Ajose Charltonised?

We create very few chances. Slade doesn't set the team up to play to his strengths.

IMO he will go on a scoring run. Unlucky with the first chance yesterday, but made a real hash of the header. He's going to snatch at chances if he's only getting two a game.

You can see his frustration when he isn't taking those chances. I think it's a combination of not falling for him at the moment, not playing to his strengths well enough and him knowing we aren't going to create too many good opportunities for him to score.

He will definitely go on a little run at some point, getting 5/6 in 4 games or so and suddenly he will look a top striker.

Essentially, we need to be getting the ball into the box more, we need to be getting it into his feet, and he needs to stay between the width of the goal in the box and he will get enough goals to keep people quiet.

Still expecting him to get around 15-20 this season.

Feeding off scraps at moment. Should have had 2 yesterday. I actually think the one that hit the post was a poor miss.

I'd like to see him put a run of games together and judge him on that. It's been a bit stop start for him.

No doubt if he scored 4 in 4, Slade would bench him.

ForeverAddickted said:

In regards to the second chance on Saturday...

How many headers has he actually scored in his career? - Some Strikers are just shite with their head and everytime he jumps for the ball I have no confidence that he'll win one

Only one of his goals last season was a header.

ricky_otto said:

Feeding off scraps at moment. Should have had 2 yesterday. I actually think the one that hit the post was a poor miss.

I'd like to see him put a run of games together and judge him on that. It's been a bit stop start for him.

No doubt if he scored 4 in 4, Slade would bench him.

Made me laugh, but so true..

He hasnt hit the ground running as we all hoped he would after his goal tally in this league last year but I like his attitude and if he keeps putting in the effort the goals will come. He's more involved in games than earlier on in the season so is hopefully adapting to our style of play.

Hopefully he can do a Novak & score against his old club when he returns to Swindon in our next league game.

Thought the game passed round him, looked completely out of it; can't head a ball and yes, he is snatching at chances, although he was unlucky when he hit the post. He needs decent through balls to run on to - which with our centre midfield, aint going to happen. Also when teams come down and put nine men in an around their penalty box it makes it hard for any striker - just look at Man Utd yesterday!

Have a mate who is a die hard Swindon season ticket holder. He said they had to create 10 chances for him to score 1. We create 2 if hes lucky.

It would help if we played more on the deck football I say!

uie2 said:

It would help if we played more on the deck football I say!

Don't think so

I think Ajose plays too far apart from Magennis. In the first half on Saturday he never seemed to be closer than 20m as attacks developed. On the one occasion he got close as Mag received the ball he got a flick on and hit the post. Looking at the goals from last season he is a proximity player, doing well on the scraps and deflections from quality, hard to defend ground balls into the box. If we can improve our delivery and get him tucked in and around Mag I think we may see more out of him.

ricky_otto said:

Missed It said:

Watching Ajose play gives me Reza flashbacks.

He's nowhere near as bad as Reza. He was absolutely shocking.

Reza just wasn't suited to the physical side of english football. He's doing fairly well in the Eredivisie which i'd suggest is probably a better level than league one. He scored away at leaders Feyenoord yesterday and has 5 goals in 11 games. Ajose is devoid of confidence and currently doesn't look like he'd get 5 goals all season.

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

ricky_otto said:

Missed It said:

Watching Ajose play gives me Reza flashbacks.

He's nowhere near as bad as Reza. He was absolutely shocking.

Reza just wasn't suited to the physical side of english football. He's doing fairly well in the Eredivisie which i'd suggest is probably a better level than league one. He scored away at leaders Feyenoord yesterday and has 5 goals in 11 games. Ajose is devoid of confidence and currently doesn't look like he'd get 5 goals all season.

The Dutch league, they all play the same way and same type of football. The time on the ball they have over there is so much more in comparison to the English game. The physicality compared, well you just can't compare it.

Janssen done really well and scored plenty for AZ last season but has struggled to adapt so far for Spurs, I think he will do well for them eventually, but it shows the difference in the leagues.

Reza didn't suit the English game and we can only judge him on what he has done with us, and for us he wasn't good enough, even with flashes of little quality every so often.

If Ajose was to go and play in the Dutch league, I am sure he will score plenty of goals himself. To compare him to Reza is silly in my opinion and would seriously be worried if he doesn't reach 5 goals this season when he is already on 3, even if that's a poor return at the moment.

I am sticking with 15-20 goals this season and him going on a little run at some point, may even start against Swindon, score a couple and he'll be a different player.

cabbles said:

Should've put the first chance away. I actually think missing a chance like that is as bad as screwing up and making an individual mistake that leads to conceding a goal.

At the moment, I only thing we've got 3 players out of 11 that are promotion winning calibre

Lookman
Magennis
Holmes

Some of you might tout our centre back partnership of Pearce and Bauer, so at a push 5, 6 if you include Solly who I don't think has really set the world alight this season.

Definitely not Fox, Ulvestad, Jackson & Crofts or Ajose/Novak. Rudd I'm unsure about.

So maybe 6 out of 11 that are promotion material plus Slade's seemingly negative tactics/football. You probably won't even make the play offs on that team

In a few weeks Id include Ulvestad as he's created a good amount of goals the last few weeks... Lookman I wouldnt as he's too hot and cold.

On the basis from Saturday Id definitely say that Bauer and Pearce (the latter won this League last season) are the best Centre Backs in the Division, the problem at the moment is they're taking it in turns to get a niggle, so miss a match which disrupts the back line

i.e. Until Leon Cort joined the Defence of Hamer / Solly / Morrison / Taylor / Wiggins was ever present and the fact our current Defence is the third best in the League (in terms of goals conceded) says to me the issues with the team arent at the back!!

Edit: Weve the joint second best Defence with Bradford now, only Bolton are better than us two at the back which says it all about our attack compared with the two teams in 2nd and 3rd