Welcome Simone Zaza - official

buffybegood

tomkinsworldclass said:

I believe he will look more dangerous playing off a striker such as AC or Sakho

But how likely are we to play 2 up front? I just don't see it happening as a starting formation, and I can't see G&S paying €20m for a CF who struggles as a lone striker.

Adam

I'd much rather have Ayew as playing the deeper role. Someone whom we've already paid £20m for. Or lanzini for that matter.

sweepy23

For £25m we can get someone a lot better. Let's wake up people. He hasn't scored in ten and honestly hasn't made a keeper make a save yet. He's had a couple of two yard out shots that have missed, and he only likes to shoot on his left foot.

Just because the guy tries hard let's not waste another 5 years on a poor striker. Carlton probably had a better strike rate. Let's get real.

TwistandShout

I really hope he gets his first goal next week. Will do his confidence a world of good. Who knows, he gets one, he could go on a run.

Lukerz

It was an improvement, no doubt.

Stick me on the pitch and I'll run around and try and get tackles in.

Needs to score. Has 0 confidence at the moment.

sweepy23

Austin £4m, gets goals
How much was Deeney?
We paid £7m for Ba
Pelle was sold to China for not a lot if I remember
Wilson scores for Bournemouth. How much was he?
Sam Vokes for Burnley has more goals.

Not sure why we are deliberating this.

I wish I was wrong but let's not waste another 18 months on another Maiga. His stats prior to joining were poor.

sweepy23

The worst thing that could happen is he scores a goal like Maiga did that one time and everyone thinks he's amazing.

sweepy23

And nothing comes for the rest of the season. Valencia was another one that we stuck with for too long and in a way so is Carroll.

Move on and get a couple of strong strikers. It seems as if other clubs all have someone.

madridhammer

I always believe in giving a player time,especially a foreign one but I've been completely underwhelmed so far. My biggest issue is that he is completely one footed & I've seen him stop to put the ball on to his left foot more than once & lose an opportunity. To be that one footed as far as I'm concerned is a disgrace,unless you're say a Maradona or even a Liam Brady.I was underwhelmed when we signed him( as indeed I was by most of our pre-season business) & I would rather let him go & maybe try to get a better option in January. If he proves me wrong I'll be delighted but at present I can't see it happening.

sweepy23

Luke was asking for Walcott for £20m.

sweepy23

Looks a steal now

Hammerex

Does anybody know how much longer it will be before Carroll is back.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Zaza doesn't score and he's a striker

Nor does he assist

Nor does he get shots off on goals, that was his best game yesterday mad he had like one shot all game.....

No chance we should get him permanently

Carroll, Ayew and hopefully Sakho should be back soon

tomkinsworldclass

buffybegood said:

tomkinsworldclass said:

I believe he will look more dangerous playing off a striker such as AC or Sakho

But how likely are we to play 2 up front? I just don't see it happening as a starting formation, and I can't see G&S paying €20m for a CF who struggles as a lone striker.

Not as an out and out 2 because thats more difficult to do with the players we have, but there are ways to incorporate him close to an out and out CF which could create more opportunities for him which may be more conducive for him. For example, If we go from Saturdays game (Ignore personnel debate): then you could fit him in between the lines in a freeish role like Payet (not rigid/static)- with Players close to him, a CF occupying the opposition CB's, runners, blah blah blah.

-----------------------ADRIAN---------------
--------------REID---KOUYATE--OGGY---------
-ANTONIO-----NOBLE----OBIANG-----CRESSWELL-
--------------PAYET--------ZAZA-------------
----------------------SAKHO-----------------

buffybegood

Think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Lanzini, Ayew and probably Feghouli would all be ahead of Zaza for that position, as genuine defensive work would still be expected from the 2 players in behind the CF, and I can't see G&S allowing the purchase clause to be triggered for a bloke to be 4th choice in a position that he's not even particularly suited to.

MunichHammer

How long did it take Tevez to score his first goal? Zaza needstime and a goal to build up his confidence. Once he has that he will be alright.

Kuchinghammer

He is learning eg to stop trying to hold the ball up. If he keeps putting Lanzini through to goal with flick headers, lettuce could end up with 10+ goals this season. This nonsense about 20+ goalscorer is unreal: where did the myth start? 10 is fine for us, because our goals should come from all over.
Having said all that, I'd be amazed if Zaza scores more than 5 this year....

