Antonio Cassano

[Antilokhos]

Apparently his contract has been terminated by Sampdoria, and while he is certainly a jerk, he may be worth bringing in on a short contract at the right price. If he ever got his head on straight, he'd be one of the best strikers in the world.

[choda]

I'm going to give you four words: Di Canio and Harry.

[Rojoknapp]

I don't know if Cassano is the same as Di Canio. He's an absolute tosser and a nutter aswell. And we need someone who can play up front on their own, Cassano is not that man. I wish we still had Darren Bent :sad:

[choda]

I don't know if Cassano is the same as Di Canio. He's an absolute tosser and a nutter aswell. And we need someone who can play up front on their own, Cassano is not that man. I wish we still had Darren Bent :sad:

Darren Bent is only a slightly better version of Defoe mate. He'll score a bit more but his general play is equally sh*t, just that he has the decency not to get involved in play until the ball falls to him in and around the box.

But you need a guy with great movement, or one that will get on the ball and can link up well.

Darren Bent is a great finisher but he will never be a top four cl standard striker, he doesn't have enough to his game. We were right to sell.

If he was here it would be similar to Pav. Good, will get goals but frustrating in many ways.

We need to buy big in Jan with the strikers.

[Gino Ginelli]

Di Canio was a nutter as well, remember when he pushed the ref over when he was at Sheff Wed?

Cassano is one of those enigmas of Italian football. His talent and football ability is unquestionable. His attitude and commitment throughout his career always was unfortunately. He seems to have gotten his act together in the last couple of seasons but he's into his 30's now so it's a case of too little too late.

Still, he's something of a cult figure in Italy, but not really what we need at all.

I'm not in the "get Bent back in/I wish we'd kept him" crowd either. He was never a fit for us, was bought at the wrong time just to stop West Ham getting him, and despite grabbing some important goals for us in the season Harry took over, it was never going to happen for him here.

Personally I rate Defoe, and certainly Pav, higher though

[Rojoknapp]

But the difference between Bent and Defoe/Pav is that Bent can play up front on his own. And saying that they are similar because they all score goals but do little else may be true, but Bent scores so many more goals than Defoe or Pav - especially Pav. Look how well he's doing up front on his own for Sunderland - imagine if he was up top on his own for us but with people like Modric and van der Vaart feeding him rather than Cattermole and Henderson.

[choda]

But the difference between Bent and Defoe/Pav is that Bent can play up front on his own. And saying that they are similar because they all score goals but do little else may be true, but Bent scores so many more goals than Defoe or Pav - especially Pav. Look how well he's doing up front on his own for Sunderland - imagine if he was up top on his own for us but with people like Modric and van der Vaart feeding him rather than Cattermole and Henderson.

I've always said that Bent will score more, but it isn't many more and he's not a top player either.

Keane might be past his best but he's still way more intelligent than any of these players and has more ability. He'll do more for team and the players around him will play better and will get goals, as has always happened in his career, until we buy a truly top player in his prime that can play the lone striker role to full effect with VDV in behind.

But I'd love to see 352 with one intelligent technical striker who has a great record of scoring at all levels and one with physical presence who scores goals at all levels with VDV operating in behind and Bale and Lennon bombing up the wings. In other words Pav and Gio/Keane.

Then when we get the really top striker in his prime we can play a lone striker and have better options with a few different types of system because none of our strikers look good enough at the moment.

Our best points average and best run of games last year all involved the Defoe and Keane or Pav and Defoe partnerships.

Our worst runs involved one up or Crouch.

Our team has improved this year, a few players are better and we have added some quality to the ranks, so we still have momentum, but we are not as good as we could be because Harry is failing with the strikers, as I've said all along.

It's not rocket science but Harry has odd views on it. It's the only thing he needs to get right (he's done a sterling job on just about everything else) because we can be as good as anyone in England if you look at our squad.

[Antilokhos]

I'd like to see Keane play again after Saturday, it's hard away at ManU but he did well. I think giving him the Bolton game would be a smart move, his running could really help out there and VDV had all sorts of room to manuever.

And I like Cassano, I had read he had straightened up his act with Sampdoria, apparently that is not the case. He's not exactly what Spurs need, but if he was motivated I think he'd be an upgrade over what we have now. Unless we go for Forlan or Suarez in January, I'm not exactly sure who we are going to get that will give us what we need.

[Gino Ginelli]

Cassano is definately not what we need. He's more of a deeper/second striker player, a la Keane or VDV than an out and out striker, which is what we need.

I really don't want to see Keane start again thanks. I was one of his biggest fans throughout his entire career, before he even got to Spurs. But he's lost so much to his game now that I wouldn't actually trust him to provide the goals we need.

[TURKISH]

Bent only scored 1 more goal then defoe last year in all competition, not including defoe's 5 England goals. Defoe always assisted 5 goals for us, whilst Bent had 1 assist.

Keane should only be used if VDV is injured and you want someone to drop into the hole. We need a tall, fast, strong striker who can get beyond defences and open them up, but also score all types of goals.

There aren't many available, unless you want to clone a young Klinsmann.

