Dyche always says if you play well you keep the shirt. Wood offered zero today so I hope Ash starts against Fulham.

I'm sure Wood will come good but he needs to spend some time in the gym to build up some upper body strength - he got bullied by Craig Cathcart today - Craig ******* Cathcart !!

Maybe he needs to play up front with someone beside him (like in a what do you call it, a 2).

I mean, we start Barnes instead of Wood against Fulham and we still don’t get enough men in the box and we don’t create chances. Wood is our best goal scorer, he should have a striker partner every time. We won 5 on the bounce last year when he was paired with Barnes.

Wood already came good, I don't understand some of the negativity towards him, he relies heavily on service like all strikers, he didn't get a sniff at goal today. Blame the ones paid to provide for him then moan when he misses.

KRBFC wrote:Wood already came good, I don't understand some of the negativity towards him, he relies heavily on service like all strikers, he didn't get a sniff at goal today. Blame the ones paid to provide for him then moan when he misses.

Imo he can't link up play or win a 50/50, although he's a very good finisher.

When we had Brady and Defour fit Wood looked good up top on his own with Hendrick behind him. Second half of last season when they were both injured we looked poor with one up top and Hendrick in the hole and looked much better with Wood and Barnes together

For me id like to see Vydra get a run out in Europe with Vokes and start Wood and Barnes together in a 4-4-2 next Sunday

He needs a partner. I think Vydra will eventually end up starting in the support role, just behind him.

yes we don't give him enough service but the way we play we need our focal point to hold the ball up and bring us up the pitch - he simply doesn't do it when he's on his own. Maybe playing in a two would indeed help him.

Wasted without a partner. Wood and Barnes were brilliant together towards the end of last season. God knows why Hendrick is starting ahead of Barnes.

KRBFC wrote:Wood already came good, I don't understand some of the negativity towards him, he relies heavily on service like all strikers, he didn't get a sniff at goal today. Blame the ones paid to provide for him then moan when he misses.

I liked your post until the last bit. Do we necessarily have to find someone to blame?

If we are launching balls up to Wood, there is no point him playing. Vokes or Barnes would have offered more playing like that.

He was isolated but did little to work hi way into the game, which for me was the most disappointing thing from him today.

End of last season wood and Barnes were both scoring when they stated together whenever hendrick started behind any of them we struggled . Simple solution either play hendrick in midfield where he belongs or play Barnes / vokes up top with wood

CoolClaret wrote:Imo he can't link up play or win a 50/50, although he's a very good finisher.

and Ronaldo can't defend, I don't see the point in moaning about what he doesn't do well when that isn't his game, he runs the channels very well and is lethal infront of goal. Give him service and he will score, give him no service and he wont. It's the same BS we heard from supporters about Andre Gray when he was here, criticised for being isolated and starved of any service, what did Barnes do today in the same role (before Vokes came on), nothing. Non of the strikers really had a sniff, why was that? is that because Vokes isn't physical enough or Barnes isn't fast? No it's because the players paid to supply them with service were absolutely terrible today.

He’s not quick enough

There was a moment in the second half when Wood won the ball on the left touchline, played it to Ward or JBG ( can’t remebr which) who then put a great cross in that would have been perfect for Wood if he’d have been in the box.

He should have done a Bolt and got into the area ready for it as soon as he’d played that pass

Wood's a poacher,but he is isolated without a partner,Ash or even Sam are more suited to the lone striker role,at least the defenders will be worked and harassed,if we are going to start Wood it has to be in a two.

Just a bad day in work .I hope .

Looking at the bloke he looks like a typical old style centre forward..........but he's far from it. I wouldn't mind seeing Vokes start as target centre forward with Wood playing off him or in an attacking midfield role instead of Hendrick. We have to something different with the 'group we have available at the moment.

Even Peter Crouch wouldn't have got to some of our tedious predictable inept high balls today.

Wood doesn't look fit to me.

I'm not really talking about how we played, I'm talking about his lack of physicality for such a big lad. He simply didn't hold the ball up because of it and got bullied by Cathcart. The debate about how we play and if he needs a partner is a different one. He needs a few weeks in the gym

Why do we only play one striker when at home? Fine if away and in defensive mode, but at home it should be minimum two - just to entertain the paying supporters, otherwise whats the point in going?

