by RoyallyFcuked »
10 Aug 2012 20:44
So the question is, who would you, or rather, who will Brian start upfront? Surely im not the only one with this question on my mind?!
We have a number of interesting options to chose from and we can only hope things work out well for us whichever Brian chooses. We now have Pogrebnyak in addition to Roberts, Le Fondre, Hunt and Church. First off, IMO neither Church nor Hunt is Premier League quality. I don’t think neither would score enough goals. Church needs a season on loan in the Champonship, possibly League One where he gets a good run of games and hopefully he can show what he can do. Hunt works hard but whether he has the quality is another matter. Hasnt ever been an out and out goalscorer and never will be.
On the other hand I think Le Fondre is an excellent finisher, he has got that real goalscoring instinct. Might even go as far as to say that were he in a top 4 team, he could get 20+ goals a season given the service he would get. Roberts we know has the experience, but he isn’t getting any younger and his best days are behind him. I still think his contribution will be important and I think he will chip in with a few goals. I am not entirely convinced about Pogrebnyak but I dont know enough about him. He started very well at Fulham then faded.
The question is whether ALF should start games. He was used as an impact substitute in the latter half of last season after Roberts arrival, which obviously worked well, but he has been a bit unlucky because we went on a superb run with Roberts and Hunt starting upfront, but you cant blame Brian for not changing a winning team. I just hope Brian doesn’t think his only impact can be from the bench. Given the right strike partner, he will flourish in the Premier League. You can argue that Le Fondre wasn’t very effective when he was starting games earlier in the season, but you have to remember that in all of those games either Church or Hunt was his strike partner, which didn’t work so well. When he has come on and played with Roberts, things have looked promising. So from what I know at the moment, Pogrebnyak has a more similar style of play to Roberts, so either one could be the target man to play with ALF. So assuming we play a 4-4-2 formation and bearing in mind we have brought the Russian in for his quality, then I would personally go for – Le Fondre – Pogrebnyak, but I think it is more likely to be – Roberts – Pogrebnyak. Not sure how well that would work though, style of play too similar? Also, IMO to start the season with – Hunt – Roberts upfront would be very disappointing and to me would mean not only a lack of goals but also a lack of class.