4-2-3-1

[gpirlo68 0]

Didn't he last 45 minutes playing for the U21s as well?

Apparently didn't have a touch for 19 minuites

[Dr Gloom 21302]

Goal percentages.

 

Doumbia 56%

Mitrovic 41%

Perez 38%

 

Now I'm no Benitez, but in a team struggling to score I know what I would do.

 

play the unfit 50 year old?

[Christmas Tree 4438]

 

play the unfit 50 year old?

He's probably scored more goals than the rest of our usual 11 put together.

 

God damn I'd play him.

[Alex 34100]

 

God damn I'd play him.

:lol:

[Howmanheyman 31619]

Didn't he last 45 minutes playing for the U21s as well?

Had to give the stiffs a chance, didn't they? 90 mins against a player of his calibre wouldn't have been fair.

[Howmanheyman 31619]

God damn I'd play him.

:lol:

 

Class.

[The Fish 10430]

Appearances / goals

Ok.

 

 

If we're judging a striker on goalscoring alone; in terms of top flight competition (which I think we can agree the Belgian & Russian leagues are not) Doumbia's performance is piss poor. Worse than Shola's in fact.

[Dr Gloom 21302]

Ok.

 

 

If we're judging a striker on goalscoring alone; in terms of top flight competition (which I think we can agree the Belgian & Russian leagues are not) Doumbia's performance is piss poor. Worse than Shola's in fact.

 

you're god damn right

[The Fish 10430]

And if it's only goals that we're judging a player on, why not play Cisse who has a career avg of 2.45 Games per Goal?

[trophyshy 7058]

These were really shit biscuits, about as boring as a Blue Riband iirc.

[Howmanheyman 31619]

 

you're god damn right

[Christmas Tree 4438]

Ok.

 

 

If we're judging a striker on goalscoring alone; in terms of top flight competition (which I think we can agree the Belgian & Russian leagues are not) Doumbia's performance is piss poor. Worse than Shola's in fact.

Aye Fish, lets judge Doumbia on the 13 bit part games rather than the other 200 and odd.

[gpirlo68 0]

And if it's only goals that we're judging a player on, why not play Cisse who has a career avg of 2.45 Games per Goal?

Need to get Cisse fit. He's shite but hes a goalscorer

[David Kelly 1205]

I'd be interested in seeing Doumbia get a game myself. He looked really sharp when he came on against Stoke. Ok it was only for a very short time but he looked like a natural goal scorer. Perez is never going to be that and I'm not sure Mitrovic is either. When we're trying to pinch a game then having a natural finisher might work out better. I'm also not convinced about either Perez or Mitrovic as the lone striker and I think it's inevitable that we will go that way tonight.

 

Personally I'd like to see Tiote and Shelvey with Gini ahead and then Aarons/Perez/Townsend in the wide positions. Like Gloomy I'd prefer Sissoko was kept as far away from the team as possible but I imagine he'll be in as always so I'm just hoping that playing for a Champions League winning manager motivates him to put in the performance of a champions league player like he thinks he is.

[The Fish 10430]

Aye Fish, lets judge Doumbia on the 13 bit part games rather than the other 200 and odd.

 

I'm not writing Doumbia off man, but I certainly can't understand from where you've drawn the conclusion that he's the best bet to lead the line against Leicester at the King Power. I just have more confidence in other players, especially given Doumbia hasn't exactly shown sparks of anything. At least when Perez was being introduced to the squad we saw flashes of quality. Doumbia hasn't shown me anything, yet.

 

You're honestly saying that, rather than trust a top class manager to improve the performances of a couple of players who've shown they've the ability to perform at this level (if only in flashes so far), you want to gamble on a player who, when he's been tried at a top level (Serie A) failed to impress?

 

You do this all the time man, you arbitrarily pick a player to get behind, they then do absolutely fuck all, yet you insist they deserve their chance. Marveaux ahead of Ben Arfa, Shane ahead of Jonas, LuaLua ahead of Jonas... and have been proven right on no one (that I can recall).

[David Kelly 1205]

Doesn't Doumbia have a very good record in the champions league? Surely that's the highest level?

[The Fish 10430]

Doesn't Doumbia have a very good record in the champions league? Surely that's the highest level?

13 in 21.

 

It's excellent no doubt, but as others have said, why wasn't he rated in Italy and why, after 6 weeks, is he still slowly being introduced to the team?

 

I'm not writing him off, but I'd rather give Mitrovic the nod (given he's likely to get more support under Rafa than under McClaren).

[Holden McGroin 6241]

Yeah, im down with that midfield

 

Shelvey Tiote

Townsend Gini Perez/Aarons

Doombar (if even half fit)

[scoobos 297]

CT doumbia has played, for the reserves and was shockingly ineffective.

 

Perez not a natural goalscorer? That's harsh, he's had a very hard job in his time here - he needs support like any forward, or to be played consistently in his other favoured position, on the right.

Edited March 14, 2016 by scoobos

[David Kelly 1205]

13 in 21.

