Pogrebnyak

[Handsome Man]

I love Pog, but he hasn't played very well for us. He's tried hard enough to be a fan's favourite, but his success rate is just too low. He had tremendous service last season, but if he is too slow to get in the box, too lightweight to beat a defender or too leaden-footed to win headers, he isn't going to score many goals. Obviously, he has his family to think of, so leaving us and the £60,000 per week behind isn't on, so he just has to go through the motions until he next gets a chance. If Murray got sent off or pulled a muscle, Pog could go straight back in the team.

[Ian Royal]

I don't get the hate for pog. He never gets a decent chance and he's much better than murray (how many goals has he scored, considering it seems ge's started every game).

4 goals in 8 games. Or 1 in 2, an absolutely excellent strike rate.

Compared to Pogrebnyak's 22 in 84, or 1 in 4.

I think we can safely call 84 games a decent chance for a player who's costing us tens of thousands of pounds a week, who was bought for the Premier League and who was an international player for a major European nation with European footballing experience.

[RoyallyFcuked]

Pog's never really done it for me, I'm afraid. Ok he had a few games last season where he didn't look terrible but even then he just didn't score enough. This season, on the rare occasions he's been allowed on the pitch he's looked abysmal - dreadful first touch, can't time his "jumps" and can't even hit the target when my gran could've scored and she was last seen being gracefully slid into a furnace 35 years ago.
In the history of dreadful signings, his takes the biscuit.

Agreed. For me Pog has never done anything to show that he justifies earning the wages he is on, or even how highly people rate him. I think everyone thought he was a bit (or a lot) better than he actually was/is when we signed him.

With only a relatively modest scoring record in Russia, his performance in his short spell at Fulham (where he scored 6 PL goals in 12 games) is what got him the contract of his life. However, when you look a little closer you realise that 5 of these goals were in his first 3 games (including a hat trick), his dip in form after this should have been enough warning to keep away, but oh well, we have Zingarevich to blame for that one.

No matter how much any of us want to believe he is a good player, he just isnt. Any of you that say "but when he is on form he is quality striker at this level" I'm not so sure. We have seen that the difference between him and Murray is very noticable, you can see that Murray actually looks like a player who has/could score 20+ goals at this level, Pog just doesnt.

Agree that we cant blame him for wanting to stay either, pretty sure if we were in his position we wouldnt want to leave.
30k+ a week..... I think the guy knows how lucky he is. Definitely in our top 3 worst ever signings, if not top 1.

[Ian Royal]

He's strong, but uses his strength poorly with his back to goal. He's got good control at his feet, but he's slow and a bit ponderous. He can strike the ball ferociously, but his finishing is either great or terrible and far too often terrible. He's useless in the air. He goes down looking for freekicks too easily.

He's got plenty of quality, but his weak points mean he's simply never going to be a leading goalscorer even at this level, without a perfect team around him. And he's clearly now just biding his time on his nice fat wage packet.

[El Diablo]

He's strong, but uses his strength poorly with his back to goal. He's got good control at his feet, but he's slow and a bit ponderous. He can strike the ball ferociously, but his finishing is either great or terrible and far too often terrible. He's useless in the air. He goes down looking for freekicks too easily.

He's got plenty of quality, but his weak points mean he's simply never going to be a leading goalscorer even at this level, without a perfect team around him. And he's clearly now just biding his time on his nice fat wage packet.

Absolute bollox IR. Pog has no 'quality'. At best he's a trier. One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

[Ian Royal]

He's strong, but uses his strength poorly with his back to goal. He's got good control at his feet, but he's slow and a bit ponderous. He can strike the ball ferociously, but his finishing is either great or terrible and far too often terrible. He's useless in the air. He goes down looking for freekicks too easily.

He's got plenty of quality, but his weak points mean he's simply never going to be a leading goalscorer even at this level, without a perfect team around him. And he's clearly now just biding his time on his nice fat wage packet.

Absolute bollox IR. Pog has no 'quality'. At best he's a trier. One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

I was trying for some actual balance and accuracy.

[El Diablo]

He's strong, but uses his strength poorly with his back to goal. He's got good control at his feet, but he's slow and a bit ponderous. He can strike the ball ferociously, but his finishing is either great or terrible and far too often terrible. He's useless in the air. He goes down looking for freekicks too easily.

He's got plenty of quality, but his weak points mean he's simply never going to be a leading goalscorer even at this level, without a perfect team around him. And he's clearly now just biding his time on his nice fat wage packet.

Absolute bollox IR. Pog has no 'quality'. At best he's a trier. One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

I was trying for some actual balance and accuracy.

