Danny Graham

[PISTON]

He's a poacher....needs someone to do the work for him...a lot like Bent. Play him as a lone striker and its like playing a man down..

Was he not allowed to poach for us then??
Anyway, i don't particularly see a poacher as your description. I see a poacher as someone who manages to get 1 yard of space in a crowded box. A player who scores lots of tap ins. A player who somehow ends up standing by himself in the right place at the right time.
I see your description more as a good finisher who needs a strike partner.

I expected Danny Graham to be a bit of a poacher by my definition, which needs speed of thought more than speed of body. Either way, i saw little evidence of either.

 

[LineTrash]

Was he not allowed to poach for us then??
Anyway, i don't particularly see a poacher as your description. I see a poacher as someone who manages to get 1 yard of space in a crowded box. A player who scores lots of tap ins. A player who somehow ends up standing by himself in the right place at the right time.
I see your description more as a good finisher who needs a strike partner.

I expected Danny Graham to be a bit of a poacher by my definition, which needs speed of thought more than speed of body. Either way, i saw little evidence of either.

I didn't really put a definition up there...but to me, Graham isn't someone who is gonna beat a defender or someone who will make a lot of runs....basically he gets in the box and picks up scraps. Also, I don't think he has the same instincts on position that Bent has(d)..

 

[Lewberry pie]

his attitude was the problem but we as a team are a terrible for our strikers and have been since Keane left.

 

[PISTON]

I didn't really put a definition up there...but to me, Graham isn't someone who is gonna beat a defender or someone who will make a lot of runs....basically he gets in the box and picks up scraps. Also, I don't think he has the same instincts on position that Bent has(d)..

Fair point, especially about beating a man, but for whatever reason he didn't pick up many scraps for us.

 

[bagpiperay]

He was always gash and that was completely down to the manager and his staff. For such a bad mistake heads should have rolled. Whilst O'Neill was fired the scouting and other advisory staff involved should also have been pedalled.

 

[PISTON]

He was always gash and that was completely down to the manager and his staff. For such a bad mistake heads should have rolled. Whilst O'Neill was fired the scouting and other advisory staff involved should also have been pedalled.

While i can't really argue with that you have to ask did Premier League defenders think he was so gash they left him alone enough to score 15 times??
I just can't accept you could score 15 goals in the PL without having some kind of game. Given the competition for places i find it hard to believe he could even be on the pitch without offering something.

 

[Kid Galahad]

Don't think he's so terrible overall but has no real stand-out ability either, can hold a ball and lay it off and occupy defenders but to pay 5m for that was ludicrous, 2m would have been on the generous side, not sure how good a pro he is either mind, he never looked in good condition.

 

[bagpiperay]

While i can't really argue with that you have to ask did Premier League defenders think he was so gash they left him alone enough to score 15 times??
I just can't accept you could score 15 goals in the PL without having some kind of game. Given the competition for places i find it hard to believe he could even be on the pitch without offering something.

I agree with that. I feel the Swansea manager got the best if of him as he gad Michu to play foil to him. But since he came to Sunderland he showed little enthusiasm or motivation to do anything.

 

[Freddie the Greek]

Those last 2 home games of that season (Southampton and Stoke iirc) he was an absolute disgrace. He kept standing offside from our goal kicks. It was either sheer laziness to get back onside or he was just too obese to move.

 

[PISTON]

Don't think he's so terrible overall but has no real stand-out ability either, can hold a ball and lay it off and occupy defenders but to pay 5m for that was ludicrous, 2m would have been on the generous side, not sure how good a pro he is either mind, he never looked in good condition.

But he also scored 15 goals for Swansea in the PL. Even if you assume he hit a purple patch and subtract 7 goals for no reason whatsoever that still leaves 8. Accepting that none of our players reached that total he must've been doing something right.
I like Altidore better and i'd probably keep him ahead of Graham but would Danny have missed some of the chances Altidore did last year, i'm not so sure he would.

Others have already questioned his professional ethics.

 

[Kid Galahad]

But he also scored 15 goals for Swansea in the PL. Even if you assume he hit a purple patch and subtract 7 goals for no reason whatsoever that still leaves 8. Accepting that none of our players reached that total he must've been doing something right.
I like Altidore better and i'd probably keep him ahead of Graham but would Danny have missed some of the chances Altidore did last year, i'm not so sure he would.

