[Archived] Nikola Kalinic

[RibbleValleyRover]

He had a poor game i'm sure Sam and the player will know that. But it was his debut so give the lad some time and a chance. If he continues to play like that over a period of time then the Grabbi comparisons will be fair, but until then go easy on the lad.

[AggyBlue]

he can't be that bad, can he?

Not a good start. He can only get better.

[Hughesy]

trouble in the air, good at holding the ball up and linking play, got in good goalscoring positions - just didnt take them! (see Man utd v Burnley)

Give him time, he will come good

[Amo]

It was his first game with his new team-mates. People will be frustrated with the spurned opportunities, sure, but let's reserve judgement for a good while yet.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

At least he managed to get into goalscoring positions in the first place, hey?

I'm sure the finishing will come as he gets more confident. And new boots.

[RevidgeBlue]

Got to give him a chance, if he's getting in position to miss chances then he should start scoring sooner or later.

If he wasn't able to get in position to miss them that would be more of a worry.

[JAL]

Relishing seeing the lad next week after some of the comments posted on here, should be interesting.

[vyeo]

Kalinic obviously had abit of a nightmare with the shooting (2 miss-hits including the last minute one, and should have gone in with his head with that rebound on the goaline). But on balance, I thought he generally showed enough to suggest that he could be quite useful for us. Ball control looks good, positioning was good and looks like a nippy little player in the box.

Bit of nostalgia - I also thought he looked a little bit like jansen out there with that floppy hair and playing style. Let's hope he's more jansen than grabbi.

[booth]

It's a fine line between having a good and a bad game if you're a striker. If he was being judged on everything but finishing he'd be fantastic.

I'm sure on another day he'll get more joy from those chances. I hope so anyway!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Give the lad time for Christs sake!

[booth]

Give the lad time for Christs sake!

Given the chances he missed today and the positive posts on this thread your response is a tad baffling.

Or were you just getting that in before the boo-boys got their boot in?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Given the chances he missed today and the positive posts on this thread your response is a tad baffling.

Or were you just getting that in before the boo-boys got their boot in?

My comment stands.

[tony gale's mic]

The guys misses today were SO bad that at least we know that there was a fair amount of nervousness going on with him today affecting things. You can't have a decent goal record at any level with finishing like Kalinic displayed today, however we know he's been scoring lots in Croatia so his finishing must usually be a lot better than today. And he was getting himself into the positions well at least.

[AlanSheppard]

Agreed the misses weren't good but beyond that it was a promising debut. He has a good goalscoring record and despite being fed on scraps today showed some nice touches and awareness to bring others into play around him and cause a few problems. Considering I don't think anyone expected him to be involved until Gillingham at the earliest, I think he needs a bit of time. A couple of goals against Gillingham and he could be up and running very quickly.

[Friday Street]

The poor shots aside, I thought he did relatively well today. Good control. Quick and decisive with the ball. In my opinion, Kalinic showed more promise than any other Rovers striker today. Hopefully, he will form a solid partnership with DiSanto???

[DeadlyDirk]

Sam said himself that we wouldn't see the real Kalinic for the first 5,6 to 8 games as he'll take time to settle in and get fully match fit. I'll judge him then, for now it's hard to make much out of a debut that he was rushed into.

If Di Santo wasn't injured we might not even have seen Kalinic today.

[Miker]

It's not a cause for writing him off, but based on last night's game he WAS terrible. It wasn't just his finishing, a number of his passes went astray and he was often shoved off the ball too easily. If he can get used to the rigours of the Premier League then that's fine, but I think everyone was hoping to see a lot more from him. It wasn't just the fact that his shots went astray, but he completely missed the ball at least twice from what i remember when he was in a goalscoring opportunity.

To be fair, he looked extremely nervous and lost on the pitch last night, so if it's down to nerves then hopefully he can overcome it. It's still a worry if we get injuries and what we consider our potentially best striker isn't even close to being ready for the Premier League...

[Bobby G]

I disagree, he was not terrible. He wasnt afraid to shoot, he was very quick to make up his mind, maybe too quick. His awareness and anticipation was better than others around him, both in our team and theirs. Yes his finishing was poor, but he was feeding on scraps which he picked up himself. Based on the evidence yesterday, I believe that he is a player who is in the Andy Cole mould of score 1 out of 5 chances, but score he will.

[Big Fat Sam]

Yes his finishing was poor, but he was feeding on scraps which he picked up himself. Based on the evidence yesterday, I believe that he is a player who is in the Andy Cole mould of score 1 out of 5 chances, but score he will.

How you've gotten Andy Cole from Klanic I don't know?

Shocking finishing with both feet, yesterday. He gets in good positions and even created one himself yesterday, but that will matter for nothing if he can't be clinical, calm and precise in front of goal. Lets give him time and see what he can do, but even he will be wondering how he didn't score yesterday.

Perhaps Roberts showed him his BBC video???

But for me the question is can we afford to give him that time, as to me its pretty evident we need goals now.

1 goal from as many chances as we've had so far does not bode well. 8 games to go and the league should start to take shape again so lets hope we can find some before then.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I think back to Carlos' debut against Grimsby - wow what a star - wonder what happened to him

Lets hope Kalinic will be a better long term bet

Looking at his misses I think back to other big money signings like Grabbi and Davies - but until he is fully match fit and integrated into the team we should really give him time. The way he snatched at his chances did look like nerves - too anxious to impress.

[The Prof.]

Whooaaaa! Kalinic should be okay - remember he's not match fit yet and just looked like he was missing some sharpness to me - sooner he gets a goal the better though!

Grabbi's shadow looms large doesn't it!

[jannerman]

It's all about confidence isn't it tho? If he bagged a couple of goals yesterday he'd be flying - plus a good forward also needs the support of good service.

I reckon he'll be a good signing for us once he gets used to the tempo of the league - imagine he'll be coming on for a few sub appearences before he starts full games

Shows up how thin on the ground we are with strikers at the moment, bit of a risky strategy from BFS

How different could things all be right now? Point (or three) against City, couple of goals from Kalinic and three points yesterday and we'd all be talking of Europe next season!

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Hopefully those missed chances will make him give himself a kick up the backside. He certainly knew he had a shocker yesterday and in cases like this I'm glad Big Sam is our manager and not Paul Ince because he will certainly help him settle down and remind him that he's got the ability to put the ball into the back of the net.

[rover6]

It's all about confidence isn't it tho? If he bagged a couple of goals yesterday he'd be flying - plus a good forward also needs the support of good service.

2 goals on his debut - and be blighted by the Egil Ostenstad curse?

With big money signings, its best just to give them some slack. The more pressure they're put under, the more they feel their price tag around their neck. Crouch at Liverpool, for egs.

[Hughesy]

He reminded me of Matt Jansen - he works very hard and creates chances for himself. He also has the holding the ball up ability that RSC had. He will go on to be a big signing.