Nikica Jelavic

[Bigmaclad]

You could have a striker who found the top corner with every touch he has - if he's not good enough to get in those positions to actually shoot then he's useless.

Finishing is confidence, movement is intelligence.

Torres has been making intelligent movement all season long yet he's been awful.

A striker is marked on the goals they score, not all the pretty movement they make

 

[Tubey]

You seem to think you're some kind of expert & yet you spout utter nads IMO.

Jela was poor tonight & offered no goal threat at all, against a crap league 1 side. He's woefully out of form & showed it yet again this evening. He needs a spell on the bench, but we've got no cover

Yeah, OK.

When you can come back and point out what part of that was "nads", do so.

 

[JamesBT]

Torres has been making intelligent movement all season long yet he's been awful.

A striker is marked on the goals they score, not all the pretty movement they make

The truth hurts. But you're right mate.

 

[toffeechris]

i like jelavic lots but lets call a spade a spade last few months has prob been our worst player hes given a 100% effort cant fault that but his a striker his job is to slot goals and hasnt been thankfully our fans are given him time to find his form again but if victor was going through this run they would be on his back bigtime!!

 

[Tubey]

Torres has been making intelligent movement all season long yet he's been awful.

A striker is marked on the goals they score, not all the pretty movement they make

Jelavic could have got a glance on the Osman goal, claimed it as his and it wouldn't have meant his performance was better or worse. He could have got a hat-trick of goals - all of them bouncing in off his arse - and it wouldn't have altered my view of his performance.

I think his overall game was much better tonight because he was involved in the final third in central areas, not just wide areas, and I was encouraged by it. The goals will come; we've all seen his finishing quality and that's a confidence issue. If he was finished as a footballer, his movement would be the thing to go.

Think about Louis Saha in his final months at Everton. His movement died off completely which was why he was beyond useless; his finishing was actually still there to most extents.

 

[Azzurri]

And if I had wheels, I'd be a wagon.

The miss doesn't negate the run.

You wouldn't, actually. You'd just be a human with wheeled attached.


It does though, because you don't win games by making good runs.

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

Yeah, OK.

When you can come back and point out what part of that was "nads", do so.

I already have, movement without a finish means next to nothing for a striker & he's a shadow of the player we witnessed last season, due to the fact that he can't finish his breakfast at present

 

[billycopper]

...or maybe he's just not able to cope with life as a PL striker for a top PL team?

Compare a few strikers last season to this season:

Rooney 27 (10 this year)
Aguero 23 (9)
Dempsey 17 (5)
Adebayor 17 (2)
Holt 15 (5)
Cisse 14 (6= Same as Jelavic)

Maybe none of them are able to cope with life as a PL striker for a top PL team either?

 

[Bigmaclad]

Jelavic could have got a glance on the Osman goal, claimed it as his and it wouldn't have meant his performance was better or worse. He could have got a hat-trick of goals - all of them bouncing in off his arse - and it wouldn't have altered my view of his performance.

I think his overall game was much better tonight because he was involved in the final third in central areas, not just wide areas, and I was encouraged by it. The goals will come; we've all seen his finishing quality and that's a confidence issue. If he was finished as a footballer, his movement would be the thing to go.

Think about Louis Saha in his final months at Everton. His movement died off completely which was why he was beyond useless; his finishing was actually still there to most extents.

He seemed no better or worse than he has been for the past few months, but again he never looked like he was going to score.

For ages people have been saying "the goal will come" and it hasn't. The Chelsea fans have been saying the same about Torres for years, and his goals have never arrived.

The worrying thing for me is that his timing seems completely off. In the first half he completely fluffed it on the half volley for example.

 

[Tubey]

You wouldn't, actually. You'd just be a human with wheeled attached.


It does though, because you don't win games by making good runs.

lol I know, it's a South Park quote.

And of course you do. That's what separates actual football from this:

 

[Azzurri]

lol I know, it's a South Park quote.

And of course you do. That's what separates actual football from this:

Why don't we get Trindon Holliday in then? Good runs are only good because they give you the ball and a chance to score. If a million good runs add up to no goals then they're pointless.

 

[ah11984]

Astonished anyone think he played well tonight, stunned. His first touch was diabolical, and seems to have lost a yard of pace, was bullied out of it numerous times by their centre halves. He's turned into Stracqulursi!

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

lol I know, it's a South Park quote.

And of course you do. That's what separates actual football from this:

]

An intelligent run that creates space means nothing without a finish to take advantage of it, so you're wrong (yet again)

 

[Azzurri]

Astonished anyone think he played well tonight, stunned. His first touch was diabolical, and seems to have lost a yard of pace, was bullied out of it numerous times by their centre halves. He's turned into Stracqulursi!

Stracqualursi was never bullied out of anything by anyone.

 

[Tubey]

Why don't we get Trindon Holliday in then? Good runs are only good because they give you the ball and a chance to score. If a million good runs add up to no goals then they're pointless.

Because a good run isn't anything to do with speed. Attacking movement is all about intelligence, not physicality.

Think Ruud van Nistelrooy. He wasn't rapid, but he had some of the best movement in the world. He didn't take every chance he had either.

Wayne Rooney moves sublimely off the ball, but he went through a horrible barren patch where people at one stage thought his best days had gone.

There's hundreds of examples. I'm not saying Jelavic was outstanding, because his first touch was off on occasion etc. but all I'm saying is that it's simply wrong to say he was "out of his depth against Oldham". People are basically going "Jelavic didn't score, ergo he was crap". Just isn't the reality.

And I'm not some sort of mental Jelavic zealot who's constantly backing him either.