Target man required?

[JOND999]

Honest question, does a team with great build up play like Fulham still *need* a target man/finisher in the box or do you think we'll score enough simply by creating quality chances (like we did last year)? 

even Chris Martin potted a few for us just by being around the box when nice balls came in combined with the fact that he's a professional striker.  we have zero professional strikers as far as I can count right now and it's hurting us.  seeing these wingers whiff or send sitters sailing over the bar is getting old. 

i love our midfield, our keeper is pretty good, our defense getting better anchored by Ream.  but if no one can keep their head in the box when the ball comes to their feet (or goodness forbid, their head) then we're mid table at best.

in other words, we need a striker.  can we bring Berba back from India?  he actually would fit well on this team.

[Marcel_Gecov]

I think a target man wouldn't be a part of our team frequently and wouldn't get into our team on a weekly basis (or at least be guaranteed a start) so your looking somebody who would be happy on the bench.

Anybody good enough to make a difference from the bench probably wouldn't be happy and look to move on. Why be on our bench, when you could start at Derby, for example?

Anyone happy enough to be on our bench (ie Matt Smith, Cyriac) isn't good enough to be on our bench.

Quite a quandary.

[Rhys Lightning 63]

Been saying this for a while, but we need a big physical player in the box to play off, either by whipping crosses into the box or holding the ball up for the more creative players.

Not asking for a Jan Koller or John Hartson type, but when it comes to CF all round play... Bobby Zamora of 09/10 is the perfect example of what we need right now

[Lighthouse]

We need and have needed a physical player up front for some time. We are very one dimensional there. Even Fonte looks less like an out and out striker and Kamara is far from the finished article. Yes we needed a physical lpayer and no Berbatov isn't it :005:

[copthornemike]

I appreciate they have players who are several classess above us but in recent games City have not played with a 'target man' yet continue to destroy organised defences.

Towards the back end of last season when we were attacking with speed a target man was not necessary. However at the moment when our forward play is not so precise and rapid a mobile target man could be useful

[grandad]

Not really a target man needed as fewer goals are scored these days from crosses from wide areas. What we do miss is our CB´s lack of goals from set pieses & corners. Oh for a Roger Brown CB who attacked these balls. Our CB´s do it from a standing position. How many have they each scored the last 2 seasons.

[twang]

If there ever was a time for AK47 to come on and give the defenders a rough time it was on Saturday. Our front three had been bullied of the ball all game and we were crying out for someone who could at least give their central defenders a match in strength.

I can understand if Slav wants to try to make Plan A work from the start and doesn't think Kamara is good enough with his the ball at his feet or have the footballing brain for that game plan yet. However what I really don't understand is why he chose to have two similar wingers on the bench instead of Kamara. Fonte may be a great striker but he's not someone who will win a lot of duels with the three Burton central defenders. Both were needed on Saturday.

[hovewhite]

Ak with some coaching. And proprly coached will be some unit plus his body language,is someone who really wants it,getting people off there seats he will get better but slav needs to use his man management ability and coaching skills.He is paid to do that as head coach!

[DevonFFC]

To my mind I would just like an out and out striker who is deployed to spear head the the attack,attack though the middle and be on the last man's shoulder/be in the box when we are attacking not on the flank.

If he could win and head the ball then fantastic as it would mean than every goal long ball we hit is not lost.

We need a striker what ever shape or form... Not a forward who drifts across the pitch and constantly running the channels

That's just my view

[JOND999]

Forlan is in India with Berba.  just saying...

agree, why can't tall Ream pop into a few Gs on set pieces.   i've never seen a team less dangerous on corners than Fulham the last 3 or 4 years.

[AlexW132]

Not really a target man needed as fewer goals are scored these days from crosses from wide areas. What we do miss is our CB´s lack of goals from set pieses & corners. Oh for a Roger Brown CB who attacked these balls. Our CB´s do it from a standing position. How many have they each scored the last 2 seasons.

I get your point but we shouldn't be relying on CBs to score goals.

[FFC1987]

I wouldn't be against Ricky Lambert to fill a gap to be honest.......

