The myth of the prolific striker being crucial to success...

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Windypants said:
Sorry, should have said they had. :). The point is that, with Toney's goals, Peterborough are in the play off pack, rather than romping the league.
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Toney has made a mid table side into a side challenging for promotion.

Managers have a certain budget. If they blow a lit of it on one player it leaves less fir the rest of the squad. Can a striker make up for lower grade players on the rest of the pitch? What happens if this striker gets injured?
 


Windypants said:
Rotherham: Freddie Ladapo, 10
Peterborough: Toney, 23
Coventry: Godden, 10
Wycombe: Akinfenwa, 8
Sunderland: Maguire, 10
Portsmouth: Curtis, 11
Ipswich: Norwood, 11
Doncaster: Sadlier, 10
Fleetwood: Madden, 15
Oxford: Henry, 9
With the exception of Peterborough (and maybe Fleetwood), none of the top sides possess a prolific goal scorer - most teams have strikers no more prolific than Gooch and Maguire. Throughout the season, people have said we'll need to sign a prolific goal scorer to get promotion. With that in mind, who will join Peterborough and Fleetwood in getting promotion, or, is the idea of 'you need a 20 goal striker' just not true?
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I think Gooch and Maguire will get at least 15 each
 
Saying you don't need a prolific striker is like saying you don't need a good keeper or a strong defense to win a league.

This is probably the weakest League One has been for a well. No one is running away with it, the points total is down this season and 85 points might be enough to win it. If we can get a striker won can get 1 in 3 between now and the end of the season our chances would improve greatly.
 
It's always been an interesting question. I remember us being criticised for being 'over reliant' on various lone strikers during seasons. "Without X they'd be nowhere', equally you get a good spread of scorers and you've 'no striker'. I suppose ultimately its a about finding a club style or formula that works and on that basis I think you're right, but having someone with a high success rate HAS to be a huge bonus on top of any formula. But teams like Posh are perhaps one injury from disaster...
 
Forss and Healy have the best goal to minutes ratio for regular first choice strikers in the division and play for Wimbledon and MK Dons. Only Peterborough have three players in the top goal scorer list and one has left. Only we have two- Maguire and Gooch. A prolific striker isn’t essential but it certainly helps. Wyke scores every 340 minutes. Toney every 120. I like Wyke and recognise his value to the team but in terms of goal scoring he has one of the worst returns for a first choice centre forward in the league. Even bang average players like Godden at Cov score at double the rate.
Black Cat Gypsy said:
Saying you don't need a prolific striker is like saying you don't need a good keeper or a strong defense to win a league.

This is probably the weakest League One has been for a well. No one is running away with it, the points total is down this season and 85 points might be enough to win it. If we can get a striker won can get 1 in 3 between now and the end of the season our chances would improve greatly.
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In terms of goals to minutes Maguire and Gooch are both better than that already.
 
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Kermit said:
I think the fact that no team has run away with it, coupled with the fact that there are only a couple of 'prolific' strikers spread over the teams toward the top, would suggest its not a myth. Put a 15/20 goal striker in our side and we would likely be in the top 2. Same as Portsmouth, Coventry etc.
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At what expense though? Grigg for instance is a 15/20 goal striker, but he wouldnt and cannot do the job needed of the striker in our current system even if he was scoring.

If you put Toney for instance in our side then it would have to be set up for him getting into space and getting in behind rather than often playing with his back to goal, which might result in a pretty one dimensional attack like when we had Darren Bent and he was the only one scoring first season.

at the moment we play a system which the front man should score a few more and he gets the cha ce to but the essential part of his game is working the centre halves, holding the ball and bringing others into play.

unless the striker you get in does that and scores 15/20 a season it then affects team play and hence Gooch and Maguires output and unless you strike lucky at this level you're not gonna get one of those very often.

Certainly not suggesting Charlie Wyke is the answer, its finding players who fit the formula with a bit more quality that's the answer and not just a goalscorer
 
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Perryqhill said:
At what expense though? Grigg for instance is a 15/20 goal striker, but he wouldnt and cannot do the job needed of the striker in our current system even if he was scoring.

If you put Toney for instance in our side then it would have to be set up for him getting into space and getting in behind rather than often playing with his back to goal, which might result in a pretty one dimensional attack like when we had Darren Bent and he was the only one scoring first season.

at the moment we play a system which the front man should score a few more and he gets the cha ce to but the essential part of his game is working the centre halves, holding the ball and bringing others into play.

unless the striker you get in does that and scores 15/20 a season it then affects team play and hence Gooch and Maguires output and unless you strike lucky at this level you're not gonna get one of those very often.

Certainly not suggesting Charlie Wyke is the answer, its finding players who fit the formula with a bit more quality that's the answer and not just a goalscorer
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That's only the system because of Wyke's limitations. We wouldn't need to drastically alter our style if we had Ivan Toney instead. We'd just be much better.
 
Different Systems Require Different Tactics, still Phillips and Quinn at their best, i take that all day.😎
 
Perryqhill said:
At what expense though? Grigg for instance is a 15/20 goal striker, but he wouldnt and cannot do the job needed of the striker in our current system even if he was scoring.

If you put Toney for instance in our side then it would have to be set up for him getting into space and getting in behind rather than often playing with his back to goal, which might result in a pretty one dimensional attack like when we had Darren Bent and he was the only one scoring first season.

at the moment we play a system which the front man should score a few more and he gets the cha ce to but the essential part of his game is working the centre halves, holding the ball and bringing others into play.

unless the striker you get in does that and scores 15/20 a season it then affects team play and hence Gooch and Maguires output and unless you strike lucky at this level you're not gonna get one of those very often.

Certainly not suggesting Charlie Wyke is the answer, its finding players who fit the formula with a bit more quality that's the answer and not just a goalscorer
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I think the feller we signed in January fits the bill tbh. Can we get him fit though?
 
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