now I wasn't there on Saturday but it seems that Waggy had a good game and was busting a gut for the team and had at least one assist. So far this season he has scored five and had numerous assists. Far, far more than I can remember Sam contributing in the last couple of seasons. Sam going has been the making of Waggy. In my opinion he was held back last season by Sam still hanging around. Would anyone still have wanted Sam to stay ?
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Waggy is strong, extremely fit and fast but has no "trick"
Waggy's eye for goal is excellent - not just tap ins but also when 1 on 1 or shooting from range he is much more of a threat than Sam ever was
Waggy is also better when covering in defence
Tactically we all saw how Sam disappeared from a game when he was away from the bench because he constantly needed to be told what to do and where to be - I find that inexcusable for a pro footballer
Sam will carve out a decent living from the game but as an asset to Charlton I think Waggy is starting to show he is very much the better of the two - certainly for our current status / standing
Agree. Parky has managed him really well.
I still wouldn't mind having Sam as an option - I'd rather he played right wing than Martin. But the gap between Waggy and Sam is already much smaller than it was last season.
As said above though by Swisdom Waggy has no trick which does limit his ability to open up defences. Sam showed, even at Premiership level briefly, that he can open up defences and get the crosses in. The fact our strikers rarely capitalised is not entirely down to Sam. Last week against Brighton I felt that Sam might have made us slightly less one dimesional in the second half and given them something to think about.
If we could have afforded it I would have kept them both and would probably have preferred Sam to Martin as an alternative option, despite Martin's superior work rate, had it been financially possible.
We are where we are though and I'm delighted that Waggy appears to have an excellent attitude as a pro and wants to make the most of his talent. It augurs well for his future development.
his knack of goals added too with some assists and a faultless workrate and his general appetite and enthusiasm fro the game are a delight to watch and i just hope he can keep up the good work and try not to disappear completely for large parts of the game
and maybe his improvement is all down to parky but whatever it's helping us
and maybe another academy success in the making!
I actually think he is 20 but your point still stands (twice)
:-)
Sam no doubt would have been useful this season, he'd have loved having Benson, Abbott and Sodje in the box over Burton, McLeod and Dickson (comparing this time last year to now). They're pretty much complete opposites as players, Sam has the skill and a good cross, but lacks the fitness, movement and real pace, and of course that bit of drive. Wagstaff has the attitude, he wants to and will keep improving his game, he makes good runs, scores goals and with his fitness can offer something at any time during a match.
Wagstaff has come through at just the right time. We're at a level where he has something to offer, but has to keep improving to stay in the team. Sam in comparison didn't get regular football with us until he was 22/23, because we were in the Prem, and that hasn't helped him develop at all.
I think Sam is pretty much at the level he'll always be, a good League One player or squad player in an mid table Championship side. Wagstaff will no doubt keep improving, and hopefully go further than Sam has or ever will.
Certainly looks a much better player than the one I saw in pre-season 2008 and his first start in the cup game v Yeovil (mistake by Pardew) a month later. Back then he appeared to run around quite a bit without offering much at all, making mistakes, very occasionally scoring a goal. Just wasn't enough. Then slowly after Parky and his staff helped him get his confidence back, (helped by relegation to a lower level of course) he started offering something in the first team, both goals and just how fit he really was, something that is a lot more obvious in competitive games.
Not sure everyone realises that Wagstaff was close to being released at 15/16. They gave him 6 weeks to impress and fortunately he did. Wagstaff has made the biggest improvement I've seen in any young player here since Parker broke through. That's no doubt down to his attitude, with help from Parky and the coaches (first team and academy) along the way. He's a great example to the current academy players of what having the right attitude is all about.
I apologise! And yeah he's still learning!
I was at that Yeovil league cup game when Waggy made his debut and I sat in the West for a change close to the dug outs.
The problem was that Waggy was meant to be playing on the right and Bouazza was supposed to be in the middle. However Bouazza kept running the right hand channel so Waggy naturally moved inside to try and support. Pardew then shouted to Waggy to stay wide which he tried to do but then Pardew shouted go inside and to cut a long story short by the end of it the poor lad was a nervous wreck and didn't have a clue where he should be and Pardew just kept bawling him out presumably because he didn't want to upset Bouazza.
No wonder he lost his confidence. Much of the criticism Waggy got for that Yeovil game was unjustified as he was simply playing to orders.
Needless to say Pardew made Waggy look worse by substituting him!
I liked Sam a lot, but he took a long time to learn how to be effective. Waggy needs to do a lot more tactically; when to stick and when to pull inside and utilise Francis on the overlap. Having said that Sam needed the team to set him up offensively. Waggy opens things up himself, with his unbelievable energy in the last twenty..... Sam never ever did that.
I personally think Wagstaff is much better all round and he is learning and improving everyday. Going to be a really good player I think. Another youngester to be proud of.
Excellent comparison.