Heskey

[Kettering Pete]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leicester_city/9306177.stm

good idea or bad. ANy thoughts?

 

[Ike O'Noclassed]

Has he learned how to head the ball?

 

[Mawsley]

I wonder what Emile is getting for Xmas.

I hope I'm getting Black Ops.

 

[Graz]

Have we actually been linked with him, any more than just RL asking if he'd ever want to come back?

I'd take him back in an instant. He'd be a better version of Howard.

I think he's been in the Villa team as of late though, so don't see him coming back

 

[Han]

One of Villa's key men at the moment so I can't se ehim leaving for some time.

Maybe one day in thr future, but hopefully we'll be too good for him by then...

 

[Blue Maniac]

Stringer was in attendance at the Claridge / Heskey Q&A event at the 1884 last week when Birch asked him if he'd ever come back, to which Emile of course said yes. I'd like to believe this isn't just an extension of that, but that might be too much to hope for.

 

[lanxfox jnr]

Has he learned how to head the ball?

I think I saw him score from a header a couple months back on SSN

 

[homer]

Move along now

Nothing to see here

 

[SJN-Fox]

Stringer was in attendance at the Claridge / Heskey Q&A event at the 1884 last week when Birch asked him if he'd ever come back, to which Emile of course said yes. I'd like to believe this isn't just an extension of that, but that might be too much to hope for.

It's just a rehash of the interview that he did for RL on the Monday Mongfest.

Don't see it happening and to be honest, would rather it didn't. We already have a supply of strikers that don't score.

 

[okie fox]

We already have a supply of strikers that don't score.

But Heskey's best asset are his holdup play, his knockdowns and flick-ons. He would be a vast improvement on Howard and Bednar.

 

[Redditch Fox]

He's not quite old enough yet.

 

[fitz]

"The Leicester-born ex-England striker came through the youth ranks at his hometown club and was a crowd favourite before joining Liverpool in 2000.

After spells with Birmingham and Wigan, the striker moved to Aston Villa in January 2000. "

2000 was a busy year for Heskey

 

[lcfcrules]

much better than anything we have at the moment. would snap their hands off if villa are willing to sell.

not so much how many he scores but how many he creates with his flicks and hold up play, our strikers with pace (Vassell or Waghorn) would definitely benefit from his flicks.

 

[Shortwave Fox]

"The Leicester-born ex-England striker came through the youth ranks at his hometown club and was a crowd favourite before joining Liverpool in 2000.

After spells with Birmingham and Wigan, the striker moved to Aston Villa in January 2000. "

2000 was a busy year for Heskey

 

[Profondo Rosso]

Maybe I'm naive or maybe I have have watched too much foreign football, but am I the only one who shudders at this archiac idea of the "target man" and needing a striker who can "hold the ball up" and "flick it on"? When we took Bednar off vs. Donaster and played without a target man and with Vassell up top we tore Doncaster apart by playing through them.

A lot of English fans seem to canonise target men and "old fashioned number nines" into some kind of deity, but to me its so old fashioned, none of the top teams play with target men and this old "yes, but it works in a scrappy league like the Championship" retort just seems like people stuck in their ways. Most of the teams who have gone up in the past 2 or 3 seasons have been short-passing teams rather than teams who rely on playing it high to the target men and I think that possession football dominates in the modern game that in a division where teams are so stuck in tactical ways the rest of the world left behind 30 years ago possession football will dominate a league like this (see Blackpool or Burnley who went up with teams who really shouldn't have gone up on paper, doing this).

Yes, Heskey may well be an improvement on Howard, but is that, in 2010, really the type of player that is needed in the modern game? It's not like we aren't creating chances, because we most certainly are, infact we've had the most shots this season in the entire division(!) . Yet people still hang on to this idea that we need someone for "flick ons," rather than getting someone in who can score goals. Creating chances is not the problem, finishing them is. Heskey would be no improvement on our current set up imo in regards to what we need. To me if he ever came I get the feeling of it being a negative signing and promoting an outdated style of play.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Maybe I'm naive or maybe I have have watched too much foreign football, but am I the only one who shudders at this archiac idea of the "target man" and needing a striker who can "hold the ball up" and "flick it on"? When we took Bednar off vs. Donaster and played without a target man and with Vassell up top we tore Doncaster apart by playing through them.

