Let me say first, that I like Luke Varney. But i am starting to wonder if he is the answer to our goalscoring problems. I admire the way he closes players down and puts players under pressure, and he covers plenty of ground. Its just that most of his best work seems to be when he's out wide, and cuts inside. he also is one of our better crossers of the ball. Unfortunately, he doesnt seem to get on the end of much through the middle. I dont know if it's a lack of decent service from midfield, or he really would be better playing wide with maybe Gray and Dickson/An other up front. What do you think ?
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i have said this since last season nice guy tries hard but is not a centre forward more of an industrius winger
I don't feel hes a goalscorer, missed so many chances since hes joined including saturday but he can def play 2nd striker creating and hopefully chip in with a few
With the energy he puts into chasing defenders, he doesn't seem to be able to calm down and compose himself when he's in attacking positions. When he gets the ball near goal, he's still bustling, not thinking about his day job, as a striker.
I like Varney, tries his guts out, but any team with realistic chances of promotion has to have at least one striker who is going to get a load of goals (Mendonca 98, Hunt 00)
We havent got that, and thats the only reason why I dont think we will be close to going up as the rest of the squad, and defence in particular, is pretty good in my opinion.
Iwelumo could have, but they all need service. When Reid went Iwelumo's goals dried up.
Agree about Varney, lot of endeavour but little end product. Which is a shame as I like the guy.
Also, I agree that Gray could be a 20 goals a season man, but that's never going to be the case when we don't get the ball to him in the box.
I also agree that we aren't far off being a good team, but we are still very short in centre mid and centre half. Hopefully bailey will be as good as we all hope, and stoke will buy that useless sack of **** Faye so we can get a centre half in.
For what its worth, the main question for me per season was whether or not the youngsters will come through this year. From what I've seen so far, Shelvey is almost ready, as is basey, but wagstaff is nowhere near the first team yet. I think we'll need a few more squad players before the window closes - we're desperately thin if zz or Holland or bailey get crocked
Before and real judgement is made on him, I'd like to see him given a run of 10 games playing alongside Gray so that they can get a partnership going. If he is missing a host of chances then reconsider but, as someone said above, we spent a lot of money on him, lets give him a chance.
I do agree with Off_it though, he really shouldn't be getting caught off side as much as he does.
Agree entirely with this. Much as we like to see our players chasing down, and I recognise the importance of defending from the front, especially in this league, I think Varney works too hard. The majority of his energy should be put into runs that will give him goal scoring opportunities, not chasing down a lost cause on the opposition's by-line. It's hard to knock a player for this but if there's any position where I'd be more than happy to support a less active but effective player, it's centre forward.
Varney on the other hand, is not so much 'Johnny-on-the spot/fox in the box' type striker - but he's great at running at defences.
Last season, just before the Palace home match, Pards gave Varns a free role and told him to 'play like in the school playground'.
Varney relished that free role playing a bit deeper, popped up all over the park, tore Mark Hudson to shreds and scored 2 well taken individual goals.
Palace, at the time on the back of a long unbeaten run and with the best defence in the division, couldn't handle him.
You know full well he'l go 5 games without a goal and well all start shouting him out.
But i do agree that we should give him a more time. Think it may be a confidence job and that once he gets one or two hel be away!!
That said, Pards has stated Varney and Gray are 'The main men' so he really needs to get one under his belt like Gray has pretty quick.
The very same was often said about a certain Darren Bent Offy
Heard this at The Valley when someone was discussing Nelson.
"nice man, wrong job"
Anyway, with DB he always used to look along the line and you could see him trying to time it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn;t. LV seems to just charge on regardless.
Maybe a bit harsh on my part, but a glut of goals would certainly gloss over any failings on that front.