Yeoldhammer

Sakho won't play another game for West Ham according to some ITK. Apparently he is still on strike and training by himself with no coach doing his own training so he can be fit enough to be offloaded in Jan. West Brom still interested in him.

SuzanneClaret

I don't know when this was but Lanzini posted it last night...

It's good to see him fitting in on a social basis.

jay_in_cpt

I still reckon Zaza can do it for us.
Call it blind faith, but I'm not giving up on him just yet.

Yeoldhammer

Problem is it hasn't worked for 10 games and in under 10 games time we trigger a 20m+ clause. For someone of that money they need to hit the ground running. We cannot afford another over expensive striker mistake we have done that too many times.

He works hard but isn't a striker that will propel us to the upper part of the table its that simple. If we want to progress we need to find a striker who can and can do it from the off. Ambition needs to match reality in terms of squad and if the Daves ambition is to get us to Europe, the reality is Zaza isn't the person who will get us there.

grey_til_I_dye

Yeold

Ambition needs to match reality in terms of who we can attract.

The club tried to go big with strikers during the last window, and got knocked back.

Who can we realistically get who is better than Zaza?

As someone pointed out earlier, Tevez didn't score until his 20th appearance for us.

I don't think it is reasonable to judge a new player on his appearances in a misfiring, makeshift team.

Yesterday was the first time since Watford we have looked any good, imo and I think that helped him to be more effective.

We didn't have an all-guns-blazing striker last season, and we finished 7th, and that is where I would say our ambition should be to finish for the next couple of years.

Yeoldhammer

if you said

Your only options are Zaza for 20m or Shane Long for 20m, I'd take Shane Long all day.

We threw 15m at Valencia, runs a lot didn't do much
We threw 15m at Carroll, barely plays

I think throwing 20m at Zaza to do the same Valencia would be stupid. We also don't have the luxury of waiting 20 games to see if he somehow comes good, we have less than 10 games to make a decision.

TwistandShout

MunichHammer said:

How long did it take Tevez to score his first goal? Zaza needstime and a goal to build up his confidence. Once he has that he will be alright.

Problem is he doesn't have time. After a certain number of games we have to pay like 25m

alderz

Players who have been mentioned in this thread aren't 20 goal strikers, though. I see the point people are making, but saying Zaza isn't the guy to propel us to the next level and then throwing out names like Shane Long isn't really convincing me that there are many other options out there.

Shane Long: 206 PL Appearances, 43 goals (1 in 4.8 games)
Carlton Cole (WH Only): 207 PL appearance, 47 goals (1 in 4.4 games)

The only one that I feel we missed out on was Charlie Austin, but there's not much we can do about that now.

grey_til_I_dye

So, in Slav we trust, but not in this particular instance?

Lukerz

He didn't actually start until Watford, 3 games in.

He is lacking a goal. His movement outside the area is good, but he doesn't have the belief he'll score, so he doesn't make goal-scoring runs in the box. Almost like he knows he'll miss so doesn't want to embarrass himself.

He also looks slightly slow in terms of football intelligence. So many times Lanzini and Payet skipped little balls to him but he wasn't awake.

alderz

Personally, I think that we were spoilt by our summer signings last year.

Going back previous windows we always say how it takes time for some players to settle into a new country / league / team / style / whatever, but last summer we had Payet, Lanzini, Ogbonna and whoever else all come in and hit the ground running.

This year, Zaza, Tore, Nordtveit, Feghouli haven't done the same. It doesn't mean they aren't capable of being great players for us, it might just mean they need to settle into a brand new environment.

Yeoldhammer

grey_til_I_dye said:

So, in Slav we trust, but not in this particular instance?

Slav hasn't indicated he is going to buy him or take up the option to.

Yeoldhammer

alderz said:

Personally, I think that we were spoilt by our summer signings last year.

Going back previous windows we always say how it takes time for some players to settle into a new country / league / team / style / whatever, but last summer we had Payet, Lanzini, Ogbonna and whoever else all come in and hit the ground running.

This year, Zaza, Tore, Nordtveit, Feghouli haven't done the same. It doesn't mean they aren't capable of being great players for us, it might just mean they need to settle into a brand new environment.

True but one has less than 10 more appearances for a 20m+ fee attached. The others are either freebies or loans who will no doubt go back to said parent club if they do not cut it or were free anyway so had little to no risk and so have the time to prove themselves / get use to the league.