File that under 'fail'.

[Hendo]

Agreed with pretty much everything Ian has said.

A fair and balanced view on Pav.

His goal at Chelsea away in the prem, was quality though.

[RoyallyFcuked]

Absolute bollox IR. Pog has no 'quality'. At best he's a trier. One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

I was trying for some actual balance and accuracy.

File that under 'fail'.

Have to agree. IR, writing it from a very biased and deluded RFC fans point of view doesnt make it balanced or indeed accurate.

I have to disagree/agree with some of your points,

- For a big guy Pog is not very strong, and the strength he does have he doesnt know how to use.
- He doesnt have good control, and in particular his first touch is awful and he cant win headers despite his height.
- His shot is nothing special, poor finishing for a striker and dont forget he creates nothing for himself, and the few chances he does get he nearly always wastes.

IN FAIRNESS TO HIM - some of his problems, (like his poor finishing) are partly down to being low on confidence, and maybe we dont always play to his strengths (if there are any).

You clearly dont even rate Pogrebnyak, I dont understand why you suddenly feel the need to rush in and defend him.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

He will cost in the region of 10% of our total income this season, thats a sad fact.

[SCIAG]

- His shot is nothing special, poor finishing for a striker ... and the few chances he does get he nearly always wastes.

This is not true - Pogrebnyak has an exceptional shots-to-goals ratio.
https://www.facebook.com/soccer.statist ... 5547690052

(I'm not trying to claim Pogrebnyak is as good as that statistic might imply, merely that it is inaccurate to say his finishing is "poor")

I tried to find some data for the Championship but I couldn't find anything suitable.

Pogrebnyak's weakness is that he doesn't turn half chances into full chances. To compare to some of our recent strikers, Roberts and Murray can bully opposing defenders out of their way and rifle a shot in, Long could outrun any defender, Le Fondre would gamble on trickier finishes. When he actually shoots he does very well.

I'd compare him to Kevin Doyle. Not particularly quick, not particularly strong, not likely to score from outside the box, willing runner, works the channels. Doyle had a much better scoring rate, and I'd attribute that primarily to superior (or more suitable) service. And, of course, Doyle played in much more successful sides.

[SCIAG]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

[El Diablo]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

All squad players / loan signings at best. And all of them have collectively cost less than the total amount we'll be shelling out on Pog. And we won't get a sell on for him either. Because nobody values him. Its the financial outlay that makes him our worst signing , not just about his average Championship performances.

[sandman]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

Absolutely ridiculous to put Akpan in with the likes of Baseya and Khumalo. I know you have a problem with him but that's verging on pathetic.

[Zana Badawi]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

Im with ED on this one.
He's the club's top earner and, thus, he should behave like it. None of the people on your list are/were and Im not sure what your point about Drenthe is.
I have yet to see a game in 2+ years that he has won for us, and I would expect at least one such performance from a player who should be our star player. Likewise it 'always amuses me' when people congratulate him for 'putting in a shift'. Yeah, he's putting in a shift because he, quite literally, doesn't appear to like shooting. And that's a major fault for a striker.

Year 1 - He's bought on the back of a good strike rate at Fulham. He doesn't reproduce it for us.
Year 2 - We trust him to be too good for the championship. He isn't.
Year 3 - Even the manager is bored by him now. It takes Murray literally 3 games to show what we've been missing for TWO SEASONS.

For at least two years, he's been our main strike force and, consequently, we have no transfer policy in that area.
Also, whenever anybody gets good, we get a call for a new contract (to get in parity with the mediocre Pogrebnyak). Hell, Pearce and HRK weren't even playing that well when they demanded theirs.
And exactly how demotivating must it be for the duo of Pogrebnyak and Drenthe to be on top of your wages list?

Im sorry but it takes a bit more than winning a few headers with your back to goal and passing the ball sideways to justify his utter feebleness in the area of being a match winner. Murray is ten times the striker Pogrebnyak is - and he has a dodgy knee.

But hey! Remember that goal away to Chelsea!!!!

PS. Id be interested if his goals to strikes ratio is down to the fact that he has significantly less strikes than any normal striker.

[leww_rfc]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

Im with ED on this one.
He's the club's top earner and, thus, he should behave like it. None of the people on your list are/were and Im not sure what your point about Drenthe is.
I have yet to see a game in 2+ years that he has won for us, and I would expect at least one such performance from a player who should be our star player. Likewise it 'always amuses me' when people congratulate him for 'putting in a shift'. Yeah, he's putting in a shift because he, quite literally, doesn't appear to like shooting. And that's a major fault for a striker.

