Post Match City 1 Peterboro 1

[Profondo Rosso]

Apart from that time he got called up to the England squad?

So has Francis Jeffers.

Have you drank a couple of pints of argumentative juice Prof? :icon_conf

Nugent is only 1 cog in the machine and will perform better when we get our sh*** midfield sorted out.

He has been forced to come deep in games and this has led to less goal scoring opportunities. The less he scores inevitably the deeper he will come, the less he will score and so on.

If that is the case then he has lacked the midfield throughout his entire career.

I agree the midfield is our weak spot, but I disagree with this opinion that the strikers are blameless and this blindly saying "they will start scoring with a better midfield."

We have been creating the chances, at least at home, since NP came back. We created plenty on Saturday, in the first 25 minutes especially or so we did provide excellent amounts of service, Konchesky and Dyer were runing rings round their defence and delivering plenty of great balls into the box. I can remember one occasion especially where Nugent actually got the ball in space but instead tried to turn with his back to goal rather than shoot/pass and it wasted an opportunity. Against Blackpool we also created plenty and Nugent missed 3 or 4 clear goalscoring opportunities and against Palace Beckford did the same.

The midfield is definitely lacking, but the strikers definitely aren't helping the situation and neither has been up to scratch in recent times and I think this idea some have that Nugent and Beckford are top Championship strikers and will start firing no end when they get better service seems to be baseless.

Our lack of creativity and width in the middle is causing us problems not only in being combative and creative in this area of the pitch but also our defence and attack.

I also think that the lack of a good midfield unit is resulting in us playing longer balls out, bypassing the middle and clearly not playing to our strengths.

Unfortunately at the moment i don't actually see what our strenghts are as we have no width - Dyer is to crossing what Hindley was to child care. The rest of our midfield is so static and mono-creative.

We have royally ****ed up over nearly a year and a half and i unfortunately feel it will take a fair amount of time to sort out.

I agree, but I also think the problems are not simply in the midfield. I think the strikeforce and centre of defence is also very average and also have to take their share of the blame for our indifferent performances.

 

[Blue Maniac]

I believe if we assemble a squad of ex-Prem players we'll definitely go up. Now... has anyone got Dean Sturridge's phone number?

 

[Miles Away]

So has Francis Jeffers.

False comparison.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

False comparison.

Why is it? They were both called up as youngsters as ones for the future. Difference was Jeffers was playing in the PL at the time, Nugent was playing in the Championship. Nugent was only brought in because of injuries as well, he wasn't selected in the original squad, as Jeffers was.

 

[Miles Away]

Why is it? They were both called up as youngsters as ones for the future. Difference was Jeffers was playing in the PL at the time, Nugent was playing in the Championship. Nugent was only brought in because of injuries as well, he wasn't selected in the original squad, as Jeffers was.

Much love Prof...but I don't have the legs to engage you at the moment...especially as it seems you have an endless source of energy!

All I will say is what I believe:

- Fernandes and Johnson are good, good players who should see some chances soon.
- Nugent would get into most any championship side.
- Our squad should be getting better results than they are.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

Much love Prof...but I don't have the legs to engage you at the moment...especially as it seems you have an endless source of energy!

All I will say is what I believe:

- Fernandes and Johnson are good, good players who should see some chances soon.
- Nugent would get into most any championship side.
- Our squad should be getting better results than they are.

What are you basing the Johnson thing on? He's been out injured for about 3 years, before that he had 6 good months in the PL with ManCity, he's never going to be the same player he was anyway and he's shown nothing bar in a League Cup game since he's been here.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Johnson ended up rotting his way down to the lower and/or non-leagues a la Francis Jeffers or Trevor Benjamin.

 

[Miles Away]

What are you basing the Johnson thing on? .

Based on how I've seen him play in his limited chances at the club. Nothing more.


Well, I suppose his ability prior to his injury issues too.

 

[Matt_B]

So has Francis Jeffers.



If that is the case then he has lacked the midfield throughout his entire career.

I agree the midfield is our weak spot, but I disagree with this opinion that the strikers are blameless and this blindly saying "they will start scoring with a better midfield."

