Imagine if Jackson had put in that Isak performance. 

@nonotnowjim might have had a stroke. 

10 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

Imagine if Jackson had put in that Isak performance. 

@nonotnowjim might have had a stroke. 

Naaaaa.....Haaland.

How many chances did haaland miss yesterday!

Lol

What a player he is. Scary to think how good he could be in 2 or 3 years time.

He’s a complete striker and he keeps improving. He’s going to have turgid games here and there but with experience they will gradually reduce and he’ll become a monster for us.

32 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

What a player he is. Scary to think how good he could be in 2 or 3 years time.

He’s a complete striker and he keeps improving. He’s going to have turgid games here and there but with experience they will gradually reduce and he’ll become a monster for us.

I like him and think he is getting better not sure he will ever be a complete striker though maybe a very good one.

Love how his pace seems to terrify the opposition.

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

Proved me wrong? One swallow doesnt make a summer! 

He was better today than the low bar he has set for himself - but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

For all those fapping away, it was a 7 out of 10 performance, with a well taken tap in. Nothing more, nothing less.

He scored a goal. He also (twice early on) got on the ball, spun his man and ran towards goal - and didnt mess up the pass. So there are 3 positives things he did in 90 mins. If we are all honest - he didnt do much else (tell me if i am missing something!).

 

You calling him rubbish and all the other comments you make about him. He is scoring goals at a better rate than last season. Linking up with team mates better too. I don't think you can ask for much more. Even the great Haaland has looked very average in his last 3/4 Prem outings now he doesn't have the likes of KDB an Rodri controlling the game. He is finding it a lot harder to get involved. Out of all the strikers around or available who do you think would do better than him. I prefer him in the team to having a poacher.

He scored a goal, set up his team mates well. Yes second half he looked more tired, but it was a very good performance. The improvement is clear.

Jacko doing a Cucu.

Redemption.

If any posters still don’t get it then I’d ask them to think about the improvements he’s made since joining even considering the low bar he started from. Steady progression and he scored goals. Best we’ve had since Costa and his ceiling is higher.
 

Some players never learn. Jacko does and has scored goals regularly over 15 months. With Torres, Sheva, Morata, Lukaku and the rest I’d have thought every Chelsea fan would be right behind him.

FAO @nonotnowjim

 

Lamps and Didier vibes

Excellent performance from Jackson, can't wait for him to drop a 3/10 next game! 

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

What a player he is. Scary to think how good he could be in 2 or 3 years time.

He’s a complete striker and he keeps improving. He’s going to have turgid games here and there but with experience they will gradually reduce and he’ll become a monster for us.

Want to see him bag one left, one right, one head... then we can start calling him complete. Long way to go with him and today was a good day - Big defender of him and big fan... but he has the ability to stink out a game too and he needs to learn to be effective on the game when not impacting it with goals or assists. Oh, and a few more headed goals would be good. The ones he scored look like miracles. 

I must admit I had enormous doubts about starting Niko ahead of Nkunku in our 'A' team at the beginning of the season. Nkunku is simply the better footballer of the two and that's clear to anyone watching our games.

 

But Maresca has seen something in him and more and more of us are starting to see it too - he is clearly improving as the season goes on. He makes things happen for us in attack and his speed is an incredible weapon that he uses well.

 

Time will tell but I am hopeful. It would be absolutely amazing if we managed to find a diamond in the rough and mould him into the no9 we need to challenge for titles.

9 hours ago, Virosh said:

I must admit I had enormous doubts about starting Niko ahead of Nkunku in our 'A' team at the beginning of the season. Nkunku is simply the better footballer of the two and that's clear to anyone watching our games.

 

But Maresca has seen something in him and more and more of us are starting to see it too - he is clearly improving as the season goes on. He makes things happen for us in attack and his speed is an incredible weapon that he uses well.

 

Time will tell but I am hopeful. It would be absolutely amazing if we managed to find a diamond in the rough and mould him into the no9 we need to challenge for titles.

Funny that as I've seen far better performances from Jackson so far. We looked a bit blunt when he went off.

I don’t dispute that Nkunku is a better footballer but can he have a similar impact to Nico in terms of build up play and being an outlet in attack?

It’s kind of a shame that Maresca doesn’t want to play Palmer on the right wing because I would love to see Nkunku play behind Jackson. That could be really devastating, imagine them three linking up.

I also think Jackson pressed really well this game. As did Palmer and Neto. I sometimes see Jackson as a bit lazy when out of possession but was very pleasantly surprised yesterday. Long may it continue!

3 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I don’t dispute that Nkunku is a better footballer but can he have a similar impact to Nico in terms of build up play and being an outlet in attack?

It’s kind of a shame that Maresca doesn’t want to play Palmer on the right wing because I would love to see Nkunku play behind Jackson. That could be really devastating, imagine them three linking up.

Is it really a shame? Can you blame him with the output Palmer has so far this season? I don't see him going back to the right wing if he continues the way he has.

