The Curious Case of Nikica Jelavic and Papiss Cisse

[CahillsCornerFlag]

Blaming our striker for not scoring when he's been forced to run the channels is ridiculous. One chance today he missed, and he would've slotted that last season sure, when he was confident and being supplied with many chances.

If Fellaini goes and we get a creative attacking mid (which is Moyes' biggest blind spot), Jelavic will shine.

 

[Brennan]

It is mate. You check again:

Player history
MP G

21 Oct 16:00 8 QPR(A) 1-1 82 0
28 Oct 13:30 9 LIV(H) 2-2 90 0 0
03 Nov 15:00 10 FUL(A) 2-2 88 0 0
10 Nov 15:00 11 SUN(H) 2-1 85 1
17 Nov 15:00 12 RDG(A) 1-2 90 0
24 Nov 15:00 13 NOR(H) 1-1 90 0
28 Nov 19:45 14 ARS(H) 1-1 90 0
01 Dec 15:00 15 MCI(A) 1-1 90 0 0
09 Dec 15:00 16 TOT(H) 2-1 90 1
15 Dec 15:00 17 STK(A) 1-1 90 0
22 Dec 15:00 18 WHU(A) 2-1 90 0
26 Dec 15:00 19 WIG(H) 2-1 90 0
30 Dec 13:30 20 CHE(H) 1-2 90 0
02 Jan 20:00 21 NEW(A) 2-1 87 0
12 Jan 15:00 22 SWA(H) 0-0 90 0
21 Jan 20:00 23 SOU(A) 0-0 65 0

I was counting from when he scored the first of the two goals, otherwise you should really include his Wigan goal and say 3 in his last 17

 

[Ihaters]

I'm sorry but when are people going to realise that he's not good enough? We need a striker that can score goals, a year ago lots of people wanted Saha's head. If he proves me wrong then shame on me but I can't see him getting into form anytime soon.

He already has last year you daft plonker. He clearly is good enough when in form.. he just isn't in form.. You can either play him into form which may not happen or give him a few weeks on the bench to sort his head and start again.
Get a couple of goals he'll be Jela of old, currently though he's not helping us much.

 

[tim cahill]

I was counting from when he scored the first of the two goals, otherwise you should really include his Wigan goal and say 3 in his last 17

Not when i'm trying to make the point that he hasn't done enough in the last 3 months.

 

[bflefc]

I felt really, really sorry watching Jelavic last night. He looked completely out of sorts and hardly enjoying his game. Here we have a pretty decent finisher in the box, a good old fashioned poacher who has a knack of being able to slot with his 1st touch, and he's being run into the ground.

I'm getting sick of seeing half-decent (or better) centre forwards being ruined. Andy Johnson, James Beattie, Yakubu - they've all just hit a massive brick wall when with us, and never recovered. Either we're buying awful centre forwards in the first place, or we're ruining them.

Either way, it's not pleasing.

 

[coollino]

I think the pressure is getting to him (would be hard not to) and he is just over thinking things. Hence his miss yesterday, with some time, and his goal against Spurs, where he has no time to think.

 

[tasslehoff]

Moyes in runing centre forward shock

 

[bflefc]

Did anyone else notice late on the 1st half, just after Jelavic had been caught - somewhat lazily - offside from a long punt forward, the camera panned to Moyes. He immediately started whispering into Round's ear and pointing out an observation regarding our defensive area (certainly that part of the pitch). There was me cursing Jelavic for not concentrating again, and worrying that he was out of sorts and it just isn't clicking, but Moyes was more concerned with the other half of the pitch.

 

[WA Toffee]

I have said before, he is not a regular 20 goals a season player, and he is not a less than 10 goals a season player either. He is somewhere in between. I know most ranters and ravers of either persuasion don't like "in between", but that is what he is. And for $5M, that is pretty acceptable.

 

[WA Toffee]

Did anyone else notice late on the 1st half, just after Jelavic had been caught - somewhat lazily - offside from a long punt forward, the camera panned to Moyes. He immediately started whispering into Round's ear and pointing out an observation regarding our defensive area (certainly that part of the pitch). There was me cursing Jelavic for not concentrating again, and worrying that he was out of sorts and it just isn't clicking, but Moyes was more concerned with the other half of the pitch.

Perhaps he was pointing out that we shouldn't have punted from that area? Or that someone should have been in that area to collect a short pass? Or making a tactical switch of positions to better support the attacking players? Could be any one of a hundred things, and he is doing what he is paid to do - take a holistic view of the game and not just follow the ball around.