[Bassey the warrior]

Honest question, does a team with great build up play like Fulham still *need* a target man/finisher in the box or do you think we'll score enough simply by creating quality chances (like we did last year)? 

even Chris Martin potted a few for us just by being around the box when nice balls came in combined with the fact that he's a professional striker.  we have zero professional strikers as far as I can count right now and it's hurting us.  seeing these wingers whiff or send sitters sailing over the bar is getting old. 

i love our midfield, our keeper is pretty good, our defense getting better anchored by Ream.  but if no one can keep their head in the box when the ball comes to their feet (or goodness forbid, their head) then we're mid table at best.

in other words, we need a striker.  can we bring Berba back from India?  he actually would fit well on this team.

Not sure we need more players. Fonte looked good before the injury. Ayite has been decent. The others need to step it up a notch. It's a moot point anyway as we can't sign anyone.

[filham]

Lets just dream about a goal poacher of the quality of Ivor, we paid Merthyr Tydfil £34,000 when he was 22 years old. Woudn't it be good to find another Ivor.

Of course a player with his poor pedigree would never get past Stats Boy's screening today, no top class experience and too old to introduce through our academy. But he is a natural goal scorer, that may be an opinion but we have no stats outside of non league football to substantiate it.
End of that dream.

[JoelH5]

We had 15 shots on Saturday.. how many of these were on target? 2... yes 2!!! A shot accuracy of 13%

That is horrific. A target man isn't our biggest need, shooting practice is.

[Carborundum]

Ak with some coaching. And proprly coached will be some unit plus his body language,is someone who really wants it,getting people off there seats he will get better but slav needs to use his man management ability and coaching skills.He is paid to do that as head coach!

This.  I've paid for my season ticket.  Seeing a proper striker who is as keen as mustard seems a reasonable expectation.  Don't care if he's raw.  Seen enough to know he will give many Championship CBs a hard time and create space for others.

If our manager is leaving him out as a message upstairs about the recruitment approach, he's called this one wrong.  Cyriac was on try-before-you-buy.  AK47's a Fulham man.

[twang]

We had 15 shots on Saturday.. how many of these were on target? 2... yes 2!!! A shot accuracy of 13%

That is horrific. A target man isn't our biggest need, shooting practice is.

The fact of the matter is, though, that not many of those 15 shots were anywhere near clear cut chances. We had Norwood's shot over the bar from a couple of yards out which should have been a goal, but he rectified that miss by scoring out of the blue later on. Then Ojo hit the bar in a similar position at the other end which should have been buried. So apart from those two chances, that were finished very poorly, we didn't create anything that caused too many problems for the opposition and that has been our problem this season in my option. The creating, not finishing, of chances.

[J.Perkins]

We had 15 shots on Saturday.. how many of these were on target? 2... yes 2!!! A shot accuracy of 13%

That is horrific. A target man isn't our biggest need, shooting practice is.

The fact of the matter is, though, that not many of those 15 shots were anywhere near clear cut chances. We had Norwood's shot over the bar from a couple of yards out which should have been a goal, but he rectified that miss by scoring out of the blue later on. Then Ojo hit the bar in a similar position at the other end which should have been buried. So apart from those two chances, that were finished very poorly, we didn't create anything that caused too many problems for the opposition and that has been our problem this season in my option. The creating, not finishing, of chances.

So you're saying we had 2 clear cut chances. If these were taken, it would've been 3-2. But they weren't.

[twang]

We had 15 shots on Saturday.. how many of these were on target? 2... yes 2!!! A shot accuracy of 13%

That is horrific. A target man isn't our biggest need, shooting practice is.

The fact of the matter is, though, that not many of those 15 shots were anywhere near clear cut chances. We had Norwood's shot over the bar from a couple of yards out which should have been a goal, but he rectified that miss by scoring out of the blue later on. Then Ojo hit the bar in a similar position at the other end which should have been buried. So apart from those two chances, that were finished very poorly, we didn't create anything that caused too many problems for the opposition and that has been our problem this season in my option. The creating, not finishing, of chances.

So you're saying we had 2 clear cut chances. If these were taken, it would've been 3-2. But they weren't.

Players miss chances. Even Cavani who bangs in 35 goals a season misses sitters every other week. If we had created chance after chance and wasted them then I'd be all aboard the bad finishing train but we aren't and therefore I'm not.

[Keynsham]

Of course a player with his poor pedigree would never get past Stats Boy's screening today,

You really need to start getting past this.