He can’t lead the line. He needs someone up there with him to do the physical stuff

Did absolutely nothing today.

He’s a lump. We have three lumps to choose from for our attacking options, exciting eh ? Plan B is always to lump it to two lumps instead of one. It’s awful stuff.

agreenwood wrote:He can’t lead the line. He needs someone up there with him to do the physical stuff

He's 6ft 3 - he needs to get in the gym and put some more muscle on him. If he/ the club have no intention of doing that then Dyche needs to change the plan cause the plan hasn't worked since Leicester at home in April

He likes the ball played on the deck into his feet or down the channels. Its something that we are just not capable doing consistently at the moment and as a result Wood is looking totally ineffectual in his current role

He’s a goal scorer. He has been all his career. His size is irrelevant.

If you’re asking him to do all his work 30 yards from goal, you’re not going to get the best out of him.

He’s statistically one of the worst finishers in the league.

He was absolutely abysmal today.

For a big guy, he's soft as pigshit. Cannot win a header too.

The same people moaned when we used to play a 10 man defence with Andre Gray playing upfront and in midfield on his own, apparently it was all Gray's fault we were wellying passes 80 yards to him while he was surrounded by 4 defenders and without a teammate close to him. Vokes and Barnes didn't have a sniff today either, it's not a surprise isit? we've always lacked creativity and had isolated strikers under Dyche.


Lincoln, Accy, Leeds we have lost to in recent years, took to extra time against Aberdeen over 2 legs, we can't break a defence down or supply strikers with the required service. Plan A is to hoof it to 1 striker, plan B is hoof it to 2 strikers. We used to absolutely smash the ball up in the air towards Gray who was up against big defenders, i've never seen Gray win a header in my life yet we continued to do it.

Murger wrote:For a big guy, he's soft as pigshit. Cannot win a header too.

Unkind.

pace, trickery, goals from wide areas, do we have any of this?

Richarlidson has scored the same amount of league goals (3) in 2 games for Everton than JBG has in 2 years for us. 3 league goals in 2 seasons simply isn't good enough.

KRBFC wrote:The same people moaned when we used to play a 10 man defence with Andre Gray playing upfront and in midfield on his own, apparently it was all Gray's fault we were wellying passes 80 yards to him while he was surrounded by 4 defenders and without a teammate close to him. Vokes and Barnes didn't have a sniff today either, it's not a surprise isit? we've always lacked creativity and had isolated strikers under Dyche.


Lincoln, Accy, Leeds we have lost to in recent years, took to extra time against Aberdeen over 2 legs, we can't break a defence down or supply strikers with the required service. Plan A is to hoof it to 1 striker, plan B is hoof it to 2 strikers. We used to absolutely smash the ball up in the air towards Gray who was up against big defenders, i've never seen Gray win a header in my life yet we continued to do it.

Yep, it's been an appalling last few years to be sure.

Dyche doesn’t like pacey tricky wingers. Defence first. Thought you’d have realised that by now.

KRBFC wrote:pace, trickery, goals from wide areas, do we have any of this?

Richarlidson has scored the same amount of league goals (3) in 2 games for Everton than JBG has in 2 years for us. 3 league goals in 2 seasons simply isn't good enough.

Richarlison 40 million, JBG 2 million

agreenwood wrote:He’s a goal scorer. He has been all his career. His size is irrelevant.

If you’re asking him to do all his work 30 yards from goal, you’re not going to get the best out of him.

so you think when a ball is played into a lad that's 6ft 3 (which we did so many times today) and he gets out muscled by Craig Cathcart that's ok ?

I think we can all agree that that isn't going to get the best out of him which poses the question - why does Dyche ?

4-5-1 for 70 minutes then go 4-4-2 for the rest, that's the template we use, fine if it's 0-0, pretty pointless sticking rigidly to it when you're 3-1 down with 30 minutes to go.

Don’t think he is fit - and not sure he has been since last year. When you see how he played at say Liverpool away last year where he won nearly everything in the air and ran the channels brilliantly it’s hard to think he is the same player.

