Absolute bollocks.

The man is a class striker.

Its the dross thats around him, not feeding him thats the problem.

Why do they keep lofting the ball up to him when theres no ones around him for the knockdowns.

It wont get any better till we get the delivery to him better.

Benteke and Remy have loads of goals in them if they get the service.

Fact

I think you make some good points and I'd definitely try Benteke and Remy together. If you've had a look at the video someone posted from when Benteke was at Villa, you will see the sort of service he thrives on. Simple crosses from the wing (and not all at head height) and simple through balls.

In my opinion this 'inverted winger', cutting in business is a load of over-complicated nonsense (and I've heard the arguments about 'overlapping fullbacks'). When we played Bolasie on the left and Zaha on the right (i.e. on the side that matched their footedness), we got better quality crosses in and Souare and Ward used to be able to overlap them as well; we just didn't have the quality of striker to stick the ball in the net. Now we do, but are starving the front-runners of service.

If we go back to good old fashioned no nonsense defending and hitting on the counter, we'll start winning games. We tried to run before we could walk and we just need to get back to basics and doing what we do well.

Bexley Dave

Can you hear the Brighton sing? I can't hear a ******* thing!

"The most arrogant, obnoxious bunch of deluded little sun tanned, loafer wearing mummy's boys I've ever had the misfortune of having to listen to" (Burnley forum)

No argument from me on that point.

Benteke is a class striker but he is lazy. Isn't it funny how his work rate has dropped since Wickham has been injured? He thinks he's a shoo-in. With him and Remy I agree we should be scoring plenty and pressurising defences. It did look better with Remy on yesterday but Benteke still didn't seem to be at the races.

Sam ought to make it clear to him that he's in danger of being upstaged by a player who on paper he ought to be far superior to but who actually works for the team, i.e. Campbell. That a player like Benteke should lose his place to a player like Campbell ought to be a real embarrassment for the former but that's how bad he was yesterday.

At least for the Cup matches, anyway.

Edited by chateauferret (15 Jan 2017 10.01am)

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The Ferret
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Agree we should try both him and remy upfront! But he's needs to step up and make more effort, he can't just rely on people crossing the ball to him all the time, he should be making things happen on his own for the price we paid for him wouldn't hurt to see a few solo runs in on goal it's not like he's slow.

We can not afford the luxury of having players in the side not pulling their weight. That's my first point. CB is lazy. He should be making life really difficult for defenders when they have the ball. He doesn't. He lopes lazily. No presence.

Secondly, we can not afford the luxury of having a striker whose sole job is to score goals. Modern football will not tolerate this. To be up top on his own, he needs to be available to hit and it shouldn't matter how the ball arrives. It is his role to get it under control in an instant, keep possession and then either turn and go himself or bring others into it. He doesn't

No matter how he receives the ball he just doesn't get it under. We all know what a successful target man looks like. If we think of Drogba, Sparky Mark Hughes of old ,Diego Costa they are/were mobile skillful and able to do whatever they need to bring others into the game or go for goal themselves. It doesn't hold water that he only gets the ball drilled t him 'with snow on it'. The fcat is, even when the ball is on the deck, his control is woefully inadequate.

It is unbelievable how unable CB is to simply control the ball, hold it and link with others.

Ok, just say he does none of all that but gets 20 goals a season. He would need good service from both flanks to achieve that. We are not in a position to offer such service at the moment and so we are left with a striker who looks out of his depth, a massive bulk offering a lightweight threat.

I am astonished that I never saw his shortcomings before we signed him but there again, he wasn't playing regularly for Liverpool.

Now I understand why.

Edited by Glazier#1 (15 Jan 2017 10.30am)