Reply With QuoteI'd go with the Forte/Ameobi combination. Can't see many other options.
Stead’s figures last season were a bit misleading.
He scored 9 in his first 10 appearances, and 5 in his last 26.
That included only 1 in his last 11 games of the season.
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Can someone explain to me why we never play Forte up front with either Ameobi or Stead? I'm convinced there's potential for a decent partnership with either of those combinations.
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I'd go with the Forte/Ameobi combination. Can't see many other options.
Stead’s figures last season were a bit misleading.
He scored 9 in his first 10 appearances, and 5 in his last 26.
That included only 1 in his last 11 games of the season.
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Stead should never have been re-signed. It's a waste of significant wage.
As others have said, Stead isn't an ideal partner for Ameobi, because neither of them offers any pace. We need a pacey second striker to play alongside Shola.
If Ameobi is unavailable we've got real problems, because Stead is actually a pretty awful target man who has a surprisingly poor first touch for a former Premiership player and does not relish the physical battle with centre-halves. Until Ameobi arrived to do the target man job properly, it became a running joke that Stead would crumple time and again under challenge from defenders, weakly crying for free-kicks.
I remember Jon Stead in his heyday playing for Huddersfield and in those days he was sharper and pacier. He has always had a good finishing instinct, and that still remains to a degree, but the rest of his game is greatly diminished. Nolan has made a mistake not releasing him, because Stead could happily have finished his career in the States, and we could have invested in a quality, pacey young striker to play alongside Ameobi, and perhaps recruited another proper target man as well. As things stand, we'll be relying on Alan Smith as back-up target man, which is pitiful.
Last edited by jackal2; 06-08-2017 at 12:02 AM.
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I'd try putting him in the match day squad for starters, then if he makes it on to the pitch at all, I'd try him up front.
Just a thought, although if Jones persists with today's kind of performance perhaps left back could be his new calling.
I really don't know what Nolan has against him, he abused him last season playing him on the wing and then picking the lad from West Brom whose name I can't even remember ahead of him.
He may have lost a bit of pace, may not be prolific, but he runs his socks off, doesn't bottle out a tackle and managed eleven goals last season with very little service, and has to be worth a place on the bench ahead of Smith or Saunders who I believe managed a grand total of one goal between them last season.
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Forte was never the player some fans thought we were getting. He flattered to deceive on loan to us on a couple of occasions but his overall career record is average at best. However, Optipez is basically right that he's still by far the best option we've got as a striker to play off Shola, and certainly better as a striker than a winger. Between them they should have enough to do okay in this division in the short-term.
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Could it be that once again we have a manager who wears blinkers......Or is under pressure from above to play both Stead & Shola. We all know that AH thinks these 2 are the best strike force since slice bread... Just a thought....Originally Posted by SwalePie
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Hardy needs to butt out if so, knows nothing about the game. Leave it to KN as it's blatantly obvious with Stead and Ameobi there's a lack of pace which Forte provides if he's on song.
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Could not agree more .
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Saunders being on the bench instead of Forte, and Hewitt and Walker starting in midfield were all poor selections. Obviously unless injuries were involved.
Things can only get better?
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There are a lot of valid questions to be asked, but let's not get carried away. I don't think Alan Hardy would try to directly influence team selection, and I don't think Kevin Nolan would let him. In my view, the majority of the recruitment and retention during the summer has been questionable and I think the responsibility for that lies squarely with the manager. If anything, Hardy has trusted his judgement too much. We saw last season that Kevin Nolan is a good motivator who can lift a group of players, but the jury is still out on whether he is a good judge of players.
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