Striking options - or lack of

[Marky]

I'm ****ing furious about this tbh, i said we needed another striker assuming Keane was staying but that he's going we definetely need one at least.

[Winstonio]

Wave goodbye to atleast 2 of the 3 trophies.

We havent got the squad to do it

[Mattshark]

Has the misery bunch come out in force today.

[FatTony]

Has the misery bunch come out in force today.

So, has selling Keane strengthened or weakened our squad in this, the most important run in for years?

[Mattshark]

So, has selling Keane strengthened or weakened our squad in this, the most important run in for years?

Actually I think it has made little difference.

[Kenneth]

So, has selling Keane strengthened or weakened our squad in this, the most important run in for years?

Neither. He wasn't playing most of the time and when he did he wasn't any better than El Zhar.

[Craig_H]

He was barely selected anyway. The only thing that will have a big impact on our season in striking terms, is the fitness of Torres.

If he stays fit, we'll do ok. If he gets injured, we're ****ed. And that'd still be the case if we still had Keane.

[Kenneth]

I reckon we should put a bid in for David Villa, Valencia are skint and he is total quality. £20mill should do it

Genius

[Reece]

Is it too late to get Dean Windass?

[dww]

The question of whether selling Keane has/will weakened the squad is actually quite tough to answer in my view. He hasn't played that often but he has given us some good performances and a few goals - someone will have to step up to replace that input. However keeping an obviously unhappy player makes the squad less cohesive and likely to focus totally on the task(s) at hand.

I genuinely don't understand why if we were willing to sell we didn't push the deal through earlier to give us a chance to get in a replacement.

[FatTony]

Actually I think it has made little difference.

So in your opinion, selling a proven 28 year old premiership striker without a replacement hasn't weakened us?

Mad.

[magicalbarnes]

Yeah i agree, surely Rafa will pull a rabbit out of the hat should Keane sign for Tottenham today.

Got a feeling it will be more of a second striker though that can play the Riera/Kuyt role as well as filling in the Torres role when needed.

Where could we find such a player? Henry maybe?

[DeeTheDog]

It's obviously not an ideal situation we're in but I don't think it's as much of a biggy as it seems. Torres, Babel and N'Gog should be enough to cover one striker position. The problem is if we're forced to regularly play Babel up top we're shorn of what little attacking quality we have to come on and change games for us. Risky as it is I'm tempted to say we're better off sodding forking out for a bit part and making do until we can buy real quality.

Agreed, with our system we should have enough to cope. I know that Babel hasn't covered in glory since the United game but he has shown glimpses of real quality before and never really has had an opportunity to play his preferred position of forward. I thought we were going to take a huge loss on Keane about 10 mil plus, so all in all a good piece of business.

In hindsight we wasted our summer transfers, Keane, Dossena and Degen; however, it does highlight the improvement which can be made by a team playing together for longer.

[wiw]

Thank **** you lot haven't seen the speculation about who's coming to replace him

[FatTony]

Yeah i agree, surely Rafa will pull a rabbit out of the hat should Keane sign for Tottenham today.

Got a feeling it will be more of a second striker though that can play the Riera/Kuyt role as well as filling in the Torres role when needed.

Where could we find such a player? Henry maybe?

If thats the case then fair enough, however, if Rafa has done this without a replacement, then its just another stupid decision to add to several over the last month.