Yes part of it maybe down to poor service but a big part of it is down to Wood himself - he is playing nowhere near as well as he was when he first joined us.

joey13 wrote:Richarlison 40 million, JBG 2 million

What did Watford pay?

joey13 wrote:Richarlison 40 million, JBG 2 million

he cost Watford 11.2 million who then sold him for 35 rising to 50 million

KRBFC wrote:What did Watford pay?

You said how many goals he had scored for Everton

joey13 wrote:You said how many goals he had scored for Everton

Yeah but Watford brought him over to England, just highlighting there are much better players out there at affordable prices to upgrade on the players like Lennon.

KRBFC wrote:Yeah but Watford brought him over to England, just highlighting there are much better players out there at affordable prices to upgrade on the players like Lennon.

What with our recruitment team

KRBFC wrote:Yeah but Watford brought him over to England, just highlighting there are much better players out there at affordable prices to upgrade on the players like Lennon.

wasting your breath

Problem for us is that we are not good enough as a team to carry a goal poacher.

The likes of wood and gray leave us 10 against 11 everywhere else on the pitch.

We don’t have the squad to support this type of player until Brady and Defour return with that little extra quality.

It is easy to say we should have bought an extra midfielder but we simply cannot afford it. We could only get a squad player to spend most of his time on the bench and equally short of quality or break the bank.

Roll on Brady defour and Vydra getting involved

Down_Rover wrote:Problem for us is that we are not good enough as a team to carry a goal poacher.

The likes of wood and gray leave us 10 against 11 everywhere else on the pitch.

We don’t have the squad to support this type of player until Brady and Defour return with that little extra quality.

It is easy to say we should have bought an extra midfielder but we simply cannot afford it. We could only get a squad player to spend most of his time on the bench and equally short of quality or break the bank.

Roll on Brady defour and Vydra getting involved

I think you make valid points but how can we not afford to buy an extra midfield player? We've been making huge profit for the last few years and last seasons finish reportedly earnt the club £140M. Can't or wont? two different things.

KRBFC wrote:I think you make valid points but how can we not afford to buy an extra midfield player? We've been making huge profit for the last few years and last seasons finish reportedly earnt the club £140M. Can't or wont? two different things.

If you believe the reports we tried to get Clucas and Ward-prowse, either of which would probably be enough to bulk up the numbers. One can only guess they didn’t come because they would spend too much time on the bench as I alluded to.

Just because we earned £140m it doesn’t mean we can throw money at any player. We have wages to pay which probably exceed £70m, and we did spend a fair sum

As a club we don’t have the rich benefactors or other sources of income most other prem clubs have. It will never be plain sailing but we do have to do what we can to remain financially stable

I DID feel very much like this last season and today absolutely confirmed it for me. Wood CAN (and did) score some important goals, but if he's not actually scoring he's a waste of a shirt. His hold up play is non existent and he can't win headers from long balls punted forward. Also he was very slow at least twice today to get into the box in the first half where he could have tapped in excellent balls across. Vokes for me is the all round better player and Wood doesn't look like an expensive upgarde at present, he looks like a decent championship striker who got lucky. (Or maybe he's not fully fit! )

Down_Rover wrote:If you believe the reports we tried to get Clucas and Ward-prowse, either of which would probably be enough to bulk up the numbers. One can only guess they didn’t come because they would spend too much time on the bench as I alluded to.

Just because we earned £140m it doesn’t mean we can throw money at any player. We have wages to pay which probably exceed £70m, and we did spend a fair sum

As a club we don’t have the rich benefactors or other sources of income most other prem clubs have. It will never be plain sailing but we do have to do what we can to remain financially stable

So you are saying we couldn't afford £7M or so for a winger/central midfielder because we don't have a rich benefactor? That's utter bullsh**, we were bidding £16M for Rodriguez on deadline day.

KRBFC wrote:Wood already came good, I don't understand some of the negativity towards him, he relies heavily on service like all strikers, he didn't get a sniff at goal today. Blame the ones paid to provide for him then moan when he misses.

Totally agree. At the moment for me JBG is not doing enough to keep his shirt. Yes his set pieces are vital but in open play he is offering us nothing. Constantly running into blind alleys and seems to be believing his hype a little with the way he roams around the pitch thinking he doesnt need to put a shift in anymore.