Others have already questioned his professional ethics.

I think Graham is probably the better finisher but would he have got into the positions that Jozy got into to miss them? I just think he had a better supply line at Swansea, two wingers who consistently got to the byline to create chances for him in and around the six yard box, in a different team he was a different player.

 

[PISTON]

I think Graham is probably the better finisher but would he have got into the positions that Jozy got into to miss them? I just think he had a better supply line at Swansea, two wingers who consistently got to the byline to create chances for him in and around the six yard box, in a different team he was a different player.

15 times at Swansea suggest he would. Last season Jozy wasn't even able to take the gifts that were handed his way. Those gifts weren't created by great runs or movement, they were simply golden chances that come about just by being in the box for so long. I don't think Danny Graham would've missed all of those, not all of them.

 

[Mowgli]

15 times at Swansea suggest he would. Last season Jozy wasn't even able to take the gifts that were handed his way. Those gifts weren't created by great runs or movement, they were simply golden chances that come about just by being in the box for so long. I don't think Danny Graham would've missed all of those, not all of them.

Graham looks a totally different player to his Swansea days, he even looked poor at middlesbrough.

 

[Kid Galahad]

15 times at Swansea suggest he would. Last season Jozy wasn't even able to take the gifts that were handed his way. Those gifts weren't created by great runs or movement, they were simply golden chances that come about just by being in the box for so long. I don't think Danny Graham would've missed all of those, not all of them.

So why did DG flop so badly here and at Hull and prior to his transfer to us he hadn't notched in ages at Swansea iirc?

 

[PISTON]

Graham looks a totally different player to his Swansea days, he even looked poor at middlesbrough.

I don't disagree but that's why i asked the question where did it all go wrong.
I could fully understand when a player who relies on pure pace gets injured or grows old. Danny Graham has always had to get the best from limited resources and those types of players tend to be fairly consistent and last a long time. They don't usually have extreme highs or lows. They tend to have good fundamental skills and solid tactical ability.
Danny Graham didn't hit the ground running for us and then seemed to lose all confidence even in his core game, whatever that was. The same could probably be said for Altidore.

Either way, at the risk of repeating myself i find it hard to believe a player could score 15 PL goals without having some kind of strings to his bow. It just doesn't seem feasible given the intensity of the defences.

 

[Kid Galahad]

Just checked his recent record, since joining Swansea in July 2011 I make it 103 apps scoring 22 goals (18 of those apps and six of those goals in the championship) not brilliant...
He hit 12 in his first season so a new confidence and exuberance of both him and his team being in the top flight, he seems to have been sussed out pretty sharpish!

 

[Mowgli]

I don't disagree but that's why i asked the question where did it all go wrong.
I could fully understand when a player who relies on pure pace gets injured or grows old. Danny Graham has always had to get the best from limited resources and those types of players tend to be fairly consistent and last a long time. They don't usually have extreme highs or lows. They tend to have good fundamental skills and solid tactical ability.
Danny Graham didn't hit the ground running for us and then seemed to lose all confidence even in his core game, whatever that was. The same could probably be said for Altidore.

Either way, at the risk of repeating myself i find it hard to believe a player could score 15 PL goals without having some kind of strings to his bow. It just doesn't seem feasible given the intensity of the defences.

Maybe he was a PL one season wonder? See it fairly regularly. Look at papiss cisse.

 

[jcrossan]

He was hopeless to start with. We got our eyes taken out by theose welsh bastards, give him to Brucie plus a case of the best Greggs pies.

 

[Kid Galahad]

Maybe he was a PL one season wonder? See it fairly regularly. Look at papiss cisse.

He's more Michael Ricketts than Cisse tbh.

 

[ZOMBIES]

I think it's easy to look at goalscoring as a purely individual effort when strikers are part of a team. It's the only real number we have to evaluate a player, but there are lots of examples of people having a couple good goalscoring seasons and going away. Danny Graham and Jozy Altidore aren't any kind of special talent and they need a lot of help to be a success at this level, which wasn't coming from either of those Sunderland sides.