You say that about Mbokani

but he has quite often offered very little when he has started. He doesn't have the pace to stretch defences, nor does he time his runs well enough to beat an offside trap. Too often he's marked out of the game when in the opposition's box, or loses the ball with his back to goal.

There's no doubt that he's a better finisher, the best at the club, and if you give him a chance on a plate in space he will probably score, but he rarely gets into those situations to even have a chance. People moan that Jerome misses a lot of good chances and rightly so, but he has the ability to allow others to create regular chances for him. Then there's the other side of the coin where you get people on here moaning that we don't create the chances for Mbokani to score. The truth is his lack of general ability makes it too easy for centre backs to keep him in their pockets. We need a striker with Jerome's all round ability in terms of movement, plus Mbokani's finishing skill. That's without even daring to ask for that option to even have a good touch or be skillful. That's how poor our options are that an average striker would be a HUGE improvement.

Bamford hasn't played because he's not good enough... yet. He doesn't even offer what Jerome or Mbokani do at THIS level. He struggled to get into the Palace team despite their mediocre striker options, yet when he was given a go he missed good chances. He's a kid that needs to fill out a bit more (you need strength if you're not particularly fast at this level) and gain some real nous before he can be effective at this level.

As far as Naismith goes I agree that we should have tried him up front as he has great movement (unlike Mbokani) and is a decent finisher (unlike Jerome), although he lacks pace (unlike Jerome) and any real technical ability on the ball. He hasn't worked as a 10, but surely can't be worse any than any of our 9's. Again it's a lucky dip rather than a sure fire thing. I really don't envy Alex Neil's task of finding a regular goal scorer given those options, although it was his fault for buying Naismith.

Posted By: Common Sense Police, May 10, 16:41:21