Season 2011-12
The Mail Bag
Top 3 Goalscorers
Since the fantastic Andrei Kanchelskis (1995-96), our top 3 league goalscorers (in a single season, pedants) have been:
- Yakubu 15 (2007-08)
- Saha 13 (2009-10)
- Campbell 12 (1999-2k)
Now ? what price Jermaine Beckford to break into that list in 2011-12?
He managed 10 last season without much time on the pitch.
Surely, if he gets on to the list, those who still say he is "not a Premier League Player" will have to fold their hands.
Personally, I think he'll do it if he gets the time on the pitch. If he plays more than two-thirds of the season, he'll do it.
Good luck, Becks!
Tom Brown , Posted 13/07/2011 at 21:17:00
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Tom Brown - You're on what we all see plainly and can't deny as our only problem. We don't finish. Finishers tilt the pitch downward in their club's favor.
LFC finished 4 points ahead of us with a 9 goal better GD. If we had the guy(s) to do no more than give us the same GD, Top 5 would be a cert.
I'll now go set myself on fire. Not in the Viet Nam War buddhist way. But in a smoke hashish way.
As far as you know.
Sure we would all like to sign someone as clinical as David Villa but its not going to happen is it.
So forgive me but I'm willing to cut Becks a bit of slack. I don't care if he has 5 chances a game and scores 2. He is a rare comodity in our squad..at least he creates fucking chances.
Thanks, yes, 8 were in the league and 2 were in cups. However, my point is that he managed 8 in the league with only about 1400 minutes on the pitch. 1400 minutes is about 40% of the league season. If he can score 8 when only playing 40% of the season, and in his first season in the top flight, then there is an interesting debate to have about how many he can get if he plays more.
Personally, I think 13 to beat Campbell's 12 to get on the list should be within his ability.
However, I think many people have an inflated view of how many goals a player needs to be hitting to be a top Premier League goal scorer.......
I'm backing Becks to get 13 or more next season. Some will say that is not enough or that we need a "20 goal a season" striker. Do they know how many players scored more than 13 last season? FIVE! And only 2 scored more than 20.
Tevez 21
Berbatov21
Van Persie 18
Bent 17
Odemwingie 15.
We'd love to have a 20 goal a season striker but these days they are rare. I'll be happy if Becks gets 13+ and somoone else can get into double figures too.
By the way, I'm not arguing that we don't need to buy a forward, I think we desperately need one. However, I don't see this new player as being a replacement for Becks.
I think in this scenario Beckford should be given the responsibility of being our no 1 forward. I agree he misses more than he scores, but so do most strikers. He creates chances for himself and as pointed out, scored eight league goals without getting a proper run. He has pace, which is something our team lacks in general and this will be his second season in the Prem, he knows what to expect week in week out.
What concerns me most is how many times he will start. Moyes is the problem, not Beckford. He will always score goals....let him start every game and I am sure you will be swallowing your words Sean. COYB!
I reckon with a proper run he'd hit that list easily if not top it.
I've liked Beckford from day 1. He seems like an honest pro who wants to do the best he can, his movement is exceptional, he's got really good pace and seems to read the game pretty well too. His only flaw - not the best if you're a striker - is his finishing goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, and more often than not it's the latter. This shouldn't be a suprise to us though - Leeds fans had mixed feelings about losing him as he was a 20+ goal a season striker, only providing you could give him 100+ chances. If you can give him that and forgive him the 80 that go astray, you're left with some goals if nothing else.
My view is he works hard enough and moves smartly enough to carve at least half of those chances out of nothing for himself, so we should give him a bit of leeway when a few go skipping past the corner flag. Without him I don't think there would be any chance whatsoever.
If I was the coach / manager I'd invest my time and energy into him, make Becks no.1 striker and try to find someone young with quality (no, I dont mean Victor) to play alongside him and grow into the no.9 shirt.
Either way - he'll be getting my full support next season.
COYB!
Seriously guys - he cost next to nothing to sign, came from two divisions below our level, and you're expecting Lineker Mk II. I think he did well, and I hope he gets more starts this year.
reluctance to play 2 up top, because he can't play the lone striker role.
I see a lot of Andy Cole in Becks, he isn't the most consistent finisher in the league but he gets into the right positions and therefore has more chances than his peers, so he will still get the goals.
City also now (they have become a media fave) get plentys of penaltys. Tevez takes them all. Beckford didn't have one pen last season.
Also Had many millions did theses 3 cost and Earn? As we know Beckford cost £00.00
I am glad his chance against Chelsea at their gaffe came to his head, other wise it would have been in Row Z.
His goals against Bolton, Blackpool and Chelsea where class and would have still been talked about now had he been playing for the Sky darling clubs.
Even his goal against the Shite was a corker.