 

It's excellent no doubt, but as others have said, why wasn't he rated in Italy and why, after 6 weeks, is he still slowly being introduced to the team?

 

I'm not writing him off, but I'd rather give Mitrovic the nod (given he's likely to get more support under Rafa than under McClaren).

It was just your use of stats to back your point up didn't seem to stand up given his record in worlds top club competition is excellent. Your question of why McClaren didn't go with him is more pertinent imo than his lack of success in Rome (where he clearly was given very little chance for whatever reason). Last Saturday was the time I thought he had to play but then Riviere was picked ahead of him. For whatever reason McClaren just didn't want to play him. I think it may been (much the same as with Saivet) that McClaren didn't want to sign him in the first place.

[David Kelly 1205]

CT doumbia has played, for the reserves and was shockingly ineffective.

 

Perez not a natural goalscorer? That's harsh, he's had a very hard job in his time here - he needs support like any forward, or to be played consistently in his other favoured position, on the right.

Performances in the reserves mean less than nothing.

 

I'm not knocking Perez, I think he's a good player that has a very good future ahead of him. But I don't think it's ever going to be as an out and out striker.

[Christmas Tree 4438]

CT doumbia has played, for the reserves and was shockingly ineffective.

 

Perez not a natural goalscorer? That's harsh, he's had a very hard job in his time here - he needs support like any forward, or to be played consistently in his other favoured position, on the right.

The reserves means nowt and I have nothing against the likes of Mitrovic or Perez. (Hopefully we'll stay up, spend handsomely in the summer and they will be cracking squad players and developed properly.

 

This season however both have struggled in a tough team. All I'm saying is that we have what appears to be a natural finisher sitting on the bench.

 

Given the other twos difficulties I'm all for seeing what Doumbia can do.

[The Fish 10430]

It was just your use of stats to back your point up didn't seem to stand up given his record in worlds top club competition is excellent. Your question of why McClaren didn't go with him is more pertinent imo than his lack of success in Rome (where he clearly was given very little chance for whatever reason). Last Saturday was the time I thought he had to play but then Riviere was picked ahead of him. For whatever reason McClaren just didn't want to play him. I think it may been (much the same as with Saivet) that McClaren didn't want to sign him in the first place.

 

I only used League performances because there are so many variable in cup competition that, without proper interrogation, could skew results greatly. Without knowing, he may have scored a stack of goals for CSKA Moscow at home vs crap teams?

 

Dunno, but performing well in the Russian league doesn't really have my heart all aflutter. Once bitten and all that. I'm not saying never play him, I'm asking what has CT seen in those 32 minutes that make him think he can play as a lone striker away to Leicester and as yet, he's been unable to come up with a single reason beyond "he's scored goals". Well, Doumbia hasn't scored since 21st October 2015, against Man Utd. CT hasn't said if Doumbia can hold up the ball, if his touch is good, if he can fashion chances for himself, if he can get past a couple of players, or anything like that.

[TheGingerQuiff 2412]

It'll be Mitrovic alone tonight if he plays 4-2-3-1, i read he likes a target man to bring that second line of attack into the game. I'd drop sissoko for Perez

Edited March 14, 2016 by TheGingerQuiff

[David Kelly 1205]

I only used League performances because there are so many variable in cup competition that, without proper interrogation, could skew results greatly. Without knowing, he may have scored a stack of goals for CSKA Moscow at home vs crap teams?

 

Dunno, but performing well in the Russian league doesn't really have my heart all aflutter. Once bitten and all that. I'm not saying never play him, I'm asking what has CT seen in those 32 minutes that make him think he can play as a lone striker away to Leicester and as yet, he's been unable to come up with a single reason beyond "he's scored goals". Well, Doumbia hasn't scored since 21st October 2015, against Man Utd. CT hasn't said if Doumbia can hold up the ball, if his touch is good, if he can fashion chances for himself, if he can get past a couple of players, or anything like that.

No that's all fair enough. I think theres reasons both for and against, I just wasn't at all convinced that using Doumbia's stats for Roma against him was the right way to go (fwiw I seem to remember he scored a few of those Champions league goals against Man City).

 

CT's reason for playing him seems to just be that the others have for the most part failled this season so he's worth a go. Your view seems to be more along the lines of yes they failed when McClaren was in charge but you think Benitez can get more out of them. Personally I'm of the opinion than Perez is definitely not suited as a lone striker regardless of who the manager is because he's not strong or fast enough (I think you have to be one or the other to play that role properly). Mitrovic I'm not so sure about. He's clearly not got much pace but at times (West Ham) he's looked strong enough but others (Stoke) he's looked a bit clumsy and ball just hasn't stuck up with him like it has to. I think Doumbia has the pace reqguired and looks to be a sharper player in the box than the other two (as he showed by almost scoring against Stoke when the other never had a sniff). It might all come down to who has impressed Rafa in training and going from the tales we've heard that probably wont be Doumbia. But Rafa may know what to expect from him and may be a manager who can look beyond what a player shows in training to see their worth in the game.