Our Strikers: An Honest Assessment

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GhostOfDixie

GhostOfDixie

Player Valuation: £70m
Ok, this is my honest assessment of our strikers, this is not going to be a witchhunt, and I am going to look at all our strikers as if they were my own family, because hate them or not, they are Everton players and they need our support.

Andy Johnson

Strength - Speed.
Weakness - Drifts out wide, is lightweight and goes down too easily

Summary - Ok AJ is a legend because of last season, but why isn't he scoring? Is it confidence? Is it the way team are playing? It speaks volumes when our top scorer is a centre back.

What I want to see - Well I want to see AJ standing on the shoulders of the defenders and looking to get on to balls over the top or through balls. I don't want to see him pulling out wide because its a fruitless pursuit most of the time.

Yakubu

Strength - Power, prolific scorer.
Weakness - Lacks the effort required at this club. First touch.

Summary - Ok Yakubu has been attacked by many people because he lacks the work ethic that Moyes requires, well he has still scored goals, so if Moyes can up his workrate then it will only bode well for the club.

What I want to see - Well I would like to see Yakubu do a similar thing to AJ and look for through balls. I don't like to see him pulling out wide because he isn't a winger and is not going to beat 2 or 3 players, and we inevetibaly just get the throw-ins, which is a desperate tactic, but this is also down to the midfielders as well. Obviously I would like to see him tracking back more and putting in effort, as that does seem to count more than goals sometimes. Oh and a better first touch would be good too.

James McFadden

Strength - Skill.
Weakness - Decision making. First touch.

Summary - Right Faddy does seem to be getting his [Poor language removed] together, but he still makes the wrong decisons on many occasions. He needs to know that shooting from 30 yards is less likely to end up in a goal, so perhaps a more patient build up is required.

What I want to see - I want to see better control of the ball, I want him to be aware of where he is on the pitch. But I would also like him to maintain his scoring run, because if he is to be a striker, goals are what I want.

Victor Anichebe

Strength - Ruffling feathers, desire.
Weakness - Ball control, dribbling skills. Awareness. Mouth.

Summary - Victor is a battler and he has great work ethic, which should push the other strikers to follow his lead. He does use his gob too much though and is very arrogant, but that may not be a bad thing in the long run.

What I want to see - Well obviously the goals are great, but I would like to see him look around once and a while and bring in other players rather than go down blind alleys.



Ok, these are the strikers we have at the moment, Lukas is not had a chance and Vaughan is injured, but on the face of things, its not a bad position to be in. Our No 1 and No 2 strikers are not top of the pile really, and our understudy's are really pushing them all the way. Yakubu will come good because he is class, regardless of his work ethic, he does score the goals and does possess the ability to change a game. This he has proven time and time again.

Once Vaughan comes back into the fold, it's going to be very interesting.
 

I agree with all you've said there Ghost, although Vic did show some ball control to score last night, he could easily have panicked and just shoot on sight but he turned this way and that and placed his shot.
 
I agree with most of what you say and I think a fully fit Vaughan would be our first choice striker at the moment with all of them so low in apparent confidence. But I think this stems from our midfield, it simply isnt creating anywhere near the chances that they need to convert to goals.

As for Yakubu, I think with better balls he'll come good, but we cant use him as a target man like last night, he doesnt work that way. Only because he's built lilke a heavyweight champ doesnt mean he can play the target man role, in fact, despite appearances i'd say the Vaughan is much more suited to that role.

Its no coincidence that all our attack are doing so poorly, the problem definitely lies in midfield, the sooner we sort that out the sooner our strikers will start knocking them in.
 

Sim you hit the nail on the head. Take Arteta's grafting out and we just kick and rush most of the time. I was hoping Pienaar would alleviate the load some. Both Graveson and Cahill provide ball at the feet support so when they get back I expect better. Still, we lack a quality winger that a Yak and even BT needed when he was here. Midfield should be high priority when the winter window opens and we need another skilled player with flair to open up defenses.

We will get the quality finishing when they(strikers) get the quality support they need.(y)
 
I thought Piennar was the best player on the pitch for us last night. Tackeled back, involved, chased the ball. Arteta doesn't like the cold does he.

Bring in Cahill for Osman, and get that anchor midfield sorted out, perhaps Gravesen playing there and have Arteta and Piennar on the wings, it could be pretty tasty.
 
Agree with your summary Ghost apart from Vic, already been mentioned showed good ball control to score and what about his ball play near corner flags to waste time!

You are correct about scoring chances for the strikers, I think some one mentioned wingers, this is where we need our full backs to be more aware and overlap something which Lescott was doing.
 
GhostOfDixie said:
I thought Piennar was the best player on the pitch for us last night.
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Yeah fully agree on that one. With Arteta being so non-interested last night he did seem to be our only creative outlet. In the 2nd half he was definitely one of our better players

GhostOfDixie said:
Arteta doesn't like the cold does he.
Click to expand...
Dont say that we're coming into winter!:(

As for Cahill, I've always thought that he was a little overrated, but now without him its amazing how much long ball we tend to play, and my memory of Cahill is definitely not of someone who hoofs the ball at every opportunity. So I'm really looking for to get that enthusiastic little man back in the team, we need his goals, character and his workrate in midfield.
 
Robert Jarvis said:
Agree with your summary Ghost apart from Vic, already been mentioned showed good ball control to score and what about his ball play near corner flags to waste time!

You are correct about scoring chances for the strikers, I think some one mentioned wingers, this is where we need our full backs to be more aware and overlap something which Lescott was doing.
Click to expand...

Well my assessment initially wasn't about last night's game. It was about there play this season, and I personally feel Anichebe doesn't control the ball well enough for me, but I hope he can prove me wrong, last night took a big step towards that - but like already been mentioned in previous threads he is not the finished article.
 

I think we need to find the way to use Yakubu the most. It's interesting to see that we're slagging on him while he has scored twice already and have had some good chances in addition to that. I think we will get the best of him when we get our AM's back. With either Gravesen or Cahill on the pitch as an AM we will have more options and hopefully/probably get better balls for him to work with.. the same is true of AJ.. with us hoofing balls up the pitch the ones coming towards the centre will just be headed away by their CD's, while the ones on the FB's have a bigger chance of getting through.. so is it a surprise that AJ have been seen to rush towards the corners more when the balls are hoofed there?
 
Yeah well the vicious circle needs to stop somehow.

Where are the quick breaks, look at Drogba's goal against Valencia, perfect example of what I mean, and we are more than capable of playing that kind of ball through, providing our strikers show for it.
 

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