What you do you expect? You make a snarky comment based on him scoring in the opening game when you know clearly that he wasn't scoring anywhere near enough as he should have been early in the season. The time that he takes to score a goal in the first game does not mean he had a good start to the season...that is unless you consider the start of the season only 10 minutes. His record was pretty poor compared to previous years, and especially compared to the end of the season.dandeclaret wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 9:15 pmKeep your knickers on, nobody's turned it into a asterixing competition, whatever that is it's just a debate. Recent record is part of a season's work. As I said, no knee-jerk reactions, just an assessment of the season's work. He still had brilliant movement to create chances early in the season, he still worked hard, he still did plenty of elements of his job really well. Now he's doing all elements of his job really well.
I didn't hear any criticism from Dyche, have you got examples? I heard him give a pep talk about him playing hard, when he was at the top of the game, to ensure he wasn't going to rest on his laurels. I suspect with his brilliant man management, he knows how to get the best out of Chris wood.
My points don't contradict, if you think Chris Wood is a limited footballer, then your expectations are too high. The list of players scoring double figures in the last 4 seasons is
-Chris wood
-Harry kane
-Mohammed Salah
-Heung Min Son
-Alexandre Lacazette
-Jamie Vardy
You can't be in that group if you're limited.
As for Ings, he clearly was a very good player. In my opinion Wood has done better for Burnley than Ings did. He offers more in this Burnley team, than Ings did in the Burnley team he was in. That's just personal choice, I'm not going to argue with anybody who has a different view on that, as it's just opinion.
Hope this doesn't cause any further offence, or meltdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlrO-z5qxX0
Here's what I'm referring too. Dyche says he's spoken to him many times, that there's things he needs to do to improve and specifically mentions his hold up play. Yes that's right- can you believe that after scoring a hatrick, our manager is critical of him? - Perhaps that's good management after all. He knows he can improve, he knows he has limitations and he doesn't try to hide anything.
We've been blessed with some decent target men at Burnley at recent years, and compared to them Woods hold up play is poor. For a guy of his size and stature in a team that often plays long balls he should do better. Luckily he more than makes up for it with his goals. But its this what I'm talking about when I say we make the most of limited footballers.. Wood being no exception. Yes you make good points about his runs in to channels and he does get the odd flick on too (although not as many as you'd expect he would). His main boon is his ability to find the net, and the predatory instinct he has which is very much Charlie Austin/Andy Payton like.
The fact is, if he didn't have obvious limitations he wouldn't be playing for us. We have a manager who gets everything he can from our players, who sets the team up to benefit our strengths (and weaknesses) best he can. If it wasn't for that, Wood would not score the goals that he does. In this respect he is a limited footballer, and it is this that has stopped him from succeeding in the premier league before he signed for us.
My original point still stands, and I'm not entirely sure if its something we even disagree on. Wood's form earlier in the season was not up to standard and it was correct that questions were being asked. Its correct that he was getting criticism from fans. There's nothing wrong with some criticism, if he didn't get any from Dyche then I'm certain he wouldn't improve.
A knee jerk reaction would be to lambaste him after one or two poor games. But the reality was he was playing poorly and he was missing chances he normally would put away. I like Wood and its fantastic that he turned it around, but hindsight is a beautiful thing so I really question anyone if they state him getting up to speed again was a certainty.