[Archived] Should It Be Ram?

[islander200]

He has no composure in his finishing, but he is a great runner, and worker for the team. Definitely better than Heskey in my opinion.

Robrts had a great game yesterday and is a terrific worker but imo no way is he better than heskey,heskey is an england international and a return to liverpool is on the cards you cannot put roberts and heskey in the same bracket.I would stick with roberts and mcarthy they have looked v.good in the last 3 games,i was at the game yesterday and you could see how much that goal meant to roberts,rsc is our most talented player but i would prefer a committed roberts starting than someone who doesnt want to be at the club.

[Majiball]

Wrong thread!

[Stuart]

Roberts is absolutely not a natural goalscorer and I can't remember the last one-on-one he finished (without miss-hitting it). For me the new contract he's just signed can only be the club protecting an asset from being lost for nothing. However, he's having a bit of a purple patch just as the window is about to open and was committed yesterday to making amends for the Sunderland miss. So is this partnership and friendship Benni going to save him from being sold? Or is Roberts our Emile Heskey and we have the classic partnership of ball-winner/holder/water-carrier for the skillful, quick-witted McCarthy and his lack of ability shouldn't be the main concern?

If Roberts is doing a job for the team (and continues to do so) then who would be the right person to work with Roberts and provide competition for McCarthy and cover when he's injured or out of form? You could argue that Roque is also a ball-winner and is therefore not going to feed off Roberts in the same way a poacher like McCarthy does. We need a Linekar or Owen (post-Liverpool) type who will feed off scraps. Either that or we change formation and get a Bellamy or Defoe type but I can't see a pace player working off Roberts. So Roberts and McCarthy for me, for now, but what's plan B - particularly if that's minus Roque?

[tony gale's mic]

This is probably a silly suggestion but worth a shot...what about having Roberts playing in between midfield and attack behind two strikers?

With a fully fit Grella playing a more defensive role we could have a diamond-like formation in midfield, and with Roberts not playing up the pitch as much his lack of finishing abilities wouldn't be as big a deal and he could hold the ball up, win headers and help create chances for two strikers. Additionally his ball winning abilities could help stop sides from forming attacks.

Probably the sort of square peg round hole thinking that was a plague of Ince's tenure I know, but worth a thought IMO.

[joey_big_nose]

This is probably a silly suggestion but worth a shot...what about having Roberts playing in between midfield and attack behind two strikers?

With a fully fit Grella playing a more defensive role we could have a diamond-like formation in midfield, and with Roberts not playing up the pitch as much his lack of finishing abilities wouldn't be as big a deal and he could hold the ball up, win headers and help create chances for two strikers. Additionally his ball winning abilities could help stop sides from forming attacks.

Probably the sort of square peg round hole thinking that was a plague of Ince's tenure I know, but worth a thought IMO.

That is actually quite a clever idea! Usually the player behind the strikers is a clever passing player who is expected to get the forwards in.... Roberts is the anti version of this! But I could see how it would work - hassling the oppostion, running the channels, tracking back effectively, bull dozing the way through with the ball, collecting layoffs from Cruz and McCarthy.

Thinking outside of the box but quite interesting.