Beckford is a premier league player end of. He cost us nothing and scored some cracking goals especially against Chelsea twice! Lay off because we don't have anyone better!
On the subject of missing more than he scores - anyone remember a bloke called Andrew Cole?
It's a very rare player that can give enough as an out and out goalscorer to enable one to discount any other aspect of their game. Gary Linaker was just such a lethal player with pace whose mere presence on the pitch was enough to influence the game (he certainly gave the opposition plenty to worry about).
At the other extreme are people like Graeme Sharpe, whose massive contribution to the team included a fantastc ability to hold the ball and then lay it off accurately.
Again, not to denigrate Beckford, he is neither a Linaker nor a Sharpe. But even had we paid milions for him he'd be giving us VFM, and he cost us nowt, so well done to the lad.
Don't think Match of the Day gave it more than one playing did they???
Yes he misses a fair few, but he most likely made them chances for himself.
If he played in front of a genuine playmaker who can see a run and thread a pass he'd score easy 20 goals.
Unfortunately for him he doesn't so he probably wont ans some will blame him, in the same way our forwards always get the blame for our lack of goals when the truth is it's a lack of midfielders taking a chance on passing through people.
Osman tried this toward the end of the season and looked twice the player he normally is so hopefully he is set for a big season, probably on the left.
Good first season and he will benefit from last season, 15 goals this year and he will be worshiped by the Everton faithful!!
I bet if someone did a study of how many chances for every minute on the pitch the top 30 prem scorers had, there would be no-one to touch Beckford.
I say well done JB - keep improving and you will be a menace next season!
Truth is that he's about as good as we can expect to get at the moment - 3rd rate.
The Shite are getting all the 2nd-raters (Downing, Adam, Henderson) and look how much they're paying for that pile of shite, so I think we've got off lucky.
Moyes wouldn't pay £15m for someone as bad a Downing FFS and I think that's just as well.
We can't even afford £5m to buy anyone - average players these days are going for £20m so how can we compete with that; why would we want to when we're totally skint anyway.....?!?!?!?!?
We'll have to make do until someone comes along with £500m for Moyes to spend.......
We also have Velios who surely has to step up this season ahead of Anichebe who just doesn't offer anything.
A pacy forward is always a pain in the neck for defences which play the offside as most teams do these days.
As signing new players looks remote, Moyes has to start playing his fringe players more often as the normal ''shoe-ins'' seem to be inconsistant.
The trouble is that Moyes has his favourite players and keeps believing they will eventually get it right but we all know that's unlikely without a fresh outlook. The last few seasons have seen bad starts and we have to hope that this will not be another.
C'mon, Becks ? get 15 this season and prove the doubters wrong!!
And as you will see, there are positive and negative points above. That's what makes ToffeeWeb so interesting. You'll get the "happy happy joy joy love-in" you crave when we win the league.
The Chelsea goal could be described as the worst great goal of all time or the greatest shit goal of all time. Although I have to admit if certain other players had've picked up the ball in their own box & ended up netting at the other end without the help of any team-mate, we would never have heard the last of it.
We can either accept that or chuck a load of stats into the mix and claim he's up there with the likes of Van Persie, Tevez, Berbatov etc. Deluded!!!
If Becks is taking his career seriously finally (He's what 26-27 years old?), I say the sky's the limit for the next 2-3 seasons.
Really, what other players have jumped from League 1 to the the PL, had limited playing time (warranted, by the way), and scored in double digits? In the last 5 years. Who? The last 10 years?
As long as he keeps his head on straight, his body will follow, and EFC will benefit.
I'll take a chance. 20-25 goals next season.
Aston villa:
Juan Pablo Angel 16 (2003-04)
Julian Joachim 14 (1998-99)
Gabriel Agbonlahor 13 (2009-10)
John Carew 13 (2007-08)
Spurs:
Jermain Defoe 18 (2009-10)
Robbie Keane 16 (2005-06)
Dimitar Berbatov 15 (2007-08)
And they have both spent three times as much money.
Also see my point at number 7 where I pointed out that only 5 players managed to score more than 13 goals in the Premier league last season, and only 2 got to 20+.
Look at this feller, seems to be rather inept to begin with, but then they just play a bit of Rocky and...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPSvsrG2zg8&feature=related
(wonder if he's available!)
We have a lot more goalscoring chances through his pace and positioning when he is on the pitch. His movement will create space for others also, he got 7 league goals last season after taking a age to get his first. Its fairly obvious Beckford is more of a threat when he plays alongside another striker and not playing with his back to goal. I dont mind playing one upfront away from home and even the bigger home games but there is room for two strikers in a lot of home games imo.
Beckfords touch is very average but a player who is considered a top striker by many Saha only has a slightly better touch and loses the ball far more than Beckford outside the box.
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1 Posted 13/07/2011 at 23:51:17
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