He's had a few good games this season, but I do still think there is something missing. He's good at turning on the half way line and popping up with a few goals here and there, but I feel like there is something missing from his game that we really need. He hasn't got much of a physical presence about him, so he's useless from set pieces, and he's not going to score any goals bullying his way through defenders. In games where the defence is compact and sitting a bit deeper, he really struggles because the opposition just bullies him out of the game and nullifies any threat. His touch control around the box isn't great, I think his passing in this area isn't very clean either, he often hits it too far in front or behind his teammate, and he rarely passes the ball in these areas with the right pace on the ball. Also, when we play it our wide and get a cross into the box, we rarely have him there to get on the end of it, unless it's on the counter where he can get a tap in. He isn't going to win many headers and he rarely finds space between two defenders to score either. He's not going to score any worldies or goals from outside the area either, the majority of his goals are pretty routine. It's not like he is bending shots around the keeper, they are mostly taps ins after finding a bit of space, which is nice to have and something you want in a striker, but it's something you want alongside other attributes.

So although I feel that Jackson has improved a lot this season, I do still feel like he is a second striker for a top 4 team. I feel like we need something more going forward to catch up with Liverpool, Arsenal and City.

6 minutes ago, Ledgerson said:

Is it really a shame? Can you blame him with the output Palmer has so far this season? I don't see him going back to the right wing if he continues the way he has.

We also have Estevao arriving next season who will be competing for that that RW position, so we may as well get Palmer used to playing CAM, because that is where he will be playing going forward. Also, I doubt Palmer would be there to make that pass yesterday if he is playing RW.

Edited October 28, 20241 yr by Scott Harris

20 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So although I feel that Jackson has improved a lot this season, I do still feel like he is a second striker for a top 4 team. I feel like we need something more going forward to catch up with Liverpool, Arsenal and City.

Is Jackson worse than Havertz? Because he's Arsenal's number one striker right now and I think Jackson is performing just as well. Same with Nunez, who's Liverpool's main striker. The only team out of Liverpool, Arsenal and City who have a better centre forward is City. Arsenal and Liverpool get most of their goals out of wide forwards like Saka, Salah etc, or centrebacks scoring from corners.

Well I think they do anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

1 minute ago, Shweaves said:

Is Jackson worse than Havertz? Because he's Arsenal's number one striker right now and I think Jackson is performing just as well. Same with Nunez, who's Liverpool's main striker. The only team out of Liverpool, Arsenal and City who have a better centre forward is City. Arsenal and Liverpool get most of their goals out of wide forwards like Saka, Salah etc, or centrebacks scoring from corners.

Well I think they do anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

Good point, I don't think he is any worse or better really, but both Arsenal and Liverpool fans will say they need an upgrade on both of them to compete with City.

48 minutes ago, Ledgerson said:

Is it really a shame? Can you blame him with the output Palmer has so far this season? I don't see him going back to the right wing if he continues the way he has.

Interesting that this is Palmer's heat map for the season to date ... pretty much says he's been on the right far more than in the centre, so maybe there is some sense in switching Palmer to RW and trying Nkunku as CAM ? May also play to Gusto's strengths as an overlapping RB ?

Edited October 28, 20241 yr by Sexyfootball

54 minutes ago, Ledgerson said:

Is it really a shame? Can you blame him with the output Palmer has so far this season? I don't see him going back to the right wing if he continues the way he has.

Maresca wants his wingers to hug the touchline and beat their man 1v1 also stretching the pitch. Madueke/sancho/mudryk/neto are perfect for this. 

13 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Interesting that this is Palmer's heat map for the season to date ... pretty much says he's been on the right far more than in the centre, so maybe there is some sense in switching Palmer to RW and trying Nkunku as CAM ? May also play to Gusto's strengths as an overlapping RB ?

Maybe against smaller sides. 

Palmer at RW would ask a lot of Gusto, we'd also a lose a lot of defensive workrate that Madueke or Neto would usually provide. Considering we already face a sh*t ton of shots and can't win many duels, I don't see the point. 

 

Edited October 28, 20241 yr by Sconnie Blue

12 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Maybe against smaller sides. 

Palmer at RW would ask a lot of Gusto, we'd also a lose a lot of defensive workrate that Madueke or Neto would usually provide. Considering we already face a sh*t ton of shots and can't win many duels, I don't see the point. 

 

The point is to get one of our better players Nkunku into the team rather than collecting splinters on the bench ! I reckon Gusto would provide more assists out wide (and running beyond Palmer) than Madueke, who has zero assists this season despite having benefitted from the most minutes of any of our wingers,

11 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

The point is to get one of our better players Nkunku into the team rather than collecting splinters on the bench ! I reckon Gusto would provide more assists out wide (and running beyond Palmer) than Madueke, who has zero assists this season despite having benefitted from the most minutes of any of our wingers,

We are losing that defensive balance on that right hand side. Maresca made a great point about making sure this team isn't too top heavy. Whilst Gusto is bombing forward he has to run straight back whilst not having the defensive support Madueke/Neto would provide. We are already suspect defensively and I don't see the point in making it worse. 

Nkunku I am coming to terms we might actually sell next summer.