We have been creating the chances, at least at home, since NP came back. We created plenty on Saturday, in the first 25 minutes especially or so we did provide excellent amounts of service, Konchesky and Dyer were runing rings round their defence and delivering plenty of great balls into the box. I can remember one occasion especially where Nugent actually got the ball in space but instead tried to turn with his back to goal rather than shoot/pass and it wasted an opportunity. Against Blackpool we also created plenty and Nugent missed 3 or 4 clear goalscoring opportunities and against Palace Beckford did the same.

The midfield is definitely lacking, but the strikers definitely aren't helping the situation and neither has been up to scratch in recent times and I think this idea some have that Nugent and Beckford are top Championship strikers and will start firing no end when they get better service seems to be baseless.



I agree, but I also think the problems are not simply in the midfield. I think the strikeforce and centre of defence is also very average and also have to take their share of the blame for our indifferent performances.

Dyer's balls into the box were shit on Saturday, I strongly believe it is more the job of the crosser to find a player than it is the player to find the end of a cross and Dyer's went nowhere near anyone. Beckford and Nugent were both often in similar positions to their striker when he scored but we had no-one capable of finding them. I have no idea if that has been the case throughout his career and it doesn't matter, but with a decent crosser on Saturday, Nugent would have had at least one IMO.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

Dyer's balls into the box were shit on Saturday, I strongly believe it is more the job of the crosser to find a player than it is the player to find the end of a cross and Dyer's went nowhere near anyone. Beckford and Nugent were both often in similar positions to their striker when he scored but we had no-one capable of finding them. I have no idea if that has been the case throughout his career and it doesn't matter, but with a decent crosser on Saturday, Nugent would have had at least one IMO.

Konchesky put several very good crosses into the box early doors on Saturday, I remember commenting how dangerous PK looked in the opening stages of that game.

Of course it's as much about the striker getting on the end of crosses! What do you expect them to do just stand there and hope that a good ball arrives? A static cross which finds it's man is going to be useless 9 times out of 10, because the striker isn't going to have the momentum and any header/shot off the end of it isn't going to have the same power to it and because any competent defenders will fish it out easily. I disagree about Beckford and Nugent being in similar positions to the Peterborough goal. The Posh goal was a great example of what good movement in the box can do, the way Tomlin ghosted in between the two defenders, in fact if you watch it there were 2 or 3 Posh players in good, unmarked positions, Yakubu was great at it last season too. I didn't see Nugent or Beckford in any of those kind of positions on Saturday, I remember SSL getting into one though.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

Lost me now.

We are underperforming against the expectation levels set by our owners, and possibly by the standard the media expected from us. It's not just the fans. There will of course have been some fans that expect to see insta-promotion, but some are more realistic. Like I said, I would be happy to be competeing at this level for a few seasons if it means getting a bit of stability and hopefully steady progression. I think Pearson will give us that if given time.

Since when did being highly rated at Palace side who've been very mediocre in recent years make you a top Championship player? Joey Gudjonsson was highly rated when they were here when we were at a similar level to Palace are now,he was certainly nowhere neat being a top Championship player though.

Nugent was never one of the top players in this league, at Preston he was a youngster who was rated as one of the players with the most potential in this league, but he was certainly never considered one of the best players in the league. He's never seemed to really fulfill this potential though and if you look through his scoring record it is very poor for what you consider a top striker at this level, no better than Akinbiyi's, probably worse, no better than Fryatt's either really and little better than Hume's and they've generally played in generally worse sides. There are plenty of much better strikers in this division than Nugent currently and if we really want to be one of the best sides in the division we can do much better.

Would you care to point out which strikers are a damn site better? From what I've seen of Nugent, the work rate is there, the intelligence for getting into the right positions is there, the finishing can be excellent and he has a bit of pace. These are all great attributes. I also think you have a rather selective memory if you don't think Nugent was one of the top talents around the time he was at Preston - he was talented enough that Harry Redknapp and Portsmouth were prepared to shell out £6m on him. If you'd care to mention which players in this divison you think would be better I'd love to hear it, and I'll disagree with you if you mention Fryatt - we've seen enough of him over the years to know that he is no better despite what you will say about his scoring record this season (which isn't even much better anyway! He has 8 and Nugent has 6.)