A lot of English fans seem to canonise target men and "old fashioned number nines" into some kind of deity, but to me its so old fashioned, none of the top teams play with target men and this old "yes, but it works in a scrappy league like the Championship" retort just seems like people stuck in their ways. Most of the teams who have gone up in the past 2 or 3 seasons have been short-passing teams rather than teams who rely on playing it high to the target men and I think that possession football dominates in the modern game that in a division where teams are so stuck in tactical ways the rest of the world left behind 30 years ago possession football will dominate a league like this (see Blackpool or Burnley who went up with teams who really shouldn't have gone up on paper, doing this).

Yes, Heskey may well be an improvement on Howard, but is that, in 2010, really the type of player that is needed in the modern game? It's not like we aren't creating chances, because we most certainly are, infact we've had the most shots this season in the entire division(!) . Yet people still hang on to this idea that we need someone for "flick ons," rather than getting someone in who can score goals. Creating chances is not the problem, finishing them is. Heskey would be no improvement on our current set up imo in regards to what we need. To me if he ever came I get the feeling of it being a negative signing and promoting an outdated style of play.

Good post. I love Emile more than any other player, but everything you say is completely valid.

 

[lcfcrules]

we've had the most shots this season in the entire division

and yet we have converted so few of them perhaps suggests that we ought to create them in a different way (e.g. from more direct play through a decent target man).

 

[Filthy Rich]

Maybe I'm naive or maybe I have have watched too much foreign football, but am I the only one who shudders at this archiac idea of the "target man" and needing a striker who can "hold the ball up" and "flick it on"? When we took Bednar off vs. Donaster and played without a target man and with Vassell up top we tore Doncaster apart by playing through them.

A lot of English fans seem to canonise target men and "old fashioned number nines" into some kind of deity, but to me its so old fashioned, none of the top teams play with target men and this old "yes, but it works in a scrappy league like the Championship" retort just seems like people stuck in their ways. Most of the teams who have gone up in the past 2 or 3 seasons have been short-passing teams rather than teams who rely on playing it high to the target men and I think that possession football dominates in the modern game that in a division where teams are so stuck in tactical ways the rest of the world left behind 30 years ago possession football will dominate a league like this (see Blackpool or Burnley who went up with teams who really shouldn't have gone up on paper, doing this).

Yes, Heskey may well be an improvement on Howard, but is that, in 2010, really the type of player that is needed in the modern game? It's not like we aren't creating chances, because we most certainly are, infact we've had the most shots this season in the entire division(!) . Yet people still hang on to this idea that we need someone for "flick ons," rather than getting someone in who can score goals. Creating chances is not the problem, finishing them is. Heskey would be no improvement on our current set up imo in regards to what we need. To me if he ever came I get the feeling of it being a negative signing and promoting an outdated style of play.

An absolutely top notch, well-reasoned and thought out post. I fully agree a 'target man' approach is now obsolete although I do believe that Heskey has much more to offer than just being a battering ram. Much of the time when he played for us in the golden days, and Guppy wasn't in the team, he played down the left to great effect.

 

[Lboro fox]

An absolutely top notch, well-reasoned and thought out post. I fully agree a 'target man' approach is now obsolete although I do believe that Heskey has much more to offer than just being a battering ram. Much of the time when he played for us in the golden days, and Guppy wasn't in the team, he played down the left to great effect.

I appreciate we all have different memories, but mine of Heskey was that he was the worst left winger of that era. He was generally completely ineffective for me.

 

[Hazzman]

Maybe I'm naive or maybe I have have watched too much foreign football, .

It's not restricted to English football. The likes of AC Milan, Wolfsburg, Anderlecht for example all have an outlet whose tall and built like a shit brickhouse and enjoyed/ing recent success with it.