearest I think you get to a partnership is Harry Kane and Son Heung-min and they don’t really play as a distinct pairing. 

[DSandersonOWL]

27 minutes ago, shandypants said:

Our top scorer for three years and one of a few in the last thirty years to score more that 20 goals in a season for us. 

I believe he also equalled the record for the number of consecutive games scored in (eight I think). 

 

Yeah, fvvcking rubbish weren’t he pal?

Why are you saying Bright was rubbish? Because I am certainly not,

I certainly remember him as being good and having a good partnership with Hirst, which is why I named him and Hirst and certainly Bannister and Varadi, both partnerships way beyond any recent ones.

I also remember Bright having mastered the art of heading just the wrong side of the post, very frustrating!

And his ex-partner Wright always scored against us !  But that was not Bright's fault. 

[shandypants]

10 minutes ago, DSandersonOWL said:

Why are you saying Bright was rubbish? Because I am certainly not,

I certainly remember him as being good and having a good partnership with Hirst, which is why I named him and Hirst and certainly Bannister and Varadi, both partnerships way beyond any recent ones.

I also remember Bright having mastered the art of heading just the wrong side of the post, very frustrating!

And his ex-partner Wright always scored against us !  But that was not Bright's fault. 

My apologies. Your post read to me like you were criticising Bright. 

[DSandersonOWL]

3 minutes ago, shandypants said:

My apologies. Your post read to me like you were criticising Bright. 

Cheers!  He remains our top scorer in the Premiership, I think.  And a good guy. 

[Holmowl]

1 hour ago, shandypants said:

I think Emilianenko has cherry picked or seen what he wants to see. The fact that Rhodes is back out of the side tells you everything you need to know. 
 

Humour me while I use an analogy. Many years ago, my dearly departed dad (whom I miss terribly) had an oldish Cortina 1600e that he thought was the bees knees. He used to wax lyrically about how it was specc’d and what it could do but the truth was that the car was a shell of its former self and that time had moved on and it just wasn’t that good anymore. My dad would chug it around the streets and report back to us about it turning people’s heads - he believed it was turning heads because people thought it was great but it was really turning heads because it was clapped out and people were probably wondering how it was running.  He could get a journey out  of it and that was about its lot. It did little more than go from A to B in a basic sort of way - the quality it had previously was long gone. 
 

This above is the same situation with Rhodes; he was top drawer a few years ago but he isn’t now. The problem is that some people see Rhodes in the same way my dad saw his 1600e - they believe the quality is there and they find ways to state that it is when, actually, the majority know it isn’t. 

Enjoyed that.
 

Unfortunately we might need that Cortina if we find that we’ve bought 3 old cars from Bawtry that prove to have major problems under the bonnet.

[The Night-Owl]

None of them look that good or threatening to me as partnerships. To much of a miss match of attributes that none of them look like a real partnership. Nevertheless none of those partnerships, are as effective as they should be in our negative style of play and nulifying tactics, which nullifies ourselves especially at home.

 

What's most disappointing to me, just as much as our lack of goals, is that we haven't replaced Murphy's attacking threat and effectiveness, and why did we bring in Brown when our creative players are being bypassed or nullified in our negative direct style? 

 

A front three might suit us more as would a back four. All it shows to me is that we should play to the strengths of our current players and revert to 4-3-3 or something or bring in more players to better suit how we're set up. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by The Night-Owl

[Emilianenko]

13 hours ago, shandypants said:

Here we go; yet another veiled attempt to have a go about Rhodes losing his place. 
 

My choice is any of the partnerships without Rhodes. He’s had three and a half seasons to stake his claim and hasn’t done so.  We need to give our new players their chance to stake their claim. 
 

Holmowl et al decry the fact that Rhodes isn’t being played but we’ve had four or five managers that haven’t played him and that is too much of a coincidence. Those managers see him in training day in/day out so if he’s not being picked then he’s not impressing himself enough on the manager outside match day. Surely the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers can appreciate that?

 

Also, the pro-Rhodes OwlsTalkers must be able to see that if Rhodes isn’t scoring, he contributes little else. 
 

If Monk picks Rhodes, then fine, that’s Monk’s prerogative but I won’t be surprised if Rhodes returns to his bit part. 

Or maybe some are so obsessed with their hatred of Rhodes. You come alive when he’s mentioned, he’s your oxygen.

[shandypants]

3 hours ago, Emilianenko said:

Or maybe some are so obsessed with their hatred of Rhodes. You come alive when he’s mentioned, he’s your oxygen.

Hate Rhodes?!! Hate?!! Are you crazy? I don’t think I hate anyone. I genuinely want Rhodes to do well (as I do for all of our players); if he’s doing well as a striker then the team are likely to benefit.  The thing is that I have zero belief and zero trust in Rhodes and my sentiment towards him has been built up over three and a half seasons of abject failure.