Ross McCormack for Leeds has 10 this year which is currently the second best in the league. In previous seasons he has been shit, so is obviously bang in form at the minute. scoring record is not the whole story.

As for Neil Danns, I'd bet my bottom dollar that there were a number of clubs who would have been happy picking him up on a free in the close season.

The word you should have used was "was".

Yep that's what I meant!

 

[poshnipper]

The Posh goal was a great example of what good movement in the box can do, the way Tomlin ghosted in between the two defenders, in fact if you watch it there were 2 or 3 Posh players in good, unmarked positions

We did do rather well didn't we?

 

[Matt_B]

Konchesky put several very good crosses into the box early doors on Saturday, I remember commenting how dangerous PK looked in the opening stages of that game.

Of course it's as much about the striker getting on the end of crosses! What do you expect them to do just stand there and hope that a good ball arrives? A static cross which finds it's man is going to be useless 9 times out of 10, because the striker isn't going to have the momentum and any header/shot off the end of it isn't going to have the same power to it and because any competent defenders will fish it out easily. I disagree about Beckford and Nugent being in similar positions to the Peterborough goal. The Posh goal was a great example of what good movement in the box can do, the way Tomlin ghosted in between the two defenders, in fact if you watch it there were 2 or 3 Posh players in good, unmarked positions, Yakubu was great at it last season too. I didn't see Nugent or Beckford in any of those kind of positions on Saturday, I remember SSL getting into one though.

If player A passes to player B and puts it 10 yards away from him, is it also player B's fault for not reading the bad pass? I've never understood why crosses are different. I definitely saw Nugent and Beckford getting into good positions in the box only to never received the ball at least 3 times I can think of off the top of my head.

I'm not saying our players are the best in the division, but I can't think of many teams that are full of these players that you claim are so much better. I don't think Lambert is a better player than Beckford, I just think he is getting better service from players such as Lalana, who are miles better than Dyer. I still think that you don't need this amazing team to get promoted, Swansea certainly didn't have top class players, neither did Norwich, Blackpool or Derby when they did it to name a few. They had 1, maybe 2, very good players in the middle who controlled games. I think we have that in King, but unfortunately playing with Wellens is detrimental to both of their games.

 

[Jeff]

We did do rather well didn't we?

So you're the famous Nipper. We've heard all about you.

 

[poshnipper]

So you're the famous Nipper. We've heard all about you.

LOL!
Not sure about other POSHies but I was well chuffed with a point.

 

[From Gradel to Grave]

So you're the famous Nipper. We've heard all about you.

I seen it, Jeff.

 

[poshnipper]

I seen it, Jeff.

And you never said hello!!

 

[bocadillo]

We did do rather well didn't we?

Oh - for goodness sake! Is nowhere private nowadays?

 

[bocadillo]

So you're the famous Nipper. We've heard all about you.

I'm saying nothing!

 

[Feriol]

If this is Nugent at his best and most consistent, then he's nowhere near good enough to lead the line for us. 4 goals in the league is not good enough. I know a lot of fans like him because of his workrate, but is it really enough? If he carries on at this rate, he won't even make double figures by the end of the season - nowhere near good enough for a striker in a team which wants to be challenging for promotion.

Funny that a lot of the fans who like Nugent seem to be the same ones who didn't rate Yakubu... hardly surprising though I suppose.

We are getting exactly what we could expect from Nugent, he has decent ability and makes the most of it with his work rate. If players around him were doing their jobs better i think we would be praising Nugents contribution to the team. When we bought him i was imagining a Nugent and Yakubu partnership and i think they would have been perfect for each other.

For the record i think Yakubu is the best striker i have ever seen play for this club.

 

[Miles Away]

He's close.

Heskey was better, Big Les too...and maaaaybe Brian Deane.