Good post to be fair and agree on us needing to diversify our attack.
I just personally believe a target man who is a presence in the box, can hold up and pass it along would be a big plus for our system.
Also based on the other stats, I think he has a lot of potential and would allow us to invest into other areas especially the higher goal per 90 and shots on target.
Agree it’s important not to funnel all attacks into one area but think we’ve got plenty of avenues to hurt teams, with the wingers cutting in and 8s driving forward . Not to mention set pieces, got more work to do but I think it’s a good start.
I think one big problem was the Strikers including BTA struggling to get involved in the system due to either not suiting the set up or not having the ability to work within it
Salech’s stats for his entire career, there’s a lot of metrics where he’s identical to Simms (fyi - per 90 stats). But with better dribbling, aerial duals and tackles. So for £7-10m, are you actually getting a significantly better player? There’s no doubt his half season with Cardiff was a great start but it’s too small a sample to justify spending the sums it would take for him specifically.
Simms has also scored 4 headers which is a good amount and most, if not all of Rudoni’s headed goals have come from the striker occupying 2 CBs and he arrives late in the box. Playing BTA > Simms in the first leg was a mistake imo, said with hindsight ofc.
Even against Sunderland, as bad as Haji Wright played imo, he occupied 2-3 defenders for both Rudoni’s and EMC’s goals. He ‘created’ the space for other players and this doesn’t count as an assist or aerial dual won.
In short, a lot of people are guilty of being willing to chuck baby out with bathwater when it comes to the strikers.
Moving on from the strikers, I’m just v surprised that people are content with the output from our wingers. Sakamoto and EMC have managed 9 goals between them which just isn’t good enough in a formation where we play one striker. EMC probably gets 10+ goals in a full season as he underperformed his xG and played a relatively small amount of minutes (1,635 = about 18.2 games). Sakamoto’s xG in 40+ games was 3.3 which is concerning, tbh. A goal every 700+ minutes from a winger is just not good enough at the top end of the Championship.
Whilst Simms, Haji, BTA, Bassette and EMC all underperformed their xG which is obviously bad but at least they’re in positions to score… Sakamoto just isn’t a dangerous goal threat. It may not seem it, I rate Sakamoto highly but he’s a niche player imo and think he could thrive being an impact role player.
For all the focus on the strikers, the wingers are a higher priority all day. Firstly, we only have 3 contracted for next season (one being Rapha who played 38 minutes all season). More importantly, the goal contributions just haven’t good enough in that formation from wide areas. EMC’s underlying data metrics is a cause for cautious optimism for next season.