Quote Originally Posted by jackal2 View Post
Far from it! He's a work in progress.

Elisha Sam has actually produced a decent goal return relative to the number of games he's played, albeit it seems clear that he plays best attacking rom wide left rather than as a centre-forward, despite his physical appearance.

The same basic criticisms have been made of Rodrigues and Sam, that they are very inconsistent and can disappear from games, and this seemed to make Ardley - and more recently IB - reluctant to trust them. I'd turn that fact on its head and ask why we're signing players like this if we're not prepared to give them proper time to adapt to a completely different style of football?

We've obviously looked at the stats and noticed their abilities, which we've seen in bursts, but did the management seriously think these players would arrive "oven ready" and just merge seamlessly into a new league? It's not impossible, but in most cases, foreign imports take time to adjust and if you're going to sign them, you should be ready to commit to give them that game time and let them learn on the job.

I wouldn't mind, but like I've said above, it isn't as if the other players competing for their positions have produced consistent results anyway.
Yeah I think with both of them (but to a greater extent with Sam) we seem to be unsure of their best positions and so try to crowbar them into the wrong positions, rather than playing to their strengths. In Sam's case I think our fixation with playing in front of the oppostion neutralises a lot of his strengths.

As Notts fans we all know what crap strikers look like, god knows we've seen plenty over the years, but not many of them have the ability to run at people and hit powerful shots into the corner with no backlift, or score scorpion kicks.

Hopefully next season will be a breakthrough season for both of them.