You know what? Part of me still isn’t convinced. Part of me still thinks he should be more of a threat in the air, part of me would still like to see more impact from the start in games. Against Coventry he was excellent, but against Accrington and Yeovil he was virtually anonymous. If we could get the player that won the PFA award all the time, the unpredictable centre forward with a powerful shot and range of abilities, then we’d have a brilliant player on our hands. Instead, we have a wildly inconsistent player, one we know is capable of great goals but who sometimes doesn’t show up.
When Matt Green fails to score you still notice his constant running, but in the Coventry game Palmer was dead on his feet with half an hour remaining. In pre-season, if he can begin to turn in eighty minutes at a time and if he can find a way to impact games from the start, perhaps we’ll see a player worthy of a starting place. My fear is another season of minimal starts and maximum outings from the bench.
Matt Rhead
He’s the player everyone loves to hate, oppositions defenders, Sky TV, even some of our own crowd. He controversial, unique and I believe he shapes our entire tactical approach to games. Danny and Nicky weren’t particularly known for long ball at Braintree, not to the extent they seem to be labelled by it now, but as everyone says, when you have a player like Matt Rhead it would be foolish not to use him.
What is a ‘player like Matt Rhead’ though? A big lump who wins flick ons and headers? A chunky guy who goes down too easily when a defender brushes past him? A victim of his own size, largely ignored by officials because of his reputation? He’s all of that and, as his goal against Coventry showed, an awful lot more.
41 starts, nine goals in all competitions. Is it enough for such a big target man? I’d argue perhaps not, he’s been unlucky in front of goal but he’ll be disappointed with how many he’s scored this season. One change has been our switch from 4-4-2, he scored eight under the old system and just one whilst playing 4-3-3. He’s the focal point of the new approach too, but he hasn’t found goals hard to come by.
Remember, the big man was dropped early on too as Danny couldn’t find a system that suited us, but eventually it was his pairing with Matt Green that brought us a level of success. They both bagged against Yeovil and Accrington at Christmas to set us up for a new year assault on the top seven, and of course the ultimate agitator, Green was the man who, almost single-handed, beat Forest Green just before the turn of the year. He’s always going to want to score in the big games, just as he wanted to against Port Vale, as a Stoke fan.
Rhead has now scored 47 goals for City over three seasons and every time we reach the end of a campaign, the same question gets asked;how much will he feature next season? Firstly, he wasn’t a Danny type of player, but he proved people wrong. Then, he couldn’t hack League Two, but again he proved people wrong. What now? If we bring in forwards with the same pedigree as the likes of Michael Bostwick and Neal Eardley, will Matt Rhead be the one who falls by the way side?
Playing Devil’s Advocate, would we have got a penalty in the Exeter game had it not been Matt Rhead who was pushed prior to Whitehouse’s goal? Did we suffer from having the big man right at the end of the season? Maybe, maybe not. If the foul on Dean Henderson in the EFL Final hadn’t been replayed again and again in slow motion, would he have got more decisions in the latter stages of the season? I’m not convinced Matt targeted Henderson in the same was Schumacher targeted Battiston in 1982, but he was treated with the same vitriol and hatred.
It’s all conjecture but one thing is for certain, he’s here for next season and you can never, ever rule out Matt Rhead. If other teams hate him you know it’s because he’s effective.
Thanks again to Graham Burrell for the photographs
I can only recall a few of our goals coming from outside of the box,is that because of instructions not to shoot on sight ? Looking at the two Exeter goals last Thursday that flew in the net I wonder if that is not an area to look at for next season.
I agree with you Roger,, how many times did Woodyard get into shooting position on the edge of the box and pas it either Along the front of the box or backwards. If he had a few goes at shooting it would draw defenders out to close him down and release more space in the box. I not saying he needs to shoot all the time but to make defender think what will he do instead of well we shadow around the edge of the box and we can keep our shape inside it
Thing is Woodyard scored a belter from outside the box against Carlisle. He obviously has the ability. If you give it a go, you may score or not. If you don’t give it a go, we’ll never know.
Some good observations Gary not only the front men but the other positions too. But I feel that individual performance analysis is only useful to a point. For much of the season we utilised the system that was so effective in the National League but was in the main negated by better players, organised defences and more creative mobile midfield play. It was a A system that didn’t suit Billy Knott and to a greater degree Lee Frecklington either I suppose one could argue that Wimbledon managed it. It has to be said that we had to tinker with the defence for best part of the final 10 games but I look at the likes of Accrington Coventry and Exeter and to some degree Notts Cty as to the likely way forward in order to improve on what has been a wonderful two season. For me it’s Michael Bostwick back to Centre Half Alex Woodward as the holding midfield player. Rheady on the bench as an impact player when required… I will leave you to fill in the blanks but I expect the addition of at least two canny wide men, definitely one or two strikers and may be even a left back! ☺
Very fair points