Year 1 - He's bought on the back of a good strike rate at Fulham. He doesn't reproduce it for us.
Year 2 - We trust him to be too good for the championship. He isn't.
Year 3 - Even the manager is bored by him now. It takes Murray literally 3 games to show what we've been missing for TWO SEASONS.

For at least two years, he's been our main strike force and, consequently, we have no transfer policy in that area.
Also, whenever anybody gets good, we get a call for a new contract (to get in parity with the mediocre Pogrebnyak). Hell, Pearce and HRK weren't even playing that well when they demanded theirs.
And exactly how demotivating must it be for the duo of Pogrebnyak and Drenthe to be on top of your wages list?

Im sorry but it takes a bit more than winning a few headers with your back to goal and passing the ball sideways to justify his utter feebleness in the area of being a match winner. Murray is ten times the striker Pogrebnyak is - and he has a dodgy knee.

But hey! Remember that goal away to Chelsea!!!!

PS. Id be interested if his goals to strikes ratio is down to the fact that he has significantly less strikes than any normal striker.

Just to go back to this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF5X4eS1zAU

[tidus_mi2]

You seem to be seeing people say things like "Pog tries hard" and then disregarding the second part of their sentence where they say "but he's not worth 30k/week"

[SCIAG]

Absolutely ridiculous to put Akpan in with the likes of Baseya and Khumalo. I know you have a problem with him but that's verging on pathetic.

I don't have a problem with Akpan. He just isn't good enough.

I was wrong to include him with Mullins, Khumalo and Sodje though (I was thinking of those who played for us and just weren't good enough rather than the ones who were nowhere near like Baseya and Brett Williams). He had a couple of good matches when he joined, so should probably go in with Halls and Antonio.

[RoyallyFcuked]

- His shot is nothing special, poor finishing for a striker ... and the few chances he does get he nearly always wastes.

This is not true - Pogrebnyak has an exceptional shots-to-goals ratio.
https://www.facebook.com/soccer.statist ... 5547690052

(I'm not trying to claim Pogrebnyak is as good as that statistic might imply, merely that it is inaccurate to say his finishing is "poor")

I tried to find some data for the Championship but I couldn't find anything suitable.

Pogrebnyak's weakness is that he doesn't turn half chances into full chances. To compare to some of our recent strikers, Roberts and Murray can bully opposing defenders out of their way and rifle a shot in, Long could outrun any defender, Le Fondre would gamble on trickier finishes. When he actually shoots he does very well.

I'd compare him to Kevin Doyle. Not particularly quick, not particularly strong, not likely to score from outside the box, willing runner, works the channels. Doyle had a much better scoring rate, and I'd attribute that primarily to superior (or more suitable) service. And, of course, Doyle played in much more successful sides.

I'm not sure you can read that much into that particular statistic, Pog didnt have many shots in the PL. I'd be interested to see some similar stats for him in the Championship (pretty sure I've seen some woefully inaccurate shooting from a few times)

Agree that he is a bit like Doyle although worse I would say, (as I can't see him scoring 20+ goals even with a great creative team around him) and we saw how very average Doyle was in "not so" successful sides.

[RoyallyFcuked]

One of , if not the worst signing made by RFC in the past 10 years.

It always amuses me when people make hyperbolic statements without thinking about them at all - see the people who said the same thing about Drenthe.

We've had plenty of players who haven't made anything like the contribution Pogrebnyak has. Heck, we've had two called Williams in that time... Throw in Baseya, Sheppard, Mullins, Khumalo, Mooney, Fae, Akpan, Cywka, Thorvaldsson, Sodje, and (so far) Anton Ferdinand and it seems ridiculous to call Pog "one of" the worst signings we've made. And that's not including people who made small positive contributions like Mate, Halls, Dobson, Manset, Antonio, and Carrico. Left out Halford because we got our money back before he had a chance to do anything, left Fae in because he wasn't good enough and was a disruptive influence.

His wages have been expensive, yes, but at least we got a return on them. We probably threw away a comparable amount of money on the above in exchange for nothing, or outright bad performances.

All squad players / loan signings at best. And all of them have collectively cost less than the total amount we'll be shelling out on Pog. And we won't get a sell on for him either. Because nobody values him. Its the financial outlay that makes him our worst signing , not just about his average Championship performances.

Spot on. I'd say the only signing that comes close to being as bad is that of Emerse Fae, who cost £2.5m (a fortune by RFC standards) and did virtually nothing, but thankfully he was in and out fairly quickly. Is he still our record signing?