[Gino Ginelli]

Bent only scored 1 more goal then defoe last year in all competition, not including defoe's 5 England goals. Defoe always assisted 5 goals for us, whilst Bent had 1 assist.

Keane should only be used if VDV is injured and you want someone to drop into the hole. We need a tall, fast, strong striker who can get beyond defences and open them up, but also score all types of goals.

There aren't many available, unless you want to clone a young Klinsmann.

That was supposed to be Steffan Iversen remember? :001_rolleyes:

[choda]

Bent only scored 1 more goal then defoe last year in all competition, not including defoe's 5 England goals. Defoe always assisted 5 goals for us, whilst Bent had 1 assist.

Keane should only be used if VDV is injured and you want someone to drop into the hole. We need a tall, fast, strong striker who can get beyond defences and open them up, but also score all types of goals.

There aren't many available, unless you want to clone a young Klinsmann.

Bent had 4 assists and 24 goals in the league and no cup runs like Defoe, also in a worse team. He only played two fa cup games and score one goal.

That's six more goals in the league and his career totals are more than Defoe.

Bent doesn't get many chances to play for England.

Total games while at prem clubs: Defoe 370 games, 150 goals=1 goals every 2.46 games.... Bent 209, 95 goals= 1 goal every 2.2 games.

They are a pretty similar standard, both poor in general play and both are good finishers, but Bent does score a few more.

Yes, we need a top striker in his prime that can play the lone role or to change the system.

[TURKISH]

Bent had 4 assists and 24 goals in the league and no cup runs like Defoe, also in a worse team. He only played two fa cup games and score one goal.

That's six more goals in the league and his career totals are more than Defoe.

Bent doesn't get many chances to play for England.

Total games while at prem clubs: Defoe 370 games, 150 goals=1 goals every 2.46 games.... Bent 209, 95 goals= 1 goal every 2.2 games.

They are a pretty similar standard, both poor in general play and both are good finishers, but Bent does score a few more.

Yes, we need a top striker in his prime that can play the lone role or to change the system.

Bent had 1 assist last season according to ESPN, http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=8111&cc=5739.

Bent plays for a team thats built round him, he also takes the penaltys after he dives to win them.

Bent has a good goalscoring record, but he also scored loads of career goals in the championship. Also how many games has defoe started compared to Bent?

For me Bents better on the shoulder and in a 451 formation. Apart from that he struggles to play with anyone, jurys out for me regarding top level. I personally believe defoe is more skillful and better in general play.

[Rojoknapp]

Defoe's goal stats from last season are very warped you have to remember. Make no mistake, I give him full credit for these goals and the Wigan haul was a great achievement, but he scored 6 vs Wigan and 3 vs Hull. That's 9 of his goals coming in 3 games - Bent was much more consistent last season, he scored in many more games. And yes Sunderland build the team round him, but think of the service he would get from Bale, Luka and Rafa. He would surely score even more in a 4-4-1-1 for us than he does in Sunderland's 4-5-1/4-3-3.

[choda]

Bent had 1 assist last season according to ESPN, http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=8111&cc=5739.

Bent plays for a team thats built round him, he also takes the penaltys after he dives to win them.

Bent has a good goalscoring record, but he also scored loads of career goals in the championship. Also how many games has defoe started compared to Bent?

For me Bents better on the shoulder and in a 451 formation. Apart from that he struggles to play with anyone, jurys out for me regarding top level. I personally believe defoe is more skillful and better in general play.

That's why I deliberately took the figures from the time that they played for premier league teams and left out both of their stints in the championship.

According to the fantasy league stats Bent had 4 assists last year, so make of that what you will. They are both pants in general play for me anyway.

Bent might play in a team that is built for him but our team has so many good providers, so maybe equal pegging on that score, although I tend to believe it is easier to score as a striker in a team that creates a lot more chances.

Probably much of a muchness with both of them.

Pity we didn't sign Milito when we just missed out to Genoa, he's a geniunely class top player that can play on his own or with a partner and he'd have replaced one of the old Berbatov and Keane axis.

Since we now have the midfielders to play 433 or 4411, one is all we need.

I was really annoyed when it fell through because I had seen him play and knew how good he was.

And there were a few this summer we supposed to be close to signing: Suarez, Huntelaar and Fabiano.

I really like the look of Suarez, not really sure on the other two but there's no doubt they'd be an improvement on what we have.

[Rojoknapp]

Getting back to Cassano, does anyone know why his contract was cancelled? Was he being a tw*t again?

[TURKISH]

Defoe's goal stats from last season are very warped you have to remember. Make no mistake, I give him full credit for these goals and the Wigan haul was a great achievement, but he scored 6 vs Wigan and 3 vs Hull. That's 9 of his goals coming in 3 games - Bent was much more consistent last season, he scored in many more games. And yes Sunderland build the team round him, but think of the service he would get from Bale, Luka and Rafa. He would surely score even more in a 4-4-1-1 for us than he does in Sunderland's 4-5-1/4-3-3.

Its all ifs and buts really, he didn't look great for us and I want someone who can link up play. Bent is very lazy and we have done well without him, vice versa.

I couldn't help but think if we had Eto.:tongue: