Golden Boot?

[AFII]

I hate to repeat myself but.....if PL defences are use to playing against crouch, how come he was our top scorer last season? If you don't like him then fine, but at least have respect for his talent.

He wasn't our top scorer in the PL, Kuyt was that.

[AFII]

I have respect for his talent but Crouch is very good at a few things. Compere that to someone like Torres who offers us much more.

Voronin and Kuyt also offers us more options than Crouch.

[dww]

I tend to agree with AFII that as a team we perform better as a team with Kuyt or Voronin than with Crouch.

If Crouch always performed at the level he did between the Chelsea and Arsenal games last year then he would be our first choice striker, but he doesn't. I think that the reason for his scoring record last season was that he was played in the matches he was best suited to by Rafa and as the opposition couldn't be sure he would play they couldn't adapt their tactics so easily to counter him.

[carheex]

He wasn't our top scorer in the PL, Kuyt was that.

Maybe we should stop playing Kuyt then, as people must be used to playing against him now?

[carheex]

I tend to agree with AFII that as a team we perform better as a team with Kuyt or Voronin than with Crouch.

I think that the reason for his scoring record last season was that he was played in the matches he was best suited to by Rafa and as the opposition couldn't be sure he would play they couldn't adapt their tactics so easily to counter him.

I think the reason for his goal scoring record is that he's a bloody good striker!

[dww]

I think the reason for his goal scoring record is that he's a bloody good striker!

I'm not saying that he isn't. Just that last seasons goals/game ratio is misleading as to what he would do given more games IMO and is anomalous wrt the rest of his career.

[John_Gotti]

None of our players will ever win it under Rafa FACT

[AFII]

None of our players will ever win it under Rafa FACT

I don't agree with that. Torres may even win it this season.

[John_Gotti]

I don't agree with that. Torres may even win it this season.

For any striker to win it, the will have to play, at the very least, 30 league games.

Under Rafa, that will never happen.

But it does not mean that we will not win no 19

[lfcruleus]

Again, I refer back to crouch's goal scoring record. It's one thing knowing how a team/player plays but it's another thing stopping them and crouchy can be unstoppable, hence his record. I think that kind of disproves your point.

Peter had 6 clear cut chances on Tuesday and hit the crowd with five of them, if he was accurate he would be unstoppable, IMHO Torres or Kuyt would have scored at least 3 of them, I like PC and think he is a valuable squad member but we would not win the league with him up front for most games, we would never score away from home, you need pace, hence the signings of Torres and Babel, thankfully Rafa has worked that out.

[Parm]

Could that not be said about any striker who starts consistently?

yes

[Morph]

For any striker to win it, the will have to play, at the very least, 30 league games.

Under Rafa, that will never happen.

But it does not mean that we will not win no 19

I fully expect Torres to play at least that in the league this season barring any injuries, you don't spunk 20mil on a player for him to not play in the majority of games Rafa's rotation system or not

[carheex]

Peter had 6 clear cut chances on Tuesday and hit the crowd with five of them, if he was accurate he would be unstoppable, IMHO Torres or Kuyt would have scored at least 3 of them, I like PC and think he is a valuable squad member but we would not win the league with him up front for most games, we would never score away from home, you need pace, hence the signings of Torres and Babel, thankfully Rafa has worked that out.

Bear in mind that the crouch is lacking in match fitness he did pretty well. Besides, as much as we all love torres and kuyt, they're both guilty of missing numerous chances.
Oh, and to say torres/kuyt would have scored at least 3 of the ones that crouch missed is a ludicrous thing to say!
Anyway, this thread isn't about who's the best striker it was just quite interesting that we've never had a player win the golden boot outright. Not as important as "the team" but again, that's not the topic.

[El Jefecito]

What was it that Lucas won then?

[keniget]

Crouch had an exceptional season by his standards last year but he a) he's not a goalscorer and b) he's not the calibre of striker to lead a team to a title.

We do need a 20 a season striker though...