Our best striker

My odometer has Smith as a better fit for the Championship. This league seems more physical to me. Coupled with the, at best, uneven officiating, I feel it favors the striker with more size than finesse, although one could argue that, for a big man, Smith has some decent skills in that area, too. I like tall targets in the box, and I think he suits the style of play in this league better than Cauley. I'm hoping to see both of them quite a bit this season, actually.

 

It's a good question, but a complex one because they all have very different styles.

McCormack - Sort of a Scottish trequartista, someone that drops deep and looks to create or run at goal himself. One of the best players in the league IMO.

Smith - Old school target man, but less of a hold up player and more of a poacher. Not someone you can count on to play 90 mins every week, but incredibly valuable as a mix-things-up super-sub.

Woodrow - Total workhorse. Constantly pressures opposing defenders with his work-rate. He also moves well without the ball and gets into dangerous positions, but needs to improve his finishing (sometimes why he gets slack from supporters).

Mitroglu - Pretty much your classic no. 9. Someone who wants a nice through ball played into feet. I think Mitroglu could be a good player in this league if he partnered with someone who could do the defensive work and play creator.

Dembele - Physical specimen. Needs to get games to sharpen his speed-of-play at this level, but has all the physical attributes to be a star in this league and maybe even the one above us. Just hope we can hold on to him.

Taggart - Jury is out for me. Hope to see him get a few games at some point. Maybe send him out on loan.

For me McCormack is probably our best striker and best creator (certainly he was last season). But if we're going to take him out of the running, then I think the best striker in our squad at the moment is Mitroglu. For his club career he's scored a goal in half the games he's played (82 in 164). We don't have anyone else with that kind of strike rate. Yes he's unproven in this league, but if he wants to stay and play for Fulham, I'd be more than happy to have him.

 

This is not even close. The best striker we still have that played last season is Ross and the drop off after Ross is steep. No matter what else you offer up top you do have to be a threat to score and of the rest only Matt Smith offered that on a consistent basis last season. If Cauley is going to be the second striker along side McCormack he is going to have to greatly improve upon his 3 goals in 39 shots effort from last year. Cauley has potential but so do many others.

 

Agree with Barry. We just don't have enough evidence on hand to make anything resembling a case for anyone else.

Woodrow is good at holding it up and laying it off. He makes smart passes and good runs as well, but Cauley has a finishing problem. For me, he's best suited to backing up Ross. I think their styles have alot of similarities.

I'd like to see a player with some pace, playing off the back shoulder of the last defender up front. Dembele fits that bill, but to date, it's all just potential. Like Cauley, he hasn't shown a consistent ability to put the ball in the net from good positions. If we pull off the Gayle loan & start him with Dembele backing up, I'd feel good about our prospects. Of course, hanging onto him is looking like it's becoming more and more of an issue.

Matt Smith is our most proven second but unfortunately he's been as advertised coming from Leeds. He lacks the hold up/lay off game you want in a target man, he's slow & not a factor in pressing the back 4. He is a good aerial target in the box and has a sweet shot. In many ways, he & Mitro are similar. For me, if you can't contribute to maintaining possession and creating chances, then you need to be able to work to get the ball back. Since he does neither, I think he best suited for a sub role as a change of pace.

Jury's still out on the Greek. I'd like to see a run with a healthy, committed Mitro, but I'll believe that can happen when I see it.

Taggart is Lee Cook. Belongs on a milk carton.

 

Good news if true. We just need to find a manager who can unleash him on an unsuspecting Championship.

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football...ng-term-deal-at-fulham_sto4960190/story.shtml

 

Hope this happens sooner rather than later. Won't keep us from losing him (Bayern supposedly interested in him now), but it should keep Everton and other mid table suitors away for a while.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-close-tying-down-everton-10311028

 

There have been so many of there "Dembele close to signing" stories that it makes me wonder if his agent isn't putting them out there. Any decent agent knows the 'get him while you still can' method of drumming up attention for your client. If anyone here hasn't read Four Four Two's articles on agent dealings, you should look them up, fascinating stuff.

Rumor was that Bayern left scouts in London after their game against Arsenal to watch Dembele. Nice story, especially since it'd be tough to prove true or false. Unless they were at the game sitting behind the bench in full Bayern track suits.

 

No kidding, but after losing Roberts because we weren't able to sign him long term, I would be willing to give Dembele 10,000-15,000 pounds/week if he'll sign for 4 years. I've seen speculation that he's only on 3,000-4,000 now, so that would be a 3x bump. I just hope we don't give him a release clause like we gave the other Dembele.

 

I doubt he'll sign anything with us without a release clause of some sort. And eventually, somebody will pay it. But we gotta do what we can to keep the lad now. We can't afford to pay people to sit, a la Hyndman because they won't sign a new contract.